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If you thought that opening up your Etsy shop was the hard part of getting started, sometimes it’s not.
If you’ve experienced the rhythm of starting and stopping then you’ll relate to Anastasia’s story when it comes to finding your Etsy niche.
Anastasia runs the Etsy shop Shawl Pins By Lirimaer and when she first opened her Etsy shop back in 2011 she was selling polymer clay jewelry…
She eventually found that she preferred wire jewelry once she discovered it on Flickr and hasn’t looked back since.
But here’s what I want you to be really inspired by, Anastasia loved knitted and crocheted scarves and shawls, and initially she tried to make those instead but when she eventually had to admit to herself that the ones she made weren’t that great, she really struck gold.
That’s because, rather than settle for selling a sub-par product just because she liked it, she started selling products that were complementary to things that were already selling well on Etsy… Shawl pins!
Ask anyone who wears shawls if they would accessorize their shawls with shawl pins and you’ll probably get a lot more yeses than nos.
And that’s how she found her Etsy niche… And you can too!
As you try to come up with ideas for what to sell on Etsy, think outside the box, consider what complementary products to current bestsellers on the platform you can offer and then test them out to see what the market gravitates to. These are some the things you’ll hear us talk about in our convo.
We also discuss the following:
- Handling maternity break
- Doing what it takes to be a successful full-time creative business owner
- Fears and reservations about selling online
- Goals pertaining to scaling up and what those should look like for each individual
- Free shipping… Pros and cons
- And lots more…
Resources Mentioned
- Flickr – online photo sharing site
- Raw Milk Podcast and Local Milk Blog by Beth Kirby
- Marmalead and EtsyRank – Etsy keyword research (and so much more); listen to my convo with Anthony Wolf, CEO of EtsyRank here
- GetVela – bulk editing tool for Etsy
- Etsy Seller Handbook and Etsy Success emails (you need to sign up to receive the emails)
- Renae Christine – Handmade Titan University and YouTube Channel
Please take a minute to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes and Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please also tell a friend out about the show.
Connect With Me:
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- Instagram: @EtsyConvo
- Twitter: @ConvoMePodcast
- Email: Use the Contact Form OR interview [at] convome [dot] com
- Facebook Group: Etsy Conversations
For more help growing your Etsy-based business, check out these resources: