I've been selling on Etsy since the golden days back when the platform was easy to master the algorithm was easy to conquer and success was as easy as listing a great product but unfortunately times have changed so when I created a brand new Etsy Shop with a very defined Niche last September I made it a point to document everything I did along the way and as of May 21st we've officially hit 100 sales which means it's time to share the steps that I took to get from 0 to 100 and what new Etsy sellers should expect when it comes to growth on the [Music] platform if you're new here my name is Darla Moore founder of the handmade Alpha Academy for Etsy Sellers and manager at e rank.com etsy's most popular SEO tool which is why last year when my assistant Michelle and I decided to start a new Etsy shop together I was pretty darn confident I mean let's be real for a second success on Etsy isn't as easy as listing a thousand random items and letting them go despite what many YouTubers preach right now Etsy isn't passive and it never has been so when starting a new shop from the ground up I wanted to prove three things to my audience the first is that success is still possible on Etsy you just have to be realistic with your goals and the amount of time and work it'll take second I wanted to show pod sellers how to do print on demand the right way and this is coming from me someone who ran a sixf fig handmade jewelry shop for over 10 years to be clear this isn't a pod video but I've got to point out the glaring facts when it comes to pod saturation on the platform hopefully this video helps no matter what you sell and lastly I wanted to show sellers how fun and rewarding building a shop can be when you're actually passionate about what you're making so let's run through everything that I've done to grow our shop over the last 9 months almost like our own little baby passion when Michelle and I first discussed the creation of a new Etsy shop we didn't lead our discussions with money or Trends we weren't Googling lists of the top selling items on Etsy nor were we concerned with how many items we'd make because focusing on those things first is like putting your cart before the horse instead we started discussing a shop based around something that we were both already passionate about fantasy books this was a niche that we already loved and were invested in with Michelle already being the editor of my own book and us having a mutual love of many of the same fantasy novels coming up with a brand was easy because we already knew the industry the target audience and the types of items that these buyers loved we knew the niche inside and out we were already passionate about the industry all we needed to do was make the items that our ideal customers wanted based on the books that were already trending the legal side I saw you typing that comment about copy opyright violations you were doing it weren't you yes in order to sell merchandise based around some of fantasy's highest profile authors Michelle and I had to obtain legal licensing this also means that we pay out a small percentage to these authors after every sale you can find a full playlist about copyright laws on Etsy up here but to keep it short and sweet products themed around large video games TV shows movies celebrities song lyrics and brands are not realistic licensing targets for small sellers like us it's just too expensive to obtain licensing and the risks are too high as I always say unless your lawyer can be their lawyers it's better to play it safe but this small step allowed us to create products based around our favorite stories like a court of thorns and roses and from blood and Ash without fear of our shop being suspended or Worse being sued and it allowed us to legally create items that were in high demand product testing okay this part is for the Pod sellers but handmade folks stick with me because I'm going to keep it short after developing our product we didn't just list those suckers right in our shop we ordered samples and yes trust me it was expensive but it was also necessary for one we were able to determine the quality of each item versus what we'd need to charge some of our samples were bad like embarrassingly bad and without ordering samples we never would have known how bad the items ended up being definitely not something that we would have wanted our customers to experience you can check out our sample review video up here second these sample orders were tax deductible they were necessary purchases for our business which left us with a nice big write-off at the end of the year and lastly having those samples on hand allowed us to take our own product photos without the use of mockups let's talk a little bit more about product photography product photos you still with me handmade folks because this topic is a bit of a fusion for my pod Peeps mockups are boring I mean seriously guys if I have to see this exact mockup one more time I'm going to turn into a pumpkin mockups are necessary sometimes but I promise you taking your own product photos will give your products so much more life and let me be clear I wasn't the best photographer when we started especially when it came to shiny reflective items so I started buckling down on my product photography skills by learning from a professional product photography coach Christina Nicole the difference was night and day and I learned so much about light and staging props in a meaningful way you can check out her YouTube channel up here to learn amazing tips that will transform the way that you photograph your products no matter what you sell limited choices a few years ago I read a book