How to get your first 10 sales on Yaybe

The first ten sales are the hardest. Nobody knows you, you have no reviews, and every marketplace tip you read assumes traffic you don’t have yet. This guide is the plan we’d give a friend opening a stall on Yaybe: four weeks, one focus per week, and the specific Yaybe features that make each step easier.

Before week one: the three things every selling shop has

Look at any shop on Yaybe that sells and you’ll find the same three things. Get them right before you promote anything.

A complete listing. All the attributes filled in (material, size, colour, condition, made in, ships to), five photos with alt text, a fixed price, a working payment link. Incomplete listings don’t just look worse; they don’t appear in filters, and Yaybe’s completeness score gives finished listings a small boost in search.

A shop that looks open. A logo, a banner, a tagline that says what you sell, an About page with a paragraph about you and a photo. Buyers check “is this real?” before “do I want it?”.

One post. Anything: the workbench, a batch drying, a note about what’s coming. A shop with a post looks alive; a shop without one looks abandoned.

Week 1: List three things well

Not thirty. Three.

Pick your best seller, your most photogenic piece and your cheapest good thing (an easy first purchase). For each, write the title the way a buyer would search: what it is + key material or feature. Fill every attribute. Add up to 13 tags for what attributes don’t cover: the occasion (wedding, housewarming), the vibe (minimalist, cottagecore), the recipient (for dad, teacher gift).

Set the price mode honestly. Fixed if it’s fixed. Starting at for made-to-order. On request only if you truly quote every job; a hidden price loses more buyers than a high one.

Then submit for review. While you wait, do the next thing.

Week 1, also: tell twenty people

Your first sales come from people who already like you. Make a list of twenty: friends who asked about your work, the colleague who bought a mug at the office sale, the cousin who follows your studio account. Send each a short, personal message with the link to one specific product, not the shop home. “I finally listed the blue bowls — this one’s the size you liked” outperforms “check out my shop!” every time.

Ask three of them to follow the shop on Yaybe. Followers see every new product and post in their feed, so those three become your first audience.

Week 2: Get found in the market

Now work the marketplace itself.

Check where you appear. Browse your own category on Yaybe as a buyer. Filter by Handmade, by your material, by Ships to Canada. Do you show up? If not, an attribute is missing. Fix it.

Look at the landing pages. When enough listings share an attribute value, Yaybe makes indexable pages like Ceramic Mugs or Sterling Silver Earrings. Your product page links to the ones it qualifies for. The more accurately you’ve filled in attributes, the more of these pages carry your listing.

Post twice this week. A photo of something new, and a photo of something in use. Keep it short. Followers see posts in their feed; visitors see them on your Posts tab, and each post has its own page that search engines index.

Share one product page a day somewhere outside Yaybe: your personal socials, a relevant group, a community board. Product pages on Yaybe come with a proper preview card (image, title, price), so the link looks good wherever it lands.

Week 3: Turn buyers into reviews

You should have a sale or two by now. This is the most important week.

Deliver like you mean it. Ship on time or early. Include a handwritten note with the shop link. If it’s a service or a pickup, be exactly where you said.

Record every sale. In your dashboard, open Sales and enter the buyer’s email and what they bought. Yaybe emails them: “Your shop confirmed your purchase — leave a review.” Only confirmed buyers can review, so every star on Yaybe comes from someone who actually bought. Your first two or three verified reviews change how every future visitor sees the shop.

Reply to reviews. A short, warm reply as the seller shows the next buyer there’s a person here.

Make the follow ask. Every package, every message, every post: “follow the shop on Yaybe to see new pieces first.” The Follow button is on every shop and product page.

Week 4: Restock, add, repeat

Look at your shop stats (views, product clicks, buy clicks, referrers, search terms). You’ll see which listing people click and which they bounce from.

• Make more of what sold. Add a variant people asked for (another size, another colour). Variants on Yaybe each get their own stock flag and payment link, and in-stock variants show up in filters.
• Fix what they bounced from. Usually the first photo or the price.
• Add two new listings, using what you learned about titles and photos.
• Post the restock. Followers get it in their feed. This is the moment repeat buyers appear.

By the end of week four most shops that follow this plan have five to ten sales, a few verified reviews, twenty or thirty followers, and — more useful than any of that — they know what sells.

What to do when nothing sells

It happens, and it’s information. If a listing gets views but no clicks on Buy, the price or the first photo is wrong; change one at a time. If it gets no views at all, buyers can’t find it: check the category, fill the missing attributes, and post about it so followers see it. If the shop gets visitors who leave in seconds, look at it on a phone — that’s where most buyers are — and fix whatever looks unfinished. Give each change a week. Ten sales is a slow burn for some categories; furniture and art take longer than earrings and stickers. The shops that get there are the ones that keep listing, keep posting and keep recording sales.

Things that don’t work (so you can skip them)

• Listing everything you’ve ever made. Depth beats breadth; buyers and search engines both prefer three strong listings.
• Tags that don’t describe the product. Yaybe’s tags are a shared vocabulary; keyword-stuffing gets your tags rejected and wastes your slots.
• Buying followers or reviews. Reviews require a confirmed purchase, and fake sales are a serious breach of the seller terms.
• Waiting for search traffic. It comes, but it’s slow. The first ten sales come from people you told and people who followed.
• Posting nothing because you have “nothing to say”. The workbench is content. The half-finished piece is content.

A week-by-week checklist

Week 1 — Three complete listings · logo, banner, About · one post · submit for review · message twenty people · three followers.

Week 2 — Check filters and fix attributes · two posts · share one product a day.

Week 3 — Deliver well · record every sale · reply to reviews · ask for follows everywhere.

Week 4 — Read your stats · add variants · fix the weak listing · two new listings · post the restock.

Then do weeks two to four again. That’s the whole method.

Haven’t opened yet? Open your shop on Yaybe — free, no commission — or read how to open an online shop step by step.