My First Year on Etsy : What I've Learned Pt.1

I made over 80 sales

Gained a following of nearly 1k on Instagram

Made new collaborative partners

And boosted my Photography game... lol.

Here's how I did it...

DIG

Being an online business is a struggle. Once you've found your niche, there's a lot of digging involved in finding an audience interested in your story and actually like what you create. It was a benefit for me to be on Etsy because the type of people that buy things on Etsy have a unique interest and appreciation for handcrafted goods.If you're thinking about opening a Etsy Shop, use this to your advantage. Think about what you make, what is unique about it that a shopper on Etsy would look for? Use those key words as your tags in the item description.

BRAND

The next thing I did, more as an afterthought though, was develop my "brand identity". I'm sure everyone has already heard a lot about that - there is a plethora of information on this on YouTube. But anyways... I struggled with this area for a minute because I knew how I felt about Honeybee Card Shop, but I had to figure out how to communicate this throughout my whole store, and social media. Look at your creations. What colors are you often using? Even the colors of your tools. What does your creative space look like? Eventually I recognized a pattern in all of my art and in the things I already have and the places I regularly visit. Thus my brand identity was born.

Tip: Try creating a "mood board" on Pinterest, or cut out pictures that you like from a magazine. After that, be consistent... lol. Don't decide that your color palette is soft and mint greens and blues and then suddenly clash your feed with a bunch of bright red fire trucks. I mean, technically, if its done in a creatively cohesive way, you could, but, you get the point.

My First Year on Etsy : What I've Learned Pt.1

I made over 80 sales

Gained a following of nearly 1k on Instagram

Made new collaborative partners

And boosted my Photography game... lol.

Here's how I did it...

DIG

Being an online business is a struggle. Once you've found your niche, there's a lot of digging involved in finding an audience interested in your story and actually like what you create. It was a benefit for me to be on Etsy because the type of people that buy things on Etsy have a unique interest and appreciation for handcrafted goods.If you're thinking about opening a Etsy Shop, use this to your advantage. Think about what you make, what is unique about it that a shopper on Etsy would look for? Use those key words as your tags in the item description.

BRAND

The next thing I did, more as an afterthought though, was develop my "brand identity". I'm sure everyone has already heard a lot about that - there is a plethora of information on this on YouTube. But anyways... I struggled with this area for a minute because I knew how I felt about Honeybee Card Shop, but I had to figure out how to communicate this throughout my whole store, and social media. Look at your creations. What colors are you often using? Even the colors of your tools. What does your creative space look like? Eventually I recognized a pattern in all of my art and in the things I already have and the places I regularly visit. Thus my brand identity was born.

Tip: Try creating a "mood board" on Pinterest, or cut out pictures that you like from a magazine. After that, be consistent... lol. Don't decide that your color palette is soft and mint greens and blues and then suddenly clash your feed with a bunch of bright red fire trucks. I mean, technically, if its done in a creatively cohesive way, you could, but, you get the point.