Etsy Tips!

I have recently been asked if I have any tips for people who are interested in starting their own Etsy shop so I decided to go ahead and do a post on it!

Here are my top tips on starting and running your Etsy shop.  I am not an expert but I have learned a few things through the years that would have been very helpful had I known from the git-go!

Soooo, here goes:

NUMBER 1

The most important one, in my opinion, is to make sure that whatever you decide to make stands out from the crowd.  It has to be different from everyone else's, otherwise there is risk of your products just blending in with the crowd!  For example, if you type in "onesie" there are literally thousands of onesies that are super similar.  Not that there is anything wrong with onesies, it's just that they tend to be a little easier to make so a lot of people make them.  Hopefully I am making sense.  I have tried tons of different "things".  Everything from onesies to baby hats, pants, ladies wraps, tanks, etc.  But my best sellers have always been my ceramic mugs and cups...simply because it's a unique product and not the easiest process to make them so they stand out.

NUMBER 2

My second tip would be to list at least one thing every day.  This makes a huge difference!  It bumps your item up on the search bar and gives you a few seconds of front page exposure.    I have found that it is better to list at least one item every day than it is to list 25 items all on the same day.

NUMBER 3

Start a blog!  I can't even tell you how much my blog has re-directed people to my shop.  I've had my blog for 3 1/2 years now and it has right around 300 followers.  It's been a slow and steady growing process for me.  Some blogs seem to grow from 100 followers to 1000 followers overnight and some blogs, like mine, are slow and steady truckers...lol!  I try not to bombard my blog with my etsy stuff, but I do try to throw a new product in there every 1-2 weeks.  In the meantime, I try to do posts that are interesting but you can't always grab everyone's attention all the time so I have learned to just blog what I enjoy blogging about and let the chips fall where they may.

NUMBER 4

My shop really started picking up business when I started advertising on other blogs.  I didn't do this starting off, so this may be something you will want to wait to do but there are tons of blogs out there who have a good amount of followers (usually I look for blogs with at least 800+ followers) who have great prices on advertising...anywhere from $10-$20 a month.  You get to put your shop button on their blog and it gets you tons of new visitors to your shop!  The key is to make sure you have a good shop button that will grab peoples attention.  If you visit candacetodd.blogspot.com you will be able to see some good examples of really cute advertising buttons and Candace has great prices on her monthly ad's!

Hopefully I haven't overwhelmed you... I know this may be a lot to take in.  I have been doing my Etsy shops since 2008 and I am still learning new things every day!  

Running the shop takes just as much time and creativity as creating your products!  It is fun though and can be very rewarding.

Every now and then, I put my shop on "Vacation Mode" because I just need a breather...this has been very beneficial to me because it gives me some time to re-boot and get my creative juices flowing again.

If you have noticed, my Etsy shop (retrogalusa.etsy.com) has been on vacation mode for a couple of months.  This is the longest break I have ever taken!  I originally closed it because we were moving but I decided to keep it closed a little bit longer because I just started school and I need time to adjust to a new town and a new schedule!  I am hoping to be back after the fall.

These are my top tips! Feel free to comment and share any other tips you may have for us!