No Sales On Etsy? Here's What To Do (2024)

1. Introduction: Hey everybody, it's been that your favorite side hustle coach. And I'm so excited to be leading this training today about Etsy. You have no idea how long I've wanted to put on this workshop here, on Skillshare, here everywhere on the Internet. And I'm so excited to finally be getting started on it is going to be a great workshop that we're going to work on together. I want you to make sure you're taking notes. I want to make sure you're getting ready to make an impact on your Etsy shop. So the title of this workshop is, if I had 0 sales on Etsy, this is what I would do. And it's really geared toward people who started an Etsy shop. They really excited about their products, really excited about their offerings, but they just haven't made any sales yet. So I made this training with you in mind really, there's really some tips and tricks that I really want to share with you. Ways that you can optimize your profile, optimize your products and your services to really start making sales on Etsy. So I'll get in a little bit more about who I am and why I'm the person leading this workshop. But I wanted to just start by saying, thank you for joining. It means a lot to me that you're here with me. Take a deep breath in, deep breath out. We're going to be here for a second, grab a notebook. I think this is going to be a really great training. And I really want you to follow along with me. So take some notes, get excited, and we're going to really share some really tactical strategies here that will help you make more sales on Etsy. Okay, so welcome to class. I wanted to tell you a little bit more about me as a person. And the way I thought about doing that was breaking it down to my businesses and myself. So a little bit more about my business is I am a side hustle expert. I am a side hustle kind of a connoisseur. I love talking about side hustles. I love doing my own site households. And as of 2021, I have started coaching people on their side hustle. So whether that's their Etsy shop, whether they want to become a public speaker, whether they want to become a bakery, all of these different businesses, I'm here to help people turn their ideas into reality. And so as a side hustle coach, my goal is to help people find a start and grow their side hustles. And one of the ways that I do that is by helping people find ways to make more sales on Etsy. I myself and also a successful Etsy seller. I'll get in a little bit more about what I sell on Etsy and why, and why I think it's so funny and why I think I love my business on Etsy. And then the other thing that I do, and the other side hustle that I have is I run a photo booth rental company, New York City where I go to weddings, birthdays, corporate events, and I have my photo booth with me and I help people take really fun pictures at parties. And so I'm really excited about that business as well. But today we're really zeroing in on the side hustle of FC, making more sales on Etsy and really how to have a great time. I hadn't being a business owner on Etsy a little bit more about myself. My name is Ben, if you haven't caught that yet, this is me over in the black and white photo here. I live in New York City, here in my studio apartment where I am right now. And I professionally, I work in sales at a leadership development company. And, you know, fun fact about me is that I love the internet. So whether that's the Internet entertainment, whether that's means I love watching YouTube videos, but I also love the power of the Internet to reach people across the globe and really tying it back into ETC. I love the way that the Internet can help small businesses grow. And so that's a little bit more about me. And and I also just wanted to plug really quickly and then we'll get to the really juicy content, my Instagram, my Tik Tok, my Twitter. It's all at hustle with Ben. The reason I bring it up is because if you're interested in this content here, and with the Fc sales course here, you might be interested in my Instagram where I'm sharing free content about how to find, grow, and start your side hustle every single day on Instagram. So go follow me there. You'll find a lot of great tips. And then the other reason I bring it up is because if you have any questions about this workshop today, I really want you to DM me over on Instagram because that's where you'll reach me the fastest. Let me know you found me here on this course now and we can start chatting one-on-one about how to really make your shop a little bit more successful. And so again, follow me on Instagram for free content. It's at hustle with Ben. I'm also on Tik Tok, which is really fun. I'm exploring that now, more content on that to come. But that's the intro here. I'm really excited to dive into this course. And I also want to tell you a little bit more about my Etsy shop that I run. Not to plug in and get more sales from you, but to tell you that I really want you to use my shop as an example of a shop that's doing things really well. And so if you go to www.dot_com slash shop slash upskill swag, that's the name of my shop and what a cell is, mugs and merge about business jargon, Zoom humor, Work humor. And so some of my favorite quotes are, sorry, I was on mute, which is a big 2020 saying, this should have been an e-mail, which is a really common saying it's a companies and work-life and so also circle back later. So have mugs and notebooks and hats and things that say things like that. And over the course of the time that I've built my Etsy shop, I have made over 300 and sales. And so I'm really proud of my Etsy shop. I've learned a lot actually in order for me to know what I know now about Etsy shops, I've actually spent probably 50 to a 100 hours learning about it on YouTube, on Skillshare, reading articles online. And I've condensed all this information into five steps just for you to really know how to optimize your shop for sales. So I'm so excited for this workshop. Are you ready it because I'm ready. You're like I said, get your notebook, get a glass of water, maybe a Diet Coke, and let's get started. 