Etsy?

[BrunosMama]

Hello hoomins!

Does anyone have any experience selling on Etsy or any other online shop? I’m looking for venues for my artwork, but the more info I can gather first, the better.

Thanks!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’ve had an Etsy shop for a few years. I’ve made like 40 sales in almost 4 years. While Etsy is very user-friendly, that’s about all the good I have to say about it. Don’t want to discourage you, maybe other users have a different experience but it’s really really hard to get noticed on Etsy. There are so many items. Unless you are prepared to do a lot of advertising. The only time I really get my shop noticed and get sales is when I advertise on FB. Most of my rabbit or cat FB groups allow advertising if a portion of sales goes to rescue so I often do a 1/2 or all proceeds to a rabbit or cat rescue and then I get noticed because people check out my link.

I’ve heard, your shop will get noticed more, if you are posting lots of new items all the time. I don’t have much crafting time, so there is quite a bit of time between my listings.

Although, I seem to be getting a bit more attention (you can see how many views your shop and items get daily) since posting my crafts to Instagram.

And it seems a great deal at first but the fees really add up. Honestly, some of the fees I really have no idea what I’m paying for.

Again, not to discourage, just sharing my experience. Happy to answer any specific questions, if I can.

[Mikey]

What kind of art do you do?

I used to sell digital art on FurAffinity. If youre not into anthro or animal art, Weasyl and DeviantArt are two good ones to sell on for digital and prints. DevArt also allows selling of paintings, photography, and many other art crafts. Be heavily aware of trolls on DevArt, though. Many small/new artists will cancel the ability for people to comment to avoid trolls taking over. When you get a bigger fan base, trolls are least likely to appear as they know youll have people defending you.

My mom sold paintings, tye dye, and crafts on Etsy. She got a lot of sales and for two years she was able to hold it as a successful business. She quit when someone was stealing her projects (making the exact same paintings/crafts then selling them cheaper; they even stole her shop logo/watermark) and Etsy didnt really back her up. However, she is going back to it in the next few months after her 4+ year hiatus. She has since learned how to defend her projects and how to protect against thieves. Im not sure if Etsy has changed their policies on thievery since then, either. So, because of that, I would say research a lot on how to protect your pieces before you make an account.

Make sure you make social media pages for your business as it is the easiest way to promote yourself. It might feel cringey, but also blow up hashtags. The more ways you can be found, the better.

[BrunosMama]

Thank you guys!

LPT, I had wondered how many sales Etsy would bring in. Good to know!

Mikey, I do all sorts of art, hand drawn and digital (although my digital game is not super strong right now) My style is more manga/comic but I do animals and humans both. I also do mixed media work. Thank you for your suggestions!

[Azerane]

I looked at Etsy once and it seemed vey pricey. You can create a shop on Facebook, some people I know sell things through there using a price list and order form, but if you wanted to make it more of an actual shop you can add a buy button using a simple shopify subscription for about $9/month. Or if you’re expecting more business then set up a whole shop/ website using them for a bit more monthly.

Then of course there’s always ebay and other art websites like Deviant art etc where you can simply say that something is for sale and people can get in contact. It can be very slow getting noticed at first on sites like that unless you’re really really good. The same with Instagram, you can post art in there as mentioned to help support your site.

[Heaven]

Hi Bruno’s mama!

It really depends on what your angle is gonna be with your atrt. Etsy definitely has its place, and is good for selling crafts like LPT but you do have to invest a lot of time into the marketing side. Instagram is a good one for that. Making use of hashtags as well, as Mikey suggested.

Are you planning to sell prints ? Custom portraits? Mugs, stickers & other merchandise using print on demand sites? There are literally so many avenues you could go down so it’s good to define what your “product” is going to be in order to best decide which platform to sell (& market) it on. There are a some bunny artists I follow on Instagram who seem to be making a decent impression such as @ssbunnyimports @schinako @chelseakuran @olive_bunbun to name a few… & I’ve just started uploading drawings to my instagram as well

I think with having a side gig there’s always the inevitable fact that it’s gonna be a slow burner & take a while to gain momentum, so embrace that and just start putting some feelers out there do you have a platform where you share your art right now (insta, DeviantArt, etc?)

[BrunosMama]

Az- thanks for the advice!

Heaven – I currently do not have my art “out there”. See, I’m in art school working towards a bachelor’s in animation. I’m halfway done. My goal is to be a freelance artist, capable of animation, 3D modeling, character design, storyboarding etc. Up until now I’ve been super shy about putting myself out there. Obviously I need to get over that NOW lol. So I want to start early, wading into the art stream. I have a bunny insta and I’m really happy with Instagram as a program. I think that will be one of my first ventures. Also, DeviantArt is something I want to look into.

Thank you for your advice, it makes a lot of sense.

[Heaven]

It’s something I’m just getting into as well so love sharing advice! Wow animation sounds so cool, lucky you. I think if you already have a following on Instagram for your bunny account you can start sneaking your art on there & it’s a good way to get feedback from people. I used to use deviant art years ago, so it’s probably changed a lot now (didn’t know about all the trolling!) but I recall it was a good way to convert sales as you could sell prints through the site & to followers who are already fans of your work. Think I even bought a few prints off there myself back in the day.

[Heaven]

Oh dear D:

[Azerane]

Its all good Heaven I fixed it.

It’s also worth looking into Twitch. There’s a growing community of art streamers in there and is becoming quite popular.

[Heaven]

Haha thanks Azerane! Quadruple post!

I’ve not heard of Twitch, is that something you’ve used?

[Azerane]

I haven’t used it, it’s massively huge in the gaming community (hubby uses it, mostly to watch but sometimes to steam), and I have an art friend who uses it to stream digital art. People cam subscribe to you and donate to you if they like your stuff etc.

[Heaven]

Ah, so a little bit like Patreon? Need to look into that one as well, actually. It’s a similar premise I think, people subscribe to you if they’re fans of your content…

[LittlePuffyTail]

Forgot to mention, one of the parts I hate most about Etsy is you really need good quality pics to compete. Your pic is literally selling your crafts. I suspect my sub-par pictures is partly to blame for my low sales. It has to be just the right lighting, back ground etc, and I just really don’t want to put time and energy into it. Wish I could hire someone to do that part for me. The small amount of time I have for my shop, I want to use for crafting, but kind of makes no sense to make stuff that’s not gonna sell.

[BrunosMama]

Az- I looked up Twitch. From what I can tell, you stream/video broadcast yourself creating your art. That gives me the Herbie jeebies lol! But thanks for the suggestion!

LPT – I can see where the quality of the photo of the product would be important. I think in my case, I will be mostly creating 2D art, so maybe I can scan some of it to show detail along with photos of the actual item.

Thanks for everyone’s advice!

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