The TRUTH about Etsy and How to be Successful on Etsy

Many of you have written to Etsy Entrepreneurs.  And the most recurring theme on the comments on our posts from our readers seem to be centered on the fact that they are not making money on Etsy.
We have done A LOT of research from many sources and through our personal experience about this particular topic.  So we do hope that many of you may find this helpful for your success on Etsy.

There are MANY successful sellers on Etsy.  But none of the successful shops achieved success overnight.  MOST of the successful shops on Etsy have been around for at least 2 to 3 years or more.  The reason is because there is a HUGE learning curve.  So when you are new on Etsy, there are a lot of tricks and tips to learn to help your business grow, in addition to learning the basics of selling on Etsy.  Plus, it does take time for people to find you.  There are thousands of shops on Etsy and it does take awhile for buyers to stumbled onto your products and your shop.

So rest assure, success can be achieved, but it takes a whole lot of time, dedication, patience, and persistence.  Many sellers gave up after just a few months or after a year of being in business.  In the "Brick and Mortar" world, most businesses takes 3 years to break-even.

Tips and Tricks that WORKS:
1.  You must have a minimum of 50-100 items in your shop.
If your shop do not have enough to at least fill 4 pages of your shop, your shop will look like it is abandonned.  And no one wants to buy from a shop that seems like the owner is not even there to tend to it.  So it does not build buyers' confidence.

2. Pictures Pictures Pictures
Your picture must look appealing.
You must have probably read so many articles already on the importance of picture quality when selling online, but this topic cannot be expressed enough.
So many times, shop owners would put pictures of their items up and the pictures are very blurry or dark, making the items less appealing.  For more tips and tricks on Pictures techniques, please read our other post on Pictures Techniques on our blog.

3. Network like CRAZY
So if you open a shop and no one knows about it, how can they find it???
So help your shop be successful by telling everyone you know about it and what you sell.  And make sure that you spread the word on all of your social networks as well.

4. Treat your business as a "REAL" Job!
Set working hours like you would if you have a normal job.  The more time that you put into your business, the more fruit that you see from it.  And it does take ALL of the spare time that you have (if you are working part-time), or ALL of your full time if this is your full time job.  You really do get what you put into it.

5.  Do you have a product that others would want to buy?
Many times new sellers thinks that if they put something online to sell, that someone will just buy it.  WRONG!!!  If it is something that you would not buy yourself, then chances are, others would not see the value in it either.  So make sure what you are putting out there is what you are passionate about.  If you are passionate about you do, it will show in your products, shop, and business.  And YES, there are many others out there whom might share the same interests you do.

6. CUSTOMER SERVICE
This topic cannot be stressed enough!  You MUST have exceptional customer service.  If you treat your customers poorly and do not stand behind your products, then you will not get repeat customers.  And most business do rely on repeat customers to be successful.  So if there is a problem, just fix it.

We know all of these tips and tricks sounds like they are just basic stuff.  But they really do work.  And doing all of these does make your business successful.

Having a home based business or selling online is NOT easy.  Who ever said that it is easy and quick is lying to you!!!  So do not waste your money on those kits that you see other people are trying to sell to you for a lot of money.  Because they are successful because you are helping them profit.  NOT because they are selling a awesome handmade product and made a lot of money off of it (except for the kits that they are selling to you).  So please do not waste your money.  All of the kits and ebooks in the world cannot help your business become successful and certainly not overnight if you do not follow all of the simple tips that we have just talked about.

And there are NO such thing as having "quick" success.  Maybe a few sellers are lucky in that aspect and got lucky and made a lot of sales in a very short amount of time.  But many of us have to put a lot of sweat, blood, and tears into our businesses to make it successful to the point where we can quit our day job.  But if you keep at it and do not give up, you too will achieve success.  So next time when someone tries to sell you something that promises you to make money fast online, please do not waste your money.  All of those do not work if you have a "set it and forget it" attitude with your business, or thinking that you will achieve success overnight, in a few days, in a few weeks, or even in a few months.