Etsy: How I Sold 1200 Listings In 6 Months

This is for all the Etsy sellers out there, who are struggling to sell their products, or even getting decent traffic to your Etsy shop.
Trust me, I was once like you. Did not know what I was doing wrong, just hoping to get more traffic some day in the near future.

Let me tell you something. The truth of Etsy.

You are not going to get 100s of orders or 1000s of visitors to your Etsy shop, UNLESS you realize that Etsy isn’t going to bring you a lot of customers. You just have to start treating your shop like a business- and that’s really all the mindset you need for owning a successful Etsy shop. And I am the living proof!

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1.Do Not Get Fooled By Etsy’s Number

We all know Etsy has been THE PLACE for crafters who are hoping to make extra side income doing what they love. Indeed there are 31.7 million active Etsy buyers, and 1.9 million sellers currently, and there are no sign of slowing down.

I’m sure Etsy initially impressed you with their fancy numbers, how much traffic they get, and so does your shop.

BIG. LIE.

Simply put, bigger and successful shops are dominating the daily traffic to Etsy, so your small shop is left with tiny share. Just like the real world: only top few percentage makes TONS of money and majority are left with pennies. Sad truth.

When I first signed up Etsy, I read all of these success stories who make hundreds of sales per month. I got very enthusiastic and was full of hope that “I can start making decent income as soon as I open a shop with Etsy!”

Life isn’t so easy, and making money isn’t so easy.
This is the painful, yet solid truth.

You do not make money by simply opening your shop. Period.

My first shop was typical case of a failure. I opened the shop, listed about 10 products (I was doing custom invitation designs), and was waiting for something to happen. The reality was, I just get few views here and there, no sign of hearing the “cha-ching” sound from my phone.

There are so many people who do what you do. No matter what you think your products or services are awesome and one-of-a-kind, there is always SOMEONE does similar business. And the chances are that they are already successful, taking all of your potential customers.

First step for your success is to ADMIT the fact Etsy does not bring you people right to your shop, UNLESS you actually get up and do something about it.
Treat your shop like your business. Do not leave the marketing part on Etsy- you have to do this part, not just crafting.

“What do I need to do then?” you may ask.

Keep reading, I will share what I did.

2.Start Your Own Blog / website

First and most importantly, I did what most of the business owners will do:

Start your website / blog.

Starting Etsy shop is a lot similar to actually owning a physical store. You might get few people come in and check out your stuff, but won’t get recognized by people who actually admire your work. You need to reach out to them and say, “Hey, this is what I do.”

Launching your business website/blog is best (I think rather can’t be avoided) ways to promote your business to potential customers.

First of all, owning your own website makes your business looks professional and trustworthy.

Secondly, having your website will open up numerous of different ways to get traffic to your Etsy shop. (keep reading more for HOW to promote).

Ever since I launched my website and promote my work on Pinterest, Facebook & Instagram, my website became the #1 source of traffic to my Etsy shop. I typically generate 3x more trrafic than Etsy does, and those people who visit my shop from my website ACTUALLY want to purchase my creation.

You can see the proof here:

Launching your website / blog can be done within a day- BULEHOST let you get your own domain, get server ready and let you setup your website with wordpress with just 1 click. And all of them are taken care of, with just $3.95 per month.

Their customer service is just amazing as well, they will answer all of your questions and walk you through step-by-step. CHECK OUT MORE FROM HERE.

If you’d like to read more about how to start your own blog/website,
You can read:
How to Start a Money Making Blog: Simple 13 Steps Summary

3. Promote with freebies

So, what did I do exactly with my website?

Freebies.

For those of you who sells digital products- coming up freebies are fairly easy.
And for those of you who sells physical products, don’t worry- there’s numerous ways for you to provide freebies and get your names out there.
You can give out free patterns, printable, tutorial videos on how to make _____, commercial license, and many more.
You just have to be creative and come up your own ideas.

WHY freebies?

BECAUSE, with freebies, you can go into places and promote your business without getting kicked out.

Many places such as Facebook groups and Pinterest group boards won’t let you post anything paid items, or direct link to your Etsy shop.

BUT, if you have freebies, you can post them and show off what you do, to tens of thousands of people. Share your website link where people can download freebie, and just place a direct link to your Etsy shop within the article, saying “check out my Etsy shop for more work,” etc.

Even if you are giving out freebies, your fans will always want to support you and buy items from you. You are just giving out some “samples” for potential customers to taste- if your products are high quality and worth paying money, they will make their way back to your shop, believe me.

4. Promote on Facebook and Pinterest

Once you are ready with your website, make sure to create Facebook business page & Pinterest business account.These business account gives you detailed statistics, and these numbers are going to be your best friend.

You can read how I generated many traffic and followers can be read from here:
-5 TIPS ON HOW I GENERATE 1,500 FACEBOOK LIKES WEEKLY
-9 TIPS ON HOW I INCREASED MY PINTEREST’S DAILY VIEWERS 257K TO 9M IN A MONTH

5. Creative Business Thoughts

The most important thing you can do to push your business to the next level is to be CREATIVE.

Besides selling my SVG cut files, I generate many of my income by selling commercial licenses.

My point is, think about WHAT ELSE you can sell besides what you are already selling. Creating a product is not only your talent- you have the skill to plan, design, generate information on which materials are better than the others… these information itself is worth monetizing. Let’s revise what else you can do- and remember, Etsy shop is YOUR BUSINESS, start treating like it!

You can sign up and start blogging just for $2.95 per month. Check you domain availability & START NOW FROM HERE.

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