Photo by Megan Wulffraat.

Okay. You got the cool stuff. Either you make it or you found it and it’s 20 years or older (vintage). Now you’re ready to sell it. The people NEED it. They just don’t know it yet.

Opening and running an Etsy shop is just about the easiest thing in the world to do; maybe that’s why it suits a slacker like me so very well.

All that’s left is to concentrate on your other creative endeavors, occasionally punctuated by a trip to the post office.

I may be unusual in that I do not cherish (to put it politely) interfacing with a computer. So what I had to do was ask a friend who had some free time to help me get started, and she most graciously did. But she needn’t have done a thing besides sit me down to do it myself—it’s that easy—which is what I ultimately did. Because all it is is a matter of filling in the usual boxes on the usual forms and adding the pertinent bank info, so Etsy knows where to put the money you’ll be making.

After this, the real work begins, which is a matter of cataloging. I find it pleasurable, as it brings out the librarian in me, as well as the photographer and writer. Photograph your goods and fill out the form explaining all your items’ unique characteristics. It takes me about five minutes to take my pictures, and another 15 per item to describe my wares within the Etsy format. This means that 20 minutes from NOW, YOU could have your very own SOMETHING available for sale to the thronging masses who visit Etsy. If you forget a detail, you can always go back and edit your listing, free of charge, when you remember. Plenty of free advice and tutorials are provided on the site, also.

Photo by Megan Wulffraat.

Don’t worry that it’s going to cost you lots of money either. It costs next to nothing per item to post; the posting is good for months before you have to relist it, and Etsy charges a minimal percentage at the sale of the item. Etsy also provides for you, dear shopkeep, a bunch of really interesting statistical information about how many people are looking at your shop, when, how they found any particular item (keywords, traffic sources), and more. They also have an on-call staff to answer the most pressing questions that you might need a human to answer for you.

That’s all it takes to be an Etsy store owner. They’ve done most of the work for you. All that’s left is to concentrate on your other creative endeavors, occasionally punctuated by a trip to the post office. I do my best to ship the same or next day after I receive an order. I also choose to use the fastest shipping in most cases. The customers seem to like it that way. Just be sure to double box anything that could break in transit! I learned that after my second item shipped (along with how to issue a return of funds). Live and learn. But please try and learn from my error and save yourself the trouble.

The only possible next question is WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??

Hopefully you have a good friend around to kick you into gear.*

Photo by Megan Wulffraat.

Photo by Megan Wulffraat.

*Thanks, Verna K.!