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mommy4ever
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Joined: April 08 2011
Location: Canada
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| Posted: June 12 2012 at 8:06am | IP Logged
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Anyone here do well on Etsy? I'd love to hear from you, how you are working it, etc.
I'm looking at it as a potential way to earn an income for our family. Could it be feasible?
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Mom to 4,
1 graduated June 2012
1 in Catholic school
2 homeschooled(one considering art school!)
ardently praying for a new addition to our family.
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SallyT
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| Posted: June 12 2012 at 9:05am | IP Logged
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I have a friend who sells stained-glass items (suncatchers, Christmas ornaments, etc) on Etsy. I don't know how well she does at it, but I do know that she puts a lot of energy into promoting her Etsy store -- sharing links for new products on Facebook and Twitter and, I'm sure, mentioning her products constantly to local friends (I'm not local, so all I see are the FB and Twitter promotions).
To do well at selling anything, you do have to promote, promote, promote. Both my brother and sister-in-law are artists -- he's a woodworker, and she's a painter/printmaker -- and she does significantly more business than he does because she's more willing to market herself and ensure that her work is always in the public eye. She's also turned to printmaking partly because it interests her, but largely because it enables her to crank out a lot of more affordable work quickly. Her large paintings go for a couple thousand dollars, but she can sell lots and lots of beautiful block prints to ordinary schmoes like me.
She does have a website of her own -- not an Etsy store -- though I think that most of her business is local and face-to-face. If you're selling some art, craft or sewing item, it might be worth it to suss out local craft fairs, church bazaars, etc, and invest in a booth. You may or may not sell enough to recoup the booth fee, but you will gain a lot of exposure and a venue for handing out business cards pointing people to your online presence. I did a lot of this during the years I sold Usborne Books, and it was a good strategy.
Ultimately, I'd say that success with an online store largely boils down to:
1) being proactive about ensuring that people see your work/site/store. Etsy does give you a ready-made forum for showcasing what you do, but you're one of thousands of vendors, so you need to be sure that what you do fills a unique niche, is remarkably well-done, and/or is actively promoted by you -- you're not just waiting for searchers to stumble over your store and decide to buy something.
2) having something that you can make a lot of easily, as well as maybe a few more special, labor-intensive, high-ticket items.
I have been an Etsy customer -- I do a good bit of my Christmas shopping on Etsy, though I don't shop that way regularly. The items I've bought have been things I've discovered via linked recommendations (a little wood-and-felt fairy doll from a lady who also makes saint peg dolls -- got that link from Regina Doman's House Art Journal site). Last year I bought a gorgeous cut-wood Nativity puzzle/set -- I think I just did a search for wooden Nativity sets and found this lady in Utah . . . she didn't know what Advent was, but was intrigued by my plans to introduce pieces of the puzzle a week at a time during Advent! Anyway, her work was really beautiful and one-of-a-kind but also affordable -- I thought $35 was a steal for something that beautiful and enduring -- which was why I bought from her.
So, that's my consumer perspective, anyway! I think that the nice thing about something like Etsy is that once you have your product made/gathered, the store will kind of mind itself, though you do have to ensure that people you know know about it.
My outsider's observation is that it's certainly a way to earn *some* income . . . depending on what you sell and how much time you have to devote to it. I think that's probably true of any home business -- as I learned from selling Usborne, money does not just make itself! Still, if you're persistent and have a good product, Etsy could be a good way to promote your work beyond your local circle.
Good luck!
Sally
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Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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Betsy
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| Posted: June 12 2012 at 9:23am | IP Logged
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If you have specific questions please PM me and I will help if I can.
In a nut shell, I feel that my etsy shop is very successful. I have accomplished many goals that I have set for the first half of the year and I have many new opportunities waiting for the second half.
However, it truly is a labor of love. It's my desire to unite my talents with the Mystical Body of Christ and help people to rediscover their Catholic identity that motivates me more than money. If I needed to do this to put food on the table, we would not eat much. And, while I do hope to provide a percentage of income to my family over time, it's the treasure that I am storing up in heaven that I am focused on.
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ImmaculataDesigns.com
When handcrafting my work, I always pray that it will raise your heart to all that is true, modest, just, holy, lovely and good fame!
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Etsy, as a business?
