UPDATE, November 2024: I only lasted about 6 months on Etsy, and I hated it. I’m now selling locally via my own Crone’s Curiosity Shoppe.
I’ve been thinking about selling on Etsy for quite a while. I don’t make things primarily to sell them, but as I’m wandering around the craft buffet sampling this technique and that idea, I do make a lot of stuff. There’s only so much I can give away, so I thought I’d see what it’s like to set up an Etsy shop to sell some of the overflow. Here’s the link to (deleted, the shop is now defunct)
It’s been interesting. It took me a couple of hours one morning to take and edit the photos, because I know clean, colourful photos are the key to a successful listing. (Aside, of course, from having high quality interesting items.) And it took twice that long to weigh and measure everything, think of descriptions, keywords and alt text, and enter them all into the listings.
I’d say it took me probably six hours total to enter 11 items. That’s outside the time it took to actually make the things. Pretty sure I’m already operating at a significant loss. It cost just over $2 US (20 cents each) to list what I have so far, and you need to pay that every 4 months. I’m not even sure what Etsy’s take is – I could look it up, but I’m sure it’s in the fine print somewhere.
The main things I don’t like so far are the shipping options and the spam. I knew shipping would be brutal – it’s brutal for everything I want to order, too. Because some of the things I listed for sale are very small (10 cm x 10 cm, weighing about 30 grams) I figured I could stick them in a regular envelope with a little padding. But I don’t seem to be able to offer free shipping on individual items, just on the whole shop. I realize the solution is probably to add the shipping cost back into the price on everything and then go ahead with the free shipping, but it’s still sort of annoying that I can’t have that granular sort of control.
The other thing that was a surprise was the amount of spam I started receiving the minute I published a listing. For every single time I posted a new listing, I got some sort of spam message. Etsy obviously sees this is a problem and has a dedicated spot where you get actual messages from Etsy, but the first one fooled me for a minute before I thought to google whether Etsy spam is an issue.
I don’t think this will cover the remaining child’s education fund, but I’m curious to see how this works out. I’m still idly considering the craft fair circuit this summer as well, but this is a more passive option — although having just invested the amount of time of the average craft show just setting up each listing, maybe not so much!
If you’re selling on Etsy (or via the craft show circuit, for that matter) I’d love to hear your tips and how it’s working out for you!
I have given up trying to sell anything. I think, that unless you are prepared to spend the time and money on advertising on Facebook et al (to which I don’t belong), as well as setting up a shop either on a platform like Etsy or on your own website, you will be wasting time and money you could be spending on crafting.
I have rarely managed to sell enough at craft fairs or in the craft sections of festivals to even cover my stand fee, let alone make any sort of money. I have heard too many bad stories about Etsy and similar platforms to even bother with them (especially reading your problems with spam) and I spent too much money on renting a small area in an artisan emporium to little effect.
Now I’m reduced to giving away items that I have made, either as raffle prizes, or to local community organisations and charity (thrift) shops for them to sell for peanuts.
I hope you have more success.
Ann
Hey Ann, thanks for sharing your experiences, but I’m sorry that they weren’t more positive. I’ve heard some horror stories about Etsy and being nickled and dimed to death on various transaction fees, plus exactly what you mention, that you practically have to make promoting it a full time job. My approach will certainly be the opposite of that – a sort of post it and neglect it approach. I am not suffering too many delusions, but if it works as a passive income and way to share some of my creations, perhaps even in reverse order of that, then it will be a success.