The 8 Things I Did to Get Over 90,000 Sales on Etsy in less than 4 years

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Hello Love!

Today’s post answers a question I get ALL the time – “How did you get that many sales in your Etsy shop so quickly?”. I could say that it was because I got lucky… but the truth is, I did 8 very specific things to get there (and to be honest, I wish I knew about them earlier!)

I’ll walk you through each of the 8 things I did to get over 90,000 sales on Etsy in less than 4 years. Plus – I’ll even give you my hot take on a very common marketing misconception (spoiler: you don’t have to sell your soul to the social media gods!)

Reheat your coffee + settle in, it’s time to dive into today’s post!

xo,

Jacqueline

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Hello my loves!

I’m really excited to give you the goods in this blog post, the real tangible stuff you can implement as soon as you’re done reading this… but before I dish them out, I wanted to be sure that I let you know about my FREE masterclass where I give you my Top 3 Secret Strategies of a 0.1% Etsy Seller in a 50-minute-ish deep dive class for FREE. You can register for it at jacqueline-butler.com/freemasterclass, So go check that out and there is a killer surprise waiting for you if you watch it!

SO … alright let’s get to it!

I’m just going to jump right into it.

There were 8 very specific things that I did to get my Etsy shop to become a sustainable, profitable, and passive stream of income. And… I didn’t do these things all at the beginning, this was learned from failures and successes in many of the shops I’ve opened. But when I look back at the 90,000 sales that continues to grow every single day… these are the 8 key elements that are responsible for my shop’s success. And I’m about to break them all down for you, so be sure you have a pen and notebook if you are old school like me or your notes app open because you are going to want to use this list to audit yourself and your Etsy shop if you aren’t having the sales or growth that you want.

Number 1 is mindset –

DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. I have it as number one for a reason. This could arguably be the most important one. Many people skip over mindset because they are like, “yea yea, whatever mindset, I’m good let’s go – let’s jump into the sales part”

But let me put the brakes on for a second!

Because jumping right to the sales step is a mistake.

There are some critical mindset shifts and concepts you need to understand BEFORE you go any further in creating your Etsy shop and skipping them can result in creating a shop that doesn’t grow your business effectively and ultimately doesn’t connect with your bigger vision with your business and life.

When I made my first sale… it was $2.75 I had two choices, I could have been like “OMG YES! I made a sale!! – this is working, I want to make more!” Or… I could have been more like “Ugh… it took me a whole week to get that sale, this isn’t happening fast enough, I don’t really feel like creating more, this is a waste of time”

I knew someone who was a hell of a lot better than me – even had a badass social media game too – made 100 sales within her first 3 months, and she gave up. Because it wasn’t fast enough for her. It’s a damn shame too… that’s all mindset. If I gave up after that first sale? I would NEVER be where I am today. NEVER.

So – that’s why mindset wins my first and most crucial spot in this lineup. I never gave up.

#2 is that I did my Research. Mindset and research are absolutely the two most important components when determining the trajectory of your success. I mean, think about it – Mindset + Research? That just makes sense. One without the other couldn’t possibly work. Technically I could just tell you these two, go deep into them both and be done with this episode. I won’t do that because there are 6 other little things that I did that are super important too… and without them, definitely wouldn’t have had the success i did.

But the heavyweights in this match? These first two – mindset and research.

And to be more specific – it’s the conducting of the proper research that is key here. Knowing what to look for, where to find it, and how to implement it so that your shop’s growth is inevitable.

I’m talkin’ every single aspect of research from who your target audience is, to what niche you are in, to the products you decide to sell, to the keywords you are using in your SEO, to all of the things in between.

Number 3 is niche.

If you have heard the phrase “riches are in the nitches” – thats what this is about. But niche doesn’t rhyme with riches so we go with my less favorite pronunciation of that word for the sake of rhyming.

Regardless – You’ve probably heard that your choice of a niche can make or break your business, and that is TOTALLY TRUE. It’s extremely important to find a niche market that you can focus on. Trying to appeal to everyone will only lead to frustration and little to no sales.

Here’s the thing about digital products, and business in general:

The more niched you can be, the more quickly you will see success (and profit).

And two things to remember about this: First, The niche isn’t about YOU. I’ll hit this more in my next component. And second, when you sell to everyone, you sell to noone.

It’s a hard concept to not only understand but also accept, that the smaller and tighter your niche is, the quicker the profits come in. Because it sounds more logical that the broader your audience this bigger the chance of sales. It’s NOT the case – ask any successful entrepreneur. When you are trying to reach as many people as you can selling all the things, your shop, your brand, your everything is confusing. And a confused buyer says no.

Get specific. Very specific. Whether thats on WHAT you sell or WHO you sell it to.

