When we decided to start an Etsy shop there was a lot we learned. Here are the 5 biggest points we learned.

1. Have a business account set up before opening your shop. For us that meant an LLC with a tax ID number along with a separate business bank account. We did this for one main reason, liability. In today’s world you have to think about the worst case. With that being said the LCC provides separation between the business and our personal assets.

2. Think about your look…feel…brand. Our Owen’s Adventures store is “Backyard” homemade.

That’s the look ,the feel, the brand. We use this as our test bed for new ideas. The Noteworthy store is our modern version. More polished and focused. Here the products are limited, but there is also a much more of a “product line” effect. For us it was a natural evolution. But don’t under estimate the importance of the look and feel. That is part of what you are selling.

3. Be prepared. This might have changed but when we did our shops, before you could fill out the “About” section of your store you basically went “live”. That means when I hit “next/submit” I had a minor panic attack because our shop was live before I was ready. Quickly I discovered the “Vacation” mode and put our shop on vacation, giving us time to fill out the “About us” and other sections. So be prepared. Look at all of the components of the Etsy shops, and draft up something for each section so that you can simply copy paste and avoid the panic. Have your shop as complete as possible so that interested customers can connect with you.

4. Name your products so that they get found! Google and other search engines search the name first, then tags and other key words. So make your names robust and use words that people use to search. Don’t name your product something cryptic; call a spade a spade. And use the tools at your disposal; fill out the tags and materials information. Give the search engines something to search for.

5. Be patient. Don’t be surprised when you don’t get a ton of traffic. Search engines take time to find you; people take even longer to favorite you. Instead use this time to maximize your social media presence. Social media, like it or not, comes with the territory. This is a major traffic generator so you will not want to ignore it.

Update

One thing I should have mentioned as item zero on the things we wish we knew is the time commitment. So a quick update for us. We have since put Noteworthy3D on vacation. Since it was our newer shop, it generated the least amount of traffic. Though I still think all of the points made above are valid, simply put the time commitment required to make 2 shops work for us while we are both working full time is just not feasible. For now, we are doing our thing on Owen’s Adventures.