Statistics and Shop Views

I set up google analytics early in my etsy shop history, but despite being an analytical person, I found only confusion and not answers on how to increase sales.

A relatively new feature (mid July as far as I can tell) at etsy.com for shopkeepers is etsy stats. It is a fairly straightforward listing for the current date and "yesterday" (there are other time period choices as well) by hour the number of shop views, listing views,and additions to the shop such as renewals or new items. It also lists where the views are coming from, key words used, and items by name of what was viewed. I have two other applications which gather this data which I am keeping until 12/31/11 because of the history going back to when I opened my shop.

I have been tracking the time of day my viewers are likely to be looking at my shop. I am somewhat surprised at what they are looking at which is mostly my unique designs with high price points. The key words used also tell me that my viewers are knowledgeable about beadweaving because they use technical search terms. When I talk to visitors at my Art Fairs, I use technical language such as stitch names which causes confusion and I need to explain what I mean. This makes me wonder if most of my viewers on etsy really are potential customers. I started my etsy shop by joining the etsy beadweavers team where I made some friends who do the same/similar things that I do but none are customers and I am not theirs either. I have not been a member of this team for at least 6 months.

I set up a facebook page as well as my personal page. I have transferred all of my promotions to KRDesigns11 on FB so as not to spam family and friends on my personal page. I have been having a SEASON OF GIVING promotion on my facebook KRDesigns11 page which is not being viewed. So my reality is not the same as the movie Field of Dreams because I built the page, but they are not coming.... Just sharing my personal observations so you, dear reader, can learn from my mistakes. I do have one loyal friend who almost without exception, likes my entries; I do the same for her as a way of returning the favor and encouraging her to keep on trying.

I plan to focus more efforts on learning about Google ad words. I know that I need to bring people in from outside etsy to purchase my items. I will also be creating more elaborate peyote pattern bracelets, dutch spiral necklaces and listing more of my cellini spiral bracelets which are a great source of repetitive stress and boredom to me to create (they take at least 16 hours of one bead at a time). A lot of my Swarovski crystal and pearl items were made for the Illinois Artisan Shop market which has changed significantly under new shop management and the economic situation in Chicago and Illinois government.

I also plan to do in process progress photos of my designs. Sorry there are no pictures in this one, but I'm off to take some cellini spiral ones and my current project photos for next time.