Starting your own business online is indeed a huge achievement. In fact, it's the first step forward towards a never-ending journey of success once you realize you can be your own boss and travel miles ahead without limits.
To begin with, you need a brief knowledge of the online marketing world. There are several popular platforms where you can set up an online store, such as Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, or Alibaba.
However, today we will be discussing 5 easy steps for Etsy beginners to help you get a jumpstart for your business and let you boost your online store’s efficiency without unnecessary hurdles and earn more and more customers every day.
Before we begin, there is one key point to the success that you should know. Whenever you run an online store, there will be good and bad times, and you just cannot avoid them.
It may take months for you to get your first order, or it may take merely a day. You may be progressing at lightning speed, and you may just stop for no valid reason. Ups and downs will be a part of your journey, and it's never your fault.
You need to be consistent and determined if you wish to win your goal. Whenever there’s a blockage, instead of being depressed, always search for ways to overcome it. With that in mind, let’s start with our 5 easy steps for Etsy beginners.
1. Gather and Organize Your Stuff
Every journey starts with planning, and by planning, we mean organizing our thoughts and finding the best way.
We want our journey to be easier, and the only way we can make it possible is by knowing where we are heading to. You can go down the Quick Start Checklist to collect all the necessities, including your bank account number, product photos, product prices, and descriptions.
Interestingly, what catches a visitor’s attention is not the product price or the rating, not even the description but the pictures of the products. You can also learn how to take pictures for Etsy by following some very simple steps.
Once you have the perfect photos, you will get every visitor’s attention. Moreover, if you show your product explainer videos on your eCommerce.
The second step is to set up an ideal price. An ideal price should not be too cheap or too expensive but a moderate one that “appears” to be “cheap” or else perfect.
Now that a visitor knows you are offering some really fantastic products at a very affordable price, he would want to see some good reviews. If you have all of that, your visitor is going to transform into a customer within seconds.
2. Find The Right Product
Apparently, most of the sellers on Etsy don’t gain much success and give up on their online business quite early. The reason behind this is that they never focused on choosing the right product.
Always note that some products sell at a much faster pace as compared to others. Typically, smaller products such as those people don’t normally fear, like tape, t-shirts, or men's and women's accessories, sell faster.
Bigger and fragile products do sell but at a rather slower pace. So before you start your online business on Etsy, always make sure you do proper product research. Check out its ongoing trends on Google Trends, or you can also use some amazing tools such as Jungle Scout to get a detailed analysis of different products.
Try to create a list of 20 different products and add their statistics in front of them. To get it even easier, paste the photos there as well. It’s an easy activity to do when you learn how to take pictures for Etsy. You would be able to differentiate between products that will sell faster and are more likely to contribute to your progress.
3. Choose The Right Keyword
Sadly, hunting for the perfect product is just not enough, especially when you’re working on a platform that is always flooded with buyers and sellers.
Generally, buyers have different keywords that type in the search bar, and your product is displayed based on your chosen keyword.
Here’s an example:
You choose the keyword “perfumes,” and then you realize, “Oh dear! Thousands of other sellers are using the same keyword. How am I supposed to stand a chance against them when I just started my business?”.
Instead, you can choose the keyword “Hamlet perfumes for men”, now you have less competition and greater chances of getting ranked.
Your intention while doing keyword research should be to discover a keyword that has the least saturation and competition but a greater search volume. This would increase your chances of getting optimized within a lesser amount of time.
Plus, once you start having customers, your feedback would also serve as a perimeter to rank your online store in the search index.
4. Don’t Be a “Fineliner”
When you start an online store, you need to understand that the profit you will generate at first can be used to add further beauty to your store.
Therefore, your main goal should not be decoration but to start your business as soon as possible. Fineliners are at a great loss when they start a business.
That is because they prefer to have expensive accounting software, an entire office that is air-conditioned, beautifully furnished, and has all the necessary and unnecessary equipment, 10-15 employees, and a brand new suit for themselves, just to let everyone know that they own a business.
In the end, fineliners always suffer from a loss when they realize their store is not generating enough profit (which a new business obviously does not) and that they have to pay the office rent, bills, and salaries and are left with nothing for themselves.
Instead of going for perfection, always try to put the effort where it should be. Once you know your store is now functioning smoothly, you can have all the offices you want. Not to forget, the only beauty you should actually focus on is how to take pictures for Etsy.
5. Set Achievable Goals
Finally, you should set up some achievable goals. Humans are curious, and after achieving one goal, they tend to set up another.
Similarly, you should have high hopes for your online Etsy store and likewise have different objectives associated with it. When you know you have a certain plan to fulfill, you will automatically feel the motivation boosting in you.
Also, with each achievement, you would feel stronger and more confident, increasing your chances of being the most successful business owner on Etsy.
A sense of accomplishment is highly necessary for this journey. Keep yourself motivated and never lose hope when you see a hurdle along your way because slow and steady wins the race.
Conclusion
To wrap up, Etsy is a wonderful platform to start your online business and make your dreams come true. It has huge built-in traffic, and people are always looking for new products for themselves.
Here are five steps to start your successful journey on Etsy as a seller:
- Gather and organize your stuff
- Find the right product
- Choose the right keyword
- Don’t be a “Fineliner”
- Set achievable goals
If you follow these steps and stay consistent with your activities, your success will always be guaranteed on Etsy.
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