One of the very first products I decided to sell on Etsy was a party invitation. I excitedly designed my product, created my product images and then sat anxiously for that first cha-ching.

I waited and waited and waited for my first sale to come. The reality is that first invitation never sold😭. I was pretty disheartened (and a little frustrated) as I felt like I was doing everything right. Not long after I gave up on invitations and pivoted to Etsy banners where I finally saw some success.

Flashforward 12 years – I can easily see what I did wrong and have since made thousands of sales in the party niche. But in those early days I remember how tough it was, and how much it hurt to see other stores smashing it while mine had crickets.

So this email is a bit of a letter of how to not make the same mistakes as I did. Introducing… What 2012 Jessa did wrong & how to not do it…

What did 2012 Jessa do wrong?

She chose the most competitive product in the most competitive niche.

The first invitation I created was one for a mermaid party – possibly the most saturated invitation you can create on Etsy 😅The key to success in a competitive high sales niche is to make sure you create adjacent products as well – the things other people don’t really get to or want to make. Think chocolate wrappers, party games, milestone boards. Absolutely do the invitation too, but that will always be a slower burn than the surrounding items.

Her product mock-ups weren’t as great as she thought they were.

Perhaps putting an invitation on a bright teal background wasn’t the best idea… In my arrogance as a designer I definitely thought I knew what was best for my thumbnails 😂 What I really needed to do though was tune in to what actually makes a great thumbnail and that means daily research.

She only had a couple of products in her store

Probably one of the biggest mistakes that I see a lot of newbies make (including myself) – not enough products on a search engine based platform means little or no traffic. You really need to focus on building a volume of products with a diversity of tags. 

Lastly she gave up too soon.

Now that I have built so many stores I’m used to that initial build up period where it takes time to start bringing in some sales. But then I had no idea if it was normal or not. If I had stuck at it for a little longer I would have found out that building a store takes time and consistency.

Happy creating😍

Jessa B

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