I started an Etsy store around three weeks ago, and I’ve been enjoying the journey so far! If you want to start your own Etsy shop right now, you can get 40 free listings using this link. This means you can put your products up for sale without having to pay anything upfront! I recommend this article to anyone who is still contemplating if they should start this side hustle. In this post, I’ll be talking about my experience so far and how much time it takes to get started.
Starting An Etsy Store
To get started, youtube videos streamline the process of starting an Etsy store. I watched one which went over the process from start to finish towards the end of the video. Although it was concise, it left out one important part. When Etsy asks you to create your first listing, you need to create a fake listing and fill out all the mandatory fields. Feel free to use any images from your computer and fill the description with random text.
Etsy will charge you $0.20 for this listing, but you can contact Etsy’s customer support to get reimbursed. The $0.20 fee for listing the fake product is added to a monthly payment charged at the end of the billing cycle. So, you won’t have to worry about refunds or charges hitting your bank account! Overall, I set up my Etsy Store and linked it with Printify in about an hour! After setting up the store, the next thing to do would be to figure out what product you want to sell!
Figuring Out What To Sell
Before figuring out what category you want to be involved in whether it’s weddings, school, or a profession, we’re going to figure out what product we want to sell. What object is going to convey your ideas for a specific category? If you already have an idea, then yay! You know exactly what you’re going to make whether it’s handmade or digital! If you don’t have an idea, my recommendation is to think about why you want to start an Etsy store.
Want to practice your art and sell your masterpieces? Create wall paintings and ship them out to people! It sounds like a great way to explore your passion, pay for art supplies, and possibly make a little profit on the side. Is the incentive to make extra money? Etsy is known for selling handmade and digital products for wedding events! Join a popular marketplace to get more search traffic and hopefully faster sales! After deciding what your medium is or what you’re selling, it’s time to decide on a niche.
Choosing A Niche For Your Etsy Store
It’s hard to make a product that broadly applies to every consumer, so we should reduce our options. We won’t feel as overwhelmed with possibilities if we choose a specific niche. It also allows us to be creative in a subset genre. So how do we choose one? The best way to find a specific one or a few you want to dive into is by asking questions. These questions might help you navigate your way through this journey:
- Do I enjoy doing any hobbies?
- Do I want to create something that supports a specific community?
- Why do I want to sell items?
- How can I benefit consumers?
These questions should guide you toward one of two answers. The first is that you reached a niche and a product that you want to sell on Etsy! The second is realizing that you want to sell something, but it’s not in Etsy’s format. You may find that what you want to sell was a service instead! In this case, you might find that Fiverr or Upwork would be a better format for your business!
The Most Important Lesson I Learned From Starting A Side Hustle
Starting any side hustle can be a daunting task. There are so many unknown variables, and the feeling of failure can sometimes pressure us into stopping before we start. Whenever we feel this way, it’s important to tell ourselves that it’s okay to fail. The entrance fee, for most side hustles nowadays, is a couple of dollars. Don’t get hooked on paying all these monthly fees for additional features, just focus on getting things up and running. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work out.
It’s important to be comfortable with failure because there aren’t any shortcuts when it comes to starting a side hustle. The journey ahead is filled with obstacles that need to be jumped over, and sometimes, we don’t pass it on the first or third jump. One of the keys to success isn’t the pain we feel from falling, it’s recognizing that we’ll be better when we stand back up. This mindset allows us to keep an open mind and prevents us from judging ourselves harshly. It lets us focus on enjoying the process and allows our passion to grow instead of being staggered.
Maintaining My Etsy Store
I’m really happy that I’ve laid out the groundwork for starting the shop! Step one is done, and now I’m aiming to maintain my shop and hopefully obtain my first organic sale. I started my shop around two weeks ago, and I feel like I’m doing something wrong especially when I haven’t had one buyer yet. The reason I bring this up is that I want to take accountability for my shop’s successes and failures. I want to also show that it’s normal to have low points, and it’s better than normal to acknowledge a realistic view of my business.
I tell myself that it’s okay that I haven’t had my first sale yet, let me look at which products are getting more views. Let me see what’s selling well on Etsy. Do more research to find what products drive search traffic. The list goes on and on. Unless I’m one of the top people in the industry, there’s always something I can do better!
Post At A Glance
I hope that you enjoyed this article! Thank you for reading another one of my posts! If you have any questions or any ideas on what you want me to write about, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try my best to help you! As always, if you didn’t have enough time to read the entire post, here’s a key takeaway:
One of the keys to success isn’t the pain we feel from falling, it’s recognizing that we’ll be better when we stand back up. This mindset allows us to keep an open mind and prevents us from judging ourselves harshly. It lets us focus on enjoying the process and allows our passion to grow instead of being staggered.
– Joemer
If you would like to read other articles, feel free to see other recent blogs from the home page!