Are you looking to start a business on Etsy soon? Are you looking for a detailed introduction to business life and how to manage or get there on Etsy? Are you looking to rank your product and increase sales through different marketing strategies? Do you want to know the best marketing strategies you can implement to boost your sales? Are you seeking information and practical knowledge about gaining sales momentum on Etsy and how to start getting your first sales as a new competitor?
Are you looking for advice on how to research the market and find good products, and are you looking for a brief introduction to how to set up a business on Etsy? If yes, you’re on the right track! Worry not, as we’ve covered everything you need to know about selling products and building a business with good momentum on Etsy. So, make sure you read till the end and don’t miss anything, as it might be crucial for you and your journey.
There must be many questions in your mind right about now, but worry not; as we’ve already explained above, we will clear all your questions by giving you informative and to-the-point answers, and we will give you the information that you’re looking for right now, so make sure that you keep on reading. We will help you and really guide you through the steps of the road map that they used in their journey.
Start Selling on Etsy
So if you’re also looking for an expert to guide you on this topic, then you can stop searching! You have found the best and most informative guide already. We will be sharing the five most important steps you need to take to start selling on Etsy. We’re also going to be sharing with you some bonus information that will help you further down in line, we’re going to share that with you here at the end. So, stick around for that. So, let’s get to it.
Step no. 1: Choose a good nich:
The very first thing and the most important thing and the thing that We see a lot of Etsy sellers making a mistake in, and not doing is researching and choosing a good niche. This is where a lot of sellers are just dropping the ball now. We are not going to be just trying to find a product that sells well and reuse it for our business. That’s not what we’re going to do. What We are about is building a brand and it starts with choosing the right niche. Now you might be wondering how do you do this? So, we’re going to give you a couple of things that You should do right now if you’re ready to start.
So, the very first thing We’re going to do is We’re going to take an interest that you have. Let’s say that you like cars and RV’s and you think that maybe you could go ahead and start selling stuff in the RV niche. So, the first thing We’re going to do is We’re going to go to Etsy. The search engine that We want to be found in, so we must see, is there any demand for this niche? Are there products currently being sold? So, you can do the required research to find out if the niche sells or not. We just randomly picked that.
And then what We’re going to do now is looking at the market as a whole and We’re seeing that there’s a lot of different products there. All we are looking to see is if there’s demand for that specific product or that specific niche in this market, are there people buying products and obviously there are see all these products are selling.
All we’re looking for is demand. So, in this case, there’s a lot of demand and by looking at this, there’s a lot of different types of products. So that’s how You should validate the niche. So, step two in the road map is this right here and that is creating and launching multiple products that are going to be specific for that one customer. So, this is a great visual so you can understand what we’re trying to do here.
We have a customer; we want to sell them as many products as We can sell. Now they may be interested in product number three of the total products you’ve launched which is why we recommend you keep innovating more and more products, this will also get you more customers and it will also make you a brand. They might not have seen your first product yet, but if they do, they might want to buy it. So, this is where a lot of Etsy sellers are not focusing because they have not yet done step number one, which is really figuring out and honing in on a niche.
Step no. 2: Create and launch multiple products:
So, step no. 2 is to create and launch multiple products and you might be wondering, well how do we figure out what products to sell? How do we get any ideas? Well, we go right back to researching and we start to now look and see what people are buying and what we could create. What could we have that’s like a little sign. So, we have all these different things that We potentially could sell to this market that We could create our own designs and put them on this type of products because these people are buying these products. So that’s how You should validate these products, but You should also get product IDs.
Step no. 3: Get some traffic:
Moving on to step #3. We’re going to go ahead and get some traffic. We don’t want to wait around for your SEO to take effect. It might take a month. It might take two, it might take three. We want to get eyeballs on our products now. How do you do that? Well, we spend a little bit of money. How? Remember, this is a business.
