How To Get Customers To Your Etsy Shop

Your Etsy shop may be the best shop yet, but if no one knows it's there then it's all for nothing. Don't lose heart. There are many easy ways to turn your shop from not-on-the-map to Main Street! Let these ideas get you started...

1. Find a few popular bloggers who will do a giveaway on their widely read blogs.
2. In order to enter the drawing, have their readers visit your shop and tell their favorite item in the comments section of the blog they are entering on, as well as visit your shop's Facebook page and 'like' it.
3. Make a Facebook page for your shop (under Business Page), and use this space to keep people up-to-date on all the goodies you have available.
4. Have some business cards made and put them up around your area and any where you are traveling. The more you get out the better. Consider coffee shops, libraries, restaurants, art stores, thrift stores, artist malls, schools, local shops, etc.
5. List new items often.
6. Re-list your best-selling items often.
7. List items during the peak hours for your shop. This can be a little tricky to nail down. Do some research, watch to see at which hours people visit your shop using Google Analytics, and know your customers. Then go with your best guess.
8. Have a blog? Add your Etsy-Mini to it.
9. Find some great blogs to advertise on.
10. Participate in discussion groups and forums.

The ideas are endless. What other ways can you think of to make your shop known?

The High Price of Commuting

Commuting to work every day adds up fast. Where does your commute fall?

ONE-WAY trip in minutes           Equivalent number of 40-hour weeks per year

        5                                                          1
        10                                                        2
        15                                                        3
        20                                                        4
        25                                                        5
        30                                                        6
        35                                                        7
        40                                                        8
        45                                                        9
        50                                                        10
        55                                                        11
        60                                                        12


Only commute 5 minutes one-way? That's 10 minutes a day which, at 5 days a week, adds up to 40 hours at the end of the year. Are you traveling 1 hour one-way? That's 480 hours at the end of the year. 

Where did you fall? Are you okay with that? What would you do with that extra time if you worked from home?

How To Make Money With Etsy.com

Etsy.com. Don't you wish you had invented it? It's a thriving community of down-to-earth buying and selling bliss, where everything is handmade (or vintage) and the industrial super powers get the cold shoulder. Brilliant.

And while you may have missed out on being the creator of Etsy, you can still get in and become a creator on Etsy where many others are doing very well. Use these simple steps to get you on your way...

1. Know your craft - Some of you may be reading this with a very specific product or art form in mind, maybe even in hand. Others of you may have varying ideas of what you could create. That's fine. Good, even. Just know that, before you can go any further, you need to decide exactly what it is your are going to be making and marketing, and you need to start pumping them out. Write down your ideas and search Etsy to see what else is out there. Remember that you need to stand out. Read the article If You Want To Make Money From Home DO IT RIGHT and take time to focus on each point. Quality, originality, and personal charm will all help you to make it on Etsy. 
2. Market your craft - Your Etsy banner needs to be GREAT. The photos of what you're selling need to be FABULOUS. Your descriptions need to be TO DIE FOR. Really. You are trying to convince people that they want what you have, and you cannot afford to do poorly, or even mediocre, here. It has got to be STELLAR. Got it? If you have a great product, but can't take amazing photographs then hire a photographer. This step is crucial. You also need to help people find your shop. You will make nothing if no one knows you are selling. Read How To Get Customers To Your Etsy Shop for more on this.
3. Add a heaping scoop of customer service - Because this is what makes Etsy so great. It's getting buyers in touch with not only the seller, but the creator. The very person who put their blood, sweat, and tears into the product (That was figurative. Please don't bleed on your work.). You love what you do, and you want others to love it too. Take the time to add some extra finesse to the packaging. If you knit mittens then string them together with an adorable tag and warm note of warm wishes. You're an artist, right? Get a little creative and send your customers more than just their purchased item plopped in a box. Make them feel special. Talk with them. Assure them that you will do everything you can for them. This is why they are on Etsy and not at Wal-Mart.

Are you up for the challenge? Sign up to be a seller on Etsy here. It's quick and easy to do, and with such minimal start-up costs and a great foundation behind you, you can't lose.

10 More Quotes For The Hard Worker

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.  ~Abraham Lincoln

The footprint of the owner is the best manure.  ~English Proverb

Those at the top of the mountain didn't fall there.  ~Author Unknown

Sweat is the cologne of accomplishment.  ~Heywood Hale Broun

If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you feel you are down on your luck, check the level of your effort.  ~Robert Brault

Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.  ~José Ortega y Gassett

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.  ~Benjamin Franklin


Man stands for long time with mouth open before roast duck flies in.  ~Chinese Saying

Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.  ~Chinese Proverb