5 Ways to Increase Your Online Sales in June

#1 Promote your items with social networking

The more, the merrier is what I always say . In this case, it’s the more exposure your items or your store have, the merrier!  Use social networking to increase traffic to your store.  Twitter, Facebook fan pages, post the link to your store on your Facebook account, post links to items listed in your store to your facebook newsfeed, blog about your items, put the link to your store in your email signature……anything to get more people attracted to your items.

#2 Maximize your description

One thing I notice right away when I look at descriptions is that a lot of sellers put very basic information in their descriptions. Many times I see descriptions that read “great condition, thanks for looking.”

Sorry, but that’s not a description.  Descriptions are FREE, it’s not like you pay per word or per letter, so use your descriptions liberally.  State details about the item, even if you feel like it’s obvious, state it anyway.  State measurements, color, describe the design, help the person fall in love with your item and make them feel like they just have to buy it!

#3 Increase your feedback score

The system of selling on eBay is kind of like a cycle. One part of the cycle affects the next part.  For some reason, the more sales you get, the more feedback you get. The more feedback you get, the more sales you make.  The higher your feedback score is, the higher prices your items will sell for, and the more customers will be willing to buy from you.

#4 State the shipping cost in your listing

I am just going to come out and say it: I am not a fan of calculated shipping. Most of the time when I look at a listing that has calculated shipping, it’s SKY HIGH.  To ship a women’s knit top, it will come up with something crazy like $10.85, when I know it can ship for less than $2.99 to anywhere in the USA.

I determine my shipping cost and sometimes I lose money on it, but most of the time I don’t.  The other great thing about flat rate shipping is that I can state the cost that item’s shipping right in the description.  I know the eBay populates the shipping price in the listing under the selling price, but for some reason since I added this line to my lisings:

Shipping is only 2.99!

My sales have gone way up.  It’s right in front of their face and encourages them to make the purchase.

#5 Upgrade to a premium store

I cannot say enough about what a huge time saver my premium store is.  Yes, it does cost more per month than the basic store, but the price per listing is much less (.05 per listing VS .20 per listing.)

The benefits of a premium store are fantastic and I’m learning more about them every day.  One of the things I like the most is the ability to automate feedback.  Once positive feedback is left for a transaction, I have it set to automatically leave one of five positive feedback phrases that I typed in for it to choose from. I love it that I haven’t had to leave feedback in months. I don’t even think about it any more

The more time I can save in doing little tasks like leaving feedback, the more time I have to list new items and stay on top of my shipping.  Time is money, and I’d rather use my time doing things that make me money!

Should You Blog?

The short answer is yes of course you should.

The more lengthy answer is it depends.

Blogs are another tool in promoting your business and can be a great way to share your story.

The best blogs I’ve read from online sellers are a nice mix of personal life and business. I don’t care to read a blog that only posts items for sale.

I also don’t care for blogs that only post photos of their children. I know we all think our babies are the best and the cutest and the smartest (and they are!) but everyone else doesn’t want to see every thing your child does every day. Please don’t post photos of dirty food faces and tantrum throwing children all the time!

A well placed personal story or photo is appropriate although you may want to establish boundaries for what you will share online with your business contacts.

Feel free to share a tutorial, a recipe, a link to something you enjoyed, or your thoughts for the day. Mix in the items you are selling and information about your business and you’ve got an easy way to put a more personal spin on your business.

To Start a Blog:

1. Think of a name that represents you or your business well.

2. Sign up for a free account at Wordpress or Blogger. Both of my blogs happen to be domains that I paid for. I didn’t start out paying for a blog and it’s not necessary to buy a domain unless you have a specific need to do so.

3. Start posting and sharing your link.

4. Realize that building a blog takes time and promotion. Share your links, leave comments on other blogs, put a link in your email signature…

5. Choose how many times a week you will post and establish a routine.

6. Remember copyright rules. Don’t copy a post from someone else–instead post a link and send people to the author’s blog or article.

Stealing photos is a big no no too.

7. Find blogging help online. Blogging Basics 101 is one of my favorites.

If you already blog, please share your blog in a comment. If you decide to start one someday, please come back and leave a comment then.

200 Facebook Fans~Give Away

Yeah! We reached 200 Facebook fans.

The Selling Sisters are giving away this beautiful American Flag pillow, hand crafted and designed by Rachel.

The pillow is made of homespun fabrics, denim & chenille. It’s filled with polyester fiber fill.  The backing is cream colored flannel.

This sweet pillow measures approximately  20″ tall x 17″ across and would look FANTASTIC on your couch, chair or bed.

This giveaway is open to US residents only due to shipping costs.

To enter:

1. You  must be a fan of The Selling Sisters on Facebook.

2. Leave a comment here on this post letting us know you’d like to be entered.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this giveaway or share it on your facebook status. Then leave 1 comment here for each tweet or status telling us that you did so. (1 bonus entry per day for tweets and Facebook statuses)

2. Write a post about The Selling Sisters blog on your blog and come back and leave a link here to show us that you did.

Giveaway ends Monday September 27 at 12 pm Pacific.

The Selling Sisters on Facebook

If you read The Selling Sisters and are on Facebook, Lizzie and I encourage you to stop by our fan page and “like” us so you can stay up to date with all of the latest happenings.  Who knows, we may just do another give away in the near future if we have enough Facebook fans.

If you read our blog and have never left a comment, let me tell you, we’d love to hear from you!

Let us know what you like, what you’ve learned, or what you think about our blog.  Also, don’t forget that we post the “Weekly Woo Hoos” every Friday and we love reading your comments about sales that have put a big smile on your face in the last week.

Follow us on Twitter too!

How to Make an Etsy Mini

Do you see the Etsy mini on the sidebar of this blog? It imports listings from my Etsy shop and is a great way to advertise what you have for sale.

1. Log into Etsy

2. Click on Your Etsy

3. Look at the left sidebar under Promote

4. Click on Etsy Mini

5.  You can choose to show items from your own shop or items from your favorites. Choose the size you want the photos to be. Choose how many rows and columns you want.

6. Copy and paste the html–choose javascript version for your blog.

Quick and easy and it looks great too!

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