Maybe you happened upon a video about how someone who opened an Etsy shop and a year later they had made over $60,000 in sales, how using Canva and Printify you could design t-shirts to sell on Etsy, or a video using Etsy as a side hustle to make extra cash, and you said to yourself, I would like to do that some day. Well if your are thinking about starting an Etsy shop, even casually thinking about starting one, I would recommend that you start building your media presence today.
You do not have to sit down and map out your business strategy or even know the name of your future shop. What matters is that you are starting the process of building a loyal audience who eventually some will also become loyal customers.
Just look at some of the homesteading channels like Arms Family Homestead and Lumnah Acres. Well neither of these channels has an Etsy shop, their path to success highlights the importance of building an audience as early as you can. Both of these channels started off by showcasing a portion of their daily life on the homestead. They made videos introducing us to their farm animals, showing them working in their garden, mowing their lawns, doing various building and repair projects, etc.
Eventually, as their audience grew, they would occasionally design a few hats, mugs, t-shirts, and sweaters that they sold to make some extra cash. But now that both channels have grown immensely, they have harnessed the power of having a big audience to create their own shops on much bigger scale. In the past couple of years, Arms Family Homestead transformed a portion of their barn into a work/storage area where they could store supplies so they could make and sell their own t-shirts, hats, etc that displayed some of their most beloved animals. Recently, Lumnah acres also set up their own website and began selling selling a handful of merch items such as a sticker, some pencils, and a couple of T-shirts along with their main draw, coffee. And thanks to the power of their 345,000 plus subscriber base, their 3 different brands of coffee debut was a success and quickly sold out multiple times. Because they had already built a loyal audience by the time that they opened their shops, it did not matter that there were only a few colors and items to chose from as their audience was excited to get a Rufus t-shirt or a bag of Lumnah coffee.
Meanwhile, even though the shelves are full of a variety of colorful mugs, T-shirts, hoodies, etc. in many of the Etsy Pod stores, selling one or two items, never mind selling out an entire product type, seems like an impossible dream. Why, because no one knows that our shop exists. And unless you happen to be fortunate enough to have a few friends and family who likes your designs, or at least wants to help you reach your dreams, and are willing to spend a few dollars in your shop, making those first few sales can be an incredibly slow and painful process.
If you are thinking about opening an Etsy shop in the near or even the distant future, I would definitely recommend that you start building your audience today. Opening a channel on sites like You Tube and Rumble cost nothing, and unless you want to purchase a domain name, you can even start a blog for Free on Word Press.
While you are learning more about creating designs, the importance of keeping your business and personal accounts separate, connecting your printify to your Etsy account, etc, you will also be building that all important audience. So that hopefully when you are finally ready to open your shop, you will not have to spend days or weeks waiting for a sale, because you already have an audience that are ready, willing, and able to buy from your shop.
If you are thinking about starting your own Etsy journey, click this link to get 40 free etsy listings. https://etsy.me/3MhfyfA
Click here, if you would like to check out my Etsy shop. There you will find a variety of activity and coloring packs, logic games, puzzles, and fun puzzle related merch such as this lovely, fall inspired, Thankful for Sudoku men’s or ladies t-shirt.
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