If I Were Starting an Etsy Shop Today | 10 things I wish I would have known getting started

About this video

Hayes recounts what she would do differently starting an Etsy shop from scratch, drawing on what she says are seven years becoming a top 1% seller. First, she would do trend research sooner instead of making products in her own style and hoping they sold: now she looks for repeating trend elements — color schemes, patterns, materials, scents, fonts — in best sellers in her niche, then asks what is missing that she could add to make a better version. She would also improve craft quality sooner, recalling pallet wood signs that were fine at craft fairs but fell apart in shipping and drew bad reviews until she researched construction and invested in new tools. She would take a data-driven, mentor-led approach from day one rather than piecemealing tips and learning by trial and error for a year or two. On photos, she would calibrate white balance with a gray card, edit in Lightroom Mobile (exposure, brightness, crop, white balance), shoot the thumbnail image further back because Etsy crops it in, and use backgrounds, props and staged lifestyle photos. She would pursue micro-influencer collaborations — she defines these as under 10,000 followers — and build an email list from day one. Her biggest shift was moving from one-of-a-kind listings to repeatable listings, because stacking sales on one listing improves its ranking in Etsy search.

Key takeaways

• Do trend research first: find repeating elements (colors, patterns, materials, scents, fonts) across best sellers, then create a better version by adding what is missing.
• Quality failures hurt early: Hayes says her pallet wood signs fell apart during shipping, causing bad reviews until she researched sturdier construction and bought new tools.
• Plan photos deliberately: use a gray card for white balance, edit in Lightroom Mobile, and shoot the thumbnail photo further back since Etsy crops the first image in.
• Hayes recommends micro-influencers with under 10,000 followers whose audience matches your target customer, via free product or a small payment if budget allows.
• Focus on repeatable listings over one-of-a-kind items so sales stack on a single listing, which Hayes says raises its listing quality and search ranking.

Episode details: published July 22, 2022 · 14:08 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kate Hayes’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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