How to Make Money Using Etsy E-Book

Tim Adam

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 242

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

In a world where most products are manufactured by machines, Etsy offers an online platform for makers of handmade products and crafts to market and sell their goods to a vast network of buyers who demand unique, genuine products. To date, the site has attracted over 400,000 sellers who collectively have sold over 30 million items, generating more than $180.6 million in revenue. The only resource of its kind, How to Make Money Using Etsy--written by Tim Adam who has successfully been selling his products all over the world through his Etsy shop since 2007--guides readers step-by-step through the many stages of selling online. How-to topics include: * Establish your Etsy shop * Effectively photograph your products * Post your products to optimize visibility and increase sales * Brand your business * Use social media like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to connect with buyers and grow your business

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Praise for How to Make Money Using Etsy

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: All About Etsy

Etsy Defined—Etsy Terms You Should Know

The Etsy Community

Chapter 2: Getting to Know You and Your Product

Basic Product Questions

Marketing and Branding

General Online Selling

Product Research

Basic Google Search

Google Trends

Google Insights

eBay Pulse

Etsy Search

Chapter 3: Your Etsy Shop Setup

SEO Defined

Keyword Research

Walking through Your Etsy

Chapter 4: Listing Your First Item

Where Is the Etsy Title Tag Found?

Shipping

Uploading Pictures

Chapter 5: Four-Step Game Plan for More Views

Etsy Forum

Blogging

Twitter

Facebook

Chapter 6: Advanced SEO for Your Etsy Shop

Keyword Research and Placement

Competition

Global Monthly Searches

Key Phrase Evaluation

Increasing Your Google Rank with Quality Backlinks

Chapter 7: Handmade Blogging Essentials

Essentials for Blogging in the Handmade Scene

20 Tips for Handmade Blogging Success

Top Blogger Interview Sum-up

20 Tips Expanded

Chapter 8: Twitter for Etsy Sellers

Basic Twitter Terms You Should Know

Quick Twitter Overview

Chapter 9: Facebook for Handmade

Facebook Stats

Facebook Terms

Fan Page versus Personal Profile

Fan Page versus Facebook Groups

Promoting Your Products and Links on Facebook

Facebook Insights

Final Words

Chapter 10: Top Etsy Seller Interviews

Conclusion

About the Author

Index

Praise for How to Make Money Using Etsy

“If you want to learn solid techniques to get noticed online, spend time with expert Etsy seller, Tim Adam. Tim is up on the latest how-to plus his passion to share his knowledge will get you motivated and improve your online presence and sales.”

—Alison Lee, host of CRAFTCAST

“Tim has been a real asset to the handmade community—he never ceases to impress with his wealth of knowledge and his passion to share it with the community. The sites he has created have become hubs of information for handmade entrepreneurs all over the world.”

—Mallory, missmalaprop.com

“Since I first met Tim in Etsy Forum in 2007, I knew he had a special talent beyond his artwork. He always stepped outside of his own box and brought new ideas and discoveries on how to sell, promote, educate, succeed, and support each other as fellow artisans. Tim's approach and teaching style is always fresh, fun, and engaging. From the Handbook to Handmade series to Handmadeology, Timothy Adam has come a long way!”

—Andrea, Swan River Stone (Etsy Seller)

“I met Tim on the Etsy forums in early 2008, when he was working on Vol. III of The Handbook to Handmade. At the time, I felt as if I had hit a pulse, a heartbeat into Etsy. How right I was! Tim has been in the right place at the right time and has skyrocketed past all of us! In flight, he brought me up to speed on the basics, starting with copy/paste. We moved on to the ‘how to's’ of blogging, virtual links, Google Analytics, keywords for my Etsy shops to be on the top of the search engine, Facebook, Twitter, Handmadeology, and most important, everything linking back to selling on Etsy. I am delighted for Tim's tremendous success, and even more so, to call him ‘friend.’”

—Amy Lilley, Amy Lilley Photography (Etsy Seller)

“Tim was a great friend before I even started my Etsy shop. I couldn't pay my bills one month and remembered a conversation I had with Tim about how he was rocking on Etsy. I thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’ A few helpful suggestions early on and his blog have helped my own shop become more successful than I ever imagined!”

—Paul Holcroft, Holcroft (Etsy Seller)

Tim Adam is a real voice for the handmade community online, always at the cutting edge of news, ideas, and progress. His information and communication style have made him an authority on success to a whole new generation of artists and crafters. Tim seeks to combine innovation with the age old art of craft—a beautiful combination.

—Tara, Scoutiegirl.com

Copyright © 2011 by Tim Adam. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

The term “Etsy” is a registered trademark of Etsy, Inc. This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by Etsy, Inc.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content! that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.

978-0-470-94456-1 (paper)

978-1-118-03382-1 (ebk)

978-1-118-03383-8 (ebk)

978-1-118-03384-5 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

10987654321

I want to thank my wife Christina for the constant encouragement that she gives me to push forward and keep designing, creating, helping, and writing. I also want to thank the handmade community for reading and visiting my blogs and for your support over the years. The real star of the show is my little boy Camden Reid: born July 31, 2010 during the writing process of this book. Thanks buddy, for being such a calm and happy baby.

