Hm. Anyone have any suggestions? How’s “Twick’s Knits”? 
Regarding turnover and visits, it depends on how active you are with updating your inventory. I’ve gone months and months without anyone looking at my site, until I add a new item. Then I get people checking out my older stuff.
A couple of Christmases ago, I was really busy with shipping out orders, as I imagine a lot of Estyers are. So you may not get any customers until November or December–which means plenty of time to build up your merchandise!
Ohh, yeah, jewelry is a hard one. There are approximately a hundred jillion jewelers on Etsy. Pet products thankfully are not so crowded, and there don’t seem to be a glut of leatherworkers, either. It’s a good niche to be in. Thanks for the nice words about my shop!
About those models–don’t be fooled. They look all quiet and complacent, but just head for the kitchen and they turn into jackals ;).
freckafree and monstro–you won’t believe this, but I’ve seen both your shops before! Cheers for the Klimt piece, frecka, and monstro, your vases are beautiful; I can’t believe you sell them so low.
Oh! I forgot about Alchemy–I’ve used it in both directions and agree that it’s a great feature. Through Alchemy I made someone a cool, hefty kilt belt to go with her husband’s new Utilikilt… I figure, anything I can do to foster and support* the wearing of kilts, right?
I like it! The word “twist” seems to fit well with your name (and your personality 
) and knitting.
Twick’s Twisted Knits
Twick’s Twists
I really, really, really wanted my store to be The Venerable Bead (get it?!!? ), but the name was taken (not on Etsy, but elsewhere.)
I am an Etsy addict. SRSLY.
I could easily find myself spending 2 hours a day if not more just looking at stuff there.
It is far superior to a craft show done by bored talentless grannies and housewives and a better selection of other stuff, not just what is popular and trendy.
Some of the prices are way out there, and I’ve seen things just sit there that are lovely, but no one is going to pay XXXXX amount for THAT when someone else has something similar for 1/3.
Alchemy is The Bomb ( YMMV) I am having someone else do my xmas knitting because a) my time lately is very limited because of my suckall craptacular job b) I"m not sure I can make 6 of this one thing consistently. c) I want to work on my first sweater. (I’m a knitter, too.)
I’ve never sold anything there, but all of my purchases have been very very pleasant experiences.
That is amazing!
When I win the 25 million dollar mega million lottery tonight, I will pay you $4000 for this work or a custom order AND give you a nice tip. the key word in this sentance is WHEN
Nava your dog portraits are really good!
Monstro ooooh, your vases and shop name are perfect!
freckafree I like it!
I didn’t forget anyone, did I?
Didn’t even need a link to get it – v. funny. Oh well.
What about “How’s Twicks?”
I have ‘hearted’ everyone so far! You all are very talented.
Here is my shop .
I haven’t sold anything yet, but I have been very happy with the ease of posting there and as soon as I can I am getting a better camera and taking better pictures and will be doing other things to increase my traffic. I know people who have done very well there, and people who haven’t sold a thing. But I guess that’s just the way it goes.
Hey, thanks! 
Hey, thanks, LavenderBlue and Shirley Ujest! I’ll take you up on that offer, Shirley, though I’m supposed to win the lotto as part of my retirement planning, so there’s a conflict of interest, here. 
Man, I’m gonna be spending a lot of time looking on Etsy tonight!
It really is unbelievable stuff. My grandmother does incredible needlework too and I’ve always wished I had the patience and hand-eye coordination for fine needlework. I’ve been painstakingly poking my way through a cross stitch piece that’s a close-up portrait of a water buffalo, largely snout. I had planned to do a handful of different critters including a platypus and an armadillo to hang in a baby room, but at this rate, if I wait until I’m finished I won’t be procreating until 2067.
Ooooh! “Knitwicks” comes to mind. Swell afghan colours!
I am an Etsy buyer of… well, I’ve bought a couplefewdozennnnn items there. I have loved them all, and only one seller bailed out, and my credit card refunded the money even though it was past the PayPal time limit of 45 days. One thing that I absolutely LOVE about Etsy is that I can get someone else to sew custom garments for me, for what I consider to be ridiculously low prices (100 dollars or less!). I sew, you see, but when I get burned out on sewing (as happens from time to time, like since February when I finished a full-length, fully lined Vogue melton coat with velvet trim for my preteen daughter), it doesn’t mean I stop liking clothing custom-made to my measurements. That’s where Etsy comes in! And for cards… and baubles… and gifts… mmmEtsy.
