How To Get Your First Sale On Etsy With +30 Amazing Tips And Tricks

You’ve opened your Etsy shop. Now what? Your first sale on Etsy is the hardest but you can make it faster if you apply the right strategies. That’s why today I’ll teach you how to get your first sale on Etsy with +30 amazing tips that will accelerate your growth in the Etsy platform.

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DISCLAIMER

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Table of Contents

How To Get Your First Sale On Etsy | Etsy For Beginners
How To Get Your First Sale On Etsy: FAQs
Wrapping Up: How To Get Your First Sell On Etsy

How To Get Your First Sale On Etsy | Etsy For Beginners

Not long ago, you opened your Etsy shop, but you are not making any money.

You’ve heard from other Etsy sellers whose shops have been an overnight success and you are there wondering how to get your first sale on Etsy.

It’s ok; don’t panic!

Making your first sale on Etsy takes time, but if you want to make it faster, apply the following tips on how to make your first sale on Etsy:

Conduct The Proper Market Research
Name Your Store Accordingly
Prepare Your First Product Before Registration
Have A Clear Brand Identity
Focus On Good Product Presentation
Write A Compelling About Section
Keep Your SEO Flawless
Learn How To Use Social Media To Your Favor
Check Etsy Stats
Discover The Power Of Promoted Listings
Create Seasonal Products
Make Your Photos Publicity-Ready
Price Accordingly
Don’t Forget About Branded Packaging
Keep Shop Policies In Check
Improve Your Etsy Titles
Include A Photo Of Yourself
Don’t Treat It Like A Hobby
Keep Posting Listings
Use Professional Tools
Offer Discounts And Free Shipping
Respond To Customer Inquiries ASAP
Utilize Facebook Groups
Post Shop Updates
Create A Blog
Avoid Getting Kicked Off
Promote Your Products On Pinterest
Make Giveaways
Stay Active On Your Shop
Be Consistent
Be Patient

1. Conduct The Proper Market Research

First things first, before opening your Etsy shop, you have to think of a product that people actually want to buy!

Seems obvious, but most Etsy sellers fail at this crucial first step.

It’s ok to feel passionate about the product you have in mind but, if nobody is interested in it, you can be certain that you’ll make no sales at all.

What you have to do is choose a product that is in high demand but has low competition.

Remember: the more competition, the harder to get your first sale on Etsy.

Here’re some easy steps to find your perfect niche product:

Open up an incognito tab in Google and go to Etsy.

Enter your product idea in the search bar (for example, ‘coffee mug’) and let the auto-complete feature do its stuff. It has to be something you are interested in because you’ll going to be making lots of listings on Etsy!

Etsy screen showing autocomplete feature on the search bar — Source: Etsy

See if Etsy returns less than 1k results (low competition).

Find the best sellers for the product (filter the search result by Seller Type and choose those with the ‘Star Seller’ batch).

In the URL (in this case: https://www.etsy.com/search?q=coffee+mug&explicit=1&is_star_seller=true&ship_to=US), replace ‘star’ with ‘best’ to find best sellers.

Click on one of the best sellers and filter reviews by choosing ‘Most recent’ to see if the product is still relevant.

If the products are relevant and you see that there’s still a gap in the market in the small niche you are researching, you’ve just found a really good niche to start pumping listings into your shop!

Use Google Trends and social media to further validate your product ideas and stay up to date with changing demands.

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2. Name Your Store Accordingly

Your Etsy shop name may make or break your business, so let’s choose wisely.

Here are the best practices to follow when choosing your Etsy shop name:

Make it easy to remember and pronounce.

Use a relevant keyword that describes your niche, if possible.

Brainstorm at least 20 words related to your niche and combine them to come up with name ideas. For example, in the case of coffee mugs, some related words would be ‘energy’, ‘joy’, ‘morning’, ‘macchiato’, and ‘cup’, so one potential name could be ‘Cup Of Joy’. You get the drill.

