Etsy for Artists: A Quick-Start Guide to Selling Art and Building Your Brand

1. Etsy for Artists: A Quick-Start Guide to Selling Art and Building Your Brand: Most artists think that the hardest part about Etsy is getting traffic, but that's actually not the biggest reason that many Etsy shops struggle. The biggest problem is that artists often jump into Etsy without a clear direction for their shop. In this class, we are going to fix that by looking at how Etsy works for artists and how to start thinking about your shop as a creative brand instead of just a collection of products. Hi, my name is Carrie Cantwell. I'm an Illustrator, surface pattern designer, and educator. My work has been licensed by brands like Target, World Market and pottery barn. And I also sell my art directly online, including on Etsy. In fact, I'm an Etsy Star Seller. If you're an artist who's curious about selling on Etsy, you are in the right place. Etsy is one of the easiest platforms for artists to start selling their work online. But if you're new to it, it can feel a little confusing. What should you sell? How do shops actually make sales? And where do you even start? That's exactly what this class is for. In this short class, I'm going to give you a clear overview of how Etsy works for artists and creatives. We'll talk about what Etsy is, why it's such a powerful platform for artists and the different types of products that you can sell there. This class is designed to be quick, practical, and beginner friendly. I'm giving you a workbook with this class, and in this class, we will be creating an Etsy vision board. You don't need any special tools or software to take this class. By the end, you'll have a clearer picture of whether Etsy is the right platform for your art and what direction you might want to take with your shop. Let's get started. 2. Inside Etsy: The Marketplace for Creatives: Let's start with the basics. What exactly is Etsy? Etsy is an online marketplace that focuses on handmade goods, creative products, and unique items. It launched in 2005 and has grown into one of the largest platforms in the world for independent sellers. Unlike marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy was built specifically for creators. Artists, makers, designers, vintage collectors, and small businesses all sell there. When you open an Etsy shop, you're essentially setting up your own small online storefront inside the Etsy marketplace. Etsy handles things like posting the platform, processing payments, and bringing millions of shoppers to the site every year. Your job as the seller is to create products, list them in your shop, and present them in a way that attracts buyers. As of filming this class, there are about 5.6 million active sellers on Etsy. By the time you're watching this, there will almost certainly be more because the platform continues to grow. And that's actually an important thing to understand because there are so many sellers, Etsy isn't a platform where you can just upload a bunch of random products and hope that they sell. The shops that succeed tend to treat Etsy like a place to build and reinforce a brand, not just a place to list products. Your shop should communicate a clear style, a clear audience, and a clear point of view. Customers instantly understand what you create and why it is special. When artists approach Etsy with that mindset, it becomes much more powerful than just another place to upload artwork. Next, let's talk about why Etsy works particularly well for artists. 3. Why Etsy Works for Artists: One of the biggest reasons Etsy works so well for artists is that the platform is built around creativity. People don't go to Etsy looking for mass produced products. They go there looking for things that feel personal, unique, and artistic. That makes it a really natural place for illustrators, painters, designers, and creative entrepreneurs. Another reason Etsy is so appealing for artists is that you have much more control over your business than on many other art marketplaces. For example, on Etsy, you set your own prices. That means you control profit margins and can price your work in a way that reflects its value. On many artist marketplaces, the platform decides the pricing structure and simply gives you a fixed royalty. That can make it difficult to grow your income over time. Etsy also gives you control over things like your branding, your product descriptions, your shop story, and how you photograph and present your work. In other words, your Etsy shop can feel like your own small brand, not just a listing in a giant catalog. Another advantage is that Etsy allows you to sell many different types of products from one shop. Some platforms limit you to very specific product types. On Etsy, you can mix things like art prints, stickers, digital downloads or print on demand products all within the same store. That flexibility makes it much easier for artists to experiment and discover what their audience responds to. And finally, Etsy gives artists the opportunity to build a direct relationship with their customers. When someone buys your art, they're often connecting with the story behind the artist, as well. For many artists, Etsy becomes both a creative outlet and a business platform. Now, let's look at some of the common things artists sell on Etsy. 4. What Artists Sell on Etsy: Artists sell a huge variety of products on Etsy, and there isn't just one path that works for everyone. One of the most common things artists sell is art prints. This could include prints of paintings, illustrations, photography or digital artwork. Prints are popular because they're relatively affordable for customers and scalable for artists. Another category is small art products like stickers, greeting cards, bookmarks, or magnets. These items are often lower priced and can be great entry point products for buyers. Many artists also use print on demand services to sell products like mugs, tote bags, notebooks, or apparel. One of the really cool things about print on demand products, you have no overhead and you don't have to hold any stock. On Etsy, you can control how these products are priced, how they're branded, and how they fit into the overall story of your shop. There's also a growing market for digital downloads, like printable art coloring pages