2. Step 1: Your Shop Profile: Okay. So it sounds like you're ready to get started. I'm so excited to be here with you talking about how to make more sales on Etsy. If you have not made any sales get or if you've only made a few sales, this workshop is really going to help you optimize your shop, make some changes, made some concrete changes that will help you optimize your shop for success, for more sales. And this is step number 1. So step number one is my favorite step because it's really a basic and I really want you to make sure you take care of all of these tips in the future slide before you move on to the rest of the course. Obviously, you can take the course and take some notes and kind of make some changes based on what you learned in the course. But this is the number one thing that I always want to tell people when they haven't made any sales on Etsy. And so essentially we're going to be talking about how to maximize your shop profile on Etsy. So you know, when you go to a shop and you see their items, you see their banner images, you see who the owner is, you see their shop policies. That's really what I'm talking about here. I want to make sure that your shot is set up to be as successful as possible. And what I always like to tell people when they're building out their shop, to look at your shop as if you're a stranger. So look at your shop as if you are someone who has never heard of your products. You don't know yourself as a person and you're a total stranger. Happening upon this Etsy shop, what would you think of the shops? So the reason I say this is because that's who your target customer is on Etsy. When you're selling on Etsy, you are trying to get strangers to buy your products. So take that lens and look through your shop as if you are a stranger, as if you're your perspective customer. It's as if you are your own target audience and try to just critique your shop and really kick the tires and understand what would you like and what would you not like if you were a customer looking at the shop? The next thing that I would love for you to do is to dissect the actual listing. So looking at the listing, so you're before we were talking about the profile page, now we're talking about your actual listings and make sure your listings are clear and easy to understand for new customers. So a lot of times as Etsy sellers and as entrepreneurs, we don't understand what's not clear to people and what people might not understand. So it's really important to make sure that you are dissecting the listing and making sure that it really is clear, just somebody who doesn't know you and to somebody who doesn't know your products. So if you're selling candles, but it's not clear that it's a candle. You might not get very many views. You might not get very many sales. If you're selling something like maybe it's some type of a bowl, but you're not, people aren't clear on what it is or what it's made out of or kind of how big it is. That's kinda what I'm talking about here. So make sure that your actual listings are very clear as to what they are. The next tip here is to check your images and your descriptions and make sure they are as high-quality and descriptive as possible. So similar to my last point, it's really important that you're making sure that your images are really high-quality. They're taken in great lighting. They are. There's enough images to show the different angles of your product. And then in your descriptions, making sure that you're just describing it really well in a way that people can understand. And then the last thing on this point here about how to maximize your shop profile for FC is making sure that you actually are communicating the value under how are you showing somebody that your product, it will actually bring them value in their life. So not just talking about what color it is, not just talking about how big it is, but talking about why they are going to actually need this product and what it's gonna do for them when they buy it. And so that's really my four tips here on how to maximize your shop profile on Etsy. You want to make sure that you are looking at your shop as if you're the stranger. You wanna make sure you're dissecting the actual listing and making sure that everything is super clear. Checking your images and descriptions to make sure that they are high-quality and descriptive. And then make sure that you're actually communicating value, not just describing the items. So with that, that's tip number one. And let's move on to the next step. 3. Step 2: Add More Items: Welcome back to step number two. This is a really important one that I really want to touch on. And we can get through it pretty quickly. But I think it's really important to make sure we talk about this because a lot