Keep it short.

Don’t add ‘Shop’ or ‘Store’ at the back of it.

Don’t use names similar to your competitors.

You can change your Etsy shop name up to five times; otherwise, you have to apply to Etsy.

3. Prepare Your First Product Before Registration

Even before opening your shop, you need at least one listing to get started.

No listings = no sales.

First, you need to add photos of your product.

We are going to talk about how to improve your Etsy photos later in this post but, for starters, make sure to upload at least five photos of your product, at least 2000px wide.

how to get your first sale on etsy product creation a handmade soap

You can get some inspiration by analyzing your competitors.

Then decide on the title of your listing, fill in the category for your item, write a compelling product description, and add Etsy tags and attributes.

We’ll expand on these topics below, but you can prepare your listing and optimize it later.

4. Have A Clear Brand Identity

The bad thing about good first impressions is that you can make them once my friend.

So, if you want to learn how to get your first sale on Etsy, your branding must be immaculate, right from the start.

Check best sellers on Etsy: their shops look beautiful, neat, and organized.

The fonts, colors, and style are used coherently across their listings and help create the personality of the brand.

These items help make the brand memorable.

Here’s a basic branding guide that you can use for your Etsy shop:

Pick a beautiful primary font and one or two secondary fonts. You can get inspiration on MyFont.com.

Choose the colors of your brand. For made-for-you palettes, visit Coolors.

closeup of notebook, a pencil, and a color guide book how to get your first sale on etsy

Create a logo that is simple, relevant, and suitable for your target audience. You can hire a graphic designer to create it for you or you can do it DIY style using Canva if you are short on budget (the result may not be professional-looking though; consider upgrading your logo later!).

Take your photos with a consistent background, lighting, and style. Incorporate your brand’s colors.

Extend your branding to your banner, profile picture, packaging, and marketing materials.

5. Focus On Good Product Presentation

You want your products to be easy to find and buy.

Take your time to organize your Etsy listings so your shop looks neat and well put together.

First, leverage featured listings to get your first sale on Etsy.

Choose the items that are appealing more to potential customers according to Etsy stats or the products that you want to be the stars of the shop.

example of featured items on Etsy — Source: Etsy

In this section, you can also include your best products with huge discounts and promos.

Additionally, featured listings also are great for seasonal products that can help you make your first sale during Christmas, Summer, Fall, Valentine’s Day, and the like.

Now, what about the actual listing order?

Etsy allows you to rearrange your products as you like to entice shoppers to click on more listings.

There are two ways you can do this:

Complementary arrangements: put a listing next to another in cases when a product can be complemented with another related product.

Product collections: group similar products by size, material, type, color, etc.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and present the products as cohesively as possible to recreate a brick-and-mortar shopping experience.

6. Write A Compelling About Section

Writing a stellar About section is another way of making a good first impression and attracting your first client on Etsy, let alone improving your position in Etsy ranking.

Use this section to differentiate yourself from other sellers.

Now, what exactly do you need to include in your About section?

First, you can write up to 5,000 characters so share your story in detail, describing how your workflow is, the materials you use, your mission, your vision, and fun facts about your shop.

You can also include a brand video.

This video is short and you can show how you make your products with behind-the-scenes footage.

Third, add up to 5 high-resolution photos (1400px wide) showing your products and YOU making the products in your work area.

Last but not least, add your socials so customers can discover you and interact with you on other platforms.

7. Keep Your SEO Flawless

If you want to learn how to get your first sell on Etsy, SEO should be your number one priority.

What’s the fuzz about SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a key role in making sure you appear in search results on Etsy.

It’s all about the keywords, i.e. words that customers type into Etsy’s search bar.

‘Personalized coffee mug‘, ‘excel budget template‘, and ‘wedding invitation minimalist‘, are just a few examples of phrases that customers search for on Etsy.

