Hi there! 

Not sure if this is the right project for this class but I really felt like sharing my story here. Maybe it will inspire someone or at least give tips of what not to do.

I opened my shop in 2015 and had no clue of what I was doing. Adobe Illustrator was an unknown monster to me, I couldn’t figure out how to draw and had no previous knowledge about anything. English is not even my first language so even picking listing names was a struggle. All I could do was draw on printer paper and glue them to a notebook.

 

With that said I’m really proud for taking that step even if I was not ready to. Today I know that we can overthink and never feel like is the right time, so just do it. 

I don’t even know how many hours it took me to make this listing back then… Painful to see the picture, I know.

Was my Etsy shop a success ? No. Am I still amazed that someone actually bought this? Oh yes, very much so!

For the first years I didn’t really pay attention or did research, my shop was there to be a creative outlet while I was learning and not as my main income.

Over the years I learned different tools and got more sales. To this day my shop is not a success but it makes me happy.

I work with digital art and AI got me quite discouraged for some time, it was disheartening to see so many Etsy listings being created every hour. My thoughts were that I could never compete with it and that’s true, I can’t and I shouldn’t. 
For the past year I’ve been doing an art challenge and making a lot of tradicional art that took me away from all that AI chaos and now I’m feeling ready to dive into Etsy, finally.

 

My tip for new Etsy sellers is just to take the risk and don’t try to read too much into it. Do your research, make the best products you can but don’t be afraid to list products you’re not quite sure customers will like. I would never guess which ones would be my best sellers so just upload the listing and try it out. Good luck!

Well, if you’re curious about how my listings are nowadays, here it is

I have lots of sketchbooks and weird ideas that have being hidden for a long time but after seeing how many crazy listings are out there, I’m inspired!

 

Thank you for the class :)