Income reports are some of my favorite posts by other makers in our niche. With that being said, I figured why not add more income report type posts to my own blog. An Etsy Income Report is the first thing I will be covering since that is a huge part of my business. I hope this helps motivate you guys, and will give us a good comparison point for the income report I will post at the end of 2019.
If you guys have any questions about my Etsy income report then please leave it in a comment below! If you need to contact me directly for some reason feel free to send me an email or contact me on Instagram.
Instagram: @Taylor Lynn Crochet | Email: Taylorlynncrafts@gmail.com
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Etsy Income Report – 2018
I made $2,591.69 in sales on Etsy this year. That number is before any fees are taken out so keep that in mind. Majority of my sales (I’m talking like 98% of them) are patterns. That means I have high volume, low cost sales. I had 687 orders last year meaning my average revenue per sale was $3.77. That may seem like a very small profit per order but let me tell you why it is still a great thing.
Patterns are what make you a “passive income”. That means that once I do all the work up front of designing, testing, photographing, and creating the PDF, that is all I have to do. I get it listed on Etsy, and it continues to make income month after month, year after year.
My Essentially Fall Cardigan was posted in August of 2017, and in 2018 it made $583. A pattern I made last year that I have not touched since, made up 22% of my profits for 2018. Passive Income from PDF downloads like patterns and templates are huge for increasing your income while allowing you time to work on other profitable projects. That $3.77 average sale revenue is small, but when you only have to do the work once, it really adds up.
2017 V 2018
My 2017 and 2018 look drastically different from one another (2017 is the lighter green). Lets break this down. You may notice that in October of last year I had a huge jump in sales. I checked my traffic and it all appeared to be coming from Rstyle.me, a website I had never heard of. Upon further investigation, turns out Rstyle.me is a advertiser that hires affiliates/influencers to promote the things their advertisers request. Etsy is one of their advertisers and must have decided to add one of my sweater patterns to the listings they wanted to promote. I made $500 in one weekend off of patterns. I have no clue how Etsy picks these listings, but if I ever find out, you all will be the first to know.
Now onto 2018, you can see my summer sales are steadily higher than the rest of the year. That is due to publishing my Drifter Boho Vest Pattern in March. This was my first paid only pattern. I was testing out this pattern for weeks and posting about it in my stories. I think that really helped build up suspense about its release when I finally listed it. I also reached 2k followers on Instagram right around the time of release and included the pattern in my giveaway which led to more exposure. This pattern made of up almost half of my pattern income this year.
Whats in store for 2019?
As far as Etsy is concerned in 2019, my focus will be on patterns. I sell most physical items in person at markets, but online its all about the digital pattern downloads. In 2017 I was making patterns at a rate of one every 2 weeks. It was amazing, but unfortunately working full time and going to school, keeping up with that rate is not obtainable. In 2018 I felt so burnt out that I actually took 2 whole months off of blogging (completely unintentionally). I felt uninspired and had the “I’ll write that post later… I don’t feel like designing right now….” sort of feelings.
So realizing that if I push it too hard with the designing will lead to burn out, I want to try to put out designs at a rate of about 1 a month. Some months there may be 3 patterns and the next none, but on average 1 a month seems doable. Also when you spend a little more time on each design, your pattern tends to be more clear for your readers. I will still be putting most patterns free on my blog, but I do think 1 or 2 will be paid only as well.
Staying with what works
Hopefully on my 2019 Etsy income report I am telling you guys that I doubled or tripled my Etsy income this year. I really think patterns are the key to making my Etsy successful. I am flirting with the idea of also opening a shopify shop on my blog as well since majority of my Etsy traffic is self directed from my blog or social media. I will not be leaving Etsy by any means, just making sure I am making the most off of my self directed traffic, and Etsy can keep receiving their cut of the traffic they direct to me.
Go take a look at your Etsy shop and see where you had spikes and dips in sales. Did you release a new product that month? Did you release your product with a bunch of build up one time, or did you pull an Adele and just throw it out there with no warning? Did people seem to be more excited about one release type or the other? These are all things you can look into and learn from to help you grow even more in 2019!
Changing whats not working…
My physical items sell great…. at markets. Does that mean I wont be listing physical items on Etsy in 2019? Nope! Just means I need to go back to the drawing board. I know I need better photos taken of a lot of my physical items. I know the Debrosse Masterclass photo tips and editing tutorial will be huge for upping my photo game for these listing. Also maybe I need to take a look at my Titles, product descriptions, and tags I have associated in these listing.
I am super excited for 2019. You guys will be the first ones to know when I start re-working my shop. When I find things that really work (or just really really don’t), I will share them so we can all learn together. The best part about the maker life is our awesome community. I can’t wait to hear how all of you gorgeous babes are going to kill it in 2019! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns leave them in a comment below. Also if you’re feeling a little stuck on what direction you want to go in 2019, check out my last post on maker goals for 2019. Not only do I give you goal ideas, but I share the steps on how to make them happen!