Artists: STOP Selling on Etsy, Do THIS Instead

[@itsdreak]

Ready to get started growing your online business this year as a creative? Check out my free ebook: 20 Biggest Lessons When Starting Our Art Business Online & learn from my mistakes! 🎨: courses.colorbyfeliks.com/pl/2147501486

[@secreteobsession3584]

To many companies is signing up to Etsy and copying people's designs and Etsy is not protecting those who make their stuff handmade

[@itsdreak]

Yes I agree as well 🙌🏼

[@42710steph]

Very interesting video, thank you for your honest opinion. I am on Etsy since december 2019, to be honest yes it's been very slow and I just start to make consistent sales - but I was a newbie, and I think it's a great place to start an art business as it brings you traffic. Etsy is not the most expensive platform, so I will stay for a little while, but I also start to sell my products on other platforms, the time to build a sufficient mailing list and social media presence, and think about getting my own website by 2023.

[@itsdreak]

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed. Sounds like you’re on a great path 🙌🏼

[@shohineedeb9089]

Best of luck! 👍👍👍

[@RegnaSaturna]

Don't forget that an artist is interested in creating art for most of the time. He is not so much interested in doing the marketing himself nor has he/she the time for that. Those have always been two totally different skills. It's great that you want to do it for your husband, but not everybody has a wife like you. Therefor we have Etsy.

[@itsdreak]

While I understand what you are saying, Etsy isn’t a long term business foundation and they are not a promotion service. What happens when your rankings go down? Ultimately, you’re building on their platform and they aren’t doing the marketing for you…you still have to figure that out yourself. You can put your art on their site but it doesn’t guarantee eyeballs or sales. It’s important to own your own business for that reason and make time to learn these things, which you obviously are 😊 Everyone is busy, my husband did his business by himself for years before I was able to join him. The only way to get more customers is to make time to do the things you don’t necessarily want to do like learning marketing (even a little bit). You can also just do art as a hobby that’s a totally possible option as well if you aren’t interested in learning about the business side. The point of my channel is to make that path easier and to guide artists as much as possible because we’ve been down the same path!

[@beyondher]

I love this comment. Women artists are at a huge disadvantage for this reason. Often female artists had to sacrifice a relationship for the sake of being an artist - because most men want a domestic wife and mother for their children. Female artists are often not going to attract a supportive husband for this reason. In fact, many men feel emasculated by their ambition to be an artist. So finding a platform like Etsy or gallery that does the promoting is the only way I can see possible for single female artists. Or, just do crappy half-hearted art, and spend half your time promoting. But you can’t fool people for long…

[@Onlylove994]

Etsy is simply has now so much garbage sellers , they sell fake watch, fake clothing, right from China, and of course the cheap art which comes from Asian painting factory. You can see how it’s easy to find there the “painting” which u can order and in China someone unknown will make the cheap copy of the photo in much more bad technique…

[@paul_domici]

I sold one piece of jewelry on Etsy and they charged me twice for shipping and I paid for shipping and a huge commission!!! I got out!!!

[@faresjewelry1558]

I have just made one sale. They charged about 30%. Thieves

[@paul_domici]

@@faresjewelry1558 I heard most people are selling directly on Instagram! It's a much better way to go!

[@faresjewelry1558]

@@paul_domici I will give it a shot. Thanks

[@JanelleSpeaks]

I wish more creators would leave etsy.

[@everlovedportraits]

I am new to Etsy and not selling as of yet. It is very frustrating.

[@sjlosiaa2376]

This is very helpful. Thank you. I want to create a website but currently haven’t established my art style so have various types of art work on my socials. Do you recommend starting on Etsy first until I figure out my art style then create a website?

[@itsdreak]

So glad it could be helpful for you! I think a website should be the end goal especially if you’ve seriously decided you want to make selling art an income stream. First, really focus on building your social media platforms and in the meantime you can start on Etsy if creating a Shopify store seems overwhelming to you but definitely you’ll want to focus on building your socials and drive them to platforms you control as the artist like your website, blog etc

[@lleynem1426]

@@itsdreak an advice to start to build social presence? I mean... Which kind of post for the first Time posting?

[@iritelazarcohen4583]

Great advice and you make it really clear why Etsy is not a good platform anymore. I've been on Etsy for many years and now I'm starting my own website with Art Storefronts, mainly because I can't stand how trashy Etsy has become. Piles and piles of garbage you have to sift through to find the good stuff. Artists are getting crushed under a mountain of massed produced junk. It's sad but true.

[@luckyduckyart291]

I wish I had someone to market for me so I could just paint. It wears me out just thinking about it

[@itsdreak]

I know what you mean it can be exhausting but if you take it in small bites and start to implement little by little it will help! It’s better to invest that time into learning some marketing which will help in your art career than not being able to do it at all and spend time doing something completely unrelated to art

[@jennierussell70]

How can I get started by making my own website? How does one go about doing that?

[@marvelingabout8240]

Well said and genuine! There are way more sellers than buyers on there and fees are getting higher. Materials are also getting more expensive, so it is not just the labor of making something if you need to keep lowering the price.

