How to Sell Your Art and Crafts on Etsy and How to Start Your Own Etsy Shop

If you don't already have your own Etsy shop, now's a great time to get started. In between your holiday gatherings and parties, make a date for a night of crafts. Then, the next day, get started on your very own Etsy store front. Starting an Etsy store is free. You'll only pay 20 cents per listing, which lasts for 4 months, or until the item sells, and you'll pay an additional 3.5% in fees on top of that. Unlike some other sites which take a large portion of your earnings when you sell online (cough, ebay, ahem, amazon), this is a perfectly reasonable commission.

Think of it this way: if you sell an item for $1, you'll get 76.5 cents. If you sell an item for $10, you'll net $9.45. Bump that up to $20, and you've got a cool $19.10 in your pocket. Consider, too, that most consignment venues where you can sell your artwork charge 30 - 40% commission on sales, and if you go the art sale route, you'll pay show fees starting at $25 and going into the hundreds, just for a table or booth, with no guarantees of sales. Etsy is without a doubt the cheapest way for the beginning artist to get an online storefront and exposure.

Start Your Own Etsy Shop Tip #1

Make your store look professional. This means checking and double-checking your spelling and grammar to be sure you don't have any glaring errors. Design a banner to display at the top of your Etsy store page. For my Etsy store, I designed a banner with a circus-theme, which you can see by viewing my Etsy shop:

Literary Tease
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LiteraryTease

I used photoshop and images I found online to create my banner, but even a simple banner with the name of your store and an image that represents you and/or your work is better than no banner at all. Your Etsy shop's banner should be 760 pixels by 100 pixels and 72 dpi. You should save this as the maximum quality jpeg.

Start Your Own Etsy Shop Tip #2

Learn how to take high-quality digital images. You'll need great pictures to sell your work on Etsy. Most digital cameras have a macro feature that allows close-up shots. Learn how to use this feature. Experiment with the best lighting for your work. For me, I've discovered that I need soft light that isn't shining directly on my item, and I need to make sure the flash doesn't hit the item either, because my items have a shiny surface and too much light creates a glare. Don't just take one picture and post it. Take several photographs, I usually take about 6 - 12, then choose only the best.

Start Your Own Etsy Shop Tip #3

Write cute and quirky descriptions of your items. Now that you've got your pictures and your storefront, it's time to write descriptions for your items. Name all of your work. Try to write a brief description that accurately describes your item and shows your personality. Here's the description I wrote for my Monster Love necklace:

"So Cute! Keep the monsters away with this cute button necklace made from a 1-inch button with the pin back removed. Hand colored in a lovely shade of lime green with pale pink for the cute little piggy nose, eyes, and the heart. (The heart doesn't look pink in my picture, but it's pink, promise.) This is a one-of-a-kind badge turned into a necklace via fun with power tools.

Text reads: "I (heart) monsters!"

Hung on a 30-inch ball chain necklace, which is easily adjustable to any size. I can cut this for you to any length or you can cut it yourself with a pair of wire cutters.

Hand-decorated button has been pressed with a professional button maker and is covered in a protective Mylar finish to protect the image.

This item should not be considered waterproof, but the Mylar is water resistant, and I've had these buttons survive accidental washing machine incidents. Still, you should do your best to avoid wearing these in the bathtub, even if there are monsters in your house."

Note the way I described the item accurately (lime green, pale pink piggy nose) but also expressed personality (... even if there are monsters in your house). I tried to have fun with my description so it's as unique as my item. Some Etsy sellers tell stories about the items. Whatever you do, create an online personality and stick with it.

Start Your Own Etsy Shop Tip #4

Listing your items, 1 day at a time. Now you're ready to list your items. Listing an item costs 20 cents. You'll need a title for your listing, which will briefly describe the item, a longer description, and pictures. You'll also need to know how much to charge for shipping, which might require a trip to your local post office.

How often should you list items? Cassandra James, Author of How to Make Money on Etsy advises
listing one item every day, which other members of Etsy's Storque Blog also mention. Listing 1 item daily means that your store gets constant exposure. If you list twenty items at once, yes, you'll have a full store, but you risk having no one see your items. Some people search exclusively for newly listed items, so resist the urge to fill up your shop all at once.

Start Your Own Etsy Shop Tip #5

Actively work on improving traffic to your Etsy shop. Tell your friends and family. Put the web address of your business cards. Add a signature line to your emails.

No sales? No worries. Katherine Arcand, author of Tips on getting Your Etsy Shop Noticed has suggestions for improving your Etsy shop's traffic. Ideas include starting a blog, using twitter to promote your items, and utilizing the power of Facebook to get your friends to get our your shop. Remember, too, that a successful Etsy store won't happen overnight.

Kelly Kel, author of How to Promote Your Handmade Jewelry on Etsy offers suggestions for handmade jewelry promotion. These principles, which include friend and family giveaways, wearing your jewelry to advertise it, and making YouTube videos can be applied to any Etsy shop, with a little imagination.