Make-it Mondays: Is There a Secret to Making it on Etsy?

I paid for a strange experience this past Saturday: an evening with (totally fake) psychic Sylvia Browne at the Seneca Niagara Casino. It was a case study in desperation, as genuinely hurting, or in some cases, just genuinely curious seekers invested their dreams in her vague responses.

photoshop quackery by buenahelena

We all want quick answers. We all want to know the proverbial secret. Anxiety over our success on Etsy is very similar in a way. Sellers like The Buzz offer the secrets to crafting success on Etsy,blogs and facebook. Other Etsians have graciously pooled together their secrets for free online. Like Sylvia Browne, some of the answers seem obvious and sometimes they blatantly contradict one another.

I would like to make this Make-it Monday an ever expanding post of RNEST secrets. I will start with #1 and keep adding from your comments:

#1: Actively participate in the street team. You can get some action on the dock, but you won't enjoy the cruise without getting on the boat.

#2: Promote others. I just feels good to help out a fellow artisan. The added benefit is from goodwill word of mouth.

#3: Mind the store. Post new items regularly, reorder your shop, relist and renew. Just generally make sure it looks like your shop is being well-tended.

#4: Do what you love. The passion and thrill of creating what you love comes out in your work and the way you present and promote it. At my very first show, Casey of Peaches Products heard someone come up to me and suggest I make a certain item. She leaned over and said "Don't make anything you don't want to make just because someone suggests it. Only make what you love or it will stop being fun and people will be able to tell." I cling to that piece of advice. When it comes from the heart it cannot be duplicated and heart-filled peices are so very attractive!