hey what's up guys in today's video
we're gonna react to healthy wealthy
skinnies video on the ugly side of etsy
and I can't wait to hear what she has to
say I will link to her original video at
the top of the description as well so if
you like her content definitely go check
out her Channel show her some love all
right let's get right to it
all right guys the channel is healthy
wealthy skinny let's see the ugly side
of etsy five things Etsy sellers won't
tell you Anthony now for about two years
and I can say that I've had some pretty
good success but I can also say that it
hasn't been all sunshine and Roses I've
done a lot of videos on Etsy teaching
everything from how to set up your Etsy
account to etsy's fees but when teaching
about Etsy there's a tendency to focus
only on the good things you're used to
seeing me like this but most of the time
I'm like this working behind the scenes
strategizing and trying to grow my
business that was a cool video effect by
the way and I think the videos with the
negative slant tend to do better by the
way been a business owner and running
the Etsy Shop is great but just like
anything else you have The Good The Bad
and The Ugly in this video I'm going to
tell you five things Etsy sellers
typically won't tell you I'm going to
focus on the ugly side of Etsy selling
on Etsy like running any business can be
very stressful
Essie is easy to get started it's a very
low barrier to entry you can get your
account set up super fast and if you
don't know how to do that you can watch
the video that I have Linked In the
cards above me but getting started on
Etsy is pretty easy the stress comes in
when it comes to running your site and
I'm not I'll even mention really quickly
as a reaction video so I'm supposed to
hit pause and react other you know what
I mean as we go so apologies for for if
I do it at an annoying time but I was
talking to Juna at detour shirts
recently and yeah he said that like part
of the reason why he quit Etsy is
because uh yeah it's just it turns into
becoming quite a bit of work especially
like if your shop is successful there's
a correlation between like how
successful your shop is and how much
time you have to spend answering
customers you know they have like a
24-hour uh SLA you know they want to
respond quickly
um they want you know you might have to
change orders cancel orders can you do
custom orders all this stuff so talking
about just making sales because that's
part of any business Essie has its own
set of interesting stressful things that
you have to deal with the Etsy
Marketplace has its own set of rules and
it's very important that you understand
those rules because breaking them could
potentially end your entire business if
Etsy is the only place that you're
selling and I've learned from experience
that it's easy to break one of etsy
rules even if you're not trying I sell
joggers and I had a list so have I by
the way I've learned the hard way before
in the past as well thing and I wanted
to refresh it the listing had been up
for about a year and I'm thinking let me
just add some new pictures refresh this
listing and the joggers are for The Fall
season so fall season is approaching so
let me refresh the listing I had already
taken pictures of these joggers and it
just so happened that the model took the
pictures in front of a stage shelf
inside of a room and on that shelf there
were some designer Goods I didn't pay
those designer Goods any attention I'm
just thinking we've got these pictures
and I've had the pictures for I don't
know maybe I probably had the pictures
for you
I decided to put those pictures on the
site I cropped them up they look nice I
put them in my listing and instantly my
listing is taken down from Etsy now I
don't know what's going on or why my
listing is taken down but if you've ever
had a listing deactivated there's a
section in your shop where you can see
those deactivated listings I instantly
go to my email I check my email and it's
an automated message just telling me
that I have broken an Etsy rule
um and it really doesn't give me much to
go on with what rule I broke I will
venture guess that it is the Etsy may
have taken a stance against like
designer Goods I mean like maybe like
the high-end ones because I know there
were a lot of people selling fake ones
for a period of time I haven't really
checked recently if that's still an
issue but
um funny short story but like in college
I bought like a Gucci headband just
because I thought it was I thought I
just thought it was funny but instead of
paying like whatever three 400 500 bucks
I just paid like 20 or 30 bucks on Etsy
it's definitely bootlegged I still have
it it's pretty funny but um yes I'm
guessing that's where this is going but
I didn't know that I'm learning as you
guys as we go I'm learning with you
because I I've never had that happen to
me but if that's what happened that's
interesting but I knew that I'd broken
some kind of rule so I instantly go to
the Etsy rules online trying to figure
out what I did I'm looking around and it
says well make sure that you are not