[@itsdreak]

Thank you! Yes I totally agree with you 💯 artists deserve better

[@SteveKalinda]

This is interesting and so helpful, I am going to try Etsy for a month, then I'm out. But charging people for listing in 2022 is silly and ridiculous.

[@itsdreak]

Yeah I honestly feel like it’s better to get started on your own website and be building something that will last 🙌🏼 thanks for watching, glad it could help 😊

[@butterflytotem]

Thank you sooo so much for your honest advice and the ebook Andrea! Much love your way 😉🧡🧡🧡🌻

[@itsdreak]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed and appreciate you watching ❤️❤️

[@ssun0415]

Thank you for the great video! what do you think about selling iCanvas and what's your experience?

[@itsdreak]

Thank you for watching!! We have been selling on icanvas for about 2 years, we’ve enjoyed it a lot! They take care of everything, it’s not our biggest income stream but it is something! I recommend

[@neeneehustle]

Thank you so much for your expertise.

[@itsdreak]

Thank you for watching! I’m glad it could help 🙏🏼

[@GaylesPaintings]

I am so grateful I found your yt channel, thank you for all of the encouraging videos you’ve shared! I feel so inspired again to start my art business. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 🙏💚🎨

[@itsdreak]

So amazing!! Makes me happy to hear that. Keep going 🙌🏼

[@lucak.8523]

I really like your content, watched 3 videos - But the info in this video could be compromised in 3 minutes. ☺️ + May more infos about what kind of website you recommend to the people out here. Just some little ideas. Thank you again!

[@KITTYVIKI808]

Yes, I just made a Listing on etsy and I'm growing more of my website and Facebook page.

[@Lee11b]

The link isnt working

[@itsdreak]

It should be working now 👍🏼

[@shrinidhipatil335]

Puma is also selling on Amazon. Those who need more coutomers / platform, then they sell on etsy.... Because etsy/amazon/transportation is tertiary economic sector. Making products comes under secondary economic sector. It's true that those who put in labour to make great products need to sell at perfect rate, and get good and more coustomers. If etsy takes too much margin then that's really hard for creators, I understand. And take it this way, if a craft worker is able to sell a product worth 500 to 500 people, then they easily get rich right. Whereas if etsy is taking 50ruppes commission, for 500 coustomers from each producer, even they get benefited, it's a win win situation 😬😬

[@indefiniteopener]

For some reason the ebook isn't being sent to my email. I checked spam. no luck

[@MS-dw6zu]

As someone who is starting from scratch and has no following, do you think it would still be a good idea to start with my own website regardless?

[@itsdreak]

I think you should start building your audiences and once you get some traction, create a landing page where you can sell your art using something like big cartel or mail chimp

[@MS-dw6zu]

@@itsdreak Thank you so much for the advice. Really appreciate it 🙂

[@Liz-ic6jb]

Either route it will take effort and time. It's best to put that effort and time in your own shop. But you will have to learn how to bring traffic to your shop. And you should prepare to pay or have a budget for marketing.

[@JCarrera27]

Thanks to both 🖤

[@serenityjewel]

This is great. Thank you.

[@itsdreak]

Thank you for watching! Glad it could help ❤️

[@lineak6609]

❤

[@BAM9999PE]

Thank you so much.

[@harshinibalasundaram6525]

Interesting 😍useful

[@midnightabr]

i was thinking on starting my bussinses on Etsy, but now that I have seen this, it has change my mind. Thank you for this. it is very helpful

[@thinkingoutthebox7253]

The ads part is gold, very glad you made this, just had 4 of my stores shut down

[@itsdreak]

Thank you for watching! So sorry to hear that happened to you 😩

[@polyglot.wanderer]

The only thing that makes me mad is that Etsy charges you to list your product. For anybody who is starting some kind of business this is so demotivating, you don't know what will actually sell on the platform.

[@karenl8837]

They charge 20c US yo list. Twenty cents. They’re a business, they can’t be expected to do it for free. And 20c for four months is nothing. Go see how much your own website costs and see how demotivating that is.

[@umairmajeed9496]

Hi

[@WindowOfFantasy]

well to me I don't agree selling platform that much I think there is free places as you said FB insta thank you for video I am going to read the book you mentioned ^_^

[@Morgane.de.Back25]

Thank you for your video !!

[@itsdreak]

Thank you for watching! ❤️

[@internetandlifehacks]

Excellent advice!

[@itsdreak]

Thanks for watching ❤️

[@angelinaperfumes]

Excelent! Thanks!

[@itsdreak]

Thanks for watching! 😃🙌🏼

[@bringingthewind]

Well, I agree with you. Of course I have an Etsy shop. I thought before that it worked better that art gallery because seo optimization could be used on ETSY. But sure, the own social media page or website - is the best way to collect the contact of your customers and build the great relationship with clients. Many years I could not improve my Instagram page, and even for 4-5 years I still have 500 subscribers. I had a lot of frustration and disappointment/ But now I understand SMM marketing is better for your brand and I should working on my brand to make your name recognizable. because one day you may lose access to a store or a social network, but your brand remains and you can quickly restore contact with customers

[@itsdreak]

Yes absolutely agree with you! It’s so important to have something that you own for yourself 🙌🏼