Advice on getting started please....

[Former_Member]

Hi all, I am completely NEW to Etsy. Well, as a seller at least. I have been admiring the site for years. I have recently opened my own store. I have not had any sells as of yet, but I have not really expected any since I am so new, and am constantly changing and evolving with my ideas and items every day. My question is not about why I have not been selling anything, because hopefully that will come in time if I persist. My question is actually this: When getting started, is it better to find one item type and stick to making a lot of that particular type and listing it before venturing into a bunch of different item types? Basically I have sooo many ideas of things I want to make to sale in my shop, and literally I have a new idea every day. I was just wondering if its better to have a shop with say 50 items, all of them being different types or better to have a shop of 50 items with the same type. Like instead of 50 items, some of them headbands, some skirts, some cloth diapers, some scarves, some dresses, etc, as opposed to a shop full of only headbands. Does it help to get started by sticking to one item type? Or am I over-thinking this..lol? Any advice on this question would be greatly appreciated.

[CedarandPearl]

Hi Jessica,

Welcome to Etsy!! I'm fairly new to the site too, so I'm sure there are more seasoned sellers on here that can give you a more weighted response. Here's my two cents (theirs may be more like 10 cents!)

I've read a lot on the Forums and Team discussions about this particular topic. The general suggestion from those places, and from the Etsy Sellers Handbook is to try to make sure the items in your shop are cohesive. The easiest way to go about that is to have items of the same classification... like headbands. If you'd like to branch out to various items, make sure they're cohesive with each other.

For example, if you're going to do headbands and dresses, make sure that the photos look like they go together. You may even want to pair the headband and dress together to take one "ensemble" picture, but also have individual pictures of close-up views of each alone so there's no mistaking what it is you're selling.

Ultimately, there seems to be a two-possibility scenario. If you have a bunch of headbands of all different styles, you'll have people coming to you as the place to buy headbands. If you have dresses, or cloth diapers, or scarves, you could have those people coming in to look at your shop, and will see your other items. The key is to make everything look like it goes together. Like it's all supposed to be in one shop together.

With that said, I would suggest going through to take more photos of your products. Take TONS of photos (I have too many to count) and then choose the best ones to illustrate your items. Try to make them all on a similar background so that they look like they go together. All white seems to be a good way to go for lots of shops. And your number, 50, is a good range to start shooting for. The "magic" number mentioned in lots of discussions is 100 items... or 50 depending on who you talk to! But that number seems to be key to drawing in a large population of people to look at your things and buy.

Hope this helps!

[Former_Member]

Thank you! That does help. Ill take all the advice I can get right now!

[Former_Member]

Hello Ladies,
I have been trying to get my site up and running and can't seem to do anything right. As a matter of fact I haven't put anything up cause I don't know how??? Will someone please help me to get the site going. I don't know how to do a banner or anything else for that matter. Computers were not in my native tongue. (older) But I do have beautiful jewelry that I have been working on for a long time.

Is there a site that teaches you how to do all of that? You know, designing the site and colors and photos? I don't even know how to do a website. So, Please, Please could some one help me??
Thank You

[GingerAndPear]

What you need to get you started is a banner for your site. It is like a shop sign. As they say a picture speaks a thousand words so the audience can get a view straight away of what is in your shop

[CedarandPearl]

Hi Leonora,
Welcome :) First of all, the best place to get tons of information about starting the shop is on the Etsy Seller Handbook. There are tons of articles on how to format things, how to set up your listings, etc. Reading through the team discussions will give you lots of ideas and information too.

Etsy makes a lot of this stuff really easy for us, so it's not so much trying to design a website as it is designing a shop that happens to be online. If you were to open a storefront, what would you want it to look like? How would you present your work? What would draw your buyers in? Those are the things you should think about when designing your banner and your listings.

Your banner, like Harshey said, is like a sign for your shop, to draw people in and make your shop look cohesive. One tip from the handbook is to use a photo of one of your items as a banner, then add some text to it. Take a look around at different shops on Etsy to get an idea of what banners could look like, and then start to design yours. Mine has evolved several times, and you can change it to go along with the shop as it evolves and takes its full form.

Initially your shop will probably be a little scattered. You want to try to evolve it to look like a single store. Have your photos all taken on backgrounds that are complementary to each other so all of the items look like they belong together. Having a cohesive shop brings people in, and keeps them looking at all of your items.

As for making your banner and your photos, there are lots of tips on Etsy's handbook pages for you to review. If you end up having specific questions, you could always ask the team and people will pitch in where they have experience.

But before you go putting up your listings, I would suggest getting a banner up that you like, finalizing your policies and your shop announcements sections, and taking tons of product photos to select which ones you like the most.

Hope this helps!