um doing any counterfeit type of
advertising or you're not advertising
any counterfeit goods and I'm thinking
these are joggers and I've had these
jockers up forever so I can't be doing
that I go and look at the pictures I
scan through the pictures and lo and
behold I look in the background and now
I can see the designer brand names in
the back on the show so now sc's
algorithm or some kind of automated
feature that Etsy has when you put up
pictures has scanned the pictures and
now it looks like I am trying to make
counterfeit designer joggers I guess
that's really interesting to note I knew
that Amazon merch was using AI to
basically read text in an image so you
know how like you can can submit a shirt
and maybe provide
keyword data like you know optimize the
listing in the title and the brand uh
with whatever words you choose but then
you can put something different or you
know try to game the algorithm in the
design not that I'd recommend you should
do this but like people were doing it in
the past and then Amazon like upgraded
their Ai and they can read whatever text
you have in the design and they'll sniff
that out so I guess Etsy has a similar
thing going on
and now my listing is down
of course I'm freaking out because my
listing is down this could be a strike
against my shop
um you never know with Etsy they could
take everything down not just the
listing they could take my whole shop
down and if anybody has ever tried to
get in touch with Etsy support you know
it is a nightmare and if you talk to
somebody nine times out of ten that
person's really not gonna help you much
yeah another that's that's honestly
probably the biggest downside of etsy
that most people deal with is dealing
with support I think Etsy might be
working on this but I'm just going for
past experience and and SC support is
hard to deal with so I have broken a
rule that I didn't even know that I was
breaking and wasn't trying to break now
it did kind of work out because what I
did was instantly notice what was wrong
I went in changed the background of the
pictures updated them on the listing and
just waited it out because the email
said that Etsy would review my listing
and make a determination on whether I
was really doing something wrong and my
listing came back up the next day so
that okay there you go so it took 24
hours they reviewed it she got it back
that's great to know all right let's
jump forward just a little bit another
ugly truth about selling on Etsy and
again I think this might apply to
selling in general is that sometimes
it's really going to suck to make some
products and these might be products
that actually sell for example a product
could just take too long for you to make
for it to be cost effective it could be
too costly to make it could be an
absolutely beautiful product that people
want to buy from you but there's no way
for you to make it profitable and then
in some cases there might be a way for
you to make it profitable but every time
you make it it just really makes you
want to cry or jump out of a window when
it's time to make the product
really important Point she just made
because even as print-on-demand sellers
where we may not physically make the
products
if you offer personalization for
instance that's almost like the print on
demand seller equivalent of handmade
Goods that you might sell on Etsy and
don't lose sight of the fact that your
time is money is your time best spent
doing these custom orders if yes then do
them if not then do something else don't
lose sight of this constant equation
where how you spend your time relative
to the amount of money it will make you
you always have to be thinking about it
don't lose sight of that
and all right let's jump to the next
time
another ugly truth about Stella not Etsy
is that although it was easy to start
your shop getting your shop to a point
where you start making sales and you're
making some real money on Etsy can be
really time consuming and this is true
whether you're selling physical products
or you're going for passive income with
digital products although selling
digital products is passive and pretty
much all you have to worry about is your
customer service and you can sell the
products over and over again getting the
shop set up can be time consuming the
more listings you have on your shop the
better and it's going to take you some
time to get those listings in and if
you're going to do it right you want to
make sure your shop looks aesthetically
pleasing you just don't want to throw up
listings so it's going to take you time
to so it's going to take you time to
make those listing photos you want to
make sure that you're giving your
customers enough information about how
to use those digital products and you
want to make sure that you're giving
them quality digital products so yeah
all good points guys and again she came
back to that time aspect you know it
takes time to do a good job and get that
reward how is your time best spent
because there is not a pre predefined
predetermined path that is the optimal
it's literally unique to you it's Unique
