Advice for Opening an Etsy Shop

I've been researching a lot of tips and advice for opening an Etsy shop and these are some of the ones that I've seen again and again:

-Have some variety of products in your shop because you will then have a bigger audience and there's more of a chance of people finding your shop.  With a good selection you are more likely to make a sale and even a multi-sale transaction.

-Keep adding new products to keep your products at the top of the searches so that people will find you and get to 100 listings as fast as possible because the more items you have in your shop, the longer people will have to browse and the more likely you are to make a sale.  Daily sales only happen in shops that are big enough for them.

-Your shop needs to look professional if you want your products to be perceived as good quality products that people are going to buy.  To do this you need to create a good brand for yourself and have detailed, clear, eye-catching pictures.  You should have a nice banner because it will be the first thing that people see in your shop.  You also need to have good prices for your products, not the cheapest prices.  If your price is cheap, people will assume your product is cheap.

-Understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  I don't really understand it yet, this is something that I definitely have to look into more because I've read how important it is a few times already.

-Since people can't touch or hold your products, make sure your photographs are the best they can be and show everything there is to see about the product.  People won't want to be surprised by something you didn't show in the pictures.

I got this advice, and more, from the blogs The Shabby Creek Cottage, Made it on Monday, and Handmadeology. 

Everything Etsy

A lot of people don't know what Etsy is.  And it gets tiring trying to explain it again and again to different people, so I thought that I'd make a post dedicated just to Etsy and why it's so great!

Basically, Etsy, is a global marketplace where people can buy or sell handmade items, craft supplies, or vintage items.

A bonus to selling on Etsy is that there are no membership fees.  Instead, it costs $0.20 to list an item in your shop for 4 months, or until it sells, and once you sell an item they collect 3.5% of what you sold your product for.  I like this because you only pay as long as you are using your shop.  If you take a break for an extended period of time, you don't have to continue paying because you are not listing or selling anything and if you come back and reopen your shop, it's still there.

Another advantage to selling on Etsy is that it's a great community.  All of the businesses are small and most of the products are made by the people who sell them so the customer service is usually great!  To become more a part of the community on Etsy there are thousands of different Teams that you could join.  And since there are so many, you are sure to find one that is perfect for you!  Teams allow you to collaborate with and get advice from (or give advice to) other shop owners.

The best reason to sell on Etsy is that it allows you to make money by being creative and doing what you love!  Plus you can work from home whenever you have time!

This isn't all the information about Etsy so I'd definitely recommend reading through Etsy's policies and guidelines and looking into it yourself before opening a shop, this is just some basic information on Etsy and why I think it's a great place to start or expand your business.