3 Days on Etsy and got my first sale!
This is my first year ever selling on Etsy — I started mid-August 2020. I sell digital pre-designed candle labels, stickers, and other business materials for people who want to start their own business, but don’t want to invest too much money on a designer. My label designs range from $7 to $12, depending on how long I took to make the designs.
Niche + Target Market
I did a ton of research into starting this side hustle. I had a couple of ideas in mind, but selling digital items struck me the most. Nowadays, especially during quarantine, I’ve been seeing small business starting to become a thing, and I would love to help them any way I can. I did research on what they’ve been selling the most, what the most universal sizes would be, color palettes they’d use, aesthetics, etc. Thankfully, the research all paid off.
Photos. Are. So. Important.
Trust me, nothing is more important than this. Place yourself as a buyer. As someone who’s looking for a specific product, but only has a limited time. What do you do? You would scroll quickly, and stop when something catches your eye. You click, and the first thing you see is the photo gallery.
With that in mind — when you upload your product, think about how your product image will stand out. Invest on something: a camera, a photographer, or even take time to Photoshop, filter out the image, and make it look a little more presentable.
This is what I had for mine. I’m not saying these are the best photos ever… but it’s enough for buyers to visualize.
Product title
This comes next. Etsy gives us a certain amount of words for titles, so use it until you run out of space! It’ll optimize your SEO performance on Etsy (click here for more info on SEO).
This is one of my titles:
Aesthetic Editable Packaging Label / Editable Box Seal Sticker / DIY Packaging Sticker Design / Box Seals Beige Minimalist
It’s just so that if people look for ‘Aesthetic Editable Packaging Labels’, my listing will come out. Or.. ‘Box Seals Beige’, my listing will potentially come out as well.
Ads will pay themselves eventually, however…
Do not be afraid of ads. When I started out, I used $1/day (the minimum!). I wasn’t brave enough to start big. But it worked! After my first sale, Etsy bumped up my listing to the first row (thank you Etsy!), so I was getting views and favorites. But that was me. It might be different for everyone. But in my opinion, start small. Update your listings, and once the favorites/orders start trickling in, that’s when you bump up your ads. But trust me, over time, the ads will have been paid off.
Just keep at it.
I know I’m sure someone needs to hear this. Starting something is HARD, and frustrating. I’ve been there so many times. I’m still struggling on Etsy, and trying to get more consistent sales. But I have full faith that if someone keeps at it and just does it day in day out, it’ll definitely pay off.
Up to today, I have a margin of $377.37. Additionally, the people who have reached out to me, have been asking for my help (again and again) with their other label designs, and I’m thankful for that. Thankful for the connections I’ve met over Etsy — they could potentially be my lifetime clients!
Going back, my Etsy earnings over a couple of months isn’t huge, especially compared to bigger and better Etsy sellers out there, not enough for me to pay my own bills, but it’s been growing ever since and I’m happy it’s grown thus far. :)
