Kate Gatski

If you're looking to channel your passion for crafting and artful creation into a business, consider selling your work on Etsy. Countless crafters have ditched their day jobs to start their own Etsy craft business or have supplemented their existing income by selling their own crafts, vintage items, or crafting supplies.

When pricing your items on Etsy, the trick is to strike a balance. You want to price your pieces high enough to cover your costs and turn a healthy profit. But you need to price them low enough that you can sell a reasonable volume of goods. Finding that sweet spot is the focus of this article. ©Aksonat / Adobe StockNot all creative types share a general distaste for math, but lots of us do.

If you don’t find an Etsy team that meets your needs, you can start one of your own. For example, you may want to start a team for other Etsy members who share your passion for your medium, who live in your geographic area, who are devoted to a particular style of design, who share similar goals with their Etsy shops, or what have you.

If you're looking for guidance running your Etsy shop, look no further than Etsy's Seller Handbook. (You access the Seller Handbook by scrolling down to the footer area on any Etsy Marketplace page and, under Sell on Etsy, clicking the Seller Handbook link.) This deep-dive resource, shown in the following figure, contains links to hundreds of articles, with new ones added every week.

If you've spent any time at all on Etsy, you've no doubt run across a bazillion items and shops that you positively adore. Fortunately, Etsy enables you to keep track of all these gorgeous goodies by favoriting them. When you favorite an item or shop, Etsy adds it to the Your Favorites page.Why favorite an item or shop?

These days, coupons are everywhere, including on Etsy. Yes, that's right: You can offer your Etsy customers discounts on merchandise or free shipping through coupons — or, more specifically, coupon codes. Buyers can then apply these codes to purchases during the checkout process. (When a customer redeems a coupon, Etsy's 3.

People love seeing what Etsy sellers are up to. That's why Etsy created Shop Updates. With Shop Updates, you can show every Etsy user who has purchased from you or favorited your shop (or an item you listed in it) what's happening with your Etsy biz.You may use Shop Updates to offer a sneak peek at a new item.

To revisit your favorite items and shops on Etsy, click the Favorites button in the header bar that appears along the top of every Etsy Marketplace page. The Your Favorites page opens, with lists of favorite items displayed.The Your Favorites page.At first, there’s just one list here, called “Items I Love,” as shown.

A great way to keep in touch with your Etsy customers is to send periodic email newsletters. For example, you may send an email newsletter to announce an upcoming sale, to spread the word about a new product, or to share a coupon. Who should receive your email newsletter? If your answer is "anyone and everyone who has ever ordered from my Etsy shop," stand down.