In the last article we talked about how you can start earning passively through the online marketplace of Etsy. As discussed before, Etsy have opened up the opportunity for retailers to sell digital products as well as physical goods. This function holds massive potential for online entrepreneurs (and aspiring entrepreneurs, of course!) to establish new revenue streams and begin earning passive income.
In this article we’ll be exploring different niches on Etsy and how to pick the most profitable foundations on which to build your business.
Choosing Your Products
Many online retailers struggle to find that sweet spot that satisfies their interests whilst also providing a service that is high in public demand. You may be an outdoor sports fanatic however selling mountain bike equipment may not be the most profitable niche to harvest from as it could be attracting very little attention online.
As, when using Etsy, the products you’ll be selling are products that you’ll be producing independently (bare in mind these do not necessarily have to be hand-made products – our previous article ‘How To Earn Passive Income With A Digital Etsy Listing’ runs through a number of ways you can create digital products to sell through Etsy), you’ll want to find an area that tickles your fancy at least a tad.
To the right is a great diagram of where you should aim to sell on Etsy. You want to cover an area that:
- You’re skilled in (so that making you can make high quality products that are valuable
- Are in demand. It’s no good selling an obsolete product grounded on a dead marketplace because you’re interested and skilled in it making it. You need to find a balance between your skills and public demand otherwise your efforts will go to waste.
- You are interested in. There may well be a gap in the marketplace for garden party invitation templates at the moment but if it’s an area you don’t care about then you simply won’t be motivated to invest your time into creating top quality products.
Finding Success in These Three Areas
- Demand
How exactly can you find out which products are currently high in demand? The best way to do this simply to look at what people are buying at the moment.
- Look at which items have been ‘recently listed’. If people are listing similar items to be sold then this is probably because they’re attracting attention elsewhere. Browse the marketplace to find which areas are generating the most sales and explore these.
- Find listings that you personally are attracted to. Chances are, if certain products are drawing your attention then they’ll be attracting others too. Use yourself as an example.
- If a shop is selling frequently then check out which products are highest in demand. These may well be a great place to start and, if you do see any that are particularly popular, search around for those specific products to see how they’re selling elsewhere. Don’t base your niche on a single person’s shop – browse around and look for patterns before making a final decision.
2. Your Skills
As said before, you need to choose a niche that you’re either skilled in or willing to expand your knowledge in. Perhaps you’ve always been interested in writing and would like to write an eBook for you Etsy store. This doesn’t require you to be an exceptional writer – so long as you can write sentences that flow nicely and make sense then you’ll be perfectly capable of learning. Check out these great guides on how to write your first eBook and get it published:
- How to Write an Ebook
- Tips to Making the Most Out of the Fiction Marketplace
- Mistake to Avoid When Writing Your First eBook
3. Your Interests
Many people will advise you to boycott your interests when looking to sell online, however this could severely hinder your long-term potential. If you have absolutely no interest in creating patterns for embroidery yet there’s an excellent gap for it in the marketplace – are you really going to invest your time into it? Well, no. Chances are you’re going to get pretty bored of this niche pretty quickly and so you should aim to choose a niche that satisfies your interests as well as plugging a hole in the market. Even if you did choose to grit your teeth and go ahead with slaving at something that doesn’t interest you for its monetary potential, you’re likely to make less in the long run anyway as you’re far less inclined to invest the time and efforts into an area that bores you to tears. Take your time. There’s a perfect spot out there for everyone, you just need to find it.
Use these three key areas in combination with eachother to find your perfect Etsy niche. It’s going to take some time to come up with an idea that ticks all of your boxes so persevere and stick at it.
I’d recommend first mindmapping everything you can think of in each of these boxes.
- Divide a page into three columns: demand, skills and interests.
- Do some research and fill in your demand section first as this is arguably the most important category to your store’s success.
- Once you have an idea of which products are high in demand, fill in a list of all of your interests – everything that comes to mind.
- Finally, fill in your skills section. These may be skills you have already or areas that you’d be prepared to learn more about.
- Once all of your columns are full, take a look into each and try to find an area that fits into all three. This is your sweet-spot and is exactly where you should base your store.
For more advice on selling through Etsy, keep up to date with our series on how to start earning a passive income through Etsy. Next we’ll be covering how to begin selling on Etsy and how to create your store.
