How to make an Etsy Listing the right way– Without Losing Your Mind!

How To Sell Art On Etsy | From Zero to ??? – Part 2

On the surface making an Etsy Listing is actually not that hard.  In fact, some might say slapping up an Etsy listing is downright easy.

So why am I feeling overwhelmed you ask?

The reason you are feeling overwhelmed is because there are so many things that “the experts” say you need to get right on your Etsy listing.  The great thing about your Etsy listings is that if you don’t get it right the first time you can go back as many times as you like to edit your listing.

And that brings us to my first point on how to make an Etsy Listing the right way without losing your mind.

Don’t Stress if you don’t get everything correct right away

I have got 4 listings up so far.  If you haven’t read my last post on starting my Etsy store you can check it out here.

Anywho, originally I thought my Etsy listings were just fine but then I started watching some videos on how to “properly” make an Etsy listing.  As the old saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” – and when you do you realize how much you don’t know.

That’s how it was for me.  As I started to learn about all the things I should be doing in my Etsy listings I realized how much I didn’t know.  Like I said, the good news is you can go back and edit your Etsy listings as much as you want so no reason to stress if you don’t get it all right the first time.

So, allow me to save you some time and pass on what I have learned about the right way to make an Etsy listing.  Besides, it’s always more fun to learn together!

Create Quality Photos or Images for Your Previews

Your main image is what is going to catch the eye of the people searching for what you are selling.  When it comes to images, the no brainer stuff is that you want to use the proper dimensions and the right dpi settings.  Since I am making images and not photos I set my dimensions at 2000 X 2000 and 300dpi so I have a high quality image.

Come Up with a Title That is Compelling

After all the research I have done all the “experts” say to put the main keyword you want to show up for at the beginning of your title but DO NOT stuff your title with keywords.  Now, this makes perfect sense to me and is what I have done for my listings.  However, when I look at listings of Etsy shops that I admire and are doing well I see that some of them are pretty much keyword stuffing in the titles of their listings.

For now, I am going to follow the experts advice and not just put a bunch of keywords in my title but I may try it with a couple of listings and see if I notice those ones doing better than my other listings or not.

So for a good title start with the keyword you are wanting to show for and then the rest of the title could include how your product could be used or what events it would be good for.  The main thing when writing your title is to think about the what and the why your ideal customer would be searching for and include that in your title.

Start Your Description With the Main Keyword You are Targeting

After you have your title nailed down the next thing you should focus on is writing a good description.  Your description should start with your main keyword and maybe a quick sentence on what events or uses your product would be good for.  I like to stuff a few more keywords in this part of the description right at the top.

Obviously, you want to clearly describe what the customer is going to get when they purchase your product.  Since I am selling clipart collections I like to put what is included in the package,  instructions on what the end user can do with the art and a link to where they can buy a commercial license if they are using the art to make another product that they intend to sell.

If your product is part of a greater collection of related products that you sell then by all means include links to those other products in the description.

Use All The Tags for Additional Keywords You Want Your Listing to Show For

After you have chosen the category that your product would fall under you will scroll down to the tags section.  This is where you can add more keywords that are relevant to your product.  You can add up to 13 tags.  Now the mistake I see some people make is they don’t use all 13 tags that are available to them.

Make sure to use them all!  Think of 13 different keywords or keyword phrases that someone would use to find what you are selling and put them in.  It sounds easy but trust me it can be harder than you think!  I find that sometimes I get stuck on the initial keyword I have thought of and can’t seem to think of any other phrases because my mind just goes blank.

Thankfully, there is something to help you with that!

Use Erank to Help You Figure Out Keywords You Might Actually Have a Chance Showing For.

To help with brain freeze when thinking of keywords you can go to erank.com.  In fact, Etsy is set up to integrate erank.com with your shop.  Just go to your dashboard and click on integrations and scroll down and you will see the erank.com icon.  Sign up for a free account and then use the keyword research tool to get further suggestions for your main keyword.

This is great because erank.com also shows you how many listings there are for each keyword phrase.  You will probably want to steer away from the ones that have over 2000 listings.  Aiming for terms that have less listings means that your product has more of a chance to show up on the first page of results when someone searches that term.

And we all know that the majority of us only look at what is on the first page anyways so that is where you want to be.

Ultimately, what you want when you are picking search terms is something with a low amount of listings and a high amount of searches.  Now that is easier said than done.  If you want to go after higher competition terms you may have do some paid advertising to get your product to show on the first page of results.

Paid advertising will be a topic for another day!

Publish Your Listing

After everything looks good go ahead and hit the publish button to make your listing go live!  Additionally, tweet, pin, shout, Instagram and whatever other social media you have your listing so people know about it!

Now don’t expect to make one listing and watch the sales roll in.  Now that you have your first listing under your belt go make a whole bunch more because the more listings you have the more chances people have to find your shop!

P.S.  So it’s been 4 days since I last posted.  I now have 4 listings live and have 34 visits and and 48 total views in the last 30 days.

Things are look up!!

Hey, if you got a tip or trick I may have missed drop me a line by clicking on the contact form and let me know.  I’m just learning too!