What I Wish I Knew Before Starting an Etsy Shop in 2026

[00:01] a lot of things that people won't tell you about getting started that [music] can cost you time and money if they're not considered. And in today's video, I wish I knew so I can help you on your selling journey, especially if you are

[00:15] [music] brand new. So very first thing and common mistake that I see all the time is that people assume Etsy is a passive income source. So yes, this can completely be true once you actually have your Etsy shop set up and running,

[00:28] especially if you sell digital products or physical products through print on demand. However, it is a not going to happen overnight. Etsy is a full business model that you should treat like a real business, even if you're

[00:40] to do on the side. This can make substantial amount of income and you should treat it that way and know that it's not going to be something that gets rich quick overnight. And most of the time people will give up after trying a

[00:54] in it for the long run. And I think that that's one of the most important things to know as you're a beginner on Etsy is to not expect that instant success. So I I absolutely can scale this, this absolutely can become my new full-time

[01:10] income stream, but it's going to take time and effort like anything else to build. Now Etsy's great though because it's already an active marketplace, so it is easier for an online seller that's never sold anything before to scale an

[01:23] your own, you know, website on your own because that traffic is already there. So there's many great things about Etsy, but first and foremost is that it's a rich quick overnight. Anything that tells you that is not legit and people

[01:37] are most likely lying to you. So I like to always start off by saying that want to have your mindset in the right place so that you don't give up too that I want to share with you is that it's important to not be original right

[01:52] away on Etsy. Now what I mean by that is a lot of Etsy sellers, including myself, when you get started you're super excited. You want to design and list products and you most likely will start listing random things that you want to

[02:04] sell. When you first get started to really scale a shop, it's more important that you look at what's already selling, what already has a demand in the market and that people are actively searching for. This is how you grow on Etsy and

[02:17] you can later on add in more of your creativity into your products once you start building that foundation of a shop. I know it can sound a little bit Etsy, you want to sell the products that you want to sell, but the reality is is

[02:31] that Etsy is search based and demand based. So they're naturally going to push listings that people are actively looking for and searching for. That's why I talk about doing niche research and product research all over my channel

[02:44] going to make or break your Etsy shop regardless of what you're selling. I always like to say to validate before you create because if you go into it and look at popular best sellers, trending designs, sayings that you're seeing over

[02:58] and over, even color palettes, by taking each one of these individually and that's how you add something to the market that Etsy will see that hits all of those topics that people are looking for. By doing this, you'll save a lot of

[03:12] time and energy rather than having to list a bunch of random products and then wondering why no one's buying them. That has to be the most seen mistake that I see in new sellers, including myself. My first shop was a full of random stuff

[03:25] that I wanted to buy. It was basically a Mac shop of things that I wanted to buy, but the problem was is that no one else was looking for them. And so immediately pushing those products because nobody wanted them. As soon as I started

[03:39] looking into niches and products that were selling and then I added my own creativity onto that, that's when I began to see the search results. That's when I began to see the favorites and the sales. And that leads me into my

[03:51] next thing that I want to share, which would be that your first products are most likely not going to be your best sellers. It might not be where you end many successful sellers. We have a really great community and if this is

[04:06] agree on is that the products that we first opened our Etsy shop with are not really what we're selling today. And that's because as you learn and grow on figuring out what people want to buy and then you're most likely going to pivot

[04:21] niches. So it's always great to be able to have that mindset of pivoting, never being too stuck on one niche or one product and always having an open mind because most likely your first few designs that you spend a lot of time on

[04:34] that comes a little bit later down after you begin getting better at researching people want to buy. And this is why it's so important to do research about niches, about topics, about products. And a big question I get a lot is how do

[04:51] for you in the description box below where you can check out my research and share with you that I use every single day is a Chrome extension that shows all the stuff that I need to know about Etsy and what I want to sell in my niche for

[05:06] that's called Everbee. And like I said, it is a Chrome extension and also its your Etsy shop. You can check out and see how other shops are doing, what products are trending. You can use their product research tool to see what

