Growing your Etsy Garden

My wee microbrand made its 500th sale on Etsy.com last night. While this by no means makes me a top seller on the internet’s best source for handmade goods, I will say that I have some mad skills. And lucky for you, I wanna share. So, let’s go, Etsy 101.

In case you don�t know, Etsy is the best place on the internet to sell all things handmade. It has been around since June 2005 and has an amazing growing community of thousands and thousands of sellers and even more buyers. Registering and setting up a shop is completely free and listing items is a mere 20 cents each. When you sell something, there is a 3.5% sales fee. Sound easy? Yes, setting up is easy, but selling can be another story. I�ve got tips, though. So listen up!

When I started my shop in November 2005, I made the first mistake that all sellers make. I didn�t think about my user name. Be careful when picking your user name because it will be the same as your shop name. And you can�t change it. Lucky for me, the user name that I picked wasn�t far from my indie craft business name, so no harm. But remember that branding and name recognition is super important when creating not only your Etsy shop, but also your microbrand. No one is going to remember �lisa523designs� or something like that. Pick something original and interesting that people will want to talk about!

After I started my shop, it took about 3 weeks to get my first sale. This is something that new sellers need to understand. It takes time to get started. There are so many shops on Etsy that you may not be noticed at first. Do not despair! Here are some tips to setting up a good shop and listing items.

1. Make something interesting. For real. If you are selling something that hundreds of other people are selling, you will not be noticed. I have heard so many times from people that they aren�t selling anything, then I go to their shop and see forgettable knit scarves (in the middle of summer!) or marble magnet sets and I know why. By all means, make and sell what makes you happy, but remember that your most original items are going to actually get noticed!
2. Take good photos. I don�t usually do this myself. I am lazy about it. Recently, though, I took some photos of my hubby, Jeff, wearing one of my shirts out in the world.
   
   I sold 3 of these shirts that day. Seeing a product in action, with good lighting is invaluable.
3. This is obvious, but write a good description. Include measurements, etc. I sometimes think of my descriptions as blog posts. Craft them, make them interesting, give your item a life and a story.
4. Include international shipping information. Think globally. You are selling to the world. And if you tell people you will ship to the world, you will sell to the world. Last month, I sold items to customers in Finland, Singapore, England, Scotland and Australia. Remember that in countries like England, our dollar isn�t worth much. This makes for an entire country of people who think your products are an amazing value!
5. Make your shop�s banner and name and items consistent.
   
   Create your own little world. Don�t just toss up a bunch of stuff that doesn�t explain who you and your brand are. Have a vision for your brand and follow through with it.
6. Create a memorable avatar. The avatar is your face on Etsy. It is beside everything that you do. I find that I like avatars that are actual faces. This reminds me that these are real people making items. Avatars that are items are also nice, they let me know what I might see in the shop. Stay away from avatars of your pets or your children. There are far too many of these on Etsy and frankly it makes me think you don�t have many interests outside of these things. Angels, too, I can�t tell you how many avatars there are of angels. Bored now.

Once you have your shop set up and have added some items, the real work of Etsy begins. This does not have to be stressful, though. It is not the end of the world if you don�t sell a million items. It took me about a year to begin to sell consistently on Etsy. In that year, I have to say, I didn�t really do much. I listed items. I blogged about my stuff, I sent out postcards with orders. Slowly, the orders started coming in. By November 2006, I was consistently selling 1 item a day. Amazing!

So earlier this year, I did an experiment. I set a crazy goal. I wanted to sell 2 items a day or 60 items a month. I decided to treat my Etsy shop like a garden, something I work on everyday. Start with 30 minutes a day. And don’t tell me you don�t have 30 minutes a day. I have two-year-old twins and a job and I can find 30 minutes a day. Skip the phone call with mom, don�t watch Scrubs, wake up 30 minutes early. You can find 30 minutes. Of course, I would not have met my crazy goal by just working on it for 30 minutes a day. I would say I spend closer to an hour or so a day. Some days less, some days more. But starting with 30 minutes a day will get you on your way. After one month of my experiment, I met my crazy goal! So it can work.

Here are some things that you can do in those 30 minutes each day to grow your shop:

1. List a new item each day. If you don�t have a new item to list, relist an old item. Every time you list an item, it cycles through on the homepage and in the �Time Machine�. New items also show up on the first page of a search. Example, I make a shirt about zombies. If I list a zombie shirt every day, when someone searches for the word, �zombie,� I am always on the first page of results. Sweet! Listing a new item only costs 20 cents. You can�t go wrong with spending 20 or 40 cents a day.
2. Check out the Etsy community. There are forums and a chat room and a blog. If you feel comfortable, participate a little in these. Remember that other sellers often make up a large percentage of buyers as well. A few forum posts a day will get your avatar and shop out there into the community.
3. Practice organic marketing tactics. Seriously, no one is interested in someone who only wants to talk about their products. But by all means, if someone is talking about gnomes and you make a rad gnome pin, tell them.
4. Buy a Showcase spot on Etsy.
   
   These are available every two weeks or so. They are hard to get, but if you are at your computer when they go on sale, you will snag one. For $7, your item will be featured in the Showcase for a whole day, which is linked to from the homepage. This can be invaluable. My best showcase day ever, I sold 11 items. Granted, you might not sell one, but at least more people saw your items that day. When you have a Showcase spot, rotate which item is displayed.
5. Have a contest. I have an ongoing contest on my shop where people have to guess the landmark that is behind me in my avatar. If you guess correctly, I send you a free refrigerator magnet. These magnets don�t cost me much to make, so they are a good marketing tool as well as a nice present for someone. I have found that 2 out of 5 people who participate in the contest actually place an order at that time or later on.
6. Along those lines, be generous. I always always send extra stuff with orders. If something costs me less than a $1 to make, it doesn�t hurt me to send it for free. An extra badge or card or magnet sent to someone who buys a shirt, often becomes a gift that they give to a friend. That friend almost always shows up to purchase.
7. Check out the Etsy Wiki for way more tips, people are always coming up with things.

If you have more time, think about marketing outside of Etsy. See the internet as your access to an entire world of buyers. Or perhaps even better, a world of new friends who dig what you do. It is your job to help these people find you.

1. Try Google Adwords. I could talk for an hour on this topic, but here are the important points. You can spend as little or as much as you want per day on this. You can experiment. In general, though, only try Google Adwords if you have a specific item with very specific words that you know someone will be searching for. Again, with my zombie and also seamonster shirts, this is easy for me. I know that someone searching for “zombie” and “shirt” will likely dig my items when they click on my ad. I also try to think of things that people might be searching for and try to buy those key words, too. When the zombie movie, 28 Weeks Later came out, I added the movie title as a key word and got some clicks this way. Only you know your niche and products, but I bet with some thought you could make Google Adwords work for you.
2. Buy ads on other indie craft sites. The prices for this type of thing totally varies, as does the benefit.
3. If you are comfortable, try social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, Flickr. I, personally, find these sites to eat up way too much time, but you might dig them.
4. Start a blog where you document your craft.
5. Wear or use your own items out in the world. When someone asks about it, give them your card. This is obvious, but I often forget to do it!

In nearly 2 years, using Etsy has increased my online sales by 75% or so. But I have had to work on my little shop. If you click around on the site you see all kinds of shops selling all kinds of items. I have heard from many people lately that they want to give up on their shops. But seriously, if you believe in your work, your shop will succeed. It just takes time and a little bit of hard work. I never thought I would sell 1 item, much less 500.

If you have any questions about Etsy or selling handmade online, please post them in the comments and I will answer them. I totally dig helping out.