Hello!

In last week’s bi-weekly newsletter, we talked about building out new listings, testing new ideas, and giving those listings time to settle in and start gathering data.

This week, I wanted to talk specifically to my Etsy sellers about one of the strategies I’ve been experimenting with as I build out my own Etsy shop.

I actually have another Etsy shop besides Small Business Sarah. It’s my little testing ground where I can have fun experimenting with products, designs, pricing, promotions, and Etsy strategy.

I’ve dabbled with the shop for a year or two, but this year I’ve been much more intentional about growing it. It’s still not something I spend a ton of time on. I generally save it for after the main work of running my businesses is done. Right now, I sell a mix of stickers that I design and have printed in bulk, along with print-on-demand products.

And, of course, the accountant in me can’t just randomly add products and hope for the best.

If I’m going to build, I want to build smart.

So one of the first things I did was experiment with three popular Etsy research tools: Marmalead, Alura, and eRank.

For this “Build” stage, I’m primarily looking for one thing: product and keyword opportunities where shoppers are searching, but the competition isn’t completely overwhelming.

And for that purpose, eRank has been the clear winner for me. (That is an affiliate link, for a tool I can confidently recommend!)

Here’s a simple example.

I searched “cat sticker” in all three tools.

Marmalead gave me a list of related keywords, but the data was represented mostly by green, yellow, and red dots. To see the actual numbers, I had to hover over each individual metric. Even more frustrating, the related keyword suggestions seemed to focus heavily on the word cat, rather than helping me find more specific variations of cat sticker.

Alura presented the data more clearly, but the results went in the opposite direction. Its suggestions focused heavily on the word sticker, which gave me much broader results than I was looking for.

​eRank understood the search intent much better.

Instead of separating the ideas, it gave me related searches that actually combined the cat + sticker concept and helped me uncover more niche keyword ideas.

From there, I can drill down into individual keywords, look at close matches, see top listings, compare competition, and keep digging for additional ideas.

The amount of information on the screen is excellent without being difficult to read. And when I find keywords or product ideas I want to save, I can organize them into keyword lists so I can easily come back to a particular niche later.

For the way I research products, eRank is hands down my favorite of the three.

There is one important caveat, though.

Do not get too hung up on the exact search-volume numbers.

All three tools gave me noticeably different estimates for the same keywords.

In fact, eRank generally seems to be the most conservative.

For one keyword where I personally sell several products every month, eRank estimates only around 100 searches per month. Alura estimates closer to 300.

That doesn’t mean eRank is wrong or Alura is right. These tools don’t have access to Etsy’s complete internal search data, so they are all working with estimates.

I use the numbers directionally. I’m looking for questions like:

Is anyone searching for this?

Is competition relatively low or extremely high?

Are there more specific versions of this keyword that might be easier to compete for?

What other product ideas keep appearing as I research this niche?

And most importantly: Does this idea make sense for my shop?

Keyword research shouldn’t replace your judgment. It should give you more information to make better decisions.

That is ultimately what I’m trying to do with my Etsy shop this year: not just build more, but build more intentionally.

If you’ve been thinking about adding new products for the holiday season, now is a great time to start digging around in eRank and see where the research takes you.

Talk soon,

Sarah

P.S. If you have any questions about eRank vs. Marmalead vs. Alura, hit reply and let me know. I currently have subscriptions to all three until I cancel Marmalead and Alura and can hopefully answer any questions you have.