Excuse the long break between Etsy Tale posts… I’ve been finding it difficult to manage my time recently, too many of my fingers in different pies ;) If anyone has some great organisation tips, I’d love to hear them! However, today we are going to talk about free tools that are available to you as an Etsy seller.

Google Analytics is the big one.

If you install Google Analytics in your Etsy shop you will be able to see how many visitors you get to your shop, where in the world they are, how long they are spending on each page, where in the internet they have found you… etc and best of all… it’s FREE.

And if that isn’t enough, Etsy talk you through setting up Analytics, here.

This is an absolute must. Unfortunately I do find Analytics a little ‘clunky’ and hard to navigate, but the information is there for you, you just need to find a way to understand what’s important to you.

Another free tool is Craftopolis, which shows you your store with one glance of a calendar.

A peek into my results at Craftopolis

You can see how many visits you have had, how many views of your shop and which items received those views. Which items have been added to a buyer’s favourites. How much you earned each day. Plus you can also see when items are due to expire. Craftopolis makes the most organised out of the least organised ;) All you need to do is input your username.

Items due to expire.

Now of course, all this information can be found out by utlising your Etsy stats and your Google Analytics account, but if it were me I would not have the time to make sense of the results I found. I would have to employ an entire full time person to put together all this information in a nice, easy to view calendar! And there goes my profits ;)

To best utilise Craftopolis you need to have your Google Analytics account all set up and you need to be willing to allow Craftopolis to import data from Etsy and Google Analytics. I was skeptical about this at first, but I’ve never had any problems using the program (touch wood!) and if you really want to, once you’ve viewed the information you can log into your Etsy account and remove the application. Just visit ‘Your Account’ and click on ‘Apps’ in the drop down menu. Then find the Craftopolis app in the list and click the ‘x’ at the right hand side. This doesn’t mean you can’t use Craftopolis again in the future.

I’ve even provided a handy navigation tip, with groovy red arrows ;)

Another great feature on Craftopolis is the ‘Tag Report’ which, again, gives you information on how potential buyers have found your items within Etsy at a glance. You are given which initial search category a potential buyer has used, what search terms were entered and which page your item was found on. The ‘Tag Report’ can help you determine whether your tags are working and/or whether you need to switch them up or feature a certain tag heavier. For example if lots of results are shown where potential buyers have used the term ‘kitten’ to find your item, but the page no.’s are way down in 8 or 9, then you need to increase the visibility of the tag, ‘kitten’. Perhaps use it in your title or look for other items on Etsy that are returned with the search term, ‘kitten’ and see how they utilise the tag to be brought up on page 1 or 2.

A peek at a result in my ‘Tag Report’.

There are many other free tools for Etsy sellers that I have come across, but these are the only ones I have actively used. That’s not to say that others aren’t great as I know lots of sellers that do well with various ‘Etsy seller aimed’ websites. While you’ve got the time have a peek around and absorb the information, because pretty soon you will be buried under orders ;)

See previous installments, here:

An Etsy Tale… Introduction		An Etsy Tale… The Basics		An Etsy Tale… Shop Info & Appearance		An Etsy Tale… Pricing For Profit