or design assets. These can be appealing because once they're created, they can be sold repeatedly without additional production costs. The key is choosing products that make sense for your style of art and the audience that you want to reach. In the class project, you'll start exploring exactly that. 5. Why Vision Boards Work: W. One of the biggest challenges artists face when starting something new, whether it's an Etsy shop, portfolio or a new creative project isn't talent. It's clarity. Most creative people actually have the opposite problem of what we expect. Instead of not having enough ideas, we often have too many. You might be thinking about prints, stickers, greeting cards, digital downloads, different illustration styles, different subjects. And suddenly, it's really hard to figure out where to start. That's where a surprisingly simple creative tool can help. Vision boards. Vision boards aren't just inspirational collages. When artists use them intentionally, they can help you quickly clarify your style, direction, and brand identity. Reason number one, images reveal patterns faster than words can. Artists are visual thinkers. We understand ideas much more naturally through images rather than through long explanations. For example, if you try to describe your creative style with words, you might say something like, I like cozy things, maybe vintage, maybe whimsical, maybe playful. But words can stay really vague. Images show patterns much faster. When you start gathering visuals that inspire you, artwork, color palettes, products, textures, interiors, photography, something interesting starts to happen. Certain themes begin to repeat. Maybe you keep choosing the same botanical imagery. Maybe everything feels warm and cozy. Maybe you're drawn to bold color and playful illustration. When those images sit together in one place, your brain starts to recognize the creative patterns you're naturally drawn to. And those patterns are often the beginning of your artistic direction. Reason number two, vision boards can help you make decisions. Vision boards are also helpful because they act like a creative compass. When artists start thinking about selling their work, there are suddenly a lot of decisions to make. What kinds of products should I create? What kinds of artwork belongs together? What should my shop feel like? Without a direction, these decisions can be overwhelming. But when you have a collection of images that represent the world your art belongs in, it becomes much easier to evaluate new ideas. You can simply ask, does this fit the direction I'm exploring? If the answer is yes, it probably belongs in your shop. If not, it might belong in a different project later. That simple reference point can make the whole process feel much clearer. Reason number three, vision boards help you think like a brand. When artists begin selling their work, they're not just creating individual pieces anymore. They're creating a creative world that people can recognize. Think about artists or shops that you love online. Their work usually has a consistent feeling. Maybe it's cozy and nostalgic, maybe it's colorful and playful, maybe it's calm and nature inspired. That consistency helps people immediately understand what the artist creates and whether it's something they can connect with. A vision board is one of the easiest ways to start imagining that bigger picture for your own work. The nice thing about vision boards is that they're exploratory. They're not permanent and they don't lock you into one direction forever. They simply give you a visual snapshot of the creative direction you're excited about right now. They can serve as excellent touchstones to come back to. And once you can see that direction clearly, it becomes much easier to start building a shop, creating products, and developing artwork that feels cohesive. We are going to turn this idea into something practical. You'll create a simple Etsy shop vision board that captures the style, mood, and direction you want your future Etsy shop to explore. 6. How to Create a Collage on Pinterest: Did you know that you can actually create collages or vision boards in Pinterest, which is super cool. And if you create yours in Pinterest, you can use this as your project for the class and share it in the gallery. So I'm going to do a quick example here. So I created my own Etsy vision board on Pinterest. And really, what I did was I just went through and tagged a bunch of stuff that I really liked that resonated with me that, you know, was kind of inspiration what I wanted the feel to be for my Etsy shop. I have things like colors. I've got, you know, of course, cats, animals. I have some, you know, ideas for products, maybe it's like clothing or maybe it's cups or mugs and just some styles, textures. Maybe it's home decour. You know, and even just like some motifs, I have, you know, this scalloped lace. I have some typography here, vintage book covers. So anyway, what you want to do is create a board on Pinterest. And then once you have your board created and you're happy with it, at the top of the board, you'll see a little button here that says collage. And you can just click on that, and then it's actually going to let you create a little collage here. You can even write on it and draw on it and stuff like that. But so if I want to add something to this, let's say, and I even included some of my art in here, too, by the way. So you can put your own art in here. If you have your art pinned on Pintris and you want to sell your art in your Etsy shop, it's okay to do that. I mean, you know, you're really trying to capture the vibe of your aesthetic and what you want your Etsy shop aesthetic to be. So some of the stuff that I've chosen here is I'm going to add some of my art. So I included my art in here. I have some of my art on Pintris. I have this one and this one. Because I'm trying to capture the aesthetic of my shop, and I'm going to be putting my art on products. So I'm going to click on this. Once you select your image, you can either choose Select All, which will pick the entire image without cutting anything out, or it will try to cut out the image for you. So if you want it to do that, you can choose Add cutout. And I really like this mug here. This is cutting out the mug. I'm going to try this. So