[05:21] they're making. I love it as my Chrome extension the most because when I type something into the search bar, I can fully see how many searches monthly are for that product or search and that gives me an idea of if people are

[05:34] extremely valuable on Etsy. Also, as you scroll, their Chrome extension will show you naturally at the bottom of the listing how much that listing's making, the listing. Of course, I will leave a link in the description for you below

[05:48] Highly recommend it and I know that it will be able to help you with your Etsy research. And so after doing your product research, your design research, then listing a few products, after a few days or weeks, you can then come back

[06:01] and re-evaluate to see what's actually working and then maybe pivot to your next actual listing, right? It's so important to try things out. It's like people in my course, like when you're going to the gym, right? You start out

[06:14] really know what you're doing, maybe you're nervous, but then as you go every to receive the results and then you can figure out what works best for you, what like. It's the same thing. We're just doing it through listing Etsy listings

[06:28] and seeing how they perform and then pivoting off of that. Next is that your listings matter more than your product. I know, it seems crazy. Most people are always thinking that they're looking for a winning product. However, with selling

[06:41] on Etsy, your listing matters most. Some of the most basic basic basic basic designs and products sell extremely well and it's not about what the product is, it's about how the listing is portrayed.

[06:57] Most of the times these listings are made very professional looking. They have multiple variants, colors, things that customers can choose from. They most likely have a video on their listing and really good product photos,

[07:09] also known as mockups. These things are going to go further on an Etsy listing >> Again, remember that this is all search based. Etsy has an algorithm through SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. If Etsy likes the way that

[07:24] searches that comes up and they click on rank higher. It's not so much always about the product. Trust me when I say I have designed very very well designed products and a product with one word has

[07:38] sold better. It's just because simple can sell on Etsy. I think that with photos and your mockup photos or listing photos are basically the same thing. There's so many ways that we can create them now using AI, using templates to

[07:51] without even have to ordering samples ourselves. I'll leave a tutorial for that below as well. I use Kittl's AI and Placeit.net for mockups. for my Etsy shop and I'll have a tutorial there too so that you can see

[08:06] exactly how I create them. Next point is that Etsy that Etsy traffic, while helpful, is limited. So when you're selling on a marketplace, you do not fully own the rights to your

[08:19] store. This is something I get questions about a lot, but by selling on Etsy, you're kind of in the hands of Etsy. And if Etsy wants to shut you down or do something to your shop, they can. And that's not said to scare you, it's just

[08:33] an important thing to know as a business owner and someone that's making money on a platform. So it's important to always stay aligned in their guidelines, stay away from copyright, do not copy other people's listings. You have to bring

[08:45] your own energy and spin to something and make it creative in your own way. Now with that, that also means that you don't have free reign to really talk and talk with them over chat, but you can't directly promote them to your own

[08:57] website or your own email list. Everything is still technically owned own standalone store like a Shopify store, you own the rights to that customer's information that they grant you through, you know, consenting to

[09:11] actually retarget those customers later on, which is a more sustainable business that are going to come with branding. You can only do so much branding with, you know, a header and a logo. You can't really mess around with colors and fonts

[09:26] and things on your Etsy shop as easily as you could if you were to start your can seem like a lot when you're first getting started, so not to overwhelm something I wish I would have considered sooner as a seller when my shop began

[09:41] growing because I quickly realized like, oh, I should be doing email marketing and I can't really in the same way that I could if I had an external store and bring those customers back. Etsy does have features, it's just limited. So I

[09:54] cuz I think it's important. And when I started and thinking I was trying out. When it started to grow and get bigger, I was like, "Oh, this is like a business now. Like now there's different steps that need to be taken to really scale

[10:07] this." And that leads me to my next point of when your side hustle is becoming an actual business, the things that you need to have in line to protect yourself, scale your business, and have your own back. And I know most people do

[10:20] this too, but when I first got started, I had everything set up for my business under myself personally. And that gets really messy really fast when it comes to payments, expenses, specifically taxes, and not having a registered

