Etsy Tip - The "Sneaky" Template Trick

Everybody has been begging Etsy for listing templates for three years now. For those of us who sell similar or duplicate items, this is a royal PITA, especially with tags, which are the bane of my existence. There are two ways to do a "work around" listing template.

1. Wait until you sell something, and then use that sold listing as a "new listing" template, editing the old listing to fit the new item and then renewing. Make sure that you proofread all of your changes really well!

2. If you don't want to wait until something sells, here's the super sneaky trick. Each template you want will cost you twenty cents. You will need to have TWO shops to do this, or have a friend help you out. List an item for twenty cents. Quickly go into your other account and buy it, or have a friend buy it. (If you wait too long, someone might see a twenty cent bargain and snatch it up, and then you're really in trouble!) DO NOT cancel the sale through Etsy once you make it. This will remove the listing from your sold items, you will lose your template and you will have to start over. Just check the "paid" and "shipped" boxes, and don't leave any feedback for that transaction.

(Buying from your other store is technically against the Etsy TOS. Some people do it to bump up their feedback scores or sales figures. The way I see it, you're not doing anything to deceive anyone and you're not pretending to be anyone else, so I figure it's not so bad.)

When you choose option two, make sure that you change the .20 cent price to the price you actually charge! I made that mistake once, and ended up selling someone a pair of $15.00 earrings for twenty cents because I had to honor the sale price. Again, proofreading is your friend, especially if you do your listings late at night, when you are more prone to overlook things.

Either way, the goal is to have a "sold" listing to work off of as your template.

Edited to add: I've recently emailed with Erin in Etsy Admin, she says that this is NOT ok. Now, if everyone starts using my method, maybe admin will be annoyed enough to actually give us a real listing template, just like all the other sites in the world.

I'm so excited :-)

I just made my first sale in my own, personal website! Not Etsy, not Ebay, just Rivkasmom.com. :-D I feel like such a grownup, like when the training wheels come off of your bike for the first time, and you're flying down the street with nothing to hold you up except your own skill.

I've heard people over and over say "don't put all your eggs in one basket" when it comes to online marketing, and it's so very true. Ebay sales are in a major nosedive, Etsy's servers were down for maintenance for several days, and I still had a place for people to find my work.

If you are serious about your work, you really need to get your own domain. If you're just starting out, buy your domain anyway and have it point to your Etsy, Mintd, Trunkt, Dawanda, or other selling venue. It will help you in Google rankings and be a great place holder for when you're ready to expand. It's only about $10 a year (if you're in the US) and it will also keep someone else from using your business name.

In the world of commerce, this is a crucial rule: It's not who thought of it first, it's who REGISTERED it first. This goes for trademarks, copyrights, domain names, and just about everything else.

Next up, I'll go into more detail about my website and webhost, as it really deserves it's own post. For now, I'll just say that you should go look at www.Volusion.com, because they rock my socks.

~Grace