Preface

While searching for a direction for my metal furniture and art, I stumbled upon Etsy. Etsy quickly became my new home and launching pad for many adventures. New designs, connections with artists, learning, blogging, and teaching can all be traced back to the day I joined Etsy. How to Make Money Using Etsy came about because of a need that I saw in the crafting and handmade scene for a guide to selling arts and crafts online. Packed full of information, starting with setting up your Etsy shop, to interviews with top sellers and bloggers, this guide is designed with all levels of sellers in mind.

Introduction

Art and design have not always been a part of my life. Growing up in Northeast Ohio, creating and designing were the furthest things from my mind. I played soccer all my life and was always interested in science. I studied environmental engineering in college and wanted to become a park ranger. Shortly after finishing college in Ohio, I moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to get my degree in secondary education, and be near Christina, the girl I was going to marry. In the summer of 2004, Christina's sister, who is a furniture designer, needed some help with a few metal projects. I wanted to lend a hand in building these projects but, at the time, had never even welded two pieces of scrap metal together. I wound up taking a welding course and fell in love with the trade. I mean, who wouldn't love melting metal? The summer of 2004 changed my life, and it was then that I realized what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I found my passion and my creative outlet that I didn't even realize I needed.

Taking the skills and tools from that summer experience, I went back to Grand Rapids, where I started creating and designing furniture. I designed and built a portfolio of about 20 pieces and I hit the road running. Grand Rapids, Michigan, and its surrounding communities are packed full of galleries and shops, but with such an industrial-modern furniture style, it was difficult to find shops that would carry my work. Most shops did not have the room to carry furniture, until one day I walked into a shop in East Grand Rapids. I remember sitting down with the shop owner and her business partner as they looked through my portfolio. I was so used to being rejected, I was surprised and overwhelmed when they started pointing out pieces they wanted in their shop. This was the turning point. This was when I knew that I could do what I love—and love what I do!

Galleries, shops, custom work, and art shows drove my part-time metal design business for about three years. This was all on top of my regular full-time job, so it kept me very busy, but I loved every minute of it, so I wasn't about to stop. If you've ever been in an art or craft show, you know how time consuming they are! Art and craft shows are an amazing way to get your name out locally, but they can be very time consuming and sometimes not even profitable. It was in 2005, in the middle of the art and craft show “season” of my life that Christina and I got married, and another new chapter of my life began.

For the next two years, I pressed on with the art shows, approaching galleries to try to get my work accepted, and I had a handful of custom jobs for clients here and there. I loved these three methods of exposure, but I kept wishing there was a way I could get my work visible to more people in more places than just West Michigan.

In January 2007, one of my good friends told me about Etsy. She talked about how you could list an item for four months for only 20 cents! The thought of only spending 20 cents to have my metal furniture online for the whole world to see was enough for me to investigate further into the world of Etsy. After reading success stories and learning more about how to set up an Etsy shop, I jumped in headfirst—that's pretty much how I am about everything I get involved in.

At the time of launching my Etsy shop, I had no prior knowledge of the Internet besides checking e-mail, shopping on eBay, and watching funny videos. I knew my wife had something called a Facebook page, but I had no clue what it was and I wasn't really interested in finding out. I had no personal experience with product photography, search engine optimization (SEO), online marketing, or even selling anything online. Luckily, Christina and I are good friends with an amazing photographer, and he helped me shoot some of my furniture pieces so I could start listing them on Etsy.

With my drive and passion to get my furniture out there, I filled my Etsy shop with metal. Three weeks after opening my Etsy shop, I made my first sale! It was a $20 candle holder that I had sold many of at art shows. I still remember that feeling of knowing someone in another state found my candle holder in my Etsy shop, liked it, and purchased it! This was just the beginning of amazing things to come. Etsy had given me a way to get my metal in front of people that would never have known about little old me. I had finally expanded my reach from West Michigan to the rest of the world.

During the first few weeks of selling on Etsy, I discovered the Etsy forums and community, an ever-growing, ever-changing resource of knowledge. I was chatting in the forums one evening when a seller mentioned that they liked my metal furniture, home accessories, and art, but I needed to expand my shop into the jewelry scene. Being a welder metal guy, I thought jewelry was not for me at all. But after browsing Etsy a bit and seeing other amazing metal jewelry artists, I decided to try my hand at jewelry.

By creating jewelry, I found a way to express my creativity in a smaller, less time-consuming way than I did with my furniture. I love expressing my artistic ability and style in a one-inch-by- one-inch piece of scrap metal. The incorporation of jewelry and smaller, less expensive items into my Etsy shop was the change I needed to start selling more items and eventually quit my day job.

Through hard work and dedication, I taught myself what I needed to know to maintain a successful Etsy business. Since first joining Etsy in 2007, I have continually strived to improve my photography skills, customer service, and online marketing, and keep designing new lines of product. How to Make Money Using Etsy is designed to teach you what you need to know to successfully set up an Etsy shop and take the fear out of selling your handmade goods online. You will also learn the important skills to promote your Etsy shop on Facebook, Twitter, and your very own blog.

Chapter 1

All About Etsy

Etsy's mission is to enable everyone to make a living, making the things they love, and to connect makers with buyers from around the world. Founded in 2005, Etsy is a worldwide handmade community that spans over 150 countries. To me, as a seller, Etsy is a life changer, and as a buyer, I know when I make an Etsy purchase, I'm helping artists like myself.

Is Etsy the right online marketplace for you? Take a look at what some Etsy sellers and buyers are saying about Etsy and decide for yourself.