I tried to sell something but I wasn't persistent. Only time I had many visits was when I was paying for Etsy ads which are paid per click and cost me 3-4 times more than I earned. Otherwise, no views, no visits, nothing. So I got demotivated soon and basically gave up.
Maybe it works if someone is consistently uploading, knows how to write everything so it's good for SEO, promotes successfully on social media etc.

I tried to sell something but I wasn't persistent. Only time I had many visits was when I was paying for Etsy ads which are paid per click and cost me 3-4 times more than I earned. Otherwise, no views, no visits, nothing. So I got demotivated soon and basically gave up.
Maybe it works if someone is consistently uploading, knows how to write everything so it's good for SEO, promotes successfully on social media etc.

Hi Lina!

Yes, I stopped using their paid ads too. Mainly because I found that I was attracting too many of the wrong buyers. I was selling to the sellers (product mockups for party suppliers, mainly) but the ads were drawing in the general public, some of whom were angry and upset when they didn't read my listings properly and accidently bought my photos instead of actual party supplies.

Instead, I used eRank, who give you all the keywords, descriptions and analysis that you need. Also, instead of paying for Etsy ads, I decided to invest a small amount each month into a paid eRank account, that gave you a huge amount of information about the whole market and pricing, competition, etc.

https://erank.com/


With quite of bit of research, thanks to eRank, I was able to increase my revenue on Etsy up to $300 USD a month, after about 6 months last year.


However, this year, I had a lot of problems, mainly because of harassing messages from someone who was not a genuine buyer. Its really easy for people to set up bogus accounts there. Also, some of my competition started to get into price cutting, which started to bring down the market price from $5 to $1 per jpeg/png photo**. That, plus constantly having to be at the beck and call of buyers, was starting to stress me out too much, so I decided it just wasn't worth my time anymore.

However, for someone who doesn't have my problems, I believe there is reasonable money to be made with the right amount of research and finding gaps in the market there.

All the best,
Annie


** I now sell them mainly on Adobe where I get up to 99c for them. Not as many, but it's hassle-free. 

Quote from: Annie2022 on November 19, 2023, 14:29

Hi Lina!

Yes, I stopped using their paid ads too. Mainly because I found that I was attracting too many of the wrong buyers. I was selling to the sellers (product mockups for party suppliers, mainly) but the ads were drawing in the general public, some of whom were angry and upset when they didn't read my listings properly and accidently bought my photos instead of actual party supplies.

Instead, I used eRank, who give you all the keywords, descriptions and analysis that you need. Also, instead of paying for Etsy ads, I decided to invest a small amount each month into a paid eRank account, that gave you a huge amount of information about the whole market and pricing, competition, etc.

https://erank.com/


With quite of bit of research, thanks to eRank, I was able to increase my revenue on Etsy up to $300 USD a month, after about 6 months last year.


However, this year, I had a lot of problems, mainly because of harassing messages from someone who was not a genuine buyer. Its really easy for people to set up bogus accounts there. Also, some of my competition started to get into price cutting, which started to bring down the market price from $5 to $1 per jpeg/png photo**. That, plus constantly having to be at the beck and call of buyers, was started to stress me out too much, so I decided it just wasn't worth my time anymore.

However, for someone who doesn't have my problems, I believe there is reasonable money to be made with the right amount of research and finding gaps in the market there.

All the best,
Annie


** I now sell them mainly on Adobe where I get up to 99c for them. Not as many, but it's hassle-free. 

Thank you very much for these advice, Annie! Especially for eRank, I am using free version, but wasn't sure is it worth to pay for it or not. Maybe I will give Etsy one more chance with eRank research, I'll see.

And yeah, I somehow feel it as a annoying mess and I believe AI and Canva changed many things there too, so people who don't have much knowledge can compete in many areas with millions of images, mockups, templates and consequently lower the prices. Probably it wasn't like that just couple years ago.

So yes, I definitely agree, as much as I don't like stock sites for many reasons, at least they are hassle-free and more in order in terms of copyright infringements etc.

My pleasure, Lina. The biggest advantage of a paid eRank, is that you can track your competition**

I found one lady who was selling just JPEG mockups - not PSDs or PNGs - for around $1/photo.  But it was beautiful work. She was very talented. And she had a huge following and was selling 700 (!!) mockups a month there. I am not kidding.

I also found ladies who were selling beautiful PSDs for around $10 - $15 each, who were selling about 200 to 300 a month.

So that's why I know there is money to be made, depending on which way to go. But it can take time to get that buyer loyalty. And yes, the competition is growing there.


** ETA. To get the right pricing.