of times I noticed with new Etsy shop owners that they only have three items or four items in their shop. And that is a big mistake when it comes to Etsy searchability at C reputation. And so the step number two here is to add more items to your shop. So let's get into it. I want to talk about why adding more products on Etsy really, really works and I want you to give it a try. So think about your shop as an actual store. This is what I like to tell my clients when they come to me about Etsy and they want to learn more about how to make more sales. If you were walking by a store in a mall, or if you're walking by a store on a street and they only have three items in the store, would you walk in? I don't think you would walk in. If you did walk in, you might not stay there for very long because you're not really interested in looking at just three items. So when you're building a store on Etsy, you should think about your store as a real live brick and mortar store. What is the experience that you're putting together for people? A lot of that has to do with how many items you have and the variety. A lot of people in real life love to go and browse and look around at different items in a store. And so they wanted to do that on Etsy as well. So if you have four items or three items are two items, you're probably not creating a great experience for your users, for your perspective customers. And so you want to add more items because it creates a better experience. And if people are having a better experience, they're more likely to buy from your Etsy shop. The next one is that it makes your shop look a little bit more reputable. So when we're going to at the shops and we're looking at their profiles, were looking at their items and their listings. We want to see it oh, really well fleshed out store. And so if there's only one item or three items, it doesn't look like a reputable store. It doesn't look finished. It doesn't look like the owner really put a lot of care into it. So adding more items can really create more of a reputation for your store and make it seem more buttoned up. And that's a really good thing on FC. The last tip here, and it's probably the most important tip when it comes to adding more items on Etsy is that the more items you have on Etsy and the better you tag your items, and the better your SEO is, which we'll get into. Don't even worry. But the more items you have, the more ways people can find you on axes. I'll give you an example. If I have, I'm selling art on Etsy and I'm only selling pitch like a picture of a fire truck and I tag something as fire truck, then the only way someone can find me is if they type in fire truck and then I come up. But if I have a fire truck, a police car, and an ambulance, then those three words are ways that people could find me. So if someone typed in fire truck, ambulance, or a police car, now they're going to come to my shop and they're going to be able to see all of my items. So if you're someone who's selling just a few items, you're reducing the number of ways that somebody can find you on FC. So the more items that you have, the more ways that people can find you on Etsy. So my bottom line recommendation for an Etsy shop is to have at least eight items before you launch or before you expect to start making sales. And so I always recommend items. 16 is better, 32 is better than that, and 64 is better than that. The more items that you have, the more ways people can find you. And that's a really important thing when you're trying to make more sales on Etsy. So I cannot stress this enough. It's really important that, you know, you have a lot of items on your Etsy shop. And it really is kind of the more, the better. The caveat here is I, if you're an artist or if you're someone who's selling something that's creative, I still want it to feel curated and I want people to understand that you're the artist, you're the creator. And so don't just go Add Items, willy nilly. They still have to be quality items and they still have to contribute to the experience of your shop overall. So yes, have a lot of items in your shop, but don't just add items, just to add items, make sure they're still quality and that they still make sense in your shop. And that's really why adding more products on Etsy will get you more sales in the long run, it's really important that you're not just selling two items are four items that you really have as shop that's full of different items. And with that, we will move to the next tip. 4. Step 3: Maximize Your SEO: Okay. Are you sitting down because this tip is so crucial. If you haven't heard of SEO, I'm going to explain in the next slide, but you really have to maximize your SEO if you really want to make more sales on Etsy, I put it as number three, but I couldn't decide where to put it if it was going to be number 1 or number five. Because in my mind, this is truly the most important skill you can have as an Etsy seller, besides just having good products and understanding how to understand your customer and understanding how to run a good shot. But in terms of technical skills, SEO and understanding how to master SEO is one of the most important skills that you can have as an XY owner. And I will tell you right now, SCL was the secret to my success on Etsy. Because the more time that I spent learning about how to maximize my SEO, the better, the better my sales got. And that's just me being honest, friend to friend. So