We are building a business. When you build a business, you probably are going to spend a little bit of money and it’s fine because that’s part of business. So, what we’re going to do here is turn on Etsy ads on your products. Now does this mean that We are not using SEO? No, we absolutely are. We’re going to create listings; we’re going to create them well optimized with good SEO.
SEO is good images. It’s going to be a good description. It’s going to have good tags. All the stuff that you normally would have. We’re going to have that and make it as good as possible. But here’s where we’re different. We are going to spend money to get eyeballs immediately. And then when we start to get sales, we are going to rank faster than someone just sitting around waiting for the traffic to come.
Why? Because Etsy bases a lot of their SEO ranking on sales velocity. And so, we want to spike the algorithm with sales. We also want to start getting reviews, and then we are going to dial up the traffic so we can start making sales. So, turning on Etsy ads is critical. Now We don’t have to spend a lot of money here as you can see right here. That we are spending $5 a day for 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) and out of that $150 we generate a lot more money if all the steps are taken right. While everybody else is saying we don’t want to spend the money, that’s fine, you might have to wait for a little bit, but you will be able to get there too.
Step no. 4: Build an email list:
Alright, step #4 in this road map, you should build internal and external e-mail list so We can get in front of your potential customers. Now going back to what we talked about and why it’s so important to have that customer, but that customer that could buy multiple types of products from you, well, this is when you can pour a little gas on that and get people to buy more Well this is it right here inside of Etsy. They allow us to send emails if we set this up.
All we must do is set it up once by the way, and we can send out an e-mail to people that have favored an item. We can send an e-mail out to people that abandoned the car and people that have purchased it and get them to buy more. All We need to do is set it up with A coupon code and immediately these will start getting sent out.
Now the reason why We’re calling this an internal list is because when so Is going to happen inside of Etsy we’re also going to use tools that are external which is an external e-mail list building platform and what you’re going to do is just connect that. So, what We’re going to do is connect that and immediately start getting customers not just on Etsy but get them over onto your e-mail list that we can communicate with them whenever We have new products, have new sales or anytime we want to update our customers.
Step no. 5: Get good Reviews:
The next step of this road map is one of the things we don’t usually see others talk about, this step is important for your progress on Etsy. And it’s to get 5-star reviews and you get a star seller badge, Etsy rewards, star sellers. Now We don’t necessarily think just because you have the star next to your name, you’re going to get higher conversions. But what We do know is that if you are trying to rank for something and you have better sales velocity and a better star rating, a better-quality score, you’re going to outrank your competition.
So, this works on all sides of the business. It helps you rank, it helps you get trust within your customers, that will lead to more sales because they trust you. And, we believe that Etsy will give you a little extra love because you are now a star seller. Etsy is basically grading you on three different areas.
- How quickly do you get back to your customers?
- What is the feedback that a customer is giving you?
- How is your shipping speed?
So those are the three areas that you need to focus on. And if you do that, you’ll get a star seller badge and you’ll probably sell more.
Get your first Sales
Now, let’s say you’re one of the many cases where you’ve done all your research. You’ve lifted your product, you’ve done everything that you’ve learned and you’re still not making sales. And you’re looking at people that you were doing the research from and they’re getting sales. Well, here’s something that A lot of people don’t talk about and that’s when we are brand new and when We are trying to get our first set of sales.
And that is if you’re doing your research on products, we’re going to share with you how We can do this a little bit differently and you can still go after those products, but We must do a different type of strategy. So, this way here we will start sending you traffic and it will start sending you sales. So, let’s dig in.
Step no. 1:
So, the very first thing we’re going to do in step one is we’re going to go back, we need to do things a little bit differently when We are brand new. When you’re looking at competitors and you’re looking at all their sales and how well they’re doing, you also need to realize they have a history. They have a sales history with Etsy and Etsy is automatically going to push their products because they have history.
