I make living on my etsy shop. I quite my day job & make more money at etsy, but I do log long hours. Etsy is what you make it. I have sold close to 400 bars of soap on/through etsy this months.
Type ‘Love Spell Soap’ into the search. There are 170 shops selling Love Spell soap. It's not original; you can buy it on every street corner. I don't mean to sound harsh, but you have to make your product original. I am not speaking to the OP, but to everyone who is upset that etsy isn't making them rich and famous. It's not etsy's job. They have given you tools & you must figure out how to use them to your benefit.
You cannot sit & wait for sales to come; you should research what is & what is no selling for other shops. Research which shops have top sales & try to figure out why, update your photos & verbiage regularly. Figure out what is not being offered and offer that, which gives you a niche market. Advertise. Advertise. Advertise. Keep a blog , a facebook & a twitter (just having them doesn’t count, you must work them too). Check out which tags are most frequently searched on etsy & incorporate those unto your shop. Offer sales & specials, free samples, friend referral & so on & so forth. Find other shops (or even a whole team) with a similar customer base & cross market with them, NOT other soap makers that would be counterproductive. Maybe a jewelry shop or a makeup shop, you feature her & she will feature you & you can share your customer base while expanding your own. Featuring 1 shop 1 time is not helpfull, you need to feature a different shop each week. That means you get featured each week too. Each feature should get you new customers, so this way you are adding a few new customers to your customer base wekly. Be smart though, feature shops that are already established so they have customers to share. If they have no customers, it was a waste of your time. By the same tone, don’t feature shops that are out of your league or they will feel it is not worth their time to reciprocate. Think, Think, Think. Read everything you see about marketing, social networks, etc. (I have even bought those little guides on etsy for 5-6 dollars, secret marketing strategies, etc). You will get tips & ideas on how to be successful. Pretend like you are working for someone else. Pretend you are managing their business & they are paying you $25.00 an hour to increase sales monthly. If you expect your hobby to be a business, you have to treat it like a business. You have to work it.
I know this is a bit of a rant, but honestly, making the soap is 10% of the business, it's the other 90% that will get it sold & most of the time people are not willing to do the other 90% and whine because their soap is not selling like magic. You MUST work hard.
Above all else, stop whining! Whining never ever sold a bar of soap, get off your behind & work at it.
If anyone who would like to be positive, procative & increase their ETSY presence please join the thread I am starting in the business section of this forum.
What works for you?