[10:35] recommend opening a separate business entity like an LLC. And opening an LLC can help you to separate your business finances from your personal and give you more access to different payment options. And it helps you with taxes,

[10:49] which can be great because you can start to write off stuff as business expenses and eventually optimize how exactly it is that you're taxed. But now the hard that's why I recommend Doola. Doola is an all-in-one platform that helps you

[11:02] form your LLC, get your EIN, [music] and even open a US business bank account even if you don't live in the US, which is a huge opportunity. And honestly, setting your LLC up is just one part of it. You also have to stay compliant,

[11:14] file everything correctly, and keep your bookkeeping organized, which can be overwhelming very quickly. And something that a lot of people don't realize is if you miss certain filings, it can result in huge fines like up to $25,000.

[11:27] that all yourself, they do have a premium plan, which gives you a dedicated bookkeeper and helps you to keep track of compliance, filing things on time, which can really give you a peace of mind and let you have more time

[11:39] growth. And whether you're selling on Etsy, Shopify, selling digital products, this really does apply to everyone and is really important. So if you want to my description for you along with a code to get 10% off. They also have a

[11:54] money-back guarantee and offer free demos so if you want help while getting the description below, and I do recommend setting up an LLC when you begin getting all those consistent sales to help protect yourself as your

[12:07] up your actual legitimate business, you also want to consider that consistency is going to be something that helps you confirmed, just by being a seller and helping other sellers, I do know that

[12:20] Etsy is going to tend to favor people that show up consistently and add new products to the market. Now consistency doesn't have to look like listing tons day, but it is showing up, actively checking on your messages, checking on

[12:33] your Etsy shop, updating your policies, or even your store shop announcements, and just being present on Etsy. Even if you have one listing that starts selling very very well, you don't want to just back away from your shop and focus on

[12:46] you're answering questions and fulfilling orders, but that right there, when you want to say to yourself, "Okay, this is my listing, it's doing well. make that are similar [music] that will also perform well?" This is

[13:01] the formula. That's why testing products and being patient and consistent will help you in your growth over time. And long-term effort and consistency is what result. And my last point today is actually about competition, and as one

[13:14] of my most asked questions on Etsy is, "This product is saturated. Etsy is saturated. There's so much competition." Which is a fair point or something to be concerned about, but what I will say and what I say all the time is that

[13:29] competition means demand. If other people are selling it, that is a sign that there is a market for it. Competition does not always have to be a bad thing. A completely empty niche where there is nobody selling anything

[13:42] is much harder to scale than a niche where there's already active buyers. You have to look at competition almost as data. What is this person doing? What like? Because if that's selling, it's for a reason. The product, the design,

[13:56] whatever it is is in demand. So we can take information from that listing and apply it to our own. Of course, not copying, but using it as data to inspire our own creativity to add something new and valuable to the market. And it

[14:09] if you're building up something that has nobody looking for it, you're the person on to help with their work. So we might as well, you know, capitalize off the and selling products and think, "How can we add something new?" So take what's

[14:25] working, apply something new, apply a trend, a different color palette, a showcase the product, improve maybe the design, maybe the offer, the photos. All these things you can test out and really see what works, but it is a known thing

[14:39] that selling in, you know, these niches and products that are in demand does not Just look at it from a different angle. I really hope that today's video was helpful. I would love if you would leave a comment and let me know if so, and

[14:52] already. A lot of our viewers are not subscribers, and I post weekly videos, if not sometimes twice a week, with a lot of helpful content and step-by-step tutorials, all for free to help everyone to succeed on Etsy and different

[15:05] marketplaces and also sell their products. I'm super passionate about it experience and has completely changed their life through selling products online. I'm no different. I just took action, and I know that you can, too.

[15:18] video, so I commend you for that and somebody that really has the drive to start selling products, you absolutely can. You just have to take the action. Thank you so so much for watching.

[15:31] Again, I hope this was helpful, and I hope to see you in my next video.