Maybe I was mad. So why?
Why
It all started with my love of making things. I can’t help it I get bored and unmotivated if I’m not creating something or planning to create something, it seems to be who I am. The second factor I had in this was money struggles. It’s not common any more for money to go as far as you like it so I wanted a little extra cash to help out with the small things. The third factor I had was I wanted something outside of my full time job to be able to do and focus on as a distraction from the day to day.
Etsy has however become a larger side project of mine which includes this blog, my website as a freelance designer/ marketeer. Which help me advertise and market my products to the wider world including through social media.
Starting at the beginning!
I didn’t initially want to start an Etsy store, but just a website and a freelance business called VPCreativ. So I created my branding, and started work on a website http://www.vpcreativ.co.uk I even went ahead and bought the domains I would need ready.
The beginning was a rough learning processs my UX was awful. It was clunky and just didn’t read well. I was trying to show to many things in the wrong way so I started again. I deleted the whole thing! This was actually the best thing I could have done as it gave me a fresh slate, but I went away and did some learning. I studied marketing and design concepts via digital formats which has led me down I think now maybe five new versions of my site.
Once I had my freelance site sorted I wanted to start this site for a blog. Something I could do when I’m available to do so but not have to maintain on the daily basis. This for example is one of two posts in more than four months. Even this site had its growing pains. I over-complicated it, I just made it clunky and unusable like I did with my other site. So three versions later I realised I literally needed a one page site that links to all the blog pages, which made a huge difference.
So the Etsy part
As stated I needed to try get some pocket money and this seemed like a reasonable way to do it as I am not a fan of the formats of Ebay or Facebook marketplace and Amazon you have to be able to have stock so as a digital product offer Etsy seemed a good option especially as it was geared towards the small business and hand made business sectors.
I am creative and I love making things and it is for the better part my main job role. Designing things for people from posters, planners or colouring pages and basically any digital product you could want is my forte’. I love it. Seeing what software is capable of when you try and create sometimes digital documents that wouldn’t be possible five or ten years ago.
With the development of the internet, network storage and the whole going green ethic in the world paper documents are being frowned upon more and more and ‘going digital’ is for most part the way forward. So how could I capitalise on this and the creative markets I thought.
Starting the Etsy shop was easy. I could put my link on my website, and social media I could even use word of mouth. Creating something that would attract buyers I found was my challenge and advertising it in a way that would convert from clicks to orders. I struggled, but stuck with it and slowly to my clicks to order ratio is changing with two main things. Creating new content and making sure I use the right keywords or SEO to advertise them.
The world of digital marketing is all about the user experience and you need to be able to say everything you need to say in a matter of seconds whilst remaining relevant and affordable. Adhering to this is the way forward and utilising many formats without over saturating your audience is the way forward, but it won’t be without its challenges.
What happens if my designs are no longer popular or relevant? What happens if my keywords are no longer attracting the right amount of people? What if my social media doesn’t attract as many customers as I’d like?
These are all worries and I will take them as they come but as to was creating and Etsy store a mad thing. Yes, but it’s been worth it.
I write this blog to offer my opinion and experience to the world and no one is forced to take the opinion as their own. I try to make them fun, concise and to point. I also do like to hear from people if they feel the need to respond.
I hope you enjoyed this read.
VPCreativ 