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SOLD! Notifications from Etsy — Gives me hope
Building an online business
In 2021, I opened an Etsy store to sell digital products. However, I had no idea what I was doing. I had great ideas, but I didn’t really know how to use Canva or Etsy and I certainly didn’t have a game plan.
My initial plan was to sell digital planners because I thought they were so cool and useful. However, I realized there was a steep learning curve with creating them. My first several products were simple to do lists and weekly planners.
Since I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t do all of the important things when initially setting up my store such as:
- Creating a visually appealing banner

2. Writing an announcement — This is where you can share what your shop is about so that potential buyers have a sense of what you offer.
3. Using sales — Originally, I didn’t know you could set up sales offers on certain products and date ranges. This is a great way to drive new traffic because people might be more likely to click.
4. Doing keyword research — I just posted products that I liked, but didn’t do any kind of customer research. Now I use a tool called Insight Factory to find trending products and incorporate those keywords.
5. Creating automated coupons — Etsy has a function to set up automated coupons. I have a couple set up now. One is when a customer buys something, it automatically sends a thank you coupon for their next purchase. Another coupon is for abandoned carts to encourage that purchase.
6. Continuously add new listings—When you add new listings, your shop gets a temporary boost in the algorithm, which makes it more likely that your products will show up in people’s search results.
7. Niching down — When I first started, I posted all sorts of products in different niches, from education to self-care to business. Now that I’ve business templates are selling the most for me, that’s what I’m going to focus on.