They also have been known to sell. So, what Etsy wants to do for the buyers is to put products that have already been proven that people want. And that is exactly what they have, and you don’t. So, no matter what you do, you can fully optimize your listing, you can have better images. But if that product is making sales, it’s going to outrank you and there’s nothing you’re really going to do about it other than trying to match their sales.
And the other thing that a lot of people don’t talk about is when there’s a company that’s doing well and they have a lot of sales, it could also be because they have deep pockets and they’re running at Etsy ads. And so, this is why, what We want to do here is not necessarily go after really, competitive products or ones that are getting a hundred 200 or 300 sales per month.
We might want to take a step back and go after products that are less competitive and get less sales. Now you might be thinking that you want to make a lot of sales. Well, we’re going to do it a little bit differently and we’re going to start building momentum when we get into step two here. It’s going to be a lot easier for you to get sales if We’re not trying to get 10-15 or 20 sales a day. And when We move into step two, you’re going to see how We can take that small number and We can make it into a bigger number and We can start building our own sales history, which is going to help our Etsy shop.
So, if you are using a tool that shows you the sales data for the month. You should start looking at products that are doing 30 to 40 per month and leaving the other ones alone for right now because what We want is those low Competition products. So, this way here We have a better chance of outranking them and eventually we’ll build up to where We have a seasoned account, and We will be able to promote those more competitive products.
Step no. 2:
So step two in this process that You should be going through in this strategy Would be this. You should then find those products and You should find a lot of those types of products. But You should take that one design from that one product that might only be selling one every day or one every other day. And You should start to do a product blitz. And this is where You take that one design and put it on multiple products. This is how you get more real estate out there, Etsy real estate that is. And You should want to put out a lot more listings and You should do it on One or two products and let it sit there for a month.
What we want to do is show that we’re actively putting in new products and this is also going to help us because we are going to have more opportunities for people to find us and if we’re going after these. Even if they’re only getting one sale every two days, we can start collectively adding these up so we can start getting sales on a regular basis, which again, going back to the beginning where we said Etsy is going to treat a seasoned account better and it’s going to help them rank faster. Well, that’s what we’re striving for.
Step no. 3:
After we’ve launched some products. Now what we’re going to do is We are going to promote and what We mean by that is we’re going to do two things.
- Number one, we’re going to run a sale. We are going to run it where it’s 50% off. So, this way here We get the benefits of being in the sales area of Etsy. So, when someone searches for things that are on sale, they’re going to find our products. It’s also going to encourage someone that sees the item to buy it sooner than waiting because it’s on sale. We all react from sales. It’s just human nature.
- And then next what We’re going to do is We’re going to start running and see ads and We’re going to start with a dollar, maybe two, and then We’re going to scale that up to maybe $5 per day. And We’re going to focus on the products that We feel have No competition products. We’re going to evaluate all the ones that you’ve selected and see what ones get the most traffic.
Now we may need to run ads on all of them in the beginning, but then we can look at the views in our back end of Etsy and see which ones are getting the most views. And now what We have is all competition products. They’re all listed in our shop, and we are running promotions for people to see them without waiting for the algorithm to find our listings and rank them, which can take but the most important part here is really step one, and that is finding that low competition products world where a lot of people get hung up and honestly that can either make or break your success, so choose wisely and only go for it if you don’t get any sales after setting up some highly purchased products.
SEO strategies you should and should not do
Let’s now discuss some go to SEO strategies which you should implement on your Etsy listings to make them stand out and potentially get more sales. We will also be sharing some strategies that you should avoid and what you should do instead. Some of these strategies can hurt your chances of ranking in Etsy search and really prevent you from getting traffic.
Or in some cases it can just hurt your chances of getting more traffic. And our goal is for you to understand what the old practices were and what the new ones are. But better yet, how do you implement these in your Etsy business? We’re also going to show you a proven strategy that will work almost immediately and Etsy will want to send you traffic. But it’s only going to work if you follow the updated SEO strategies that We’re about to share with you. So what do you say? Let’s dig in.
