If you haven't been to Etsy.com then perhaps now is the time. Etsy is like Ebay for creative people. Etsy is a forum for people who have created items to sell their products or for suppliers who sell items that are used in the creation of unique products to sell their items. All others need not apply at Etsy.com.
Etsy is not a forum to resell items for a profit or to resell even items that other people have created. In fact, it is prohibited to sell items for others even if the items have been handmade by another person. Any handmade items must be made by you personally otherwise you are in violation of Etsy's terms of service.
Products are created every day by many people and tens of thousands of products are listed on Etsy. Here is just a sample of the types of handmade items that can be found on Etsy that people are making money with:
Handmade Items
- Purses
- Handbags
- T-Shirts
- Refrigerator Magnets
- Picture Frames
- Earrings
- Necklaces
- Anklets
- Coffee Table Coasters
- Quilts
- Bathing Suits / Bikinis
- Photographs (original and digital)
Here are few examples of what suppliers of items to make handmade goods are selling on Etsy:
- Quilt Batting
- Jewelry Findings
- Fabric
- Glue and Adhesives
- Glass Marbles and Gems
- Paints
- Beads and Beading Supplies
- Iron-on Transfer Paper
If you take time to watch Etsy it is actually addictive. They show recently listed items about every 15 seconds and they are growing by leaps and bounds. The key to a good Etsy listing is a good picture and good tags (keywords) associated with your target market.
Depending upon your level of creativity and the type of product you want to create there is no doubt in my mind that you can make a decent income using Etsy. As an example, my wife saw a handbag that was made from a pair of denim jeans. My wife happened to know a friend who makes a similar handbag but was unaware of Etsy.com. My wife called to find out how much time it took to make the handbags and what the out of pocket cost was. Then my wife watched the almost identical jean handbag sell for $80.00 on Etsy.com. The time commitment was about 1 hour per handbag after you get in practice and the cost was about $15.00 to create the handbag. The potential? $55 profit after accounting for approximately $10 for shipping on the high end. That's over 300% profit on one handbag. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
Explode your creative side! Join the Etsy revolution and make some extra money of develop a full-time income from home!
Remember SBA! See it! Believe it! Achieve it!
Copyright 2008 Christopher Pearsall, Money-Making Entrepreneur