What you have to do is include keywords (naturally) in your shop name, titles, tags, categories, attributes, and descriptions of your listings, and in your shop’s announcement.

3D letters with tribal pattern forming the word SEO how to get your first sale on etsy

Here’s a checklist of do’s and don’ts of Etsy SEO:

Prefer long-tail keywords; they are less competitive than broader keywords. So instead of going for ‘t-shirt’, replace it with a more specific phrase like ‘t-shirt women with flowers’.

Place the most important keywords at the beginning of your listing’s title and description so as to use them as hooks. Try to match them with what customers are searching for.

Use all 13 tags available.

Use phrases instead of single words for tags. For example, instead of using just ‘bracelet’, go for ‘beaded bracelet aesthetic’.

Update your listings for a temporary boost (and give the changes time to work).

Don’t forget to use relevant keywords in your product’s thumbnail.

Don’t stuff your listing with the same keyword. Use different keywords for your title, attributes, tags, and description. The more keywords, the higher the chances of appearing in searches.

When crafting your title, the formula is NOUN + ADJECTIVE. So if you are selling a wedding invitation that is minimalist, use the keyword ‘wedding invitation minimalist‘.

Use keywords across all your shop’s sections.

Stay in the know about trends to adjust your keywords accordingly.

Use the autofill feature in Etsy’s search bar to discover relevant keywords.

Get inspiration from the section ‘Related searches‘ when clicking on a certain product.

Utilize the free version of eRank to check search volume and level of competition of potential keywords + get more ideas with the related keywords suggested by the platform.

hand holding cellphone showing Instagram feed

Are you scrolling on Instagram or Pinterest all day?

Instead of doing that, why not use them to get your first sale on Etsy?

Social media is a powerful tool that, if utilized properly, can generate lots of traffic for your shop, which translates into more potential sales!

Open a business account with the name of your shop on both platforms and start pumping content into it.

But not any sort of content.

What your audience wants is content that is not only valuable and educational but also inspirational.

Having an Instagram or Pinterest account is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your products, tell more about how they can solve your customers’ lives, and build brand awareness.

Most importantly, genuine interaction with your followers will boost your traffic to your shop.

For more information on how to attract customers to your Etsy shop your socials, you can check Etsy’s in-depth Social Media Marketing Guide.

female hand holding a cellphone showing business stats

9. Check Etsy Stats

If there’re tumbleweeds blowing across your shop, it’s time to check your Etsy stats.

This will allow you to see what’s working and what’s not and optimize accordingly.

Remember that what’s not measured can never be improved.

How many visitors are you receiving? How many listings are they viewing?

Are there listings that do not have any views?

Where are visitors coming from?

Taking into account this data, you can optimize the titles, tags, descriptions, and photos of your listings as well as produce more content for the platforms in which visitors have discovered you.

To check Etsy Stats, go to your shop ► Shop Manager ►Stats icon and analyze your key statistics.

10. Discover The Power Of Promoted Listings

If you didn’t advertise your products on Etsy yet, give it a try!

You can do it through Etsy’s Promoted Listings to grow your reach and get more eyeballs on your Etsy products, thus increasing your visibility on the platform.

Use the budget you feel most comfortable with (1, 5, 20 dollars a day) for your star products and analyze their performance.

Etsy screen showing Etsy ads — Source: Etsy

Remember that Etsy charges you only when visitors click on your promoted listings.

If you break even or make a profit from those ads, great. That’s a good sign to increase your budget!

But if in the end you lose money on certain listings, turn off those ads or optimize your listings before continuing with the investment or put that money in the listings that have more impressions.

It’s a matter of trial and error.

You can check Etsy’s detailed guide on Promoted Listings here.

11. Create Seasonal Products

Etsy sellers see a spike in sales during special occasions like Valentine’s Day, The 4th of July, Halloween, and Christmas, as well as during the beginning of summer, fall, winter, and spring.

a fake skull surrounded by candles and orange flowers

If you are not producing seasonal products yet, girl, you are really missing out!