1st Strategy: Get started:
Alright, so the first outdated strategy is this. People, previously believed that you should put your keywords in your title, and you should also take those same keywords and put them in your tags. Now this might have worked years ago, but it’s no longer working and Etsy has even said there is no reason to repeat your keywords in different parts of your listings. It’s not going to benefit you anymore. So really what they’re telling you is you’re wasting your time.
Now, it isn’t going to hurt you necessarily if you put them in your title but here’s what it won’t do for you. It won’t give you more opportunities to be found for other keywords. So we’re more or less wasting keywords by including them in our title, and in our tags. And Etsy has actually put that into their little guide here about how to optimize your listing. So if we Scroll down here into the title area, it says. Use keywords You think a shopper may search, but avoid repeating the same phrases over and over again. We don’t want to do that because, Etsy doesn’t want us to do it. So in this case, we don’t want to follow the strategy of putting your keywords in your title and also putting them in your tags.
And like I said earlier, this could actually be hurting you because you are limiting the keywords that you can be ranked for because you’re not using all of them that you could, but you might be run Here’s what you should do, just go over to a bunch of your competitors and start looking at their tags. Now if you’re not using a tool to see tags, we would suggest using it even if you just use it for 30 days because it’s going to allow you to see tags. You can then visit your competitor’s listings and utilize the information regarding the keywords that they used, you can then use the keywords that you know will work best for you.
2nd strategy: keyword stuffing:
Alright, Moving on to the second outdated SEO strategy that people are still doing and it doesn’t work for them. This is keyword stuffing and basically taking that same thing that is, putting keywords in your title. But very similar keywords and using the word over and over again because they think it’s going to do better if it’s repeated ten times. Well, it’s not. And just like we exclaimed before, that is not working anymore because Etsy said don’t repeat it. It’s not going to benefit you.
But we also think it’s not a good user experience. So if someone comes to your listing, they’re going to probably bounce because, well, it’s something that is just being repeated over and over and over again, so try and make your listing more natural. And again, Etsy is showing search results to people, and when people read the description, we want them to read what it is about or what it could be purchased for. And in this case, you could just say this is a great gift idea for Father’s Day or fishing, or a fisherman, right?
But you don’t have to say Father’s Day, Father’s Day, gift, dad, fishing, fishermen, graduation, birthday, all of the These could be put in as tags, so keyword stuffing it’s not necessary. We wouldn’t recommend doing it, so don’t keyword stuff.
3rd Strategy: tags work:
Alright, so moving on to number three of the old outdated strategies, and that is people said in the past that tags work, tags will help you get indexed, but now people are saying don’t put tags in there, doesn’t matter, tags don’t do anything. And We’re here to tell you that Etsy is still saying yes. Tags matter. And here’s the other thing. If you are running Etsy ads, tags matter.
If you’re not running Etsy ads, tags matter. A tag is a word or short phrase that describes your item. Etsy matches tags with shoppers searches to find relevant results. To improve where your items are appearing on Etsy, be sure to use your tags when listing your items. Etsy is basically saying if you want to get index for certain keywords that people are searching for, put them in your tags. And if you hear people say, tags don’t really matter anymore. Just know that they do matter.
4rth strategy: SEO is more than you think:
Alright, so moving on to the 4th outdated SEO strategy and that is SEO is all about your title, your description and your tags. And that is not true, because here’s what’s really important. Your images and the images don’t really get talked about enough because people don’t look at the image as being something that helps you get found in search. Which by the way, it even states in the Etsy help guide that images are extremely important in Google search. People use Google Images to find products in high quality.
Images can also entice a user to click on your listing page. Now, why is an image important? Well, number one, it can get picked up in Google. So if you’re not naming your images, you should name them with a keyword that is related to the listing of what it is. And also you should be using the descriptive alt text. Alright, so if you are not putting that in your listing, if you’re not doing that to your images, that is something you could do right now that could definitely get you found in Etsy search.
