Etsy Crafter Career
Etsy Crafter Career
The Real Poop
You're crafty. Real crafty. But not in the diabolical way.
Everyone says the custom, personalized, hand-knitted iPhone warmers you create are the bomb. Not only are Phonecoveralls™ the coolest new fashion tech trend, they're handmade. That's right, no two Phonecoverall™ covers are alike. And they come in Feng Shui appropriate color combos that match their owners' eyes and hair colors.
They're unique and trendy and too cool for school; that's why they're selling like hotcakes online at Etsy, where people pay $32.99 plus shipping and tax to get them.
With close to twenty million active buyers on Etsy alone, clamoring for unique, one-of-a-kind, handmade gifts, it's no longer a pie in the sky fantasy to make money as an artist (or an arts and craftist), thanks to the reach of the Internet. Not just a bit of pocket change, either—the average salary for an online crafter is $44,380 per year (source).
However, earning that kind of salary is no piece of cake. In fact, it's more like a rock that has been delicately carved and frosted to look like a cake, but when you go to cut it, you realize that it's hard as a...well, a rock.
Yes, there are people pulling in $65,000 a month making headbands. Yes, there are artists making $67,000 a year selling prints of their paintings. Yes, that's more than twice as much as a dental assistant makes, and you don't have to stare at gross teeth all day or listen to the ear-splitting whine of a dental drill.
There are also Etsy crafters who don't come home with any money. Zippo. Nada. Zilch. In many cases it's less than zilch, because you have to pay for the start-up materials and shipping costs. Even if you manage to sell something, your profit could still be in the negative numbers.
How bad are we talking? Well, say you want to sell prints of your artwork. You'll need a high-quality printer. A professional Epson printer costs well over a thousand dollars (source). On top of that, there's the constant cost of paper and ink, which will run at least five hundred dollars for a set of eight colors, and probably run out monthly or more, depending on how much you print (source). And that's just for printing copies; art supplies like brushes, paints, and canvases don't come cheap by any stretch.
Yeah. Ouch. And it doesn't even end there. You've also got to factor in shipping costs and fees, both from Etsy and from your payment providers.
If you're going to drop that much on a printer, you're going to want to sell stuff. In order to do that, you're going to have to do a heck of a job with your marketing. The Etsy market is extremely competitive. You'll need to do some serious hustling to make sales; if you don't, it's practically guaranteed that you'll be lost in the vast ocean of handmade, vintage, upcycled wares.
Great photography skills are a must. So are competitive prices, good quality, prompt and polite customer service, and the world's best work ethic. As a small business owner (legally-speaking, that's what Etsy sellers are), you're responsible for everything in your work life. You have no boss.
That sounds great until you realize that you have to tell yourself to keep working when you're tired or bored. It's one thing to be threatened by someone else; it's another to have to threaten yourself. Can you take your own threats seriously?
Finally, to make it as an Etsy seller, you need a certain amount of luck. You can't make people like your stuff. Especially not if your stuff is made out of used underwear. Sure, you can avoid making stuff out of used underwear—but even if it's clean underwear, people might just plain not like it. Sometimes it doesn't matter how well-crafted it is, or how much time and love you poured into it. Time and love does not equal popularity.
Etsy is hardly the only arts and crafts site out there, but it's the same story at every site. Whether you sell on Etsy, Shopify, Bonanza, or ArtFire, you still need to be at the top of your game every day. Your self-discipline has to be incredible. Your willingness to work has to be unbelievable. Your stamina has to be limitless.
If you can do all that, you're basically good to go. Remember, art is in the eye of the Paypal account holder—and there's a buyer for just about everything.