Imagine all the possibilities of getting your first sale on Etsy that you’re losing just for not being prepared.

What you have to do is plan ahead for the holiday season.

Plan out all your year having the calendar in your mind, defining what products you’ll launch during each peak season.

In Etsy Marketplace Insights Report, you will find all the seasonal trends that you cannot miss out on (look for it on Google to access the most recent version).

12. Make Your Photos Publicity-Ready

If you want to stand out from the crowded platform of Etsy and make your first sale, you’ll have to make sure your photos are eye-catching and visually appealing.

Focusing on details will help you differentiate from the sellers who use pixelated, boring, or inadequate photos of their products.

Photos are one of the first things that customers see when scrolling through Etsy, so you’d better take them right!

product photography featuring a citric skin tonic, with oranges and ginger roots

Here’s a list of the best Etsy listing photo tips:

The recommended size for listing photos is 2000px for the shortest side of the pic and a resolution of 72PPI.

Make your photo as ‘descriptive’ as possible. Imagine the listing description does not exist and tell the customers how your product is through your photos.

Make your photos communicate an emotion. How would your customers feel when using your product?

Make sure your photos are as informative as possible. Answer the potential questions your customers may have through your listing photos so as to simplify the order process.

Show your product from multiple angles. You want to replicate the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, where the customer gets to interact with the product physically.

Experiment with props, backgrounds, styles, textures, lighting, and even models to find your unique way of preparing your photos, maintaining cohesion throughout all pics.

Include measurements, if applicable.

Prefer natural lighting. If you can’t take photos during the daytime, use umbrella lights for artificial lighting.

product photograpy using a floral body spray

You can use a phone (the newest possible) or a DSLR camera like this one, which is great for beginners who want to take crisp, high-quality photos for their Etsy shops. Add a tripod to your basic photography kit too!

Prepare the primary photo (your thumbnail) and secondary photos to support the first one. Add up to 10 photos to show every nook and cranny of your item.

Don’t use distractive backgrounds and don’t include too many items. Make your product the star of the show.

If you are just starting out, you can buy two white poster boards from your local art store to create the background and base surface.

Don’t use watermarks. Use your logo!

Be careful of reflections; you don’t want to see yourself in the reflection. Don’t use flash either.

13. Price Accordingly

If you are just starting out on Etsy, it’s normal to feel tempted to underprice your products.

However, this can be counterproductive and actually end up harming your performance.

What happens here is that you risk your products being perceived as of less quality, which scares customers away from the get-go.

Additionally, if your prices are too low and a big company reaches out to you to see what’s your wholesale price, you’ll not be able to further decrease your price.

To price your product accordingly, ask yourself:

How long did it take you to make it?

What was the cost of the supplies?

What’s the profit you want to generate?

Divide the total of items you want to sell a month into your expenses and you’ll get the estimated cost.

Finally, research your competitors and see what prices they are offering and see what can you do to cut expenses instead of slashing your prices.

14. Don’t Forget About Branded Packaging

In which case do you feel that a customer would have a more exciting shopping experience?: when they receive your product in a plain box, or when they get it with branded packaging and a beautiful ‘Thank You’ note?

You see, when you get the customer to smash the ‘Order’ button, your work does not finish there.

You have to delight the shopper all along their customer journey.

Thus, make sure your brand is shown in your packaging and in the ‘Thank You’ note accompanying your product.

You can even include a low-cost product as a free gift for your customer.

Believe me, small details make your brand stand out and also make your customers fall in love with your product.

Prepare your branded packaging before making your listings to secure an awesome shopping experience for your first Etsy customer!

15. Keep Shop Policies In Check

a gavel and a sound block over a white background

Etsy Shop Policies are a group of rules you set to protect your business and your customers.

I know that crafting your shop policies may seem too formal for some sellers but it’s an absolute MUST for your shop.

This is because you want to be as transparent as possible with your sale handling processes to avoid any kind of issues with potential customers.

With your shop policies in place, your buyers will feel more at ease when making their first purchase.

These are the basic rules you need to include in your shop (make them as detailed as possible):

Delivery time (processing time, estimated delivery time)
Custom and import taxes
Payment options
Returns/exchanges/refund policy (do you allow them?)
Cancellations (in what time frame?)
FAQs
- Overtime policy
- Shipping options
- Gift wrapping details (if applicable)
- Missing item policy (are you going to issue a refund if something goes missing in the post?)

Regularly update your policies as your shop evolves.

You can do it by going to Shop Manager ► pencil icon next to Sales Channels ► Shop Policies.

16. Improve Your Etsy Titles

Part of crafting Etsy titles that get more clicks is putting yourself in your customer’s shoes.

How would they search for your product on Etsy?

For starters, don’t describe your product in the title; instead, state its purpose.

What is it for?

Who would use it?

Can it be used for a holiday or special occasion?

Let’s say your product is a t-shirt featuring a grumpy cat saying a humorous phrase like ‘I don’t care’.

Below you’ll find a good and bad example of a title for this item:

❌ I Don’t Care Cat T-Shirt, Make Your Friends Laugh

✅ Funny Cat Tshirt For Cat Lover Gift For Her Humorous Statement Cat Tee For Cat Mom

In the last example, multiple combinations of keywords can be made and we’re taking advantage of all the space available for the title:

Funny Cat Tshirt (my top keyword)
Tshirt For Cat Lover
Cat Lover Gift
Gift For Her
Cat Lover Gift For Her
Humorous Statement Cat Tee
Cat Tee
Tee For Cat Mom

What you can do to find ideas is do a little bit of research analyzing your competitors’ titles.

Choose 3 bestsellers (with items in the cart of at least 20 customers) and 2 smaller accounts, and identify patterns in their titles.

Additionally, try to fill all the space available for the title; the more keywords the better.

Just be sure not to repeat keywords that already appear on your tags or attributes, as all these serve as an opportunity to use different keywords and appear in more search results.

Finally, analyze the level of competition of each keyword using the free version of eRank, which will also give you suggestions for secondary keywords.

17. Include A Photo Of Yourself

Curious shoppers want to put a face to your brand.

That’s why it’s so important to add a beautiful headshot photo of yourself on your Etsy shop owner picture.

This will help develop a human connection with your customers and build credibility and trust.

As a rule of thumb, your face should fill about 70% of the image (square format, at least 400 x 400 px).

Some shop owners upload blurry photos, with grumpy faces, or a photo of a landscape that has nothing to do with the brand or the shop owner.

What they are doing is losing the opportunity to make more sales by uploading a photo of themselves, showing a bright smile, and adding their business branding to their profile photo.

Don’t sleep on it!

18. Don’t Treat It Like A Hobby

Let’s face it: if you work on your Etsy shop every other day or only when you have time, there’s no wonder you are there asking yourself ‘How to make my first sale on Etsy?’.

If you want results, you’ll have to get serious about your Etsy shop and make time for it, each day.

Take your agenda and organize your days so as to include tasks related to the optimization of your Etsy shop.

It doesn’t matter if you dedicate 20 minutes, 1 hour, or 3 hours to it. The key here is doing something each day.

That’s the only way of making progress.

Treating your shop as a business also includes investing in your education to get results faster instead of banging your head against the wall trying to figure out how to do things right.

19. Keep Posting Listings

If you are a new seller, you should have between 10 to 20 listings on your shop to have a full storefront and build that sense of legitimate shop.

Imagine going to a brick-and-mortar store and finding only one product on the shelf…

You will get the heck out of the shop before the seller even gets to greet you.

So remember: the more listings, the more chances of getting found on search results and building credibility.

