Should You Sell On Etsy or Create Your Own Personal Website?

Craft Maker Pro » Should You Sell On Etsy or Create Your Own Personal Website?

If you’re an Etsy seller, should you have your own website in addition to your Etsy shop? Or, alternatively, do artisans sell more on Etsy or from their own websites?

etsyvswebsiteLooking at Etsy and the handmade business space, I can tell you that there are three things you absolutely need to know about this.

Traffic – The Benefit Of Selling On Etsy

Driving traffic is a major issue for most handmade businesses but Etsy already gets a lot of it.

That’s not to say you get the benefit of Etsy’s traffic without any work at all. You need to be selling something that stands out in the crowd, you need to know how to use keywords, and explore other marketing opportunities to show off your handicrafts.

Etsy is a great venue for you to start your handmade business. Etsy has a lot of built in traffic. In a nutshell… traffic is the main reason why you need Etsy. On the other hand, if your niche on Etsy is super crowded, and you’re fairly good at marketing your handmade products online, it may be worth striking out on your own.

Full Control – The Benefit Of Your Own Website

You have no full control over your shop in Etsy. You are under Etsy, and they can (and have on occasion) shut down your Etsy shop, and or limit/change how you operate. Thus, no full control.

Having a website seems minor but is important. Having a website adds a level of professionalism to your handmade business and also helps with marketing. Your own name will be easier to remember and can be advertised on your business cards and by word of mouth. An Etsy store domain name is more complicated and you would need to email someone a link if you wantthem to take a look at your items. Plus if you send them to your Etsy store who’s to say they wont get off track and end up buying something from someone else?

Every one of Etsy’s top sellers has their own website as well as their Etsy store. Whether it’s made of up of just a few static pages, a blog, or a full-featured e-commerce store of its own, having your own website in addition to your Etsy shop is key to escaping amateur-ville and becoming a real player.

Create A Balance

So does that mean you should drop Etsy right away and start your own online store? Absolutely not! If you are making a decent number of sales on Etsy already, then by all means you should keep listing your products there. However in the background, you should begin working on your own website.

If creating your own shopping cart website sounds daunting and expensive at first, don’t be discouraged. You can actually start your own online store for free and there are many platforms available that make building your own website fairly simple.

Etsy is a fantastic place to get your feet wet with online selling. But if you want to take your handmade business to a new level, relying solely on Etsy as your main sales channel will drastically stunt the growth of your business.

So should you sell on Etsy? Yes!

Create your own personal website? Yes!

The answer is BOTH!

You do not have to choose one or the other. You can easily have an Etsy store and start developing your own website on the side. Etsy is a great way to get started and feel that having your own website is a long term solution to selling your handmade items online.

Gary Capps
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