Free Etsy Listings!!!

Hi my lovely beading people,

As most of you might know I recentely started an Etsy shop. In my Etsy shop you will occasionally find products that are handmade by me. That can be jewelry boxes, necklaces, earrings, fimo clay jewelry, braceletes, gift certificates, photo frames, canvas art and many other things.

I started to sell on Etsy because I got a lot of requests to sell my jewelry and other things. Normally I only sell at fairs and local markets, but because my international subbies don't benifit from this, I decided to also start an Etsy shop.

Do you want to start your own Etsy shop? Here are some tips from me. There tips are based on my personal experiences with my own shops and with shops from other people. (Free Etsy listings in step 8)

1. What do you want to sell?
- There are a lot of products on Etsy already, so you will have to know what you are selling. For example, I sell hand crafted items. Etsy is meant for hand crafted items and vintage items. So if you just want to sell some stuff you have laying around, go ahead and search for a different site to sell. But if you make great jewelry that is handmade by you, Etsy is you place to be.

2. What kind of seller are you?
- Do you want to start your Etsy business as a hobby or do you want to make it more than that? Selling on Etsy as a hobby is much easier than selling on Etsy as a business. And than I don't mean easier as in 'that you
make easy money' because as a hobby or as a business, you will need to put some work in to your Etsy shop. But you can expect hobby money when you approche your Etsy shop as a hobby. If you want to make your Etsy shop a business, go ahead and really look into what you are facing. Search online and go talk to people how made there Etsy shop a succes. I am more of the hobby Etsy seller.

3. What do you stand for?
- You have to know what you stand for. Do you make recycled products that are just made from recycled materials only and nothing more than that? Mention this as many times as you can on your Etsy shop. People like to know what they buy. If you put a lot of effort in your work, let people know. Tell people what you do and why you love doing it. It makes it easy for people to connect with you.

4. Do you want to sell worldwide or not?
- Personaly to me there is nothing more annoying than people selling great products, but not to other country's than there own. I saw so many things on Etsy that I absolutely loved to bits, but I coundn't buy, because the seller made the choice to just sell to certain country's. I can understand that you might not want to go through the trouble of going to the post office, fill out a form and send it to another country. But you are missing out on potantional sales when you do that!! I myself ship to differen't country's and actually it is not that big of a deal at all. If you think your shipping prizes are to high to sell to other country's, thats ok. But give people the opportunity to see that for themselfs. If I have to pay 50 dollars to ship from your country to mine, of course thats a no go for me. But I can still like your product because at least you give people the change to dicide for there own.

5. How many time to ship your products do you have?
- In my oppinion people that buy something in your Etsy store at least expect you to send it to them within 1-3 business days. If you can't do that, mention this! If you have just one day in the week that you can ship things, mention this! You don't want people to give you a bad review because your shipping wassen't on time. Personaly I choose to tell the buyers it takes a little longer then it actually takes. People how shop on Etsy know that it can take up to a month in order for there stuff to arrive. So if it takes 7 days and you tell them it takes 12, they won't complain, probably they will even give you a fast shipping time review because it took less time than told. But they will complain if you tell them it takes 7 days and it arrives in 9 days!! So be clear about your shipping time and calculate some extra time in for yourself.

6. How productive are you?
- How many things do you make in a month? Do you make 2 or 3? Or do you make 20 or 30? As a hobby seller it doesn't really matter as long as you sell good quality products. My advice to you is to not 'go nuts' and just make as much stuff as you can. Take your time to deliver a great product that will be admired by many. I see many shops out there that just make one piece a month, but it is a great piece! And that is what matters. Making product just to have products in your shop will eventually kill your sales.

7. Does Etsy cost money?
Yes! You pay a small fee to Etsy everytime you sell a product. You also pay 20 cents everytime you list an item in your Etsy shop and you pay a small fee to Paypal everytime you make a sale. The smart thing to do here is to keep this inb mind, and everytime you place an item charge that extra money over your normal selling prize. In that way you will get the prize you want for your product without loosing profit to Etsy and Paypal.

8. How to set up your Etsy shop?
If you want to start your own Etsy shop I have a link for you, if you click in this link you will get 40 free Etsy listings. Link to 40 free Etsy listings: ----->  http://etsy.me/1fTFl7n <-------

If you need help with where to fill in what, I suggest you take a look at the Youtube channel of Renea Christine from Rich Mom Bussiness. She made a series of video's that is called; 'How to sell on Etsy' that really helped me to fill in everything in the right places.

Choose your logo. It is best to make something yourself with photoshop, but if you arren't the computer geek person, Renea has some awesome tips to make a nice semi-costum banner for yout Etsy shop.

9. Advertising
- It is really important to advertise for your Etsy shop. People need to know that you are selling your products. My number one tip for you is; Don't irritate people! I hate it when someone go's to my Youtube channel and decides that it is a good place for them to get free advertisement and place there link like; Go to this and this page for awesome stuff!! NO! JUST NO! DON'T!!! If you want to advertise or be in the spotlight on someones page or channel, ask first. Most of the bloggers and Youtubers have there own thing around promoting other people. It can be that they offer to review your products in exchange for a discount or for free products for there subscribers (or for themselfs depending on that you are selling). You can advertise on a lot of things, blogs, in stores with a business card, in Youtbe reviews, in some online stores, in magazines and many more, each with there own terms and conditions. But the most important thing is that you ask for there information first. You don't want any bad reviews on your shop just because you irritated people.

10. Packaging
- One of the things that can give an extra statement to your products is your packaging. I once got a customer saying this to me;

 'Omg today I received the earrings and they are adorable You are very very sweet and your work it's super professional Thank you so much for making me feel special !!!'

This is what you want to hear from you customers! My work looks professional and I made my customer feel special. That is my main goal, a happy customer. I make all my cards and stuff myself. In that way my products don't look as any other products, but as a special, handmade, one of a kind only. Choose your packaging and business cards and others wisely. Everyone loves a package more when it looks like you are getting a gift, so make it look like that special treat.

There are a lot more tips and trick but for now I leave it at this. Maybe I will update this in the future :)

Have fun creating your Etsy shop!
Honeybeads