Now images don’t just help you get found, which in this case it looks like they do because Google picks them up as well. So you’re getting outside traffic that’s leading over to Etsy, but what images can do is get the click. So let’s say that you do get found in search and people are scrolling all of the different listings and you have a really good image that gets people into your listing, which then will get them to buy. And when you get people to buy, that is A signal in the Etsy algorithm that your product is something that people want.
When you’re able to get it, then that is going to add fuel to the algorithm and to your listing, so your product will start to show up in search a lot faster, and it’ll also be something that Etsy will want to promote themselves in their free search. So images are something that are really overlooked and it’s really what people don’t spend a lot of time on and the old strategy of just get a good title. Get a good description and get good tags and then you’ll rank. That’s only part of the equation, and that is an outdated strategy which you should modify while remaining result oriented.
5th strategy: Write the best descriptions:
Alright, the 5th and final Etsy SEO outdated strategy is this. And that is make sure that in your description you are just building it for search. Meaning you are making sure that you put all your keywords in there. You’re making sure that you’re putting in all your product information and you’re just building it for the search engine because it’s another place for the Etsy algorithm to pick up keywords but here’s where the description is more beneficial and really the way that it should be done now in 2023. And that is this, you should write it for a human because that will also help you convert higher, which we just talked about converting to a sale.
It is important because that is ultimately what’s going to help you rank the most. Once you start getting more sales, well then Etsy is going to promote you more.
So, your description needs to be well written and really built for the person that is reading it to help convert them into a sale. If you go check out most seller’s description but it does represent a couple of them. When you’re writing the description for your product make sure that number one, if someone is reading this, this is not turning them into a buyer by reading this description.
This is how you can really speed up the ranking process now. I said that Etsy really wants to rank and promote products that are getting sales. That’s really all that Etsy cares about is getting sales and they’re going to rank listings that are getting sales. That’s just the way it is. So how do we move the needle? How do we get indexed faster so we can get ranked well? We got to get sales. And how do you get sales? You start by running Etsy ads. And this is something that a lot of people won’t do because they think they have to do it. In the opposite, they’re going to start running ads after they get sales.
But what we want to do iswant to spike the sales by running ads and then the algorithm will say, wait a minute. Listing, it is all about bass, fishing, hats and it’s getting sales. So it’s going to look at the title, it’s going to look at the images, it’s going to look at the tags, it’s going to look at the description and it’s going to analyze it and it’s going to say, let’s index this thing for all of these different keywords because it’s getting sales.
So that there is a strategy that I don’t see hardly anyone doing because they think they need to get sales and then they run Etsy ads. It should be the other way around and then Etsy will give you the traffic because you’re getting sales. Now I know one of the hardest parts in this process is getting sales.
Conclusion:
There are many important aspects you need to take into perspective once you decide to make a specific platform the source of your business, which is Etsy in your case. All the important things that you need to know have been given above, including things like, how to market your products on Etsy, or the SEO strategies which you should be using as a Etsy seller in 2023, and so much more.
We have discussed many important things including complete steps that you need to take if you’re looking to sell on Etsy, they have been discussed in complete details and we hope that you understood everything that we have showcased above, we hope that you’re leaving with the information that you were in search for when you came to us and we wish you the best of luck in selling more and more products on Esty and we hope you become a star seller as soon as possible!
FAQs:
Do people make good money on Etsy?
More and more businesses on Etsy are making about 100$ per year on Etsy, 65% to be accurate but the rest are the ones who are taking this business seriously and are generating handsome revenue from their Etsy businesses.
How much is an Etsy shop per month?
The etsy shop’s subscription is free! So you can get started whenever you feel like it. There’s no catch except that you must invest a bit for your business to grow.
What is the best thing to sell on Etsy?
Handmade home décor, vintage clothing, and some handmade jewelry ought to do the trick. These three are the best-selling niches on Etsy as of now, so make sure to consider them if you’re looking to start soon.
