Over the years, people have asked me many, many questions about selling on Etsy. It is hard to cover all the answers necessary to address all questions that may come up, but I will try to do it in an interview style. Hopefully you can find the question you are wanting to ask and see the answer easily.

Q: Do you make money selling on Etsy?

A: This is probably one of the most popular questions I receive on a regular basis. The short answer is yes. There is always more to a question like this, though!

The long answer, though, is that I didn’t start out making a profit selling on Etsy. In fact, I didn’t even start out selling flannel fabric! I started selling baby blankets at first and soooooooooo many people would contact me asking if they could just buy the flannel fabric for the same price. I was lucky to see there was a market for flannel fabric back then and quickly shifted. (This is an important lesson in listening to what your customers want.) I still offered baby blankets for sale in the beginning, but do you know how many I sold? Zero. This was because the competition back then for handmade baby blankets was so extreme that my listings on Etsy did not show up to people. Instead, they would find my listings while looking for specific flannel fabric designs. So, I shifted and didn’t look back. I absolutely love that decision and it really fits me much better. I keep so busy with the flannel fabric by the yard selling on Etsy that I am not able to make baby blankets for sale anymore!

Making money on Etsy is easy as long as you find something that customers will purchase then make sure to cover ALL of your costs. The fees have increased over the years, so take a look at what each one currently is and make sure to calculate that into your price. There is a listing fee, transaction fee, and processing fee. If you sell over $12,000 a year, Etsy also charges a mandatory marketing fee of at least 12%. (Yes, this is extremely high for what they do, and many people think unfair, but you have to account for it if you are going to sell on Etsy!) ALL of those fees apply to shipping and yes, even to the tax that is charged as well. If your customer is in a state with high sales tax, you’re going to have higher fees than someone from a state with low sales tax. It might only be ten cents or so, but it adds up over time!

So, cover fees, cover material costs, and factor in enough for your labor. I realize there are a lot of people that feel they shouldn’t have to pay you for labor, but if you don’t pay yourself for your time, then why do it? At the very minimum, you should be calculating the costs to make sure you break even. Even if you are selling products because you made them for therapy reasons, you really do not want to be going into debt selling on Etsy.

If you want to try selling on Etsy, make sure to use my link for 40 free listings to get started: 40 Free Listings on Etsy. Using that link BEFORE you start your shop will give you 40 listings to try out for your shop. (So basically, start your shop after you click the link.) It will reduce your costs a little in the beginning to get started! I have not had any benefit to providing that link for me personally anymore because Etsy is not great about how they honor the free listings for established sellers. Make sure YOU get 40 free listings from it at least to save a little bit of money! With all of the changes occurring on Etsy, it gets super expensive to sell and you should try to save where you can when possible.

Q: Is it easy to sell on Etsy?

A: The answer is yes, but no. Coming in and learning something new is always going to take time and can be frustrating. Etsy is continuously testing features and making changes. It can be very frustrating to learn one way and then have to change a few weeks later. If you have a lot of time to sit and click around, feel like you are fairly good at learning programs and overall computer applications, and have the patience to learn something that you may or may not want to do…. then I highly encourage you to start up a shop and try to sell something! (I suggest this no matter what, though.) If you get frustrated easily, don’t have a lot of time to learn something new (it will still take a little time to “master” techniques), or like to have the coaching style… then you might want to get some coaching.

I’ve joined my sister at times in teaching people to sell online. I focus on Etsy mostly because my shop is in the top 0.1% on Etsy. This is a pretty good accomplishment! I can’t say that I know EVERYTHING about Etsy, but I have been selling on Etsy since 2013. I think I started out with just browsing a while before selling. Learning the site back then was difficult, but I took the time to do it and don’t regret it. Now they have a lot of different features and constant updates, so it can get confusing. You really need to be patient selling on Etsy.

Q: Can Selling on Etsy replace my regular job?

A: NO! Well, it can, but not in the beginning. In reality, if you are just now getting started with selling on Etsy, then you need to consider the fact that it will take you quite a while to get established with the extremely high number of new shops being added daily. In 2020, there was a gigantic increase in shops because of the pandemic. Many of those shops are now closed because they were created out of curiosity or were scammers.

You also need to remember that whatever you put out in public for sale can be duplicated with ease now. If you need to protect your products and intellectual property, then you definitely need to have legal services in place. I will write up an article soon about the necessity of having legal protections and what types there are, but for now, you can check out Legal Shield, which is what I use. I highly suggest having both legal and identity protections in place immediately, but at minimum once you’re making a decent amount of money.

Q: What are Good Products for Selling on Etsy?

