Selling on Etsy – Here we go!

Today, I began the process of setting up for selling on Etsy.

This is article No.3 in my selling online from scratch blog. As a newbie to the game, that is; blogging, selling on Etsy, and more specifically my macro objective of selling online – I am learning that you have to plan -BUT- don’t expect the plan to work or be a smooth ride….!

In fact today’s disclosure is a mini ‘rant-blog’.   If you’re setting up for selling on Etsy, take comfort in knowing that it’s not you (and it’s not me).  If this is your first time at the ‘game’ – It’s just simply not as easy as you might of hoped.  It is a highly frustrating process that eats time like a black hole. The expectation of effortlessly selling on Etsy (or probably on any online marketplace for that matter) may just be a fantasy.  You offer your ‘listings’ to an eagerly awaiting audience* who waited all of their lives to feel this complete to realise that you can’t even find your own stuff online with a thorough search (unless you’re actually selling unicorns).

*Just to reiterate on Etsy alone that we’re talking of an approximate marketplace audience of 29 million active users in 19 different countries.

I’m back in the room

Emotional outburst over – lets get started selling on Etsy.

Learning the Lingo

First of all, perhaps we ought to get a few tech words under our belt.  To be in the game you need to understand the lingo.  Most uses of the Etsy tech words are easily deducible, but it makes sense to get to know what the constant references to categories, subcategories, variations, listings and attributes mean.

Where to start?

Aside from actually having a product to be selling on Etsy, it is time to take the plunge and open an account.  It is in fact incredibly easy to set up a shop account.  The setup was instinctive and the process intuitive.  A step by step guide gives helpful pointers down the setup path from shop preferences to naming your shop.

I wasn’t able to name my shop exactly as I had initially intended but happily plumped for the nearest available name PromisedLandStudio. And then the pivotal and most time consuming section of the entire start-up process – Stock Your Shop.

Etsy advise to set up at least 10 listings.  I would suggest that your store may seem a little lacklustre with only 10 items for sale.  You may of course, have only 10 listings but with many variations.  “More listings means more chances to be discovered!”, says Etsy – In slightly oxymoron style.

Stock Your Shop

Head in hands – it’s 5pm and I have only ‘listed’ 1.5 items for sale – I feel totally exasperated – a day’s work.  I have so much to learn.  I need to get some fresh air.