Are you at a crossroads?
Can’t decide if you should have an Etsy shop or set up your own website?
I spend very little to no time marketing my Etsy shop.
I make a few sales a week and it’s a great place for side income with minimal effort and maintenance.
Etsy is great for starting out since you don’t have to know HTML or CSS to set up your shop.
But if you’re serious and committed to building a sustainable, long-term business, you should consider a more viable solution.
Building your own website doesn’t have to be expensive.
There are sites out there like Shopify.com that act as website builders for non-techie people.
It’s super easy and visual for us creative folks.
Or you can power up WordPress and install a plugin like WP-Ecommerce or download free WordPress e-commerce themes.
There will definitely be learning curves to using WordPress or setting up your own website, but you’ll be set for life once you get through it.
Compare that to the perpetual effect of marketing to your Etsy store, where you’re essentially marketing for Etsy.com themselves.
The more you market your Etsy shop, the more Etsy as a marketplace is advertised and the more sellers will join, increasing competition for you and commissions Etsy makes as revenue. Whether or not the customer buys from you, this is not your revenue. It’s Etsy’s.
With the former, you’re building equity for yourself that you get to keep with you for as long as your domain name lives.
With the latter, you’re simply funneling all your efforts into a pool at a party that’s not yours.
Having said that, I still run both my Etsy shop and my own website.
I only choose to prioritize my own site.
My business cards and social media all point back to my website.
And when I get that Etsy sale, it’s just an extra cherry on top.
We sell both on etsy and on our own site as well. We launched our own site first and added etsy later – we find that certain products are better sellers on etsy and vice versa. All of our marketing points to our own website and we consider etsy a marketing program for us. I think your allegory of the buy vs. rent is perfect. I guess etsy is a “second home” we are renting for awhile. Great website :-)
Hey Eileen!
Yeah, Etsy is not a bad marketplace to be at and like you said, it’s a marketing program to addon to your main website. Well said!
Thanks so much for stopping by, and if you have specific suggestions for blog posts I can cover, please let me know!
I know it’s an old article but as a blog owner, I won’t review products made in the USA unless the seller can link me to their own website and not Etsy. As a seller, it’s great to use both but in the professional world, you will look be esteemed higher if you build your own website. Not only that, when you apply for jobs, you have to know that in the marketing world, they want to see what you have done to build your own brand, not Etsy’s brand. In the long run. you might think that your Etsy shop is yours but it is really Etsy’s and they can shut you down at any time. If you want to start on Etsy while you build your own site, go for it but I would highly recommend getting your own website.
I find this super interesting. I just hit 100 sales on storenvy and have been thinking of moving to my shop to my WP. Great article!
Hey Shawna! I think your Storenvy powered site (http://store.scrawnygirl.com/) works really well and you have a lot of control over the customer experience and branding. I don’t think you need to migrate everything to a WP shop.
In my mind though, the Storenvy marketplace (http://www.storenvy.com/stores/82030-scrawny-girl) is like Etsy.
Super cute illustrations and artwork by the way!
hi I’m working on doing the same. Currently my site just directs to etsy. Until I get it built out and use WordPress with tumblr. And commerce But does etsy allow you to sell both places? Same items too? Your own site and etsy? Would u mind replying also via email if u see this. I don’t want to miss it!
Hi Jacque, you have beautiful pieces in your shop!
The last time I looked at the terms of service on Etsy, they don’t allow you to link out to a website where you’re selling the same products. This means you’re not supposed to link your website URL in your product descriptions, photos, announcement, profile page, etc.
You can link out to your website if you’re not selling anything on it.
However, Etsy doesn’t have any rights to say you cannot sell on your own site. The rule just says you can’t link to that site in your Etsy shop :)
Thank you!! Ok that is totally understandable! I may use the mini etsy seller thing on my page for a bit and link it to etsy products for a while, until I get the hang of it, or feel like tracking my own stats, sales, fees, etc. Just another place or HQ to stir up and direct sales and promotion. Or if etsy makes big changes that sellers arent happy with after IPO! Then I will jump off board.. I haven’t used WordPress in years but I hope it comes back to me. You are a real treat- very knowledgable- thank you so much Mei ;)
Hello and thank you for this article. I am brand new to all of this ( like literally…two weeks brand new!). I am a high school math school teacher by day with 23 years in public education experiencing the onset of the empty nest sydrome within the next year. I love crafts and have a master’s degree in educational technology. I’m ready to explore the world of creating and owning my own business while working from home. Every day I set aside 1-2 hours of educating myself on how to make this work! Your free ebook and your blogs were my classroom lesson for the day! Enjoyed it greatly !
Thanks again, and wish me luck:-)
Every day talk to God.
Every day show love.
Every day be you.
Gin from ginsden
Hey Ginsden, I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the ebook! I studied math in college and have to say that left brain side helps a ton in running a business.
What are you thinking about selling? I’d love to have you join us in the private Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/creativebizmarketing/
Great article! I started out on Etsy also and in the last 3-4 months I opened my own shop on my new worpress site (which means I stopped renting over at blogger also!). I left only my prints at Etsy and sell my entire line on my own site. Right now I’m really focusing on building my traffic to my site, to increase my sales there. But, you’re right an occasional sale on Etsy is very nice! Thanks so much for the great info!
Thanks for dropping by, Carmen! I’m glad you’ve moved over to your own website. That’s one of the best things you can do for your business!
I am slowly getting on the website train. For the moment, my site is a “direct entry” to my Etsy shop. I have my shop tab connected to open in a new tab/window so my site is still open too. It is a temporary fix until I can get a certain amount ahead to get a “good site”. Meanwhile, I can list local events that I will be at, post info about past events, and work on blogging better. It’s not a perfect solution, but for now it will work for me AND I can build from that.
Thanks,
~Spirit~
That’s a great first step! You’re training potential customers to find you based on your website/domain name, which helps tremendously when you transition to selling primarily on your own website. There are so many great and affordable options to set up your own shop these days. Wix, Shopify, SquareSpace, to name a few.