Well, I was just working on my Etsy Shop last night and I realized that today I will reach 4,500 total sales since I joined as an Etsy seller. It is humbling for me to look back and see all of the customers that I have helped and all of the success that I have enjoyed. When I started out I never imagined that I would be as successful as I have been.
My journey as an Etsy seller began in October of 2008. At the time I was making 2x4 wood blocks with scrapbook paper letters on them. I made some with my daughter's name on them for her room after she was born. Then I started giving them as gifts to family members. I loved doing it and thought that they were so cute, so I decided to try and sell some of them on Etsy. Guess how many I sold? Not a single one. Zero. At the time it was very discouraging and I almost gave up on Etsy all together.
A couple of years later I made a quiet book for my daughter for her to read during church. It was a picture book that had each letter of the alphabet with a picture of a gospel topic or of our family for each letter. My daughter enjoyed looking at the book during church and I decided that I would give Etsy another try. I posted the book on Etsy for $14.00. Here are some pictures of the book:
In one year I sold four books.
I didn't start to see any real success as a seller until March of 2011 when I started posting some Photoshop jobs that I had done for friends and family. I started with a couple of birthday invitations, baby shower invitations, and party decorations. That March I made 8 sales, twice an many as I had made in my first three years as a "seller", and I was hooked.
Pictured below is one of my early baby shower designs. I still sell that design. The second picture is what the invitation looks like today:
Soon I figured out the secret to selling on Etsy: It is hard and it takes a lot of work.
Specifically there are two basic things that you have to work very hard at to be successful:
1. Create products that people want
2. Get people to see your products
I was good at number 1 and I recruited my husband to do number 2. I think that most people selling on Etsy have more trouble with the second one than they do with the first one. Right now if you go to Etsy and search "Baby Shower Invitation" you get 82,363 results! Your's can be the best one, but if nobody sees your listing they can't buy it.
Do you have any tips for selling on Etsy? Please post them in the comments. I would love to learn from you.
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