A: This list is so extensively long that there is no way that I can provide it for you. However, I can tell you how to get some ideas. Go shopping! Well, don’t buy anything. You can browse around and see what other people are selling on Etsy. This is going to be necessary to identify what you have as competition anyway.

I would suggest using an incognito setting on your browser for searching, though. Also to clear the cache off and on. Etsy caches your searches and tries to tailor what you see to how you are searching. So, this will limit what you see. If you want to research many types of products, plan to clear the cache and remove any tracking cookies often. I wouldn’t really worry about it too much when you are getting started, though. You will find plenty even with Etsy showing you what they think you want to see!

Remember there are rules for selling on Etsy. You need to be involved in the process in some way. There are some items that you can buy and resell, like craft products. (I sell flannel fabric, which is an item allowed to be resold on Etsy.) However, if you go over to a cheap website from another country and buy already made jewelry to resell, then plan on getting shut down and possibly banned. Etsy really doesn’t like that, and their new bots will close people down even if there are other people copying you!

Q: What happens if I get banned when Selling on Etsy?

A: Getting banned when selling on Etsy is not a fun process. The seller forums are full of people that have been banned for one reason or another. This is one reason that I highly suggest having legal assistance at times. If you are doing something potentially illegal, then nobody can help you. However, if you’ve consulted a lawyer and they have assured you that your products are completely legal, then they should be able to help you get Etsy’s attention if you get banned. It can take several weeks to even get a response from Etsy customer service, so knowing what is OK to sell on Etsy is a good starting point. If you have questions about the legality of a product, skip it until you are sure it is good for selling on Etsy.

If you end up getting banned permanently, there are other sites to sell on. Selling on Etsy is just a really big opportunity for many people because it is a very niche website. Anyone in the craft market is bound to eventually get onto Etsy for something. It’s definitely not the biggest website out there, though! I cannot tell you how many of my customers sell on Etsy and never consider buying their craft items on Etsy. That is probably partially due to the fact that Etsy’s fees are quite high and so it’s hard to sell at low prices on Etsy. When people are beating out big named companies, then there should be some questions that are made before purchasing. It is technically illegal for anyone selling on Etsy to use your personal information for anything outside of the order placed. However, there is no way for anyone to know what information is really being used. So, if the product is super cheap on Etsy, you might want to find out why!

Q: I’m Stuck with Selling on Etsy because of…. insert reason here. Can you help?

A: Not really. There are going to be a hundred obstacles when it comes to selling on Etsy. Please know that I would love to help every single person that wants to sell on Etsy. However, I have so many of my obstacles to hurdle that I just don’t have time to help everyone with theirs.

I can offer some advice, though. Take it one step at a time. If you are stuck with the research process, then narrow it down to items that you like. If I have learned anything from selling on Etsy it is that there are going to be items that people either cannot find or do not like. Do you know what happens with those items? I get stuck with them! So, I have stopped purchasing designs that I do not like. If I am going to get stuck with 20+ yards of a flannel fabric design, then it needs to be something that I might actually use one day. In reality, the companies that are selling the flannel designs should have done more than enough research for me to know that any design will sell…. some day. How long are you willing to hang on to that product that is not selling on Etsy?

Remember that a lot of the process is trial and error. I had to move my prices around, listen to customers, and change up tags, descriptions, and pictures until I found a good groove for my shop. It’s not an easy process! Be patient and do research on whatever you choose to sell on Etsy.

Q: Where Can I Get Products for My Craft Projects?

A: Big companies that sell craft products are usually your best bet. However, I’m finding that Amazon is one of my “go to” resources because of the large number of sellers on there. I can find almost anything, but sometimes the prices are great and other times they are ridiculous. Make sure to shop around for the best prices to save money, but also remember to calculate in shipping costs!

I have a secret resource for people as well. If you’ve read this far, you deserve to know about this. My twin sister and I started obtaining storage unit auctions in the past year or two. In one of the storage units, we ended up with an enormous number of craft products. It was a large shop that had closed down and everything was stored nicely in a storage unit in totes and bins. Almost everything was brand new and still in packaging! It had fabric, buttons, embellishments, lace, patterns, and so much more. We are working on getting items listed on our Etsy shop called Eason Twins, but we also have a YouTube channel and website. Outside of the craft items, we have tools and furniture and all kinds of things that can be used to make products for selling on Etsy! If this sounds like a good starting place for you (upcycling is a pretty hot trend at times on Etsy), then you can check out our website at easontwins.com or the YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@EasonTwins. We plan to sell almost everything we find and will be offering discounts, so check it out!

I think that is enough for this article. If you want to know more information about Selling on Etsy, please come back and visit again. I will keep updating articles as I can with resources and information about both Selling on Etsy and Protecting yourself and business. This website is all written by me, so if you need some specific information, let me know!