to me it's Unique to her it's Unique to
everybody so just constantly be thinking
and be optimizing your approach to
selling as she mentioned you can sell
physical that you do handmade you can
sell physical that you Outsource for
print on demand you can sell digital
um do what works for you though and
don't be afraid to try new things as
well also wanted to shout out my designs
that software because it is worth
mentioning that the my design software
can basically in bulk create you top of
the line listings with nothing
sacrificed including digital so print on
demand and digital and I can link to
them in the description in case you guys
aren't familiar with the my design
software but it integrates directly with
Etsy taking the time to make the things
yourself whether you're going to sell
svgs or printables or resume templates
or just any kind of digital file you
want to make sure that you're spending
enough time to make sure you're selling
a quality product so it's not as easy as
just setting up a digital shop and just
letting it go it is time consuming and
if you're selling physical products then
again it's even more time consuming
because you not only have to optimize
your listings you have to make sure that
you are providing excellent customer
service and so these are all good points
um related to just selling on Etsy in
general so for the sake of my reaction
video Let's just skip to the next one
another ugly truth about selling on Etsy
is that sometimes more sales equals less
creativity when I first started my shop
I really liked that I was able to
provide custom shirts to people I like
when I got a message from a buyer and
they wanted to design a shirt with me or
they have their own custom logo and we
could work together on a creative
process I would get their information I
would make cute mock-ups send it back
and forth I really didn't care how many
revisions we did it was a creative
process that I was working with a
customer on and I like that now as
myself we've all been there right and if
you haven't been there I'd recommend
offering customization personalization
whatever you want to call it
and go through that a couple times I've
even shared stories in the past on
YouTube about how like some of my most
successful Etsy products were from
requests that people had messaged me
because I was you know a good responsive
seller in the past I had some repeat
buyers like hey can you make me this
shirt with this design I'm like yeah
I'll make that for you next thing you
know I'm like selling them all the time
you know so it's good to actually do
what uh she mentioned here I wish I knew
her name I apologize for not knowing her
name I just know her channel name uh but
yeah it's worth trying and then as she's
mentioning too 100 agree it's like you
start achieving more success you have
less time to take these custom orders so
it's an interesting dichotomy start to
increase and I was also selling some
standard designs in my shop and those
standard designs started to pick up I
started having less and less time to be
creative with those customers I didn't
have the time to create as many mock-ups
or go through as many revisions because
running the shot myself I was busy doing
other things or really just trying to
get orders you know cut press packed and
shipped out so the more my shop grew the
less I was able to be creative and work
Hands-On with customers yeah that makes
a lot of sense Etsy is the is the some
products just don't sell
no this one can be a hard pill to
swallow
and what you said if you only have one
product and that one product doesn't by
the way that's such a great point I
can't believe she said that because it's
like that's one of those things that I
never think to say I talk about a lot of
stuff on this channel but like that's
one of those I don't know if I ever
really address so great Point well then
of course that's not a good thing um but
for me what I found in the T-shirt
industry we know the t-shirts sell on
Etsy we know that apparel will sell but
I have tons of shirts in my shop that
have never made one sale I put the
design out there and for whatever reason
it just did not catch on whether it was
it was never found in the Etsy algorithm
so people never saw it on whether they
saw it and it was just not something
that was selling at the time but what I
have found is that you're gonna have
certain designs or certain things that
you sell that's going to bring in the
majority of your revenue and then once
you start finding those things the trick
is to try to replicate those so you have
more things that are selling and yes
great advice again
um like seriously though it's really
good advice like not everything's gonna
sell which is a great point for a
YouTuber to to make because it's like
one of those things that I think people
that are new that try really hard to get
to the point of hey I listed something
for sale I did it it's like don't
celebrate yet now you have to make sales
that's the real hard part and people
it's like you eventually it sets in for
the people that are long-term thinkers
