Selling handmade items

[redhead31293]

Has anyone tried selling their handmade or crocheted items on etsy or other sites? My sister is making her own etsy page to sell wedding invitations and she told me I should consider selling some of my items that I crochet. I think if I did decide to sell some of my crocheted things I'd wait until I've had a bit more practice. I'm still kinda new to it!! I started about 3 years ago, and I want to build more confidence by trying out different projects, etc.

Any thoughts?

[jillkap]

Yes I have an etsy store, I've had it for about a year. I think the biggest piece of advise I could give you is to keep it as a fun hobby or a side job because you are not going to become an overnight success on it. I have sold some things, but it's almost become like a nice surprise when I get a notification saying someone has purchased one of my items The reason, I think, is because there are SO many people that sell things on there now. For example, if you type in a search for "crochet afghan" you will get upwards of 15,000 results!!

 

The key is to be unique, take quality photos, have specific descriptions, and be reasonably priced. Also, I would always use all of the "tags" available in describing your item so that it makes it more "searchable". The site has become VERY user-friendly and I love using etsy to sell my items. Good luck with your decision and experience!

[Je-Rel Drood]

Why don't you talk to your sister and see if she'll consider making her Etsy page a co-op (multiple people selling on the same page) for just a little bit to see how it goes for you?

 

Your watermelon hat is absolutely adorable, I can see it for sale.

[redhead31293]

Thanks for the advice!! I could imagine it is probably hard to sell things on etsy, I've seen some beautiful things and there are SO many of them!! I'll think it over for awhile and see how I feel about it. It would be a good idea to do an etsy co-op for awhile, just to get the feel of it.

Thank you! I loved making the watermelon hat, it was so much fun!!

[kayscrochet]

Here are my two cents.

 

It is hard to do a co op Etsy store when the items are so different. It is much better to open your own store.

 

Be sure you put in good SEO on your Etsy store. This is what gets you seen. I have several stores on Etsy. My newest is my crochet store. I sell patterns, blankets and skip stitch blades. It is doing very well for a new store but I did optimize it with SEO. And I try really hard to take good pictures etc.

 

I am going to split this store into two because people tend to get confused between the patterns and finished blankets I sell. So this week I am hoping to take all of the finished blankets and sell them on a separate store. This is best as I can fine tune the SEO to just finished items instead of patterns.

[aagarcia18]

I also have an etsy shop... Have had it for about a year now.