Whether you’re publishing a variation of your primary product or a whole new item, make sure to keep adding listings every week or every few weeks, according to the number of products made.

Plus, Etsy gives a little temporary boost to each new listing you publish (Yay!).

Launch your shop with 20 listings and keep adding them until you reach 100 listings, which is the maximum recommended for sellers who are handling their business on their own.

20. Use Professional Tools

If you want to take your shop to the next level, you can utilize professional tools to make your first sale on Etsy.

Whether you use the free version or opt to invest in the pro version, these tools come in handy to optimize your presence on the platform:

eRank: mostly used for keyword research. Get tag ideas, improve your listings with e-Rank’s audits, monitor listing performance, and see trending products by month.

Alura: an all-in-one platform to grow your business on Etsy. Alura stands out for its integrated e-mail marketing system. Use it to send promotional e-mails to your subscribers and boost your sales.

EverBee: perfect for market research. Use this Chrome extension to find new products to sell, analyze your competition, see what listings have the highest demand, and identify best-sellers.

Sale Samurai: another Chrome extension with which you can do keyword, niche, and product research, create listings, calculate your profits, and track your competitors.

21. Offer Discounts And Free Shipping

When you offer huge discounts, you get buyers to spend more money than usual.

You can either offer a discount for one single product or make a listing pairing two complementary products and offer this package at a discounted price.

The best part? when you offer a discount, it is highlighted in green color, which stands out visually when you scroll through search results on Etsy.

Besides discounts, you can also offer free shipping to make your product more appealing to curious shoppers.

In order to do this, analyze if you have enough profit margin to pay for the delivery.

If your profit margin is low but you still want to offer free shipping, adjust your prices to include delivery fees.

22. Respond To Customer Inquiries ASAP

Customers love to get their questions answered in literally seconds.

They are not patient and do not want to waste their time.

That’s why answering people’s inquiries as fast as humanly possible is crucial to build credibility and trust.

Simply put, efficient interaction with the shop’s owners makes buyers happy, and solving their doubts means that they can make their purchase decision faster.

Optimize your customer service by being honest and polite, setting the right expectations, and always thanking them for their inquiries.

23. Utilize Facebook Groups

A laptop and a cellphone showing a Facebook group page

Instead of joining Facebook groups where Etsy sellers make ‘follow for follow’ or ‘like for like’ posts, which is a total waste of time, look for potential buyers in relevant groups.

Say you make and sell amigurumi, the right strategy would be to join groups of amigurumi enthusiasts to offer them specific products.

In most Facebook groups, you can’t promote your products directly but you can post on your Facebook page and share that post on relevant groups.

Join around 15 to 20 Facebook groups and post valuable information to start driving traffic to your Facebook page and your Etsy shop.

24. Post Shop Updates

If someone has favorited your shop or your items, why not take advantage of this and market your products to users who have already shown interest in your brand?

To do this, you can resort to Shop Updates, which you can only post from your mobile device.

First, download the Sell On Etsy app.

Second, take a picture of a new item or the making-of of a new product.

a woman painting wood items with plant patterns

Third, tag the photo with a listing from your shop.

Finally, share the photo.

This Shop Update will appear on the customers’ feed on Etsy.com as well as in the Recommended tab of the app and they will be able to purchase your item directly from the photo.

This means that every time your post is shared on Etsy and other social media channels thousands of people can be introduced to your shop (free traffic, yahooo!)

25. Create A Blog

One of the best ways to promote your shop to get your first sale on Etsy is by creating a blog.

A blog allows you to talk about your products, explain how you make your items, share your story, and create a relationship with your community.

Now, this is not a matter of posting anything.

This is all about posting valuable and useful information for your community.

In your posts, then, you can include links to your listings in a discrete way.

If you sell hair clips, some post headlines for your blog can be the following:

17 Best Clip Hairstyles And Ideas To Try This Month
How To Choose The Right Hair Clip for Your Face Shape
21 Amazing Tips to Wear Hair Clips For All Hair Types
How to Elevate Your Outfit With The Best Floral Hair Clips
Behind the Scenes: How Do We Handcraft Our Hair Clips?