As a buyer, I can only advise you to: ship fast, and ship honestly i.e. estimate shipping reasonably, but refund overage. If someone emails you saying, “I have not yet received this item,” respond with the date and method you shipped the item, not just, “Well, I sent it, so it should be there any day now.” The one seller who bailed out on me lied outright saying she had shipped the (custom-ordered) item, then later apologized for “letting my personal life get in the way of my professionalism.” This was complete nonsense, and merely irritating. Etsy deleted her shop (which had well over 300 positive feedbacks when I ordered my item) after she reneged on several deals at once in the same fashion. Honesty is the best policy – if you can’t deal for whatever reason, say so.
“Little extras” so often included with purchases are very nice, but I honestly prefer simple courtesy and pleasantness in the convos around the purchase, a reasonably quick turnaround, and a product that appears as advertised. That’s all it takes to make me leave effusive feedback and return to the seller later. A little handwritten card with the purchase is no more costly than a bit of cardstock and goes a long way in terms of adding a personal touch – it’s really all you need.
Price is not a big issue with me as a buyer. As a needleworker and sewist I understand how much work goes into these things, and if I like something unique, I will pay, period. Price what you think things are worth, not necessarily what you think people will pay. Experiment and see what happens. Great photographs of your items will convince buyers that they can see what they’re paying for – that’s very important because you don’t get to see or touch the items until they arrive, of course.
Good luck with your enterprise!
Because I don’t think they’re as good as the pictures make it look? I dunno. Also, they’re really cheap to make, and only time-intensive because I have low attention span.
You have one successful shop yourself! You should be proud.
I don’t know if you’ve already seen this, but it can’t hurt - here is the Etsy Selling FAQ.
As an Etsy buyer I think it works best when a seller spaces out their listings. If you have 5 items to list and put them all up at once it’s very easy to miss if I’m not browsing the category or checking recently listed items at that particular time. Staggering them gives buyers more of a chance to find your item.
If you can, please put international shipping costs in the listing. I love, love, love when sellers do this, it makes buying from them so much easier.
In general I find Etsy a lot friendlier than eBay. The shipping and product prices are very reasonable and I enjoy buying straight from the artist. There’s such an amazing variety of stuff and I’m boggled by how talented some people are.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I really, really love what I get to do for a living–the whole thing was a hobby that got a little out of hand. Evidently people spend money on their pets… who knew?
Another listing technique that really works well for me is using two kinds of listings: pre-made pieces and custom work. Some of the listings are for particular collars, things I’ve made for the online galleries in my main website or just pieces that I made for fun–things I already have made and on hand. Other listings are for a custom piece in a particular size for a set price. You can control the number of orders you get by adding custom listings whenever you have the time for a new project.
It’s convenient for buyers, because it allows people to order exactly what they want, and effectively nets you an alchemy sale without the buyer having to go through the extra steps of an alchemy request. It saves you the trouble of setting up a jillion different listings for every possible color, size, stitch option, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum, assuming that all scarves of a certain size will be the same price.
Take photos of every piece you make, and over time when you collect two or three scarf photo sets, you can then set up a listing for a custom piece. You can tell them in the description that custom pieces are handmade to order and therefore take X amount of time to do. If someone requests something particular that will change the cost of production, you can set up a custom listing for them with their order specs and custom price. You might take a photo of your yarn stash artfully displayed for the fifth photo slot and allow people to choose their colors that way, which if you’re a yarn collector might help you use up stuff from your stash, too
Another nice thing about the custom listing is that you get to display up to five times as many items as you would making single-item listings, which is really helpful in both directions if you want to be able to show off a lot of things in less space, or if you need to pad out your shop. People like options and variety, and it’s fun to be able to deliver exactly what someone wants. I also find it totally gratifying to get project ideas–things that might never have occurred to me to make.
In addition, you have single item listings, your projects that are ready to be re-homed. Instant gratification for buyers who want stuff ready to ship, and also lets you clear out your project drawer!
Oh, and about the time-frame for a custom piece, lots of people don’t mind waiting to get exactly what they want. I ordered a pizza stone which has taken months and months to finish and I am so excited to get it this week. I was happy to wait knowing that it was a tricky request I made, and I was happy to fork over some bucks for it, too!
On the other hand, doing custom stuff sometimes makes it “work” instead of trading cash for fun projects, so YMMV on that one. That’s kinda how I fell into it–so be careful about it taking over your life 
Okay I swear I am about to stop spamming the thread, but this seemed apropos: Storque article on choosing a shop name.