How to Make Money with Etsy.com

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With the advent of science and technology, things for us humans have become very easy. With a click of a button, we can communicate with the people who are sitting far away from us. It is said that Internet has made the world a global village.

As a result of this, the market of a particular product has also become vast. The disadvantage of a physical market that it limits the number of buyers is no longer present. There is now no limit to the number of people to whom we can sell our product. Thus internet is becoming a great platform for buying and selling of a product.

One such platform on which you can sell your products to the people and earn money is Etsy. Many of you might have heard this name a lot of times but might not have experienced shopping using this account. Then you might be wondering what is Etsy? What products are available to be sold on Etsy?

Etsy is a platform that sells only those products which are vintage and unique. That is the USP of Etsy. The products that you cannot find else where, it is easy to find those products on Etsy. The products should be at least 20 years old if they have to be listed on Etsy.

For this reason, this platform is also known as “home to a universe of items which are special and are extra ordinary”. It is a great platform for the sellers which are very talented and this platform helps them to earn a living. Many great craftsmen who are exceptionally good at their work find this forum best way to earn a living.

Etsy.com came on the web in the year 2005. As of now it has 2.3 million sellers which are active. The number of buyers who are active is also huge on this platform. It is around 42 million.

The products which are sold the most on Etsy are craft essentials, miniatures, tools for jewellery, beads and many other things. Some of the other products which are sold on Etsy are home decor, greeting cards.

But it does not allow all the products to be sold on its platform. The products which prohibit the policies of intellectual property will not be allowed to be sold on Etsy. This is because then these products will not add to the USP of this platform.

Many of you might be wondering that is this platform safe? Is it legit? Etsy is said to be one of the most and legit websites on which you can do your business. The other sellers on the Etsy can easily be trusted. You do not have to be worried about that whether to trust Etsy or not.

But the question is how to sell your products on Etsy. Here are some steps that you have to follow to get started with.

1. First of all you have to create an account on Etsy if you don’t have one. Creating an account on Etsy is totally free of cost.
2. Then you have to select the currency that you would like to get paid in, every time you sell a product.
3. A shop name that describes about the kind of products that you sell has to be selected. Your shop name should be unique and should attract clients.
4. A listing of the products that you are offering has to be made. In that listing, all the variety of the products that you are offering has to be given.
5. Then a payment method has to be selected. This will decide the mode in which you would like to get paid.

There are three ways in which you can get paid. You can get your money in your Etsy account. You can ask your client to put money in your PayPal account. Or you can also get your money mailed on the address that you have on the file.

6. Then finally you have to select the billing method. This is the way you would pay the fee to Etsy.

These are some easy steps that you need to follow and after these steps, you are good to go! You can start earning through this platform.

Even though starting an account on Etsy is free of cost but that does not mean that you do not have to pay any fee to Etsy. There are three types of fee that you have to Etsy. Those are a listing fee, a transaction fee and a payment processing fee.

The listing fee is the fee which the clients have to pay whenever they list their products on their account. On every listing the clients make, a fee of $0.20 is charged. Every listing is valid for four months or till the time the stocks last.

This listing fee is charged in United States dollars. In case if you select any other currency, then the listing fee might differ depending upon the exchange rate.

Next fee is the shopping fee. Every time a product is sold, a transaction fee of 5% is charged on the sale price of the product. Then there is a fee charged at the time of the acceptance of the payment. If you accept the payment through PayPal, a payment processing fee is charged. It is charged depending upon their fee structure.

An advertisement fee is also to be paid in case if you make a sale from the ad which is offsite.

Every time an item has been sold from your account, the details of that order can be checked in your account. A notification is sent to the Sell column on your Etsy app. Also a mail is sent on the address that you use for your Etsy account.

There is another thing that a seller has to keep in mind regarding the shipping of the product. The seller is responsible for the product till the time it does not reach the client. Even when it is on the way to the client’s address, it is the seller’s responsibility to get it delivered safely.

In case if you want to view the details of the order, follow these steps:

1. On Etsy.com, click on the icon of your account.
2. Then you have to click on Shop manager.
3. Then you have to click on the option of Orders and shipping.

This will help you look at the details of the order that you have received.

Every time the quantity of a particular product is not in stock in your shop, it gets removed automatically from your shop. If you again get the stock of that particular good back, you have to renew it to put it back in your stock. Only then the customers will see that item back in your shop.

When you have sent the order to the client, you might need to contact the buyer to tell him something about the product. You might need to contact the client to update him about the shipping details of the product also. In order to contact your buyer, you can message him by following these steps:

1. You have to click on the icon of your account on Etsy.com.
2. Then click on the option of Shop manager
3. After that click on the option of Orders and shipping.
4. From there you will get the details of the orders that you have received. Then you have to select on the name of the buyer whose details you need.
5. Then select the option of contact to send a message to that buyer. You can also send an email to the client on the email address listed.

Since you are running a shop on an online platform, it is very important to know what the clients think about your products. If by any way you get to know the review of your products from the clients, it becomes possible to make changes to improve your sale. This feature is also possible on Etsy. You can get the review of your client.

After your order has been delivered to the address of the client, the client can leave a review for the product purchased from your shop. The reviews can be given by the clients in a number of ways. The clients can give their reviews by rating from 1 to 5. They can also write down a message about what they think of your collection and the product that they have purchased.

The review by the clients can be given on the following criteria:

• Did the quality of the product match to what was described or expected?
• Did the product reach the buyer within the time frame stated?
• Will you shop with this seller again or not?

The best thing about this review system is that these reviews can be seen publicly. Therefore the people who have logged in their Etsy account can view these reviews. They can judge from these reviews about your collection and decide whether to shop or not.

Also the reviews made with the help of the criteria given above are the best judgement for a particular seller or his products. The buyers can go through these reviews before placing their orders. It can save them from getting a bad experience and only shop from the sellers who have been rated the best.

On the other hand it can also help the seller to either expand his business by getting more buyers on the basis of the reviews given by people. Or it can also help the sellers to make the required changes on the basis of the complaints or bad reviews given by the clients.

It is not possible for every one to leave a review. Only the people who are logged into their own accounts can leave a review. So only the real buyers will be able to leave a review. Fake people will not spoil the reputation of a supplier. Also there is a feature that in case if you get a review that violates the guidelines of Etsy, those can be reported.

Many of you might be wondering that is it worth to set up an account on Etsy and start selling online. The answer to this question is yes, it is definitely worth setting up an account here because the risk is very low for using this platform to sell your products. Also there is no hassle for you to maintain and have an attractive local store or to maintain the track records of the clients.

Etsy is a great way to make the things available to the clients which are hard to find otherwise. It helps you to be creative and also earn a living from it. It definitely helps you to escape from the hassles of having an independent platform and then keeping it up to date.

But one thing that disturbs the sellers on this platform is that the support of this company to the sellers is not very good. The sellers have to make their own return policy and work on it. The sellers have to see to their return policies on their own.

Also there is complaining about this platform that off late there has been an influx of non hand made products. This is spoiling the USP of the platform and giving an undue competition to the sellers offering hand made vintage products.

There is no denial in the fact that it is a wonderful site and is one of its kinds. There are very few sites which deal in something like products which are unique and vintage. But it should do something about its support to the sellers. It should help sellers form their policies and provide good experiences to their clients.

It is a platform where you can come across some of the great artists who have done wonders in their jobs. Without a doubt, if vintage and unique items are your things, give Etsy a shot!!!