The Handmade Shop: Etsy Business Strategy for Makers with Physical and Digital Products

Etsy sales are slow, so you lower your price, because cheaper means more buyers, right?  Wrong, and it's costing you on both ends.  There is always someone cheaper than you, so the price shoppers leave for them anyway. And the quality buyers, the ones who actually came to Etsy ready to pay for something special, read your rock-bottom price as "the cheap version" and scroll right past...

In this episode I reframe what a view actually is on Etsy, why a click that doesn't convert is a flat no rather than a maybe, and why dumping more traffic on a page that doesn't sell just means more people leaving faster.  I walk through the short list of questions every shopper is silently asking before they'll hit add to cart, why an unanswered question sends a warm buyer straight to...

Summer hit and suddenly your Etsy shop feels like a project you'll "get back to in September."  Sound familiar? This episode is for the seller who hasn't quit, but has quietly started coasting. Life got fuller, energy shifted, and the shop slipped down the priority list. That's normal. What you do about it matters more than the fact that it happened. I'm talking about how...

Favorites without sales is one of the most frustrating Etsy problems. Here's why it's harder to fix than it looks and how to actually figure out what's going on. If your favorites keep climbing but your sales aren't following, something is creating friction between a buyer loving your listing and actually purchasing it. In this episode I'm walking through all the variables that...

Getting your Etsy listings in front of the right buyers isn't just about one well-optimized listing. Here's what it actually takes. Sellers often approach keyword research as a single listing problem. In this episode I'm breaking down why ranking on Etsy is really a shop-wide signal and what that means for how you build your strategy from the ground up. What you'll learn in this ep...

Is it really your products that are holding back your Etsy sales? Probably not…but here's how to know for sure. Most sellers jump straight to blaming their products when sales slow down. But the majority of the time, the product isn't the problem. In this episode I'm giving you a four-step framework for figuring out whether your product is actually the issue, or whether something else...

Summer is coming, and most Etsy sellers are about to make the same mistake they make every year. They slow down, they pull back, and then they wonder why they're not ready when Q4 hits. This is a short episode with a big announcement. If you've been wanting to understand how Etsy search actually works and stop guessing at what's getting your shop found (or not found), you're going to want to hear...

"My shop just can't rank on Etsy."  I hear this constantly. And then comes the reason. My prices are too high. My photos aren't good enough. I'm not selling the right product. My shop is too new. I don't have enough reviews. The big shops have taken over my niche. In this episode I'm going through all six of these beliefs one by one, because most of what sellers think...

Not enough time is the number one reason sellers don't invest in their Etsy strategy. But in my experience, the sellers who say they don't have time are usually spending a significant amount of it on things that aren't working. So let’s fix it. In this episode I'm taking you through a real time audit so you can see exactly where your Etsy hours are going and which ones are actually...

If you've ever talked yourself out of going after a product line because the niche felt too saturated, this episode is going to reframe that completely. Saturation is one of the most common reasons sellers hold back on Etsy, and it's also one of the most misunderstood. Every niche is saturated. The entire internet is saturated. And yet new sellers are breaking through in competitive spaces...

You did the research and optimized your listings and your shop is still slow as heck. If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you. A lot of sellers come to me frustrated with Etsy SEO because they feel like they've already tried it and it didn't work. But when I dig into their shops, the issue is almost never the concept of SEO itself. It's one of a few specific things that are qu...

You did the keyword research. You optimized your titles and tags. And your shop is still slow.  If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you. The most frustrating place to be as an Etsy seller is when you've followed the advice and it still isn't working. In this episode, I'm cutting through the noise and pointing you at two specific things you can actually look at this week…your p...

Do you actually know if your Etsy product line is set up to rank or are you just hoping it is? Most sellers are putting in real work and still not seeing consistent traffic, and a lot of the time it comes down to one or two specific gaps in how their product line is built. In this episode I'm walking you through five yes or no questions you can ask about your shop right now to find out exactly...

