How to Start an Etsy Shop and Make Money From Home

Making money from your craft can be a great source of income, and thanks to the Etsy marketplace, you can make a part-time or full-time living as an Etsy seller.

Buyers are always looking for cute, unique, and handmade items on Etsy. If you enjoy being creative and want to make money from home, this could be a great option for you.

Whether you are a jewelry designer, pattern maker, artist, toy maker, printables designer, t-shirt maker, and so on, you can find buyers on the Etsy platform that want your handmade goods.

And did you know that you can also sell vintage items, craft supplies, and print-on-demand goods there as well? The options are practically endless when using an Etsy account.

In this article, you’ll discover ideas of what to sell on Etsy, the fees associated with an Etsy account, how to set up your Etsy account, tools to use with your shop, and much more! All in hopes that it’ll set your business up for success. 

Ideas for What to Sell on Etsy

Before setting up your Etsy store, you’ll want to brainstorm shop ideas. The possibilities are limitless, and depending on trends, some items will sell better than others. Unlike other eCommerce sites, Etsy is a marketplace than brings in buyers to you. You don’t have to worry about outside traffic.

While you can use social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, to help with sales, you don’t have to use any outside marketing if you land on a hot category on Etsy that isn’t heavily saturated. Etsy brings in traffic to you if you optimize your shop with the correct keywords.

Some ideas for trending categories on Etsy:

1. Weddings
2. Jewelry
3. Clothing
4. Vintage Items
5. Paper and Party Supplies
6. Home and Living
7. Printables
8. Art and Collectibles 

And this is just a start. Drill down into each category to find ideas of what’s popular right now.

You can also use a tool called EverBee to take a peek at your competition and see what is trending in their shops. This will help you see which of your ideas might be selling well in other shops, giving you insight into whether they’ll sell well in yours too.

Other great tools for research are Marmalead, eRank, and Sale Samurai.

Some shop ideas:

• Personalized Jewelry
• Seasonal T-shirts or Sweatshirts (you can use print-on-demand with Etsy!)
• Bridesmaid Jewelry
• Nursery Art
• Crochet Patterns
• Cricut Projects
• Vintage Rings
• Christian-Themed Art
• Boho Art
• Printables (made with Canva)
• Stickers
• Planners
• and much more!

Breakdown of an Etsy Business

If you’ve never heard about Etsy, you may be unaware of how it works as an online marketplace. Etsy is a marketplace where small-business owners list their items for sale, and Etsy brings in traffic to their store via keywords and SEO, which is search engine optimization. This allows shops to take advantage of the built-in traffic on Etsy to fuel sales.

You can also run Etsy ads if you don’t want to rely solely on organic search results with SEO. This isn’t necessary, but if you’re in a highly competitive market, it can help bring in more sales.

Benefits of selling on Etsy:

1. Easy to set up and maintain
2. Built-in customer pool
3. Low listing fees
4. Trusted shopping platform
5. Print-on-demand integration (if you choose to sell POD)
6. Set up square for selling in person
7. Easily set up your website via Etsy
8. Easy to set up coupons
9. You can run a sale on your listings
10. Accept Etsy gift cards 
11. Easy to set up your store-front
12. Use of shipping labels via Etsy
13. And finally, good support should you have any questions

Basic Etsy Fees Overview

There are fees associated with starting an Etsy shop. They are pretty straightforward, and you’ll find them listed below.

You’ll notice the Etsy ad fees are on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, but you can set your ad budget within your shop.

Listing fee – $0.20 per listing

Transaction fee – 6.5% of the total sales price

Etsy ad fees – This is on a pay-per-click basis. You set your budget, and Etsy will serve your ad in the search results.

Offsite ads – The fee depends on the volume of your sales. At this time, you can opt out of offsite ads in the backend of your account.

Payment processing fee – When using Etsy payment, you will be charged a flat rate of $0.25 and 3% of the final sales price if you reside in the United States. (This will differ outside of the US.)

You can Google “Etsy Fees Tool” to find free tools that allow you to input details of your listing and get detailed information on all the fees and costs associated with your item when it sells.

Some may wonder, why use Etsy if they have so many fees? It’s a valid question, and the answer is that Etsy is a massive marketplace, bringing in over 96 million buyers worldwide. When you utilize the power of Etsy search to show up in their search engine, you’re able to tap into the traffic on Etsy to bring in sales.

