Question Hello and thank you in advance for your help. I have opened a store on etsy.com to sell my jewelry and bookmarks. I think I want to focus on one particular style of jewelry and a lot of different types of bookmarks. I have no friends and no job so networking is tough. Any suggestions on how I can 1)stand out from the crowd and 2) get exposure? I really only need to (down the road) make about $1000 profit a month to call it full time, is that possible and do you think the internet is oversaturated? Would a small local store be better to cater to? Thank you very much for any help you can give me. Diana
Answer Hi Diana,
I certainly think it is possible to make $1000 profit per month. I also think it is possible to do far better than that. Since you don't say what you are making right now, I am going to assume that you are at ground zero for answering your questions.
Here are my suggestions:
1. Etsy is a great way to start. Get your items up with good descriptions and good photographs. In order to get more people to go to Etsy you will need more Internet marketing skills - so next-
2. Start a blog and from there you can drive people to your Etsy listings. Also in a blog you can add affiliate programs in order to have more income. That is a bit more advanced for the purposes of this answer.
3. Start Social networking on the Internet. This is a way to interact with others who might be both interested in you and your products. People like to buy from others whom they Know Like & Trust. Setting up both a Facebook account and Twitter will help you with this interaction - but you do have to use them.
4. I would build your own website and not solely count on Etsy - you can do this within your blog or separately.
5. At the same time I would most definitely sell to local stores at the wholesale level. You will need to make sure your pricing is good at the wholesale level (which by the way is the way I always suggest my students price their items).
6 Work backwards in figuring out when you want to be at the $1000 per month level. And by that I mean how many units would you need to sell; what are your cost of goods and how much profit (on average) are you going to make per unit. Setting up a simple spread sheet for the next 12 months will really help you to make a plan for 2009.
This is just a thumbnail sketch of what is possible. I would encourage you to go for it and make a plan of action for 2009 so you can make it happen. The $1000 per month is very doable - and honestly you can probably do better than that if you structure your marketing well.