cool. So it did an okay job. It's not too bad. But anyway, so yeah, so I like the idea of selling mugs with bright colors, and I have my art on here. Another thing that you can do is if you want to move images above or below each other, it's really easy. So on the left hand side here, you can just drag the images below other images so you can make it a little bit easier to put your collage together. And once you have your collage put together and you're happy with it, all you have to do is click on Next, and then you can add a title to and you can download it directly from Pinterest. You can add a title, a description. You can even allow other people to remix it. I actually added my collage to my vision board that it came from so that it's all kind of connected to the same thing. And then just click on Publish. And once you have it published, you can then go to your boards. So if you go to your profile, you go to saved and then you go to that vision board. That collage is right here. So I'm just going to click on that, and then from Pintrs you can actually download it. So up here on the top, you'll see these three dots, and then all you have to do is click on Download Image. And then you have your class project that you can share. 7. Examples of Cohesive Etsy Brands: I'm not just gonna tell you what makes a cohesive brand or a successful Etsy shop that stands out. I'm going to show you a few examples. Um, I am not showing you my Etzi shops. As of the filming of this class, Etzi punishes you if you have a lot of people browsing your shop and not buying. So I also recommend that you do not just go browse these shops and spend a lot of time on there. I know it's crazy, but it does hurt people, you know, if you just sit there and go through their shop and go through all the products and don't buy anything. Anyway, so, but this is just a few visual examples to show you what makes a cohesive Etzi shop or Etzi brand. And that is really their cohesive aesthetic. So this one is an EtzyPi. This means that when I search for, like, you know, art prints and stuff, Etzy has, like, picks and they will say, This is what we recommend. This is a shop we recommend. Right from the get go, as soon as you get to this Etsy shop site, check this out. So here is an image of the artist, and she's in her studio creating the art, some of which you will see in her shop. Here's an example of some of her art prints on wall art in a mocap. Here is her logo and her URL. And then here are more of her products with some of her art. First of all, I love her art. But, secondly, do you see how everything has, like, a cohesive color palette? It's like this pink and this green, and it's a lot of insects and flowers. And it really has a cohesive overall vibe. So even though this is someone who's on Etsy, she's one shop out of millions, you know, she's really standing out because she's different. No one else looks like this. And she's really also showing this is the aesthetic or vibe of her art, and this is what you can expect to buy from her. So you're kind of not only with your vision board and your kind of brand identity, you're not only thinking about the kind of art that you create, you're also saying, This is who it's for. And these are the products that I sell, and it all ties together. As you can see, this artist is very successful. She has, you know, five stars. She has 15,000 sales. She's been on Etsy for 14 years. But anyway, if you just start scrolling down, you can see all of her art. And do you see how all of her art is very cohesive. It's all photographed beautifully, but it's also photographed in many similar ways. So see this image right here, which is the art print, but see how it's in a frame. And then it's sitting on, like, a hardwood floor with some tree shadows on it, you know, in the background kind of coming in. This is the same photo mockup. Same thing with all these. So there's a lot of consistency here. It's not just about beautiful art, beautiful products showcased beautifully. All the photos or most of the photos are photographed in a similar way. This is the same shelf with the same shadows again. And even though this is a different photo, it's still a room with a white wall and shadows and, you know, but you can still see the art, and it's in a similar type of frame. It's in like a pine, you know, thin frame. So it's, you know, you're really getting a sense for this brand and, you know, who this person is and what kind of art they make. And then, you know, if you keep scrolling down, you'll see more, but you get the idea. So this is really obviously a shop on Etsy that does well because the brand identity is very clear. It's very cohesive. The art matches the brand identity, and the photographs match the brand identity. And it's everything from motifs, like cute little bugs and flowers and even this little peach or an animal. But then it's also the colors. It's like bright, whimsical colors. And then it's, you know, just the aesthetic. It's like this room, okay? It's got like a vintage eraser here and an old pencil. So it's kind of got like a cute, whimsical, nostalgic vintage feel to it. So yeah. And then if I scroll down here, I can see reviews, but then you can create an About page in your Etsy shop. So it's just like the About page on any website. But you can upload pictures of yourself, you know, creating your art. This is her and her family. It's very cute. But it all matches. Everything feels very cohesive. It goes together. It makes sense. So there's no question about who this person is, the art that they create, what the art and products are that you'd be buying and who it's meant for. And, you know, you can have a long statement here. You know, so yeah, this is a really, really good example of how to do an Etsy shop and how to stand out. So when you go to the shop, you really feel like you're buying directly from the artist which you are. And it's really got that, like, you know, amazing, like, unique kind of curated feel to it. Another shop that I feel like does really well on Etzy and is a good example of an Etzy brand that's cohesive is this one. So this is a little more understated, but you still get the idea this is an art studio. There's some, you know, abstract flowers here. And then if you scroll down, this is printables. So the other product or the