How to set up an Etsy shop in 5 steps!
It's a snow day in Mississippi! It's not even a good one. It's yucky icy snow! It snowed pretty much all day yesterday and is freezing outside. Snow days seem magical when you are a kid! Everything is covered in white! You get the day off from school. You get to play in the snow! As an adult, it just seems like a waste of a perfectly good day off! If you don't know about how schools work, they always make you make-up the days. I have cleaned everything in my house and tried hard not to eat everything else. I've watched, I think, every tv show and every movie, I've ever wanted to watch! This is, of course, a massive over exaggeration! I'm sure I will find another one as soon as I finish writing this post. I was supposed to go to an Ole Miss basketball game last weekend, but I couldn't go because of bad road conditions. We won! It was a great game but watching it on tv is not the same as being there. I've only been out of my house in the last five days to go to the grocery store. In all fairness, Monday was a perfectly fine day. I should have gotten out but because it was an already planned day off. I had already planned to use it to get my life in order. When I say to get my life in order, I pretty much always mean cleaning the house and washing clothes and organizing things. The fall and the holiday season are all busy. It's all stuff, I want to do but I think I was home maybe about one or two weekends between Labor Day and the first of the year.
Anyway, back to the title of this post. I have wanted to start an online craft store forever! I make several different crafts, and my mom makes the most beautiful afghans. As I've said before that's how she relaxes, she watches tv, and she crochets. It's not a skill she's ever really been able to teach me because she's left-handed and I am not. I also have the patience of a small child. If I can't figure out how to do something immediately, I usually just move on to something else. It's the main reason why I never finish any of my projects. Though, I think I've said that this is the reason for this blog. It is supposed to help me be more diligent about finishing what I start. Last year, for Christmas my dad's co-worker made a quilt for my parents. It was fantastic! I told him to tell her she should put her stuff on Etsy. Maybe, she would make a little extra money. I don't know how well she does, but he says she gets excited when someone buys one of her quilts from another part of the country. Click here for the link to her store if you are interested! I think online businesses can be like that. I have a job, that I love, sure I would like to make some money because the education field is not high finance but just being able to experience new things or communicate with people about shared interest is pretty interesting.
STEP 1: Figure out what you want to sell! What is that craft or talent that you think people will buy? It also could be that you make something and you just want to see if it will sell. There is nothing wrong with that. I think I would be okay if I just sold enough to cover a little of the craft supplies I buy!
STEP 2: Take pictures of your inventory. Taking pictures is a crucial step! I don't think you need any particularly fancy camera to get this done. Your phone is probably fine. I have an older DSLR camera that I used. I don't know how to use it that well. It is left over from one of the projects or talents I wanted to start. I took a photography class in college, and I wanted to develop my skills with a digital camera so my brother and I split the bill so we could both learn. We used it for a while, but the last pictures we took before I started trying to work on my photography skills again were from September 2014. That's ridiculous, but this is a new year! Take the pictures with whatever camera you have. Your pictures might not be the best at first, but you will find what works. You just have to start!
STEP 3: Now that you know what you want to sell and you have your pictures, it's time to set up your site. I was stuck at STEP 3 for a while. More of that fear of failure stuff! You are going to hear about that a lot if you read this blog. Mainly, because it’s what I’m trying to deal with right now, I’m sure you have your thing. When I finally started, I realized Etsy makes it extremely easy to set up a store. It’s why so many people use it. I know there are a lot of rules that go with Etsy but until I learn a lot more marketing skills. It’s a great place to get started. You just sign-up, upload your pictures and answer a few questions. This is probably the easiest part. There is a cost for listings. I know it might be scary to have to pay some fees, not knowing if you are going to get this money back but you have to take a chance. You can click here to sign up and get 40 free listings. So, that's a start!
STEP 4: Once you set up your store, you need to put the word out there about your products. I decided that it might be good to fill out my store with some extra printed materials. I compared several different sites to find one that would be the best fit. Printful fits the bill. They let you create your design, and they print and ship your product to the customer for you. If you have some fantastic designs, you can do your whole store with these products. If you are interested in using them you can use this affiliate link and we can both get a little closer to our goals.
STEP 5: Just keep trying new things till something works. It might take you a while to sell something but keep looking for new ways to market your products. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter are all easy to use. There are so many options out there; you just have to keep looking. Post more pictures, find more products and eventually, you will find the right idea. Just don’t give up!
I hope this was helpful! I just started this whole blog and Etsy thing, and I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I’m just trying to figure this all out myself. Take the first step, if this is something you want to do, just do it! If you don't succeed at least you tried and you never know maybe you will be a huge success. You never know till you try!
Oh, I almost forgot! Check out my store?
