Aside from my current day job, Etsy is one of my main income streams. I sell digital downloads on the platform and it has been a great source of passive income!
I find that many Etsy sellers make some common mistakes that can be avoided. If you’re trying to build a business with Etsy it is crucial that you take note of these mistakes and make sure you don’t make the same ones. In the past I’ve made some mishaps myself, so I wanted to share my knowledge. I could have saved a lot of time and effort if there were more resources I could peruse about the Etsy marketplace.
If you’re an Etsy seller, read through and make sure you’re avoiding these 8 blunders!
Etsy Mistakes Sellers Make
1. Ignoring the Quality of Your Listing Photos
Listing photos are one of the most important factors when it comes to your success on Etsy. It’s crucial because it is one of the first things that people see – the photo (and the title). If you want to get sales, you’ll want to make sure your photos are good enough to be clicked on when searched for. Look at your photos and make sure the product is visible and easy to see, stands our from your background, and includes your branding/logo on (at least) the first photo.
2. Not Filling Out As Many Listing Photos As You Can
Maxing out the amount of photos for your listings isn’t a direct determining factor for SEO, but it’s important for customers to know all the details with what your product is about. It is also one of the factors that is considered on Marmalead to rate your listing quality. Marmalead is an external app that evaluates the excellence of your listing from an Etsy algorithm perspective. If Marmalead prioritizes it, it is something to definitely take note of.
3. Forgetting to Stick with Your Niche
When you’re creating a shop, you need to make sure that you don’t deviate from what the shop is supposed to be about. You need to be a leader in your niche, because it’ll make people want to come back. Once you get your customer, you want to make sure they’ll come back to increase customer lifetime value. If you add a bunch of non-related listings it’ll throw people off. So make sure you figure out what your shop is going to be about, and stick to the same type of product, and be that person customers will turn to.
4. Not Creating Cohesive and Strong Branding
Your branding is crucial as having a solid brand makes your shop more trusted to buy from. When you’re choosing a shop to purchase from, you’re normally going to look at the branding, the reviews, and the feedback to see how credible the shop is.
What you can really work on is the presentation of your shop. You want to make sure your logo, cover, and name of your shop convey the tone you want to emit and showcase what products your shop contains.
Here is a great example of solid Etsy branding:
5. Choosing the Wrong Keywords
It’s important to rank for the RIGHT keywords. If you choose keywords that nobody’s searching for, your listing won’t be under people’s radar. On the other hand, if you choose only keywords that are too popular and oversaturated, it may be too difficult to rank your products and get noticed. And if you choose keywords that aren’t relevant to your product, they may click or view but not buy, which will hurt your rankings even more. Make sure to find the right mix of keywords to get your listing noticed on search.
6. Not Putting Your Tags in Your Title
One of the strongest and most basic SEO tips for Etsy is to place your tag in your title. First you’ll need to figure out the keywords you want to rank for that people search on the Etsy marketplace. After you figure that out, put the keywords into your tags and your titles. It helps with ranking higher when people search for your item!
7. Giving Up Too Quickly
Many people stop putting up more listings and leave their shops inactive after seeing no sales. But ultimately, getting purchases takes time. It requires work to get conversions. If you think about brick and mortar businesses, for example, business owners invest a lot more into building up their stores. If they don’t see traction within the first few weeks they’re not going to give up yet because they’ve invested way more money and effort into it. Etsy makes it so cheap to start a business, but we should still think bigger picture and realize that it takes work to make a business from ground up. We should compare the journey to starting a brick and mortar business. You can’t just expect instant profits!
8. Forgetting to Speak with Your Customer
Customer support is crucial when it comes to building your brand. In the past I made this mistake as I was super focused on trying to make my business passive. As you miss customer messages, you’ll start getting bad reviews if you don’t cater to your customers’ needs. And ultimately, you’ll feel bad about not making your customers happy! So make sure to respond to your messages within 24 hours at max (the earlier the better).
Conclusion
I personally make decent passive income through Etsy and commend it as one of my favorite income channels. If you’re going to commit to working on this income stream, you want to make sure you’re studying up on how to do the best on the platform. And if you’re interested in furthering your Etsy business, check out my Etsy Entrepreneur course to get the exact blueprint I used to make $1,000/month passively!
