How We Made $30k+ Last Year on Etsy

One day we decided to open up an Etsy shop. We heard good hype and we wanted in.

Getting paid passively while we slept, sounded amazing!

Honestly, we didn’t know what we were doing. We added a few products and even had a few sales. Nothing exciting, but we were kinda happy.

Soon we became busy and our shop became an afterthought. Days and weeks passed and nothing happened. Fast forward two years to when we revisited our shop. It was a hot mess. Honestly, there were times we wanted to quit, but we persevered. We put more effort into adding more products. We made them shine!

Within 2 years we added 400+ items, maintained a 5 star rating, made over 6,000 sales, and our yearly revenue surpassed $30,000!

If you think you can just throw something together quickly and receive daily sales, you’re living in a magical dreamland. Any store owner understands that it takes A LOT of work!

But it IS possible to make money selling with an Etsy store!

Are you wondering, how the heck did we do it? Read our top tips on how to make more money on Etsy.

• 1. Define your Product List

  First things first. Make sure you have sought-after items in your shop.

  Ask yourself, “would you buy what you’re selling?”. If the answer is no, it’s time to rethink and explore new ideas. If your answer is yes, that’s awesome!

  Create products you actually like. We love design, so selling digital designs was a no brainer.

• 2. Create a Catchy Shop Name

  Do you have a catchy name that’s memorable and relevant to your products?

  Buyers will remember names that are unique and fun. A logo and shop banner design with your catchy name is even better! If you don’t have one — get one designed pronto as they help build your identity and credibility!

• 3. Add products!

  Etsy recommends having 10 items in your shop to start, but obviously more the better. The more you have the more you’ll sell. We started our shop with 5 products and it was like watching paint dry waiting for a sale. The more items we added, the more sales we received. Makes sense, right? Right.

  Now don’t make some cheap crap fast and throw it on your shop and think you’ll make sales. Chances are you won’t. Each item in your shop needs to be beautifully created and added strategically.

  What do I mean by strategically added? Keep reading!

• 4. Create Thoughtful Titles

  Each item you create should be unique and your title should be too.

  So let’s say you’re selling portrait illustrations. If your title is “portrait illustration” you aren’t doing a lot to help your chances of being seen by buyers in search results.

  DIG DEEP and find more descriptive words for your products.

  So back to the example, try something like “custom family portrait illustrations, watercolor people illustrations, personalized portrait artwork, etc.” See where we’re going with this?

• 5. Use strategic tags for SEO

  Think about your item. (Do you have it clearly in your head?) Okay now imagine you want to find your product on Etsy. What words and/or phrases would you use in Etsy’s search engine to find it? These are the words you should use as your tags.

  Make sure to use ALL of your keyword tags — I can’t stress this enough!

• 6. Add beautiful photography

  I’m sure you’ve heard “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Well your product photos are no exception.

  Customers don’t want to see dark, blurry pictures. They scream “cheap”! Use good lighting and highlight your product from different angles. Avoid using busy backgrounds and adding a bunch of text to photos — they are distracting. Use subtle backgrounds and upload crisp, clear photos.

  You can take it one step further and hire a photographer or use stock photos to mockup your items.

Now remember, a successful shop won’t just happen. We didn’t wake up one morning to a major payday. It takes time and consistent effort every day to make it happen!