This episode is for the Etsy seller who has products in too many directions and wonders why nothing is gaining real traction. I'm breaking down why a scattered shop doesn't become important for any specific search and why focus is the thing that speeds everything up. I also share the story of one of my students who went from inconsistent sales across a wide range of products to selling eve...

Checking your Etsy stats feels productive. It's not…at least not the way most sellers are doing it. This episode is about one of the most common habits that keeps Etsy sellers busy without actually moving their shops forward: opening the dashboard multiple times a day, watching numbers, refreshing views, and making reactive decisions based on what they see in a single afternoon. If that sounds...

If you have an Etsy shop and sales feel like a mystery, this episode is the starting point you probably skipped. Most sellers jump straight into tweaking tags and titles without understanding what Etsy SEO actually is or why it works the way it does. This episode covers the foundation…what Etsy SEO is, how Etsy decides who gets traffic, and why the sellers who understand this first are the ones wh...

If you’ve ever thought getting featured in magazines, gift guides, or major publications was only for big brands then this episode is going to change your mind. Today I’m joined by PR expert Gloria Chou, and we’re talking about how Etsy sellers can land press features without paying thousands of dollars to a PR agency. Because journalists are constantly looking for products to feature. And increas...

Running Etsy ads too early is one of the fastest ways to convince yourself your product doesn’t work. And most of the time that’s not actually the problem. If you’re a newer seller wondering whether Etsy ads are the shortcut to getting traction, this episode is going to save you time, money, and frustration. Because the real question isn’t just, “Are Etsy ads worth it?” It’s what are you expecting...

Most Etsy sellers try to optimize their ads inside the ads dashboard. But that’s not where optimization actually happens. If you’re running Etsy ads and wondering why they aren’t profitable, this episode is going to shift how you think about the entire system. Because the real things that make ads work live inside your listings. Today we’re breaking down: Why conversion rate determines whether ads...

Do Etsy ads work? Yes. But not in the way most sellers think they do. If you’ve ever turned on Etsy ads hoping they’d magically fix slow sales, this episode is going to save you money. Because ads don’t create demand. They don’t fix bad photos. They don’t improve weak conversion rates. They amplify what’s already happening in your shop. In this episode, I’m breaking down: When Etsy ads are likely...

If you’re getting traffic to your Etsy shop but people aren’t buying, your conversion rate is costing you sales every single day. And the frustrating part is that most sellers are making the same five completely fixable mistakes. In this episode, I’m breaking down the exact five things that tank your conversion rate and how to fix them. Because the goal isn’t to get more traffic. It’s to make it e...

Getting traffic but not making sales? Your conversion rate might be the problem. Today, we’re breaking down: What a conversion rate actually is What a “good” conversion rate looks like on Etsy Why this number matters more than most sellers realize How to calculate it for individual listings And what to fix if yours is low Because you can double your revenue without getting a single extra visitor…...

Freaking out over your Etsy stats? You might be overreacting! Let’s talk about the three Etsy stats that sellers constantly misinterpret and what you should do instead. Because they might not be telling you what you think they are. And if you’re making panicked changes every time you open your shop stats, you could be tanking your own momentum. In this episode, we’re talking about: Which stats act...

Wondering if you should delete those listings that haven’t sold in months? Here’s what to do instead. While it might feel like a good way to clean up your shop, deleting those listings could actually hurt your traffic more than help. In this episode, we’re breaking down: When it makes sense to let listings go When it’s smarter to keep them (even if they’re not converting yet) And how to make these...

If your Etsy strategy feels chaotic, it’s because you’re doing too much, too fast, in too many directions. And when everything feels like a scramble, your visibility takes the hit. In this episode, we’re digging into why so many sellers feel stuck in Etsy strategy chaos and how to fix it with simplicity that actually gets you seen and gets you sales. We’ll talk about the real reason your strategy...