Selling on Etsey?

[john]

Has anyone out there sold their work on "Etsey".

If so do you have any comments or feedback on the process, especially collecting if one does not have a credit card collection system.

John

[rjent]

Paypal is a very solid way of getting paid. There is a fee, but that is pretty much true for anything.

All you need is an email address and an account.

JMHO

[rlkeeney]

There isn't much to it if all you want to do is list your work and hope someone buys it. However, there are currently 1.8 million active sellers on Etsy and yo will be lost in the masses unless you work at it. It's a lot work.

You'll need to learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media, marketing and photography. This stuff matters a lot. If they can't find you they certainly are not going to by from you. When they find you and you have crappy photos your going to get skipped. You have to write good descriptions of your items.

Then there is the business stuff. You know book keeping, records, shipping, taxes and in some cases licensing. Where are you going to put the money when you get paid. How are you going to pay Etsy. Do you need or want a business credit card. How about a business bank account?

Depending on where you live shipping can be a real pain. Do you want to drive 20 miles to ship a package that you make $5 on. What about packaging materials. Where are you going to store all this stuff.

You need a lot of stock. 100 items seems to be some sort of magic number. when you get more than 100 listings you get moved up in the search rankings. You need to learn how the search rankings work.

There are solutions to all of these things you are going need to work out. It takes awhile to get it all going.

There are brands and logos to consider. You might want have a domain name or a blog.

The successful sellers work at it like anything else.

It is cheap $0.20 per listing for four months. Considering all the services Etsy provides this is dirt cheap.

I opened my store last fall, Got bad sick and could not get everything in place for Christmas. But even being new I still sold things.

By the time Thanksgiving rolls around next year I plan to have 120 or more listings. More if possible. Right now I'm loosing money big time. I'm spending lots of hours figuring out how to do this stuff. Without pay. But that's the way of it. When you start a business people don't suddenly beat a path to your shop.

There are a lot of claims floating around but very few real numbers are attached to them. There are people that have sales in the six digit range. These are few and far between. They may have started as one person but now they are a company with employees.

My Etsy Store: http://odinstoyfactory.com

[john]

Thanks for all the information.

I have already experienced the business side and the loss angle. I did craft shows for several years and didn't make a dime. Of course I did give all my gross profits to Shopsmith and other equipment/tool suppliers. The fun was in making the items and the personal contacts and feedback from the public.

The Etsey angle is just a way to see if I can keep making things at my own pace and have an outlet for them so I could make more.

You gave me a lot to think about.

John

[rlkeeney]

The cost of entry to Etsy is very low. So its worth a shot. I haven't spent a lot on it that I would not have spent anyway. About the largest cash expense was for some photo equipment. I bought som lights and a table top studio. I probably spent $150 on those. I've been making do with my existing camera. I'm working the social media and SEO stuff hard but that doesn't cost me any cash. Not spamming and certainly not paying anyone for ads. I'm just hanging out my shop and trying to get found.

I'm 65 and still working full time so its really hard to fit all this in. It gets easier the more practice you get I have a Google+ collections page for toys as well as a blogger page at Google. I also have a Facebook business page I did that because I really don't want to pound my family and friends with ads. I share my work in lots of places where they will let me link back to my shop. It helps me get shop views and lets potential customers get a look at who I am and what I do. It works. Every time I sit down and work up a new listing and spread it around. My views go way up sometimes in just a few minutes.

I study this a lot and from what I've seen I'm way ahead of the game. Many Etsy sellers don't get their first sale for several months. I sold some thing the first day and sold several items before Christmas and some during the long fry spell that follows.

There are very few men selling on Etsy and most of the buyers are women. If you get into Etsy selling you will be surrounded by women sellers and shoppers. Know your market, customer and competition.