other Etsy art store sold physical products. This is just vintage printables or downloadable, you know, art prints. And then what they're doing is they create collages or, you know, sets of printable art, and then you can just download it. And it's, you know, you can create your own wall collage once you print them. So, you know, check this out, and the images that they're using really capture this brand vibe. Again, this is bright, whimsical, you know, really, you know, a cool aesthetic that feels very cohesive and feels very, you know, like, well put together. And it matches, you know, the brand itself. So, um, anyway, this is basically this is the rest of their shop, but as you can see how they have these prints, and then they have these prints and these. But they're all photographed in the same way. And the way it's photographed is this kind of clean, modern room you know, where the art really stands out, but they're all very consistent. And then they're doing the same thing the other artist was doing. See how they the art print, and it is in a frame, and it is sitting on the floor with the shadows and everything. And there it is, you know, the same art in, you know, the different art in the same photo. So there's consistency. Everything you know, works well together. Of course, it does because you would want to use these to create collages. And then if I go down to the About page, this person also has, you know, some information about themselves. There's a photo and, you know, a little more information. So you can control all of this stuff. On Etzi. So you can really create a brand vision for your Etzi shop that gives a vibe or a feeling to the person that comes to your Etzishop to buy, and they know what they're going to get and they feel like, you know, everything is very intentional. And then finally, I want to show you one more Etzishop that I think does a great job, and they haven't been on Etzy that long, and they have a few fewer sales. 4.8 thousand is nothing to sneeze at. But you don't have to be elaborate with 1 million photos of yourself and have these detailed, you know, graphics. You can be a simple, you know, creator that has This is their banner. Look, it's just like a graphic with a cake. You know what that is. And it's got that whimsical kind of vintage feel to it. And the name of their shop, buttercream Daydream, is so cute. It's all consistent. See buttercream icing, right? So this is cake. So it just has a really consistent feel. So even though they're one shop among many, and, you know, Etzi controls a lot of the things of where things are placed here, you still have a lot more control over your whole brand vibe on Etzi and how your products are presented. And then check this out. So this person makes, like, fake cakes that are actual products. Like, so there's a compact mirror. There's a frame. These are little jars. I mean, aren't these amazing? And it even shows, like, the person creating them here. But you get the idea this person is and this Etsy shop is pink and bright and fun and cute and kind of vintage and kitchy and, you know, it's physical products. And everything goes really well together. All the cherries and the products and the texts, the colors, you know, the brand vibe is very consistent, and it's really unique. So, you know, this is, like, a really standout shop. There are other people on Etzi who make fake cake products. I know, believe it or but this person is doing an exceptional job of really standing out in the way they photograph their art, the cohesiveness of the colors and the layout and everything of their photos. Yeah, then if I scroll down here, you can see reviews. These are all their reviews. And then they have their little shop policies here, but they don't even have that section down here that's like, you know, Here's about me and here's photos of my family or whatever. And look, they're still making a ton of sales. They're still doing really well. They've only been on Etsy three years. 1.5 thousand five star reviews, just under 5,000 sales. That's really awesome. And they don't have anything crazy and elaborate. So you don't have to overthink this. You don't have to make it harder on yourself. Once you start thinking about your vibe, your aesthetic, your colors, what you want to sell, you can, you know, put it together in a way that makes sense and is cohesive, but it does not have to be, you know, the most elaborate, crazy, you know, out there etsy shop. 8. Your Etsy Shop Vision: Now it's time for the class project, and this is where things are going to get really fun. Instead of jumping straight into opening a shop, I want you to take a moment and design the vision for your future Etsy shop. Your project is to create a simple Etsy shop vision board. This should be one image that captures the direction you want your shop to go. You can make it in Canva, Pinterest, Procreate, Photoshop, or even a collage app on your phone. Your vision board should include a few images that represent your art style or aesthetic. And this can actually be images of your art. If you have your art on Pinterest, you know, or wherever you end up wanting to make this vision board, you can include your actual art since you're going to be putting your art on the products. One or two types of products that you'd like to start selling, a color palette for your brand, and this can be just the colors that show up in your vision board and other images that capture the aesthetic you want your brand to have like textures, photos of interiors, et cetera. Think of this as the creative blueprint for your future shop before you start building it. Once you have created your vision board, upload it to the project gallery so we can all see the different ideas that people are exploring. One of the best parts of Skillshare is seeing how many different creative directions people take from the same starting point. And I will be looking through the project gallery to see what you come up with. Congratulations on finishing the class. If you enjoyed this class, I would also really appreciate it if you left a quick review. Reviews help other students find the class and help keep me creating more classes for artists. Thank you so much for taking the class, and I cannot wait to see your Etsy shop visions in the Project Gallery. See you next time. Bye.