Can You Still Use Etsy For Making Money With Your Photography?

If you’ve been online for any length of time, you know sites come and go. What people were using even just a few short months ago to market their businesses may not work any more.

Many months ago I started looking at Etsy as a way to build up your brand as a fine art photographer.

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Is Etsy still relevant today? As it turns out, the answer is yes.

Etsy is the king of the marketplace when it comes to selling handcrafted goods. You can sell your art without having to know how to build a website or start up an online store. Etsy does it all for you. You list it for free and pay a low commission on anything that sells.

Yet like any other product or service in the marketplace today, you do have to know how to market your concept. Etsy provides the backbone – the structure to make the sale possible. Yet driving traffic to your Etsy site and getting people to buy what you have to sell is ultimately up to you. Try these ideas to make your art on Etsy more sell-able.

Use Search Engine Optimization

People that shop Etsy all the time know it exists. But for someone blindly looking for a work of art, Etsy may mean nothing to them. In order to drive traffic to your Etsy site, you can improve your positioning power by focusing in on your keywords. Come up with the best possible keywords of phrases that match what you are selling to what people are looking for. Then name your shop title, section names, listing pages and shop announcements using those keywords.

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Use Etsy’s Social Tools

Etsy itself is a social media site. You can post on the forum, join teams, exchange links between shops and take part in the Buy and Replace Treasuries program.

Use the forum to talk about what you do, and find like-minded people that may help you build up your own business. As you find people, you can join up, connect and collaborate with other Etsy members to help promote each other’s items. There are many teams on Etsy and they are a great way to help you make more money and learn from people that are working Etsy in the right way. From there, purchase an item from the Buy and Replace Treasury area and that item will be replaced by one from your shop. And don’t forget to ask for links from friends and team members you find along the way. Its easy to build on each others success, especially if you are in non-competing industries.

Join Other Communities


Memorable & unique Business Cards
Don’t forget Etsy isn’t a stand alone site. Post your images on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and link back to your Etsy store. Then head over to Google and find other craft communities online. Its all about getting the word out and connecting people back over to your site. It will also help your search engine rankings as well.

Promote Offline

Even though you are focused on selling online, don’t forget about your local possibilities as well. Check around your neighborhood to find art festivals and craft shows. Set up a booth with your best work. Don’t forget business cards and brochures to help promote your work to people that may not by at the show, yet may head online to buy from your Etsy site at a later date.

Dig Deeper: How Should You Be Marketing Your Fine Art Photographer?

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clientexperience@todaysgrowthconsultant.com' About Virtual Photography

We're the co-founders of VirtualPhotographyStudio.com and have been writing on this blog since 2004. We started Virtual as a way to help photographers stretch beyond a part time income, and develop strategies to become a Five Figure Photographer or a Six Figure Photographer. Ultimately its all about lifestyle, and if your goal is to live as a photographer 24/7, we think you should have the knowledge and the tools to do so. Welcome!

  • http://Fredjclaus.com Frederick

    Thanks for these articles. I have been testing the waters with Etsy for a couple months, and have not sold a thing. I’m currently reading an ebook about selling on Etsy, but with your articles, I know I can make a go of it.

  • http://Fredjclaus.com Frederick

    Just found Pinterest.com What are your thoughts, about combining these two? Posting an image on Etsy for sale, then posting it on Pinterest to get more exposure for your etsy page?

  • https://virtualphotographystudio.com Virtual Photography

    Hi Frederick

    Yes, this can definitely work. The purpose behind Pinterest is exposure. So if you can build up your following, then release items that head back to your etsy page, you can drive traffic there pretty regularly.

    Lori

  • http://www.toddbeltz.com Todd

    Thanks for the great info on Etsy. I too have wondered for so long if it was worth trying to sell through here but with your well written article, I see that it’s a breeze.

    Thanks for sharing…