NEW LISTINGS

While this may not be the typical kind of "tips or tricks" I post here, I wanted to share this with you.

My website has been "live" now for almost 16 months. It takes time to build up the traffic to your website (it certainly doesn't happen over-night). But once you start to improve your search rankings and social media reach, the traffic starts to improve and then grows and grows. What I have observed over the past 10 months is that whenever I list new products to my store, and promote those new listings, my traffic nearly triples for the day. Based on this observation, here are some notes to consider:

NOTES:

• Search engines like "fresh". When you list new items on a regular, consistent basis, the search engines take notice and your website is indexed more often (which is a great thing).
• When you list frequently, your website looks fresh, which helps attract your repeat customers/visitors.
• When you post new items to your social media channels, that helps get more views and generates more interest.

I don't claim to have any "secret success methods", but I will share with you what I do:

• I try to list new items at least once a week (I would list new items daily, if I only had the time).
• As soon as I list a new item, I immediately post the item to my Pinterest "shop" and relevant Pinterest boards (including text that compels people to click on the pins).
• After I pin to Pinterest, I tweet the new listing to Twitter.
• I include new listings in my blog articles, with links back to my shop for those items. (I typically write 2-5 articles on my blog each week - trust me! Blogs work!!!).
• Once a quarter (or about that), I run a Facebook ad that retargets people who have visited my website. My hope is this will inspire people to actually BUY the items they recently viewed. I only spend around $15-$35 on these ads (NEVER more than $35 - as I don't see a need to spend more).
• On the days when I don't have time to photograph and list new items, I go to at least three existing items in my shop and refine their descriptions, meta descriptions, and titles. I'm happy with my photos that are included when I list, so I don't spend time rephotographing items (but I WOULD do that if I weren't happy with the existing photos). By refining these existing listings, I am also providing search engines with "fresh" content (and it works).

Of course, there is a lot more going on all the time as far as marketing, email messages, etc. - but the things I've posted above are the BASICS of what I think is important for shops to succeed.

I hope you find this information helpful. And of course, I wish you all great success with your shops!