Etsy! Etsy! Get yourself an Etsy Shop! Just do it! It’s free…really. I mean if you advertise through their platform or publish a listing its costs some money but if you sell stuff it’ll cover that cost. A listing is 20 cents. That’s nothing. It’s not hard to maintain but the listings can be annoying since they go into the extreme depth of what you’re selling.
Etsy Shop Tips & Tricks
Get To Know Your Biggest Costs
The biggest costs are gonna be supplies. So maybe work up to it. Get some boxes, get some tape, get those business cards. Work up to it. OR DIVE RIGHT IN! whatever is easier for you! Learn as you go or be over-prepared like I was.
Learn Everything There Is To Know About Your Shipping
I undersold a lot of my stuff underestimating that most things cost like 5 bucks and over to ship. Unless it’s heavy then it’s like 15. I got a scale from Amazon for around 20 bucks to make sure I could properly weigh my products and packages.
Yup! There it is. real simple and does the job. Next, thing you’ll want to do is create a Pirate Ship account.
Free site to use to ship your items and a free account. I mean you have to pay if you ship something but you can print the labels right there and can save yourself from standing in line at the post office. You can put in the information you need to see what the cost is before you ship it too. Make sure that you’re charging the right amount for your product and for shipping.
That was the biggest hurdle for me was finding out the right prices. I used to just go to the automated teller at my post office. Midnight would roll around and my insomniac ass would just ship it off late since those Automated services are 24/7. There I would be met with an “out of service” or learn that the shipping was WAY more than I thought and I’d only make like a dollar profit.
Here’s another article I did further detailing pricing: Best Way to Price The Items You’re Selling Online
I spent a lot of time just learning from my failures. I used Etsy to pretty much just sell little things as I hobby. I have only recently applied for an LLC which is a whole different long and boring story of how to file for that. EXPENSIVE too! If it works out in the long run then its worth it. However you won’t really need one unless you plan on making over $20,000. That’s when you start getting taxed.
Do Your Research
Most likely whatever you’re selling is being sold on Etsy already. It May not be the exact thing but it will be something similar. Try your best to be competitive with those prices. If you can afford to. You can always tweak these numbers later.
Go to the search bar on Etsy and start typing what your item is. While you’re searching, write the key words down that pop-up. If you’re selling jewelry and the top result is “jewelry for her” keep that in mind for your tags when you list your items. You want highly searched things. You will want multi-worded tags. Just remember…the more words you have, the more ways people will be able to find you. they don’t ALL have to be that way, but it will help your chances. I went back and re-worded all my tags and my views skyrocketed from like 12 a day to hundreds. Little things but they matter.
Same with your titles. Make em a bit lengthy. Over describe it. Talk about its uses. For example, here is a title I’ve used for our signs:
Welcome sign! You’re so pretty sign! Wooden Farmhouse sign! Handmade Sign For Your Home!
You can learn how to make your own wooden sign by visiting our “Sign, Sign, Everywhere a D.I.Y Sign” Post.
Gets the point across way better than just “Wooden Sign.” Also, way more things to pop up for people searching. There’s a lot to an Etsy, but no one is monitoring your progress. Post a few and learn as you go. You may unfortunately take a hit and realize “ope, that didn’t work, need to up the price” so you do that!
Also go to social media, post on your Instagram, post on your Facebook, post on TikTok. People love supporting small businesses. Especially friends and family. They want to help ya! So let them! It’s hard for me to do sometimes, but you just gotta let it happen.
And Remember
Give it a go, and if you don’t like it or it doesn’t work for you then at least you tried! There’s no timeline for Success.
