Is Selling On Etsy Worth It?

My wife and I have been selling on Etsy since 2013 and in that time have done multiple 6 figures in sales. All while working regular jobs for most of that time.

Imagine how that would feel, how life changing that would be for you.

But, I don’t want to just leave you with that as the only reason, let’s explore the good and bad of what Etsy has to offer so you can decide for yourself.

Click here to open a seller account at Etsy if you want to get started, it’s free.

Etsy vs Own Website

The first thing we need to look at: Is selling on Etsy worth it compared to starting your own website?

Well, starting your own website has a greater barrier of entry.

You have to get a domain name and then sign up for something like Shopify (the best e-commerce platform by far, but costs $29 a month.) Or you can go the free route with WordPress + WooCommerce but then you have to learn how to integrate payments and set up inventory, etc…or pay someone to do this for you.

Not to mention your new site, no matter how good it is, will get absolutely zero traffic off the bat.

You either have to pay to get traffic, have something planned to go viral, or focus on SEO and play the waiting game. Those are about the best 3 options for getting traffic to a new site.

Whereas, if you sign up for Etsy, you can have a product live and ready to go TODAY – and a baked in audience ready to BUY YOUR STUFF!

Now, definitely, I recommend you should do both, as appropriate.

The downside to using Etsy vs your own website is everything is out of your control.

When you run your own website you don’t have to worry about getting shut down, or new rules being implemented.

And, you own your customer lists so you can remarket to them. You’re not supposed to do that with Etsy.

So, start on Etsy, gain some traction and THEN focus on building up your own website.

Just remember that with Etsy you’re giving up some control for TRAFFIC.

Best Things To Make And Sell On Etsy

Back in 2013 I had never heard of Etsy. My wife made us an account on there to start selling t-shirts.

I took a look at the site and saw a lot of crafts and just thought it was an odd fit.

Really, we just kind of neglected it for a minute.

One day though, we discovered other people selling t-shirts on there.

A LOT of t-shirts…some of these sellers had 10,000+ sales.

Needless to say that changed the way I thought about Etsy. I wanted a piece of that action!

But, you can sell a lot more than just crafts and t-shirts there.

Here are some of the best things to make and sell on Etsy.

Hand Made Crafts To Sell On Etsy

Your imagination is really your only limitation when looking at crafts to sell on Etsy.

From customized tote bags to bow ties or bracelets, the world of hand made crafts is wide open.

Here are just a few ideas to maybe spark something:

Handmade Candles
Goat Soap
Seashell Necklaces
Sewing Custom Pillows

The list goes on and on but my advice would be…if you have an idea:

Search Etsy, see if others are selling it, look to see if they’re getting decent sales volume and if there is decent enough margin to sell it yourself then go for it.

Selling Vintage on Etsy

Yes, there is quite a popular market for selling vintage on Etsy. This could include antiques also.

One thing you need to be aware of is Etsy defines vintage as being at least 20 years old.

Also, Etsy may inquire about your sourcing and how you determined its age.

(It’s against the rules to list items bought from a yard sale or garage sale.)

Some different types of vintage items worth selling on Etsy:

Antique Toys
Vintage Clothes
Antique Furniture
Vintage Photography

It really comes down to how you’re sourcing these items but if you have a good hookup then selling vintage on Etsy could be a great money maker.

Best Print On Demand For Etsy

It used to be that you had to make everything by hand to be able to sell it on Etsy.

They changed up the rules quite a bit (probably around the time of their IPO lol) and now you just need to have a hand in making the item.

This could be just simply designing a t-shirt or sticker.

You can then outsource any sales to what Etsy calls “Production Partners” which is just someone else who helps you fulfil your orders.

Now, you are supposed to disclose if you have a production partner(s).

I’m sure some people fail to, maybe because they don’t know they need to or they think it will affect their sales by having it on.

All you have to do is click here to add a production partner.

I’ve got my production partner disclosed in our shop and I do not believe it makes a difference in sales, so just go ahead and do it.

Now, who is the best print on demand for Etsy?

