What I’ve Learned over 7 years on Etsy
I opened my Etsy shop in November 2014 while working full-time at a retail store in San Diego called Pigment, shorty after moving on from a stint at Anthropologie and a string of nannying and event jobs. I was very much still starting out in my creative career—trying to find my groove and support myself somehow.
My life has changed drastically since then, and over the years my shop went from a tiny side-hustle to my main livelihood and source of income—but it didn’t happen over night.
Here are some things I’ve learned over the years:
Starting is the hardest part
I had a stack of screen prints and drawings under my bed for months before I finally took the plunge and opened my shop. It takes courage and vulnerability to put your creative work out there!
I was afraid I would spend hours listing my pieces and nobody would buy them. Taking and editing photos, creating the first listings, writing shop policies etc. can be incredibly time consuming! But, once it’s done, everything is faster and easier from there. I haven’t written a listing from scratch in years—I just copy an existing one and make edits.
Sales were suuuuper slow at first and mostly came from people I knew. But gradually, I found my groove and my sales have consistently grown every year. Etsy’s community has grown so much since I first opened my shop, the seller platform looks totally different and I’ve had to learn and grow with all the changes. There has been controversy lately with Etsy increasing their fees, but overall I’m still happy with it. It’s been fun to be along for the ride.
you’ve gotta work with the algorithms
Do you have one listing that sells and fifteen that don’t? Lean into what’s working! Using the right keywords and making my listing titles longer doubled my sales. Amidst all the beautiful work on Etsy, buyers have to be able to find your products. I had one super successful listing (my Idaho state print) so I have created over 200 other similar state/country prints and have found success in this niche that I never expected when just starting out.
It can be frustrating to be at the mercy of a platform’s decisions, though. I’ve seen peaks and valleys in my shop views and revenue as Etsy’s algorithm has changed over time. But like all things, I’ve learned to take the good with the bad, and grow and change as Etsy does. I’ve used the slower months when I’m not as busy shipping orders as time to create new work and also tweak my shop/listings.
“Success” is relative
Do you want a side hustle? Do you want a full-time creative gig? Do you have a creative hobby and want to get rid of some of the things you’ve made cluttering up your house so you have room to make something new? Selling on Etsy is great for all of these things, but you’ve got to keep your expectations in check and know what you want to get out of it.
My expectations of Etsy have always been fairly low—I never expected to make most of my income from my Etsy shop. This low expectation was helpful for me in many ways: I never put all my eggs into one basket (I have always had other projects or jobs in tandem), I never felt such frustration that I thought about quitting, and slow growth was motivating to keep creating things and solidifying my ‘brand’.
Success on Etsy for me has been both financial and personal. First, the ability to supplement my income and then turn it into the majority of my income felt like a huge win. And secondly, it has been incredibly rewarding to see my artwork in homes all over the world! I feel immense joy from receiving good customer reviews and getting messages from someone saying how much their mom loved their custom piece.
There’s no perfect recipe for how to be successful on Etsy. It takes both a bit of algorithm luck and a good amount of time invested, but I really do believe that if you put in the work, there’s a good chance you will have success—whatever that means for you.
