Are you sick and tired of Etsy and it's algorithm changes that mess with your
shop and forced policies that you can't opt out of and you just want to be in
more control of your shops outcome like more traffic and sales.
In this video I'm going to help you decide if you're really ready to quit Etsy.
Keep watching. Hi,
my name is Mei and I help makers,
artists and designers make a living selling their handmade products online.
Are you really ready to quit Etsy?
I have a few question prompts in this video that you can ask yourself to figure
this out before we dive in. I want to preface this video with that.
I don't think you necessarily have to quit Etsy all together.
My strategy is I focus on my own website and Etsy is just there to make me
passive income in the sense that I'm not doing active marketing and directing
traffic to my Etsy shop.
I've spent the initial time up front to make sure my Etsy listings are optimized
for my keywords and then it's literally set up and forget about it and I think
you can do the same if you're ready for it. So are you ready?
The first question to ask yourself is,
are you willing and ready to do your own marketing and or to invest in learning
how to do marketing? Right?
If you've watched my other video about the pros and cons of Etsy versus being on
your own site,
you'll hear me talk about how Etsy success is simple and it's primarily based
around search engine optimization and keeping up with search trends.
You don't have to worry about social media or getting press mentions or blogging
or having an email list or doing paid ads. When you're on your own site,
you have to start doing those things,
which means more of your time will need to be spent on doing marketing and less
time on making your products. You might hate the sound of that,
but maybe you'll be more open to it knowing that when you do your marketing
right, you'll get more sales and that's kind of cool and fun, right?
And something to consider is if marketing is new to you and it sounds like a
foreign language that you know nothing about,
you might actually start to enjoy it once you've learned how it all works.
This was what happened to me.
I started out completely as a maker first and knowing nothing about business or
marketing,
and it wasn't until a few years into my business that I found a passion for the
marketing side of things. It can be a lot of fun.
It's like a game to me and I keep playing because I want to win.
I learned this recently, but did you know that passion can be developed?
I think it's normal,
but we often have that expectation that passion is just within us and we just
like certain things that we like.
But I'm here to tell you because it's happened to me and it is an actual human
that you can create new passions that you love from doing the thing more and
getting practice for it.
The second question is do you even have time to do all of that extra new
marketing that you probably didn't have to worry about before?
Whatever you did to make sales on Etsy is no longer enough to help you make
sales on your own site.
You have to do more and take a holistic approach to getting traffic and sales.
My recipe is doing outreach consistently,
having sign up forms to collect email addresses from traffic on my site.
Then selling to that traffic via my autoresponder in my email service provider.
Then I layer that on with Facebook ads to boost my results. Personally,
I have a lot of systems and automations in place to make it so that I don't
really have to do any active work to promote my shop.
That's on Shopify and I believe you can do the same thing too.
You just need to know how to do it. PS.
I do have a course called a sale a day business system that teaches you how to
do that and this is how I can run five different businesses at the same time
because everything is so automated in the beginning it will definitely be a lot
of work is setting everything up and if you're trying to do it all yourself by
trial and error,
it's going to take a lot longer to get set up and making regular sales on your
own site. I'm talking about months, if not years before you get there.
It's not impossible,
but I don't want to give you false hope because that's when you get frustrated
and give up, right?
So you have to ask yourself if you are in the right stage in your life where you
can do this.
If you want to turn your business into a fulltime living and you have an
existing day job,
then maybe something to think about is going part time at your day job.
Or if you don't have a day job,
then find one that's part time so that you aren't cutting out your income
completely, but you're gaining back.
Some of your time that you can use to build up your own business and your own
shop. This is what I did in the beginning.
After I graduated from college,
no one would hire me and you could say it's a good thing.
I had trouble finding work, right, because here I am today,
but then I decided to take my business full time and I got a part time job
working as a web designer for a local video effects company back in Minneapolis
when I used to live there.
I worked with them for almost two years and I quit when my business started
gaining momentum and I couldn't split my time anymore, nor did I want to.
But the point I want to make is it will take you time to get there.
So figure out some plan to support that journey if you need to.
Now I feel like I've spent a lot of time drilling in how long it takes.
You might start to feel discouraged like what does this even all four,
right? Well,
it's been nine years since I went full time in my business and I've helped my
husband quit his corporate job so he can pursue his own dreams of developing
video games and playing music.
We've moved to Angeles so I can pursue my childhood dream of becoming an actor.
We live in a beautiful house that I love so much and we have time freedom to do
what we want with our day.
We can outsource things we don't enjoy doing so we don't have to do it and
across all the businesses we run,
we're making just shy of $1 million a year.
I think actually this year might be the year we hit the big 1 million,
which has been a huge goal of mine for a long time, so crossing my fingers,
but overall the quality of our lives is definitely at a whole different level
than it was 10 years ago.
And I say all of this to share with you that if you invest in your business in
the long run it will pay you back multiple times over.
We essentially broke through that income ceiling and we have so much more
opportunities because of this lifestyle and career choice I made over 10 years
ago. It's a long game. Don't play it.
If you need a financial solution or plan that solves a need for right now,
this isn't going to be the answer for you.
If you're enjoying this video,
give it a thumbs up and subscribe because that helps send SEO signals to YouTube
telling it this is a good video and it'll help get this seen by more people.
It'll literally only take you two seconds to do the third question.
Do you have the budget to spend on promoting your shop?
Many people are thinking about jumping the Etsy shit because it's getting crazy
expensive,
but consider that running a business in general is an expensive thing.
Gone are the days where you can expect to start a business and make sales for no
investment on your part.
It takes money to make money and if you're on your own site,
you need a budget to spend on marketing apps, software,
and education to help you run the business and make those sales.
Just being on your own site with Shopify will cost you $29 per month and that's
just the tip of the iceberg,
so don't think that getting off Etsy is going to save you money or be cheaper.
Yes, it's, he is becoming more expensive to sell on and it's just natural,
right?
Because there's so much competition on Etsy and outside of Etsy that they now
have to pay more and work harder to get traffic to you.
But Etsy took care of a lot of things for you.
You didn't need extra apps to run your business.
You didn't have to pay for hosting or a custom branded email address like
info@tinyhandsonline.com because all customer service happens within Etsy combos
and direct messages. I would argue to say that it will be about the same costs,
but it depends on how much sales volume you're selling and a certain point when
you become large enough selling on your own site with Shopify,
it will actually be cheaper than Etsy.
Do you have a strong cohesive product line and memorable brand?
There are a lot of shops on Etsy that just make products that are for trending
search terms.
I have seen shops that sell tee and crafting supplies and jewelry and blankets
all in one and they still make a lot of sales and that's because inherently Etsy
is a search based platform.
People aren't shopping from you because of your brand.
They're shopping from you because you happen to have a great product that
matches what they're searching for at that point in time.
That's a valid strategy,
but that business model won't be very effective when you're on your own site,
on your own site.
Having a brand and a beautiful product line is more important for longterm
success and longevity than just making whatever is trending right now.
I mean it's definitely something you want to consider to make new products that
are on trend, but it's not your entire business model.
If you don't have a brand that can stand alone yet where you don't have to rely
on making trendy products for keyword searches,
then I recommend doing some cleaning up and curating your product line and
investing in branding before you get on your own site. Question five,
do you crave having more control over your own business?
Maybe you're done not having a say in what or when at sea changes things up or
when they introduce new policies. If you've been on Etsy for awhile,
you know that these policy and algorithm changes do affect your business.
I've heard of so many times of Etsy sellers who were happy making lots of sales
on Etsy for years and then suddenly one algorithm change and their sales just
dry up and that's terrible if you're relying on your business to sustain
yourself and your family,
so if you're done with that roller coaster and you're ready and able to take a
more proactive stance for your business,
then maybe it's the right time for you to branch out to your own site.
Just don't forget that having more control means having more work to do because
now more things are available to you and you have more responsibility.
Like with Etsy,
you never had to worry about your website design because well you couldn't even
change any of that on Etsy, but you're on your own site.
You can change your own site design to whatever you want it to be and if you do
it right, this can make a huge difference in your business. Next question is,
are you ready to break away from the competition and pave your own path?
Yes.
There is a lot of direct competition on Etsy and it's almost always a pricing
war to the bottom for who can sell their stuff at the lowest prices.
Getting on your own site is going to help with this problem tremendously,
but carving your own path is also not an easy thing to do.
I highly recommend that you take the time to learn how to do marketing and learn
about eCommerce and conversion rate optimization and outreach and it's not as
easy as you think it is, but it's not hard either.
You just have to take the time to learn it.
And we do talk about all of that on my YouTube channel. So if you haven't yet,
be sure to subscribe.
And another question is have you maybe outgrown Etsy and you're ready to level
up. If you're already doing well on Etsy,
you can actually do a lot better on your own site if you know the right steps to
transition and how to drive traffic to your new site.
And I have another video coming up soon on how to do just that.
But the fact that you're already successful and have made sales on Etsy means
your product is validated. It's in demand and people wanting.
So if you feel like it's time to become your own independent standalone site
that has the power to amplify your current success, then do it.
So much of your decision goes back to the underlying concept that Etsy makes
things so easy for you.
And because of that advantage they are charging for their service,
it will be a lot harder initially to get off and start your own site.
But if you can see it as a longterm decision that it is,
and you're willing to pull up your sleeves and do the good work it takes to get
there, then I think you're ready.