Printful vs Printify

I’ve tried out two of the biggest, most popular companies: Printful and Printify.

For t-shirts I 100% consider Printify to be the best print on demand for Etsy.

You can see the production times for suppliers before you send them an order.

The one thing I don’t necessarily like is when you connect your store you lose a little flexibility.

For example, to get a true “hands off” approach to running your store you’d have to create all of the listings from the Printify dashboard.

When you do this it is tied to a certain supplier only…and maybe they have good mockups or maybe they don’t.

You also lose the ability to do custom orders because whatever is ordered on Etsy is what gets printed if you set everything up like that.

My workaround is to still have my Etsy store connected but I create all the listings on Etsy still. That way when I make a sale it shows up in my “Other Orders” tab and I just import it in.

Easy – minimal work but still a lot of flexibilty.

What about Printful? Ehh I just never had good luck with the printing I got from there. However, the embroidery has been pretty good though, so if you need hats or polos embroidered that could work for you.

Someday I’ll have to write a more in depth tour of Printify and how to link everything together.

Selling Digital Products on Etsy

Digital products are allowed and even encouraged on Etsy.

When you go to list a product on Etsy you select between a Physical Product (default) or a Digital Product.

If you select Digital, then a different option appears a couple sections below allowing you to upload files for delivery. You can also include a note to buyers explaining the download process or whatever you want.

So anyway, what are some digital products you can sell?

Wedding Invitation Templates
Printable Wall Art
Resume Templates
Instagram Post Templates
Youtube Thumbnail Templates

The good news is, a lot of these can be designed in free software like Canva.

Also, digital products can create nearly passive income. (I say nearly because there’s no such thing as truly hands off when it comes to selling.)

Build once, sell twice.

Amazon Handmade vs Etsy

You may be wondering about Amazon Handmade vs Etsy and how the two compare or differ?

Well, Amazon Handmade is strictly craft style options…such as you physically made it or altered it by hand.

Amazon has a process in place to check this too.

So that means no digital downloads, no “print on demand” clothing stores (though they do have a separate PoD outlet.)

Etsy is more lenient in that regard.

Just ask yourself if you fit into the category I described?

If yes, then absolutely you should apply to Amazon Homemade. In fact, sell on both!

And if you’re more of a print on demand or digital download type setup, just stick to Etsy for now.

Simple.

How To Get More Sales On Etsy

Is selling on Etsy worth it if you can’t get any sales? Of course not!

We also can’t be naïve enough to think this is strictly a game of build it and they will come.

I promise you the first sale is always the hardest, but oddly enough the most rewarding.

You’ll always be chasing that high again.

Anyway, here is a brief intro in how to get more sales on Etsy:

Is Selling On Etsy Worth It Using Ads?

Yes.

Etsy makes it super easy to advertise with them.

Just click here to get to the ad page.

Or it will look like this from your side bar:

There’s not much to it at this point, you set your daily budget which can be as little as a $1 per day.

I recommend $10 a day just to get some traction and feel out how the ads will do, it’s unlikely Etsy will use that budget.

If you’re running a profit on your ads then crank that baby up as high as you can!

There are two ways you can activate your listings so they get advertised.

The easiest way is just to select “Yes, advertise this listing” from the create listing page after you set up your budget.

Or, from the Etsy ads page “Manage advertised listings” you can hit “Select All” at the top or pick and choose.

You *should* get sales if your listings and/or products don’t suck.

Remember, the first sale is the hardest. You look like a scam quite honestly.

You need someone to break the ice, take a chance on you…then you need some good feedback rolling in.

It’s a tough process and it will take some time. Don’t be afraid to operate ads at a loss to get some initial sales.

Consider it the cost of doing business.

I also recommend from time to time that you check your budget spent (Sort by Budget Spent) and then toggle off any listings that are burning too much ad spend.

Maybe the CPC is too high to be profitable (out of your control) or something else about the listing, but I like to prune these out to keep my ad spend as lean as possible.

Optimizing Listings

Everything about your listing matters.

Title
Description
Images
Tags
Keywords You Choose

It can be a little daunting.