I would really like for us to get into this. So what I like to say is a little disclaimer. Seo is a beast. It is a huge thing to learn. So don't think you're going to take an hour and learn it. Of course, there are classes on YouTube, there are classes on Skillshare. There are articles that you can read, which I highly recommend doing. This course is not going to teach you everything you need to know about SEL, I may do a course in the future teaching SEO for FC because I've learned a ton about it and I really believe in it, and I really believe that the power of SEO is huge. So defining SEO if you're somebody who doesn't know what SEO is, and you've heard me say SEO 15 times by now. This is your moment to understand what it is. So search engine optimization, SEO is essentially the art and science of showing up first on the search page. So when people are searching for things on Etsy, a lot of times they don't even go past the second page. So your goal on Etsy is to show up on the first page of search, on a page that's really relevant to your items and what people are looking for. So there's a whole art, there's a whole science, but it's essentially trying to do your best to show up first on Etsy, when someone searches and certain type of mug, when someone searches a certain type of art, it's really important that yours shows up as close to the front as possible and that will allow you to make way more sales. So that's how I define SEO. What I recommend is going online or taking online courses specific to Etsy SEO. It's not just regular SEO, it's etsy SEO because it's a specific beast there. And take the time to watch YouTube videos, read online articles, and take online courses because these are all really great ways to learn about the art and science of SEO. I will also tell you a really great resource is called marmalade. And this is an SEO website that will help grade your SEO for your listings on your Etsy shop. So they might give you a C plus, they might give you a B plus. They might give you an a plus. Knowing that letter grade will help you kind of identify the gap between where you are and where you want to be in terms of SEO. So I recommend going and downloading marmalade or going to the website and signing up and getting started on your SEO there. I also have a free download. This isn't to plug anything. I just feel like this is a really good resource that I wanted to tell you about. If you go to my website, there's a free PDF that tells you everything you need to know about SEO and where to learn more. And so I definitely recommend, I think you can go to Benjamin Haas.com slash downloads. And there you will be able to download an SEO resource. I'll also put a link in the description below because I really want you to have that. And those are kinda my chips. For the basic level of maximizing SEO, I will say this one requires a little bit of homework. I want you to go learn about SEO. So if you haven't done that, if you haven't put in the time, it could be a really big reason why you haven't made any sales yet or why you haven't made many sales yet. And SEO is magic. It's chef's kiss. It's really important that you understand SEO if you want to make more sales on Etsy. And that is what I have to say about SEO. You have to make sure that you're learning. Marmalade is a great website and you can also download my free resource on my website. So that's what I got to say about SEO. Again, there's homework involved. I really want you to go learn. With that. Let's move onto the next tip. 5. Step 4: Promote to Family and Friends: Okay, So this is step number four and this is something that I see as a mistake that a lot of new Etsy sellers make. And I really want us to get into it and talk about it and to promote your Etsy shop to family and friends. And it sounds simple. And if you're someone who has already done this, feel free to skip to the next slide here. But I really want you to make sure that you are promoting your shop to your family and to your friends and cheer connections. The reason is that I noticed that sometimes people start Etsy shops, but they don't actually tell people about it. And the thing that I like to tell people as a side hustle coach is that it's almost impossible to start a business. Never tell anybody, and then make a bunch of money on that business. Because marketing is essentially just telling people about your business. And in order for your business to be successful, you need to do at least some marketing. So the very first step is to tell people about your business, especially on Etsy. There's a few reasons why this is important. So let's get into it. Okay, so the first thing that I love to say about telling your friends and family about your Etsy shop is that your friends and family are great people to be your first customers. And the reason I mentioned this, I wouldn't normally mentioned this, but the reason I mentioned it is because of reviews on Etsy. So if you are a shop and you haven't made any sales, you also don't have any reviews. And reviews are very important on Etsy. It's important that you're a five-star shop if you want to make a lot of sales. And when you don't have any reviews, string and jurors are less likely to buy your items. So, you know who is likely to buy your items is friends and family because they know you, they trust you, they believe in you. And so it's really important that you kind of enlist them to be your first customers. There's