called The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwarz which taught me a lot about Choice overload and through these lessons I realized that offering every color option Under the Sun wasn't necess Neary nor was it helpful to buyers so instead I started paying close attention to the colors of clothing that large influencers in my Niche were offering and what I found was that in the bookish niche most of our Target customers gravitated towards trendy neutrals like white cream gray and black by offering a limited number of choices within our variations we are helping indecisive buyers by narrowing their focus on only a few of the best options owning domains another step that we took right away was claiming all social media accounts associated with our business name as well as the domain and domain email address when communicating with authors a domain email address looks way more professional and established than a standard Gmail address plus it ensures email delivery for our email marketing campaigns more on that part in a few minutes getting social before our products were even available for sale I immediately started posting teaser photos videos and stories on social media and I began engaging with the accounts of people already in the bookstagram community by building a solid pre-marketing campaign before our launch we were able to establish a small group of followers who are interested in buying our products even before we launched them unfortunately over the last few months I haven't been super consistent with our social media accounts because I've been super busy but with Autumn being a busy season for our Niche we plan to get back back into more content scheduling in the coming weeks funnel building another early step that we put into place was an email list because in my first Etsy Shop my email list was the number one traffic driver that grew my business to six figures we also set up an automatic discount code that sends to customers right when they join and we listed the email address in our shop announcement for mailing list setup my personal favorite platform is MailChimp for so many reasons it's free up to 500 sub subscribers you can build awesome sign up Pages the whole thing is drag and drop and is super easy to use and it's easy to make your list gdpr compliant because MailChimp takes care of all the Privacy aspects for you and they've made the process of setting up your dmark SPF and dkim super easy to ensure that your emails are actually received by your subscribers now full disclaimer I personally don't teach mailing list setup and detailed funnel building here on my channel due to the legalities that come with setting up your list correctly but I do teach a step-by-step funnel strategy in my Etsy coaching program that'll be open on June 14th so if you're interested in learning more about it be sure to click the link up here but if you want to wing it on your own MailChimp has tons of videos and articles on their page to help you get started just be sure to do your research on gdpr and the can spam act so you don't break any laws the small details Etsy is more likely to rank shops in search that have completed about sections and policies so when setting up our shop if there was an area to fill something out we filled it out I know this sounds like a super basic step but during our shop critique sessions I see so many sellers who neglect these little details like the about section photos a highresolution cover photo FAQs shop members shop announcements the point is we took advantage of every single field that Etsy allowed us to fill out and customize owning keywords when it comes to our SEO strategy our goal isn't to rank for every possible keyword Under the Sun that's like comparing the brightness of a flashlight to the brightness of a laser while a flashlight may have a larger radius the light itself is dimmer and unfocused whereas a laser is bright and precise on its Target and for us our Target was the bookish community we buckled down on keywords related to specific books characters and our Target demographic which is fantasy and Romany readers and we use keywords related to the bookish community nearly everywhere in our shop in order to show Etsy exactly what our business is all about merch themed around book talk and bookstagram famous fantasy and Romany books monitoring listings using the e- rank track changes tool we also spent a lot of time observing the listings in our shop that were bringing the most traffic during the holiday season this ornament listing was our bestselling design but because it was seasonal sales dropped after the holidays then in February the author of this book released another book in a parallel Series so we immediately began making merchandise for this new release and launched a tapestry that incorporated elements from all of her popular series now nearly 5 months later this tapestry has become our new bestseller and it's probably not surprising that these two trending items share many of the same keywords customer communication most sellers talk about how much they hate when sellers message them which is fine it's understandable for those maintaining star seller Badges and response rates but that's speaking from a seller perspective in our shop we make it a point to message our buyers throughout the transaction process in order to keep them informed and this practice is backed by exclusive data that we collected at e rank from a panel of over a thousand Etsy customers where a majority of panelists stated that they'd prefer to be updated when their order was received shipped and if there were any delays by messaging our customers