Hi! I'm new to the team. I had another Etsy shop in the past that did well but decided to close it and focus on the one I am working with now, which I love.
At the end of last year, I set a goal of making $100 in sales each month. Well, that occurred in November and December and last month it was over $200 and it looks like I will probably make that again this month. I'm thinking I should raise my goal for this year to $200 a month in sales. I know this isn't a lot but as I keep adding and designing items, I believe my sales will continue to grow. Also, my items are not high-priced. My other goal is to figure out how to make more money and think it will be with more patterns and more premades. I'm sure the coloring fad will end and my sales in that area will drop. I will have to have other options to fill any voids.
It also helps that I have developed a product for which I have published a pattern for, the Rollup for Coloring, and also have them premade. They are selling well. One of my other goals is to create another, larger version of this to hold more pencils as I have had requests for those. Addtionally, this year I plan to add other Rollup patterns, which are already in process and also premades, for crochet hooks rollups and knitting needles rollups. I have two distributors now for The Rollup (original version ) and The Rollup for Coloring. So that is good. I think it's important to find other revenue streams. I also sell vintage, which I love, and have introduced a couple lines of card that haven't yet sold but I love to make. I know I need to rethink that but can't seem to help myself. :)
One of the changes I made was to start using Promotions in Etsy. It has changed a lot over the years. I encourage folks to try it for a couple weeks. Read all the fine print, then find a dollar number that works for you. I use the promotions with a maximum dollar amount of $2 a day. Rarely, do I use up the $2. I also let Etsy do my bidding for me, but that is optional. So far, by my calculations, it costs me about $1 for every $3 in revenue which is an okay return, I have found over the years. It typically covers my cost, time, and profit, etc.
The other cool thing about using the Promotions is that after a little time you can look at the analytics it provides. There it will tell you for every item you are promoting (and you can be selective), how many impressions there were, how many clicks (what you pay for) and how many $s in sales it generated. It also will tell you which words were searched for the highest (you want those in your keywords) and also which had the highest click-through rate, also very important. Another cool thing is it can tell you which product a person clicked on along side the item they actually bought. For example, I had a sale based on someone clicking on one of my premade Rollups but eventually purchased the pattern to make it, instead. I have also had a person click on one Rollup but then bought a different one. I find this fascinating.
I don't know if many people use the Promotions but it works well for me and it works way better than the Facebook ads that I had been using, and I think it's cheaper, too. So, for this year, I plan to keep using Promotions through Etsy.
Good luck. I hope this information helps and I hope we all have great sales this year with our new or improved goals.
Betsy at Betty Alderman Designs