From time to time I get emails or comments from talented crafters that have visited my site or my Facebook page who tell me they are passionate about their creative pursuits and wish they could do something more, as in sell their products and make some income on the side. If this describes you, I have some amazing new for you: There has never been a better time to sell your crafty creations online than right now. Become an Etsy seller and you can have your own craft business running by tomorrow.
I began selling online many, many, many years ago. This was before anyone had heard of Etsy or sites like it. This was before WordPress had developed its incredible interface allowing the average person to set up a full-service website with just a few clicks. I was a web developer back in the day. Using what I knew from setting up sites for businesses and corporations, I hacked together a few pages and a handful of scripts that could take a payment through Paypal, and my career as a craft business owner was born.
While I sold a fair amount of patterns and products, the upkeep on the site was labor intensive, and keeping up with tax law changes and making sure I was following all the online sales laws quickly became a full-time job. I had reached a point that I was questioning if selling online was worth it when Etsy blazed onto the scene. Hallelujah! Since then, I’ve become a big fan of Etsy and highly recommend it to crafters looking to develop a small-business and earn some income on the side doing what they love. So here are my top ten reasons to become an Etsy seller:
1. Incredibly Easy Interface:
This pioneer into the sale of handmade goods was making it easier than ever for creative people to market and sell their goods online. Your shop Dashboard is very easy to navigate and most of the functions are self-explanatory. Adding listings is as easy as filling out a form.
2. Affordable:
Hosting a website can cost anywhere from $4 – 15 a month for a small site. If you begin to generate a lot of traffic, you may have to pay more for additional bandwidth. In addition, when you run your own site, you eventually have to invest in themes, widgets, and additional services to keep your site up to snuff. All that can add up to a high monthly bill. Some craft seller sites want 15%, 20% or even 30% of your sales as their commission. That’s a big portion of your profits, and you have to raise prices to compensate for the additional expense. With Etsy you get all their services for $0.20 per listing and a small payment processing fee on each purchase. On my listings, most of which are $2.99, Etsy takes around 34¢. That is incredibly affordable!
BONUS:
If you sign up through my affiliate link, you will receive 40 FREE listings. List your items for free and give Etsy a trial run! What do you have to lose? For the first 40 listings, you won’t pay anything unless you sell.
3. Beautiful Layout:
I love the look of my Etsy shop! The layout they’ve designed is clean and engaging. All those wonderful pictures of products just invites you to browse for hours. You would have a hard time creating such a beautiful, inviting layout on a site of your own.
4. User-Friendly:
Etsy is also incredibly easy for shoppers to navigate. The Etsy team has done an amazing job making the site simple and fun to use. In addition, because it’s established and reputable, people feel comfortable shopping on Etsy. They know Etsy is legit and secure. Many people won’t purchase from small websites.
5. Sales Tax Handled For You:
Trying to learn, understand, and follow the ever-changing tax laws is a challenge if you are running your own site. If you partner with Etsy, they have a team of people to do all of this for you. Just sit back and let them do the hard work while you collect the profits.
6. Shipping Discounts:
Etsy makes shipping easy by helping you calculate shipping costs, providing printable shipping labels for your products, and even offering discounted shipping prices they’ve secured through their substantial buying power. You can benefit from Etsy’s influence.
7. Easier To Generate Traffic:
Etsy draws in millions of shoppers a year. There are very few websites that can attract that much traffic. Your listings will be added to Etsy’s search engines, and people who are browsing for items like yours will, hopefully, be presented with pictures and info on your listings. The more eyes on your product, the more potential sales you can earn.
8. The Etsy App:
If you are an on-the-go person like I am, you will love the Etsy App. You can run your store, check your stats, send out a store update about a new product or sale, and even sell products from your Etsy App! It is amazing and I use it almost daily. One additional feature to the app that I find incredibly inspiring … when you make a sale, your cell phone makes this “Cha-ching!” sound that puts a smile on your face. Money in the bank!
9. You Need The Creative Outlet:
Let’s be real here. You love indulging in your crafty interests. And you can only give your friends and relative so many of your creative projects before that outlet is saturated. Open up the door to millions of shoppers who LOVE handmade goods and creative originals. Etsy is the place.
10. Extra Income Is Always Welcome!
I LOVE getting my weekly direct deposit from Etsy. These days, Etsy accounts for more than 50% of my online sales, and that percentage grows monthly. I’m grateful for this platform that allows me to share my creative interests with the world and earn income in the process.
So the question is … are you ready to become an Etsy seller?