It’s much like Google in that websites will show up in the Google search results when they have optimized their websites to do so. When you optimize your shop to show up in the Etsy search results, you tap into the built-in traffic without the need to advertise your shop in other ways. 

A Guide to Setting up Your Etsy Store

1. Choose your Etsy shop name

Your shop name can be 20 characters long. You’ll want to make sure the name is something you want to stick with because, at this time, you are limited in how many times you change the name. And once you’ve established your shop, it’s challenging to get a name change approved by Etsy.

Pro tip: Consider the main keyword your customers will be coming to your shop to purchase your items through and incorporate it into the shop name if possible. You don’t want to shove a bunch of keywords in your shop name, but if you sell resume templates, for example, a name such as “Quick and Easy Resumes” would be better than something like “Angel’s Templates.”

However, don’t get so hung on the name that it prevents you from opening your shop promptly. Getting your shop up and running is more important than finding the perfect name. 

2. Steps to open your shop

1. Click on sell on Etsy.
2. Click get started.
3. Go through the brief questionnaire.
4. Click start your shop.
5. Choose your shop preferences. This will take you through questions, including shop currency.
6. Input your shop name.
7. Choose how you’ll be paid. Add your bank account information. You’ll also need to put in your social security number.
8. Add your credit card details. This is how you’ll pay your fees.
9. Create your listings. You need only one listing to open the shop.
10. Open your shop.

3. Design your shop

You’ll click on the shop icon, then scroll down and click on your shop name on the lower left-hand side of the screen. This will open up your shop page. 

Click on the edit shop link, which is found near your header. 

You can now edit your shop design. 

Your shop design includes the following:

• Header logo
• Adding a title under your shop name
• Editing where your shop is located
• Adding a shop icon
• Adding a welcome message on your shop page
• Choosing any listings you want to feature in the highlighted section
• And adding your images, shop bio, and links

Pro Tip: For whatever reason, the size for the full shop banner shows a size that makes the banner blurry. The correct sizing for a full-size banner is: 3360 x 840 pixels

4. Shop policies

You can click on the shop policies button, which will open up the policies section. This allows you to edit the policies that are already in place. In addition to being able to create your policy, you can also edit the following: 

• Returns and exchanges
• Cancelations
• Privacy policy
• And fixed policies such as free shipping 

5. Add your listings

When you started your shop, you had to add at least one listing, but now that your shop is open and you’ve edited all your policies and design – it’s time to fill your shop with listings. 

1. While inside your shop panel, click “add listing.”
2. In the upper right-hand side of the screen, click “add a listing.”
3. It is advisable to fill up all the pictures that are allowed in the listing. At this time, there are 10 spots for pictures.
4. If you have a video of your product, it’s best to add that as well.
5. Add a keyword-rich title.
6. Fill out the “about this listing” section.
7. Choose a category.
8. Choose your renewal options for this listing.
9. Describe in detail what the listing is about, item details, what they receive, etc. 
10. If you are using a print-on-demand company for that listing, you need to add a production partner in that section.
11. Create and then choose a section for your item.
12. Add tags that are relevant to your item.
13. Any materials used can be listed as well.
14. Add your price, quantity available, and an SKU if you’d like to track your inventory.
15. Choose any variations of the item.
16. If you allow personalization of the item, you’ll click to add that.
17. Next is the shipping price.
18. And last is your policies.
19. You’ll click to add, which will prompt you to accept the listing fee. Once accepted, your listing will be live!

It sounds like a lot of steps, but once you get the hang of it, it goes rather quickly.

Pro tip: You can choose to duplicate a listing. This is a nice feature if some of the item details are the same from listing to listing, as it’ll save you time and effort when adding more listings to the shop.

Start Selling on Etsy Today

As you can see, Etsy is an excellent option for many small businesses that want to make money off their creativity and crafts.

Whether you’re a sole proprietor or an LLC (limited liability company), Etsy is a great selling platform.

Not only is it reasonably easy to set up and navigate, but it’s also a powerful tool for selling your handmade goods.

Many buyers trust Etsy, and that’s an important hurdle to overcome when selling online. As a seller on Etsy, you already have the trust of shoppers, which is essential to becoming a successful online shop.

Selling goods will never go out of style. It’s a great option for making money from home. And Etsy is a great marketplace and platform to make your work-at-home dreams a reality.

For more Etsy tips, check out this interview with Melanie, where she shares advice for beginners just starting out on Etsy.