It is finally time for me to conclude this little two part post on how to make money from your new green venture. If you haven't read part 1 you can
here!
-What kind of Items can I up-cycle?
-Where to get items to up-cycle
-Inspiration and creating some cool pieces
I will say that I have told just a few people to save items for me to up-cycle and I have ended up with more than I could have ever imagined. I have any area set-up and dedicated to organizing all my materials and it is getting a little out of control. But this is a good thing because it is important for running a business is having yourself stocked up with the items your are selling and well I have plenty of stock!
You have your materials and now you need to start crafting away! I would say make at least 20 items, I know that sounds like a lot but it is really not and if you make a couple things a day you will have what you need in just a weeks time.
After you have made some products you are going to need somewhere to sell everything.
Ok, I am going to share with you my experience with how I went about everything in hopes that you will have better luck when you start.
I started with Etsy.com which is a handmade marketplace and there are some super talented people who sell on Etsy. I listed just a few items at first and I waited and waited, nothing. I listed a few more things....nothing....So I am up to 18 items or was and I actually started selling items when I added more products to my store.
Why is this?
Well the more you have on etsy the more you will show up in a search and become more relevant in a search.
Etsy's listing fee is .20 cents which doesn't sound like a lot, it's not really. But, there advice is to re-list your items daily or every few days to keep it coming up fresh in search. I was re-listing my items daily in hopes of having tons of sales and well it made no difference so I have currently quite re-listing and still have had sales. Re-listing seemed to just drive my bill up really fast and my first sale went entirely to Etsy because of the re-list fee's and the actual transaction fees. I was kinda blah about that but I decided that it was still a step in the right direction.
So here's my conclusion with Etsy, I believe it is a great website to list your items because of it's heavy traffic and that it is extremely easy to navigate. There is a lot of support from fellow Etsians with teams and groups and forums that you can ask anything and get a response quite quickly. You have the option to advertise through Etsy and your account starting at just 3$ a week and it really seems to help. But I think if you choose Etsy I would suggest this to you:
- List 20 items to start
- Get involved with the site: favorite, like and join teams
-Make new items often and list!
-Market yourself to all the social networks this is a great help
There are other options to selling there are other handmade artist marketplaces such as:
I have currently not used any of these other sites and would be interested to know how they work but I am fairly certain that Etsy is still has the most traffic of all these.
Other options are creating online stores through your own website. I am currently setting up a store for my blog through
Storeenvy.com there basic options are free and you cant beat that!
Another way to get traffic is having giveaways either through your own blog or through others.
etsygiveaways.com will list your giveaway and you will get some amazing results from there blog, I love them:)
Setting up your own blog through blogger is another great way to get the word out, it is a lot of initial work but the hard work will defiantly pay off if you keep it up.
Blogging is one of those things that takes time to get started but can eventually be another source of income for you if you have the time to put one together and take care of it.
There you have it you can setup your own green store with little to know money, and through someone Else's trash you can profit from it. Find your niche create something and stick to it. Stats say that 85% of the worlds population shops online, so the world is literally your oyster so why not take advantage of it!
OK, everbody that is how to get started going green to get some green, If there is more questions please feel free to
email me and I would be happy to help and give you some advice from my own personal experience.
Get out there and make some Green!!
