Rachel Rofe knows why your Etsy products aren’t selling. Reason number one, your fonts are hard to read. She teaches her Low-Hanging System students to stick with simple, easy-on-the-eyes fonts. You gotta remember, a lot of people are shopping on Etsy from their itty-bitty iPhone screens. They need to be able to make out what your Dear Mom mug says, from an even smaller thumbnail picture, while they’re browsing Etsy. So don’t try to get cute with your font selection.
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You wanna pick fonts that are big, bold, and clear. Intricate fonts will cost you sales, either because people can’t read it or because it turns them off. For example, a script font might be too girlie for your Dear Dog Dad coffee mug. The more plain Jane it is, the more appealing your design becomes to the mass market. You want the phrase to be the star, not the font. Rachel’s a fan of Georgia, Helvetica, PT Sans, PT Serif, Arial, Open Sans, Quicksand, and Verdana. All of those are really great print on demand fonts.
The second reason nobody’s buying your Etsy items is because your designs are too fancy. For starters, this slows you down because creativity takes time. That’s not the Low-Hanging way. In addition to that, art is so subjective. What looks cool to you someone else might hate. Using fancy designs therefore makes it harder for you to sell thousands of units. Every image, every new color gives someone yet another reason not to pick your product. Keep it simple, stupid. White mug, black text, good to go.
Reason three is that your phrases are too hard to understand. If someone doesn’t instantly “get it,” they’ll scroll right past it. People have a lot of things competing for their attention. Their baby’s screaming, TV’s on in the background, cell phone’s buzzing, they’re late for that thing and they need to leave the house like now but they really wanted to get that gift ordered for their sister’s birthday in two days, and if you’re over here trying to make them work to understand your humor? Well, you just lost another sale, didn’t you?
In general, the shorter the phrase the better. The less intellect it takes to comprehend the better. “Keep calm and scrapbook,” for example. Something anyone can get in a few seconds. Along those lines, reason four is, you’re going into niches that just don’t have the demand. “You can come up with great phrases,” Rachel says, “but if nobody is searching for what it is that you’re selling, then it’s not going to be found. Even if you have the most hilarious phrase in all the land, right?”
So stick to proven niches with lots of daily searches and, when in doubt, rely on formulas. “Keep calm and scrapbook.” “Keep calm and knit.” “Keep calm and CrossFit.” “Keep calm and camp on.” And so on and so forth. Inside her Low-Hanging Ecom course, Rachel has a list of winning ideas that will steer you in the right direction. The fifth reason you’re not getting results on Etsy is that you aren’t listing in enough niches. If you have five Pit Bull mug designs, you really only have one design, Rachel explains.
Why not go after Labs, Golden Retrievers, Poodles, German Shepherds, Boxers, et cetera? Quantity is key for LHS members. The more ground you cover, the more you increase your odds of making a sale. Another thing that could be preventing you from making Etsy sales is a lack of the right keywords in your titles. What would the average person type in to search for your product? That’s what your title should be. Or else, you’re dead in the water. Learn more at Rachel Rofe dot com.