I was incredibly specific and small in my niche and you already know what happened.

But i have over 1,100 products in my shop now. So just because the niche is small, doesn’t mean that your product line has to be.

Ok – onto #4 – I kinda touched on this already, but this one is HIGH DEMAND. Ahhhh you know what… If I had a Top 3 with mindset and research, this would be there in top three. Like if you had a crappy mindset and didn’t do any research but you got lucky and just sold products that were in high demand – you’d be set. So 3-way tie – Mindset, Research, and Demand.

Sell products that are in high demand.

Meaning – products that are searched often by customers. Make the things that your customers want. I say this next thing with all the love in the world… we need (and yes I say we, because I need to be reminded of this too) we need to get over ourselves. We need to sell the things that the people want to buy… NOT what we want to create.

The only time this doesn’t apply… is if you want your Etsy shop to be a hobby. Then girlfriend, go for it. Make all the things that bring you joy and light you up for funsies.

For me – Profits are my Passion. So you tell me whats going to make me money, I’ll make that thing. But only If you want your shop to run like a business.

Yes, of course, you need to at least be a little bit interested in the niche. I mean, I’m not into the super organized digital planners (I’m what you would call organized chaos), and i’m also not into dark arts and magic potions… but guess what? There is a WHOLE ENTIRE customer base that is! So, these would probably not be something that I personally would be creating, but maybe it’s something that you would absolutely LOVE to get immersed into or at the least, wouldn’t mind.

You will hit the absolute jackpot when those high demand products also have low competition. Those are unicorn products, and when you learn how to find them… magical things happen in your business.

# 5 is that I used high quality fonts and graphics in all of my designs.

Listen, this one came with time. In the beginning – my ish was CRINGE. I was using overused and ugly fonts, basic graphics, and didn’t have a graphically artistic bone in my body. But… they still sold. Anddddd we all start somewhere, right? I update and redesign my products on a constant basis. To keep it fresh, and also to stay up to date on design trends – always honing the craft.

Allow yourself to be a beginner.

Give yourself grace with this one, it comes with practice. But you just have to start. Even just knowing where to look to find them is half the battle.

But know where to find beautiful and professional fonts, graphics, mockups, and designs for your products to stand out from the pack.

OK – next one #6 is that I stayed off social media.

After looking at my analytics, I saw that absolutely NONE of my traffic was coming from social media. So I got off. That was all the way back in 2021. Literally none of my success has anything to do with my efforts on social media.

That isn’t where my audience is. Being on social media to promote my digital product Etsy shop was just wasting my time – and I used all that time that used to be dedicated to social media to focus on exactly where my target audience is. Check your analytics – I can almost guarantee that they aren’t coming from social media either. Focus on growth strategies on the platforms where they are.

If you want to know more about this, I did a deep dive on the last episode on How to Have a Successful Online Business Without Social Media so go check that out to learn more about it.

Getting close to the end here… number 7 is focusing on free + organic marketing strategies. So this kinda goes hand in hand with staying off of social media. But I’ll let you in on a little secret here too…. Not only am I not on social media for my business, but I have also never paid a PENNY in paid advertising. Not one penny. I focused on the free and organic kind… this is what leads to repeat customers. Studies have shown that, once a person buys something from you, they are 76% more likely to buy something else.

I created the Triple Threat Method where I have three very specific strategies to get free and organic traffic to my shop without social media or paid ads that I teach in my signature course, Etsy Profits Pro. Call me selfish – but I wasn’t willing to give Etsy any more money and lower the amazing profit margin I had… I liked that 85% profit margin too much and by following the Triple Threat Method and focusing on free and organic marketing strategies – the thought of going to social media or retreating to paid ads were the furthest thing from my mind.

Are you ready for the last one? #8 is going to seem super simple, but let me tell you, it’s THE THING. Here it is – I made more of what was working.

Simple as that. I gave it a few months, looked through my analytics, saw what was selling well, and made more of it. I changed the colors, fonts, designs, content, direction, maybe I bundled them… but I made MORE of what was working. Focus on that – and soon you too will have a powerhouse of an Etsy shop that is set up for sales, success, and profits.

Ok – so to recap… the 8 things that I did to get over 90,000 sales in less than 4 years:

Worked on my mindset
I Niched down
Conducted proper Research
Focused on high demand Products
Resourced high quality fonts and graphics in my designs
I Stayed off social media
Spent my time + energy on free and organic marketing strategies
Made more of what was working

Now, it’s your turn! Time to either audit your current Etsy shop and reevaluate which area you need to put more focus into OR if you haven’t started, be sure to get yourself off on the right foot and allow these 8 things to lead you into the path of success! And that’s a wrap for today’s post, I can’t wait to see you in the next one!