Fortunately there’s a pretty cool tool called Marmalead (I keep thinking of that song that goes…sweet lady marmalade lol grrr)

It’s a keyword research tool for Etsy basically. It does cost $19/mo but it really has some neat features.

You can connect it (safely) to your Etsy store and it will actually grade your listings based on SEO factors.

As you can see by the above image…I have some work to do on my listings.

If you click on the letter grade (or the image of the listings above it – deleted to keep my store anonymous for now) then it will suggest areas where you can improve:

There’s a wealth of information there and it goes far beyond that.

Marmalead shows you Searches/Engagement/Results of keywords too so you can decide if they’re good to go after or not.

Really neat tool and probably deserves an article on its own so I’ll cut it short for now.

Become a Star Seller

A new program that Etsy has introduced is called “Star Seller” and it will give you a special badge (kind of how Top Rated seller used to be on eBay if you’re familiar with that.)

Right now Etsy claims it won’t affect your search rankings but I have to imagine they will change that as they get more data.

Why would you not want to feature your more trusted sellers near the top?

Trust = sales.

That’s good news though that it doesn’t yet affect search rankings because it gives everyone time to catch up.

Requirements to be a Star Seller:

Eligible 90 days after first sale on Etsy.

More than 95% response rate to messages.
Average of 95% 5-star ratings/reviews.
And 95% or better on time shipping and tracking.

Eligibility is re-evaluated the first of every month.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

“Is selling on Etsy worth it?” is the main question of this article but let’s try to also answer some of the other most common questions surrounding Etsy cost and selling on Etsy.

How Much Does It Cost To Start An Etsy Shop?

Well, it is completely free to start an Etsy shop. There is no upfront charge or ongoing monthly subscription fee.

There are some other fees such as a listing fee, transaction fees, etc.

How Much Does Etsy Charge To Sell?

Etsy charges a 5% transaction fee and a payment processing charge of 3% + $0.25.

Also, your listing gets relisted for another $0.20 after it sells.

For example, if you sell something for $19.99 then you’d be charged:

$19.99 * 5% = $1 (rounded)
($19.99 * 3%) + $0.25 = $0.85 (rounded)
$.20 to relist the item
Total = $2.05 in fees.

Compare that to the $3 Amazon or Walmart charges at 15% and the fees aren’t too bad really.

How Much Does It Cost To List On Etsy?

It costs 20 cents ($0.20) to make a listing on Etsy.

The listing will then last for 3 months which it will then auto renew (if you have this selected when you create it) or it will move to your inactive listings and you will manually have to re-list it.

When/if it gets relisted it is another $.20.

Can I Have Two Etsy Shops?

Yes! You can certainly have 2 Etsy shops. Or 3 or 4, it really doesn’t matter.

Just make sure you’re running each shop according to Etsy’s guidelines.

If you do something wrong (like posting copyrighted material, for example) it could jeopardize all of your accounts.

I think some of the confusion around this is Etsy used to make you disclose if you had multiple shops in your About me section though.

It seems they have eased up on this though and is no longer even a requirement.

The only downside of having multiple Etsy shops is you have to start from scratch on each one.

So starting over with sales/reviews.

Just remember, getting that first sale is the hardest. But if it makes sense, definitely open up multiple Etsy shops!

How Does Etsy Pay You?

As of this year (2021) Etsy has switched to Etsy Payments which means you’ll get your payout deposited directly to your bank account.

*** You need to be in a country that supports Etsy Payments, click here for the list.

Final Verdict

So, is selling on Etsy worth it?

Yes, in my opinion, selling on Etsy is definitely worth it.

There is very little upfront cost to get started and the fee structure is very fair for the amount of eyeballs you get on your products.

My wife and I have made life changing money selling on Etsy and there is no reason you can’t either!

If you’ve decided you want to give it a go, open your Etsy shop here.

Did you like this article? I write about a lot of ways to make money on this site so check out my other side hustle ideas and see what might appeal to you.

Thanks so much for reading this far and I’m wishing only success for you. Let’s get this bag!

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