To start your blog, you’ll need a domain and a hosting service for your blog.

The hosting provider Bluehost is perfect for beginners and if you follow this special link HERE you get 70% OFF the original pricing plus a FREE domain! How cool is that??

I don’t know for how long this price is going to last so take advantage of it while the discount is active.

I use Bluehost for my blog and they have a fantastic 24/7 client support service. Go check it out!

26. Avoid Getting Kicked Off

Banned account = no sales.

This might be obvious, but some Etsy sellers risk being kicked off the platform by not adhering to Etsy’s policies and rules.

Some of them are caught totally off guard!

So if you want to get your first sale on Etsy, make sure to follow the rules:

Avoid trademark infringement.

Don’t copy other sellers’ listings word by word.

Use original photos.

Do not sell prohibited items.

Be polite even if buyers are a**holes. Etsy can ban your account if you are rude to shoppers.

Don’t resell handmade products.

Avoid dropshipping.

27. Promote Your Products On Pinterest

Pinterest is not only a social media; it’s a search engine, just like Google.

This means that people can input keywords into the search bar and scroll through thousands of pins, which can be linked back to websites or blogs.

This is a wonderful opportunity to make pins showing your products and link them back to your listings.

To do this, you’ll need to:

1. Open a Business Pinterest Account and build your profile. This will allow you to access the analytics to see what’s working and what can be improved.

2. Include keywords in the name and description of your account (add phrases related to your shop and use the auto-complete feature in Pinterest’s search bar).

3. Add a call-to-action in the description: ‘Visit my Etsy shop at […]’.

4. Create relevant boards (for example, if you sell affirmation cards, some board ideas would be ‘Wealth Affirmations’, ‘Health Affirmations’, ‘Happiness Affirmations’, and ‘Morning Affirmations’).

5. Create pins for each board. Use high-quality photos and include keywords in the pins’ titles and descriptions.

6. In each pin, add the link to the corresponding listing to drive traffic to your shop. Don’t link to a listing multiple times a day because Pinterest considers this spammy. Try linking to different listings each day.

28. Make Giveaways

Making a giveaway is a fantastic way to cause excitement around your products and increase your chances of making your first 10 sales on Etsy due to the higher brand exposure.

As a rule, your giveaway should be free to enter and should not require users to purchase to participate.

You can make your giveaway on Instagram.

Create a specific listing for your giveaway, prepare a photo for it, and use it for your giveaway post on IG.

In your post, you can state the rules to participate in the giveaway according to your goals.

In this case, the goal is to drive traffic to your shop and increase your engagement so the usual rules would be to like the post, leave a relevant comment, and tag friends.

You can use the free tool Viralyft to choose the winner of your contest.

29. Stay Active On Your Shop

In order to increase your shop’s visibility, Etsy needs to make sure you are staying active DAILY on the platform.

This will show them you are serious about your business and that it is worth pushing and sharing your shop.

To show Etsy your compromise, make regular updates on your shop such as:

Adding new listings
Change your shop’s announcements
Add new sections
Change your banner
Change descriptions and titles
Update photos
Removing old listings
Optimize SEO

Spend time on Etsy and reap the great rewards!

30. Be Consistent

If you want to have success, you should be consistent.

This is true for any area of your life you want to improve.

In this case, the focus is on your Etsy shop.

Make a plan on how you are going to manage, update, and optimize your shop.

Set specific time blocks to get down to work and stick to them.

This is the only way in which progress is made.

Thus, consistency is one of the strategies that will lead you to your first sale on Etsy.

31. Be Patient

Last but not least, don’t give up!

Being resilient will help you have the patience needed to keep optimizing and growing your shop to attract your first customer.

