Side Hustle Sunday: Selling On Etsy
If you are crafty at all, then Etsy offers a great side hustle opportunity for you. And you can be crafty in pretty much any way that you can think of – from sewing to painting to building stuff to photography.
One of my favorite shops on Etsy is the Chicks in Hats shop. Simple idea. Awesome product. To date, she’s made over 1700 sales with the lowest priced item for sale at $1.00. I actually bought some of these magnets to give as gag gifts a few years ago.
Selling your crafty goods on Etsy is not only a great way to build up a little side hustle income, but also to replace your day job income. There are plenty of stories of people who started selling on Etsy in their spare time and were able to eventually quit their job. Of course, you could keep your job and maintain this just as a side gig too.
There is something of a science to being successful on Etsy. Inc. Magazine did a story on it back in 2010 that is just as relevant today. And the Handmadeology site offers a more recent take on being a success on the site. What is so inspiring is that lots of people are earning thousands per month by selling their crafty designs on Etsy. Take a look at this post that shows the top selling shops in 2013. An the Etsy blog itself runs a Quit Your Day Job series on successful sellers.
Starting your own Etsy shop is not a terribly time consuming side hustle, but it does take a fair amount of work to get to the success of the sellers in the links above. While you need to offer products that people want, you also need to be able to take really great photos of those items. And, you have to drive people to your Etsy store instead of just waiting for them to find you. This can be done by utilizing free giveaway on blogs and beefing up your Etsy store SEO skills so that people can find you in the Etsy internal search engine.
You also need to determine the time and money you have invested in your crafts/handmade items so that you actually earn money from you sales. On the flip side though, you want to see what similar items are selling for so that you don’t price yourself out of the market. If it takes you a long time to create your items, then you might discover that you just can’t sell them at a price that make them worth it. But keep trying and you might find something that you enjoy making and can sell for a decent profit.
I think, first and foremost you need a business plan, do some research, and market yourself well. Many people wondering why they haven’t made thousands of dollars they only put some products that are badly listed and not make some efforts to market their shop. It takes efforts, but I think if you’re serious about this you can make a pretty good amount of money with it!
Yeah, I think it definitely takes a plan but there is crazy money in it if you’re crafty.