throughout the transaction process we've been able to humanize our brand which has resulted in 30 reviews which is pretty darn spectacular after 100 orders if you want a copy of the exact messages that we send to our customers you can click the link up here or visit Alphas su. for the free pdf review responses another small practice that we've put into place are review responses when you publicly respond to a review that review is locked in and the customer can no longer change it it also shows future Shoppers how responsive you are so for each of our good reviews we always take time to thank our buyers and we even make specific book references based on the item that the customer purchased opportunity seeking our Niche is a little different than most others but opportunity seeking isn't a niche exclusive concept for our shop we're constantly reaching out to new Authors and collecting licensing deals in order to stay on top of the most popular books that our Target customers are reading but nearly any Niche has the ability to seek opportunities through influencer marketing press releases business Partnerships giveaways the list goes on right now I'm currently helping my mom with a new business venture where she's crocheting life-size perfect boyfriend dolls and over the last two weeks she's already been featured by Daily Mail and a podcast and all of these opportunities came from in a niche adjacent Facebook groups and posting consistent Instagram reels look if my mom can go viral selling perfect boyfriend dolls you can do it too it's so important for new sellers to understand that Niche demand and quality are what dictates the success of a shop When developing our new brand we knew that we were fishing from a small bucket rather than attempting to create everything for everyone and with a small Niche success takes a bit more time but the power of a small Niche allows for stronger customer connections and repeat buyers which can help Brands maintain Longevity if you're one of those sellers who is still chugging along definitely don't give up but also don't sit and twiddle your thumbs waiting around for success to find you opportunities come from persistence and hard work and when it comes to business your work will never truly be done because there's always something to do but when you build a brand that you love and you're selling within a niche that you're passionate about the wor feels less like work and you'll find yourself enjoying the time that you spend building your business and hey for some people this stuff is second nature but for others sometimes it takes a little help and if you currently feel like you're flying solo without a road map consider checking out my own self-paced Etsy coaching program which opens on June 14th for public enrollment I have become a better person through ha8 what I really like about sty is her honesty and transparency there's so much that she gives to people for free I'm like this is an incredible framework for me to build into and adjust to and adapt to and all these things that I would have never been able to figure out on my own I was like reinvigorated about my business when I started haa our armor was featured in Lucifer season 5 finale and the main actor got to war things that we uh created here part of the reason why we were able and ready to do such a thing was because of the alphas joining Etsy joining any online platform you have question after question after question ha has been the one place where I've got answers for nearly all my questions you guys and what you have done with the handmade Alpha Academy has literally changed my life and you get continued help no matter where you're at in your Etsy Journey that was probably the biggest selling point for me the way you teach it it's it's simple it's down to earth I can comprehend it that's one of the things I love about your teaching style I don't think I ever could have done it without being in the haa you're step by step steps were fantastic I don't know how you could not succeed by following the stepbystep really um instruction of how you lead us through through haa the first like four plus years that I was on Etsy I think I had 37 sales and we've gotten well over a thousand since then I think I'm up to 12200 self-based there's an amazing Facebook group that will help you invest in yourself is worth every penny and so much more I look at my Etsy shop and I look at my website and I am just in awe of what I have done and I just look at it every day and think wow I actually think that for what you get you guys are really really not charging enough I hate to say that I've had thoughts to myself where I've been like I'd give you guys $3,000 for this course I see how valuable It Is 2020 I did like maybe $3,000 2021 I did $10,000 haa for me paid back for itself six weeks after I signed up for it I definitely recommend it if you can invest the the money the time investment is not too bad well worth the money there is nothing in all that I've taken that I haven't been able to use for my business absolutely just do it because there's no what do you have what do you have to lose and it's everything you need in one place it's hard to buy an education that will teach you practical skills like we learn in haa take PL Do It um first off the money back urr is really a selling point for me she knows so much about marketing and branding and the psychology behind it so that's really good knowledge to have and she's so willing to share that so I would tell everybody out there that's thinking about it if you're ready for the step and if you're ready to grow yourself and your business it changed our lives honestly [Music]