It’s heartbreaking to see sellers closing their shops just before making their first sale on Etsy.

Wouldn’t be a pity to lose hope and quit just a week or two before earning your first dollars on the platform?

What’s key here is having a positive mindset to manage your shop and keep pumping high-quality, SEO-optimized listings into it, even if you don’t see instant results.

You can also resort to family and friends for emotional support and for additional help to spread the word about your Etsy shop.

Persistence is crucial for any business endeavor.

How To Get Your First Sale On Etsy: FAQs

How Long Till You Get Your First Sale On Etsy?

Expect to make your first sale on Etsy one to four months after opening your shop.

Of course, there are people who make their first sale in less than a month after opening their shops (some even in the same week), but this depends on so many factors, such as your niche, the number of listings, the quality of your photos, how SEO optimized your shop is, and the engagement rate of your community on your social media accounts.

Can A Beginner Make Money On Etsy?

Yes, a beginner can absolutely make money on Etsy.

If you want to start your Etsy business, do not quit your current job.

Work on your Etsy shop as a side hustle and, when your monthly sales double your 9-5 income, you can start evaluating the idea of making your Etsy shop your full-time job.

To start making money on Etsy as a beginner, study Etsy’s policies, familiarize yourself with the platform, validate your products, create your first 15 listings, and SEO-optimize your shop to make your first sale on Etsy.

How Hard Is It To Get A Sale On Etsy?

Your first sale on Etsy will be the hardest to get.

This is because it takes time to rank on Etsy and get the platform to know you.

Things get more difficult if you don’t have reviews, as these help build trust among potential customers.

Apart from SEO-optimizing your shop to appear on search results and keeping adding quality listings, ask for support from family and friends.

If they buy your products, they can leave a nice review to increase your chances of getting your first “stranger” sales!

a vase full of coins and a plant growing out of it

How Many Views Are Normal On Etsy Before Sale?

It can take, on average, 100 views before your first sale on Etsy, but there are shops that go through thousands of views before making their first sale.

Now, it’s important to know the difference between ‘views’ and ‘visits’.

A visit is made by a single customer to your shop and views are how many times that customer clicks on your products to see them.

The number of views before the actual sale depends greatly on the product you sell and how much competition you have.

The less competition, the better.

You can check your views and visits by going to Shop Manager ► Stats.

How Many Etsy Products Should You Start With?

To make your first sale on Etsy, you should have at least 20 listings on your shop.

The key here is to keep your shop as full as possible, just like any brick-and-mortar shop.

Launch your shop with at least 20 listings and then keep adding as you go, reaching around 100 listings, which is the maximum recommended if you are running your shop alone.

The idea behind launching your shop with enough products is to build trust and credibility.

Your potential customers NEED to know that your shop is active and well-maintained.

How Many Listings Should I Add On Etsy Per Day?

You should add one listing every few weeks, according to how long it takes you to produce your items and how much inventory you are willing to manage.

Of course, this is just to have a general idea about the matter, but your posting frequency will greatly depend on your niche and your production process.

For example, if you sell realistic paintings, and you need 1 month to complete a single painting, it would be hard for you to add listings fast.

Make sure to add listings that are relevant for your customers and to be consistent with your posting frequency to look credible (i.e. don’t vanish for months!).

How Much Does The Average Etsy Seller Make A Year?

a graph representing the increase of wealth over time

The average Etsy seller makes $56,000 yearly.

While that’s the average income from an Etsy seller, beginners on the platform can make as low as $50 per month and top earners can earn up to $70,000 per month in sales, like Alicia Shaffer, who sold boho headbands in her Etsy shop Three Bird Nest.

As for average Etsy sales in the first year, expect to make between $5,000 and $50,000, though this is not guaranteed.

It all depends on your product, how well you present it, the time and effort invested in the platform, and even luck!

No matter what, keep learning, keep optimizing your listings, and keep posting relevant products and you’ll see how your Etsy income increases over time!