like oh yeah it's not all gonna be
winners but the ones that are you know
that's what's going to keep me Keep Me
inspired to keep pushing forward and
then like she's mentioning here like
when you find a niche or a product or
whatever it is that's working you know
double down on that
thinking what I'm saying might not apply
to every product or every type of thing
that you're selling so I'm just giving
you a generalization and what I've
learned from my experience not
everything is going to sell and this is
why I tend to think the more listings
you have the better I even have multiple
listings for the same product because
I'm doing research I'm almost treating
it like a scientist I've done that
before too so I love that scientific
experiment I'm changing listing photos
I'm changing Tags I'm doing anything to
optimize those listings so I'll know
whether it is how I have it listed if
that's the reason why it's not selling
or if it's just a product that won't
sell and I gotta tell you that sometimes
I have products that just won't sell no
matter what I try but I do have those
other ones my tried and true products
that once I get everything tweaked just
right those sell for me so you have to
recognize and don't be discouraged if
you have something that's not selling
you've got to take your time do your
research make sure it's a product that
people want and then start tweaking your
listings to try to get them out to the
masses but if it wants sale you know
sometimes they want sale you gotta fail
fast and all that means is it's a trial
and error kind of thing and the more you
try the more you learn so you're really
not feeling at all you're just moving
forward and trying to find that product
or those products that are going to work
on Etsy that's a great perspective
calling it fail fast you know and like
the word fail is it's it's something
that we all say right we all think but
what is it what is a true failure right
to me a true failure is
spending a lot of time not trying
something or you know spending a lot of
time trying something kind of
half-assing it and giving up early and
not learning anything right to me it's
not a failure if you like
acquired the information made a plan
executed it didn't work that's not a
failure that's a learning experience the
next iteration keep getting better you
know and and like we covered in this
video not everything's going to succeed
so don't get too down on yourself if
everything isn't a success because
especially like it depends on what
you're doing but if we're talking print
on demand like I know most of the people
watching on my channel are
print-on-demand sellers
low barrier of Entry means that we can
run a lot of tests right when I say run
a lot of tests I'm saying like let's
create really nice product listings on
Etsy understanding that they're not all
going to be successful and like we
mentioned when you stumble on something
that is a success don't be afraid to
Double Down triple down on that let's
see what else is left in this video not
just gave you some of the ugly truths
about selling on Etsy and you might be
wondering is it even worth it and I'm
going to tell you yes I absolutely love
selling on Etsy even though it's
stressful sometimes but I think we just
have to accept the fact that running a
business is going to be stressful it is
definitely worth it right now I feel
like I've been selling on Auntie for
about two years so for me I'm still at
the beginning of my journey and I am
making anywhere between great long-term
perspective two years in does that mean
you're the end all be all expert
probably not right there's probably
someone out there that knows more than
you right there's people out there that
know more than me for sure but that
doesn't mean I can't talk about it on
YouTube right she's got her YouTube
channel uh and it's a great like
collaborative way of learning together I
know it's a one-way communication Vector
that I look into a webcam and talking to
a mic but like you can respond in the
comment section
um and we can have a kind of interactive
way of saying you know hey this worked
for me oh it worked for you cool I'll
try that on my shop you know there's
Facebook communities obviously I have a
Facebook group Linked In the description
I would say collaborate with others um
collecting information from videos like
like mine where I'm doing a reaction and
and the original video here which is
linked um is a great way to collect
knowledge but don't forget to execute
and don't be scared off by these videos
that uh put a little bit of a negative
slant on things because the reality is
yeah like it's business there's going to
be positives there's going to be
negatives uh but this is a great video I
really enjoyed watching it um learn some
some stuff from it as well so that's
always great guys please like And
subscribe if you like this video let me
know in the comments below if you have
one you'd like me to check out in the
future in a future reaction video please
let me know and thanks for watching I'll
see you tomorrow with a new video
foreign