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Etsy Books
Kate Shoup
Kate Gatski
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Published:
August 28, 2017

Starting an Etsy Business For Dummies

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Overview

Build your own successful online business—the Dummies way

Etsy is the premiere online marketplace for distinctive handmade and vintage crafts and goods. Starting an Etsy Business For Dummies, Fourth Edition provides you with the information and tools you need to start selling successfully on Etsy. This comprehensive resource and guide will show you how easy it is to set up shop and start generating income. There are millions of people out there looking to purchase unique products, and more and more shoppers are opting for one-of-a-kind sources over big-box stores. There’s never been a better time to open your own Etsy shop, and there’s never been an easier way than with this book. This updated edition covers all the latest changes to the site, plus shows you how to take captivating photos and short-form videos of your products, write appealing descriptions, and set up your Etsy shop in a way that motivates buyers to click that “add to cart" button. With helpful information, tips, tools, and tricks, this book is your ultimate guide to building your own Etsy shop.

  • Learn the ins and outs of running a successful Etsy shop
  • Get tips and advice for marketing and pricing your products competitively
  • Break through the new shop barrier and start showing up in search results
  • Improve your sales on Etsy with expert info on finding your customers

This book is great for small business owners, artists, and entrepreneurs looking to build an online craft business on the Etsy platform.

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About The Author

Kate Shoup has authored or co-authored over 50 books on a range of topics, from sports to technology and crafting. She has extensive experience in publishing and editing.

Kate Gatski is the owner of Gatski Metal, a company that creates handmade sculpture and furniture from reclaimed materials. She is a member of the Full Time Etsy Crafters Team and has been selling on Etsy for almost 15 years.

Sample Chapters

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starting an etsy business for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

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.
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Your listing title in Etsy acts like a good headline. It's designed to grab a buyer's attention. It also factors into Etsy's search system. That means your listing title must do double duty: piquing a buyer's interest and being optimized for search. When composing listing titles, keep these three points in mind: Keep it short.
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As your Etsy shop thrives, you may find yourself wanting to expand beyond the Etsy Marketplace. Enter Pattern. Pattern is a new service by Etsy that enables you to set up your own custom e-commerce website to reflect your shop's brand — right down to its URL.This isn't just any custom e-commerce website, though — it's one that integrates with your Etsy shop.
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If you're starting your Etsy shop as a hobby, you probably haven't given much thought to the structure of your Etsy business. It's just you, creating or curating stuff and putting it up for sale. But if your Etsy shop grows into a full-time operation — or if you want it to — you'll need to consider what business structure is best for you.
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Great product photos can boost sales for your Etsy business, but you don't need to hire a professional photographer (although you can). Composing your own photos for Etsy is a breeze. As you shoot your pieces, keep these compositional points in mind: Angle the camera. Angling, or tilting, the camera puts the subject slightly off-center and creates movement and flow.
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You can personalize your Etsy shop in any number of ways. This personalization is critical to ensuring that your Etsy business stands out from the crowd and helps promote your brand. And anyway, it's fun! Add a cover photo. A cover photo is a graphic that runs across the top of your shop's main page. You can create a cover photo from scratch by using any number of graphics programs.
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Your package is ready. You've chosen your shipping provider. It's time to get this show on the road and choose your Etsy shipping options. The truth is, you choose these options long before you're ready to ship your package. In fact, you choose them when you first create the listing, in the Shipping section of the Add a New Listing page.
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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?
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A convo — short for "conversation" — is a communication with another member using Etsy's internal messaging system. You can use convos to communicate with any other Etsy member. To access your convos, click the Shop Manager link that appears along the top of any Etsy Marketplace page, and choose Conversations in the main Shop Manager page.
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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.
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Honestly, nearly everyone on Etsy is great. For real. But every so often, you're bound to run into someone who, well, isn't. Whether someone on Etsy is rude, demanding, or simply a pain in the patootie, keep these points in mind: Polish your policies. Clear, concise shop policies can go a long way toward heading off problems down the road.
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Etsy's raison d'être is to serve as a marketplace for artisans and other creative types. But Etsy also supports a vast and vibrant community of fascinating individuals.To help you build your own place in this larger Etsy community and generally share the love, Etsy enables you to follow other Etsy members — say, family members on the site, friends who run their own Etsy shops, or other Etsy members you admire.
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The Your Favorites/Items page includes just one list, called "Items I Love." That's where your favorite items are stored by default. But if you find yourself favoriting lots of different types of items — say, goodies for your home, nifty gift ideas, tempting trinkets, or what have you — you can organize them into different lists, or collections.
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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.
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Look, it happens. People fall out of love with other people and with favorites on Etsy. It's nothing to feel bad about. If you find yourself disenchanted with one of the items or shops you've favorited, you can always break up with it — er, remove it from your list.To do so, open the list that contains the item you want to remove, hover your mouse cursor over the item, and click the heart button that appears.
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Etsy Promoted Listings is one of two tools to Etsy offers to help you advertise your shop. Etsy Promoted Listings, is, to quote Etsy, "good for improving discoverability within Etsy search results." With Etsy Promoted Listings, you simply note how much you want to spend each day on Promoted Listings, and Etsy does the rest — propelling your listings to the top of the heap (or close to it) when prospective buyers type relevant keywords.
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You manage your Etsy shop from . . . well, Shop Manager, which enables you to manage your listings, convos, and orders as well as your promotional activities. Here, you find out how to use it to manage your shop finances, track stats, and more.As you've no doubt noticed, when you open Shop Manager (by clicking the Shop Manager link that appears along the top of any Etsy Marketplace page), the Shop Manager dashboard appears.
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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.
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Etsy recognizes the importance of marketing your business — which is why it offers several built-in promotional tools. Marketing on Etsy is easy when you use these tools: Promote your listings on Etsy. With Etsy Promoted Listings, you can improve the ranking of your listings within Etsy search results when prospective buyers enter specific keywords.
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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.
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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.
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One sure-fire way to grow your Etsy business is to become a wholesaler — that is, to sell the products you make to other retailers. To facilitate this, Etsy has created Etsy Wholesale. Etsy Wholesale gives Etsy sellers (read: you) access to more than 20,000 registered retailers. Plus, with Etsy Wholesale, you can integrate your wholesale business with your Etsy shop for easy management.
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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.
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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.
Read More
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These days, you're no longer limited to conducting Etsy business online. Now, with the Sell on Etsy mobile app, you can do it in person, too — assuming that you use an Apple iOS or Android device and you live in the United States. (Etsy hopes to expand the service to more locations soon.) For example, you may use the app to handle transactions at a local art fair or farmers' market.
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You don't have to be "at work" to manage your Etsy shop. With the Sell on Etsy app, available for Android and Apple iOS devices, you could be literally anywhere. Antarctica? Check. The Sahara? Check. The hammock in your backyard? Check, check, and check (as long as you have a cell or Wi-Fi signal, of course).The main page of the Sell on Etsy app looks a little like the main Shop Manager page.
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Maybe hiring a few employees for your Etsy business isn't gonna cut it. Maybe that shout-out from Kendall Jenner means you need even more help. In that case, you'll want to look into Etsy Manufacturing.Etsy Manufacturing is a little bit like Tinder — but instead of helping you meet people who bear no resemblance whatsoever to their profile pictures, it hooks you up with a production partner who can help you grow your business.
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