How can I increase sales of my Printables on Etsy?

When I searched for the title of this blog post I was much more into Etsy that I'm nowadays. So today the question is not how can I increase sales of my Printables on Etsy but can I do that at all? You might wonder why I'm so negative about Etsy. Well...

First of all: Etsy never treated me bad. They did not close my store all of a sudden just because without giving me a reason. They actually never did anything to me. 
So shouldn't I praise Etsy then and tell you to go there?
Might be but I'm no longer a fan of 3rd party platforms. Yes, there are advantages. Just like: You don't need to bring the traffic there yourself. That's true.
You also don't need to have your own website. You don't need to pay for hosting, a domain and whatever. No question about that. That's also true.
So why do I then no longer recommend Etsy then?

What if... Etsy goes out of Business?

One question bevor I try to answer: Wasn't the reason why you started a side hustle because you wanted to escape the 9 to 5 job thing? Didn't you want to work for yourself and on your dreams rather than on someone elses'?

If you say "yes" than that's the reason why Etsy is not the best idea. After all you again work on someone else's dream. Yes, you have your own shop but you need to play by Etsy's rules. You have to pay their fees, work on so called "Etsy SEO" (hint: it's not different from the SEO of the rest of the internet world 😉 ). You need to pay for advertising just as you'd do if you had your own store. You need to pay fees for adding products and for selling products as well as for payment processing. And, after all that, you create a Pinterest account and start building links for Etsy - to your store, yes, but after all to Etsy's website.

And then, if they disappear one day (hopefully never!) it was all for nothing. Etsy might brought you sales, you might have your store there but in case they decide to go out of business (for whatever reason) you go out of business as well.

Then, all the linkbuilding you did on Pinterest, the posts on Instagram and maybe Facebook or wherever just go with them. 

Sure, we can say: This won't ever happen. And yes, it might not. But it can. There was a German planform called "Dawanda" and it also sold handmade products and then - very quickly - they were gone.

So should you never use 3rd Party Platforms?

Sure you can! I do it as well and I know a lot of sellers who do it very successfully. But if you do you should do it strategically. 
In my eyes that means that you should use Etsy rather as a marketing tool than the only place you sell. If you try to get people from Etsy into your own email list this changes everything.
Why? Because then - if ever anything happens to your shop - you can still contact people you love your products. But that will just happen if Etsy is a marketing tool for you rather than the only place you sell.
You will still have the problem that all your links are no longer valid but you will still own the most important thing you have in your business: You email list. And that means that you can contact your customers.

How can you now increase your Printable Sales on Etsy?

So now that I told you how "bad" it is to put all your eggs into the "Etsy basket" (or the basket of any 3rd party platform) how can you increase your sales?
Let me say is super easily (it took me years to find that out, so yes, super embarrassing!): It's all about traffic. It doesn't matter how to drive traffic somewhere what counts is that you do it. There are a few really effective ways how you can do it online. That's SEO (on your own website or on Etsy), Pinterest and, yes, for me it's at least that: Facebook Groups. I know many others will say Instagram or YouTube and yes, you definitely can drive traffic from there but I found that Pinterest and Facebook Groups are a much easier and faster way to do so.

And, in best case, you do that with Freebies.

I know that sounds too simple to be true. But let's face it: People who don't know you won't trust you enough to give you their hard earned money. They will once you have build a bit of trust but you'll have a hard trime if you try to sell something to someone who doesn't know anything about you. 

So what's the Strategy?

Let me give you a very easy step-by-step plan which does not just work for Etsy but any other platform, including your own website.

And yes, that works. No matter if you want to increase sales on your own platform, on Etsy or anywhere else - it works. Etsy SEO (or SEO in general) just supports your journey so yes, why not add that to the mix. But in the end it's all about your email list and the people you get into your orbit.
We talk in much more detail about this in the Safari Lounge Designer Classes. So in case you are interested - check it out:

You can see - there is a freebie included as well. You get a 7-days free trial. 🙂

Need help creating a Printable for Etsy?

Of course, you cannot just sell this printable on Etsy but also on your own website. Great thing: You can easily create a little something as a freebie! And my free template will help you to do so!

Watch the video and download the freebie from my store:

Find the template here and try out the strategy I've shown you in this post.

Join me on this exciting adventure any you'll see the sales on Etsy for your Printables will increase!