a few ways that you can tell people about your business. There are tons of ways actually, but what I highly recommend is at least posting about it on social media and giving a link to your shop. You want to make sure that your business is known. So you've got to post on Instagram and TikTok and LinkedIn and Twitter. Wherever you have your friends and family, maybe even Facebook. Go on there and make an announcement. Hey everybody, I just started a business. I'm really proud of it. And I want to make sure that you know about it because I want you to support me essentially and tell people how much it means to you. Tell people why you're excited about it and why you started the business and communicate with them in that way and connect with them. You can also tell people about your business in real life. I know it's a shocker. You can tell them via text or you can call them, or you can just kinda tell them at a party or, you know, tell them on a walk or whenever you see them in the grocery store. Basically just kind of telling them whenever you have the chance to tell them. Because if you don't tell your friends and family about your business, you're not going to get any initial sales necessarily. There is a chance that strangers will buy your items without having reviews, but they're just so much more likely to buy your items if you already have reviews. And the best way to get reviews is to have your friends and family by your items. One way you could get them to buy your items is give them a discount. In Etsy, you can set up coupons and you can call it friends and family or call it whatever you want and give people a coupon code, maybe 50 percent, Maybe 25 percent, and incentivize them to buy your items, that you can get those reviews. The other thing that I'll say just quickly on this slide here is that if you're looking at this slide and you're thinking, I'm never going to tell my friends and family about this business. And you're telling yourself like, I'm going to keep this a secret because I'm not interested in people knowing I don't want to feel judged, I don't want to be embarrassed. I do have kind of a little hot take on that. I definitely believe that if you're keeping your business as secret, it kind of means that you're not actually proud of what you're putting out there. And so it's really important that as a shop owner, you become proud of what you're putting out there. Because if you're not proud of it, if you don't think what you're selling is really, really cool, then who else is going to think it's cool? Probably not that many people. So it's really important that you, yourself, as the business owner, believe in the product. The last thing that I'll say is that it's important that you're not just posting about it once or you're not just posting about it here and there. It's important that as a business owner, you're kind of always on and you're always marketing your business and you're always telling people about the latest products in the latest sales. Because it's really important that just kinda as an entrepreneur, I feel like you should be talking about your businesses as often as possible, not overdoing it. Obviously, people have different personalities and different levels of interest in talking about their business. But, you know, it's really important that as an entrepreneur, you are able to do an elevator pitch and understand how to make a sale. And just because z is online doesn't mean that you don't need to be in-person making sales as well. Word of mouth is a very important piece of marketing. And word of mouth starts with you. So when you're so when you're building your shop and when you're wanting to make new sales, it's really important that you tell your friends and family about your business on Etsy. And there are a few different benefits for that. The main one, you know, getting reviews, getting them to buy your items and starting out your business. And when they buy your items, you get money. So that's a really big benefit as well. Without further ado, we are going to move to step number 5. See you then. 6. Step 5: Product Market Fit: Okay, This is step number five. And before you read too far ahead, I wanna make sure that we're on the same page that I'm saying this with love. I'm saying this with no judgment. And I want you to know that you and me are here together to build a business that you can be proud of on Etsy. And so what I want to tell you is that you have to make sure that your products are actually, and I'm putting this in quotes, that your products are actually good. And what I mean by that, I'll get into it a little bit more, but you have to make sure that what you're selling is actually what people are interested in and what people want to buy. So that's a great little teaser. Let's get into it. Okay, so how do we ensure the quality of your products? I'm not talking necessarily about literally the quality, while that might also be important. But it's important to know that your products are actually good and that they're actually what we call product market fit. So you want to make sure that your products actually fit with what the market wants. If you're not selling something that people want, you're not going to make sales. And this is the toughest truth of z. And so the best way to understand this is this step number 2 here, which is making feedback your best day, making feedback your best friend. And I want to talk a little bit about this. I want to spend a little bit of time right here talking about feedback because as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, it's really important that you're leaning into feedback and that you're making feedback a huge priority and a huge piece of who you are as a business owner. So my recommendation is to ask 10 people for feedback on your shop. Because these people can give you feedback that will help you make changes to your products, which will make them be more able to be sold, and which will make you more sales, which will make you more money. So my task for you is to take screenshots of your shop or take the link and send it to 10 people and ask them for feedback. But don't just ask them for feedback. I really want you to create a safe space for them to actually give you the feedback that's critical enough, that's specific enough, that will actually help you improve your products. And so really creating that safe space for people where you tell them, hey, I just started this business. I just created these products. And I want you to tell me feedback that's going to help me improve this business. I'm creating the safe space. I'm telling you you're not going to hurt my feelings. And I want this feedback. And by saying it that way, you're going to get much higher quality feedback. And that's a really important thing when it comes to your business. Now, the next step is that once you get the feedback, it's really important that you kind of decide which of that feedback you like and which of that feedback you want to take with you, and which of that feedback you think is not helpful, and which of that feedback you don't want to use in your next phase of your projects. So once you have the feedback and you've identified what you like and what you don't like and what you want to use and what you don't want to use. Make changes to your product based on what you feel is right in your gut. And feedback can be really great when it comes to design. It can be really great when it comes to the copy and the writing of your descriptions and your titles. And it's really important that you're taking into consideration what people say. And so take the feedback, make changes, and then get more feedback. So it's a whole process here. So when you're launching products, the kind of process would be to launch the product or to create the product. Ask your friends for feedback and then change it, and then ask them for more feedback and then change it and ask it for more feedback. And throughout that process, you can have your items listed and you could be making sales, but there's always room to improve the products that you have. And so it's really important that you're following that process of asking for feedback, making improvements, launching the product. So that's what I have to say about ensuring the quality of your products. It really comes down to feedback. It really comes down to understanding what people like, what people want, and having that product market fit. So that's the fifth tip. I'm stick around for the next slide. We're going to talk about the next steps for you as an Etsy shop owner to make more sales and to keep in touch with me. Because I think that that will be really, really fun. 7. Etsy Next Steps: Okay, so at the next steps, so like I said, there are a few things that you're still going to need to learn in order to make more sales on Etsy. But I really, really, really hope that you've come away from this workshop, from this training with a few items and a few tasks that you can do that will help improve your shop. If you haven't followed me already on Instagram, go over to Instagram, type in hustle with Ben. I have free content over there about Etsy, about Instagram, about marketing and sales. And I would love to connect with you over there. You can always direct message me over on Instagram and just tell me you came from here. And I will be happy to share my ideas with you and give you feedback on your Etsy shop. So go follow me on Instagram. I would love to connect with you there. I also have other courses available on the Internet, so I'll leave the links below. You can follow me here on this website. And I would love for you to continue to take more of my courses. I am going to be posting more of these courses throughout 2021 and throughout 2022 and 2023. I'm now committed to doing more courses as an entrepreneur, as a side hustle or myself, I've identified that this is something that I enjoy doing. It's something that I feel like I'm good at it. And in the spirit of feedback, leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of this course, what you're going to take with you in terms of FC success and something that you're going to do right now to kind of put, set yourself up for success. So without further ado, I've really enjoyed being here with you taking this time to really invest in becoming more successful on Etsy. If you have any questions, like I said, head over to Instagram at hustle with Ben, follow me and send me a direct message I would love to connect. And like I said at the beginning of this course, please leave a link to your Etsy shop down below and ask me any questions you have. I would love to answer your questions. And I would love for other people in this group to be able to see your Etsy shop and maybe be your first sale. So with that, I will leave you to take your next course to watch your next video. Have a great day, a great week, and good luck.