Now that it’s been about three months, I wanted to give an update on my Etsy shop—Scott Street Paper.

This was a widely requested post in my reader survey—which I’ll do a recap on next week!—and so I’ll try to give you guys an inside look at my Etsy shop about once a quarter. (Consider this one your Q2 report even though we’re a few days shy!)

In addition to showing you some of the projects I’ve been working on, I’d like to share a few insights about what I’ve learned along the way. Lately, I haven’t had the opportunity to design new pieces for my Etsy shop, as I’ve been traveling, busy at my day job, and prioritizing my blog over the shop. Now that I’m home for a bit, I am excited to execute on a few more ideas I have.

So, let’s hop to it, shall we?

01 // I’VE FOUND ETSY BRANDING + SEO MATTER.

I am by no means an expert on either Etsy branding or SEO, but I did spend a lot of time in the first few weeks of setting up my shop paying attention to these two elements.

After trying out a bunch of Photoshop mockups to place JPEGs of my work into, I ultimately decided on showing everything off in simple gold frames. I like how clean and cohesive this makes my “storefront” and the simplicity, I think, really helps my work stand out. At first, I was doing a little bit of crowd-following and placing them in mockups that featured lots of flowers. That’s not really my style, so I am glad I took the time to iterate on what I wanted this part of my brand to be. (If you’re in need of a gold frame PSD mockup, too, I purchased mine on Creative Market here and just manipulated in Photoshop to get the square—the horizontal and vertical frames are included.)

Initially, when I set up my Esty Shop, I gave my pieces for sale “cute” names as opposed to marketable ones. Then, I started noticing how other people were naming their listings—with a main name, followed by a list of related names. I’ve found that thinking about how people might search for what you’re selling—and naming your listing that—is really helpful. When you’re setting up your listing, you can also select 13 tags—which I always do—to help Etsy better understand your item.

I’m hoping to do some more research on the latter in the coming months, so if you have an Etsy shop and any tips—I am all ears.

02 // PROMOTING MY ETSY LISTINGS IS NOT WORTH IT FOR ME RIGHT NOW.

So, I paid to promote my Etsy listings for the last month. I set a budget of $3 a day—the minimum is $1, the maximum is $10. Though my promoted listings help me net 7 of my 14 sales, I spent $63 to net $72 in revenue. Frankly, that math just doesn’t add up to me at this point.

I would be interested in trying promoted listings again when I have more items to promote. I also think that the number item in my shop that was benefitting from promoted listings was my Mimosa Bar Sign. Since that only costs $2.99, it’s hard to recoup all those ad dollars. So for now, I am going to focus on building up my shop with more items, and considering promotion options once I feel better about the amount of ‘inventory’ I am offering.

03 // DIGITAL DOWNLOADS ARE WHERE IT’S AT!

On the post when I announced my Etsy Shop, my fellow Etsy gals you told me to get into the digital downloads game and I see why—hello, passive income. I have made a few true digital downloads where the customer can receive their file instantly after purchase and then print themselves, and it is my goal to focus on building out this area of my shop. Namely because this allows me to spend time designing when I have the time to, keep costs to my clients low, and sell ‘inventory’ while I’m doing other things.

04 // WHAT YOU’RE PROBABLY HERE FOR—SOME FUN PROJECTS!

A note I changed all the names + dates below for privacy reasons.

The first custom client I had emailed me when I was at Create Cultivate, which was such an exciting thing! I worked with her to create a save the date for her wedding that featured a sketch of her wedding venue—similar to my City Skyline Save the Date. I’m really happy how it turned out—and even more happy that she and her fiancé were happy.

My second custom client found me through my Custom Wedding Map listing, but instead of doing a traditional map, she had me make a cute map of Martha’s Vineyard for corn hole boards.

Another custom project I took on was so much fun because I got to work with my fellow DC blogger Bree on her new logo! This project was especially rewarding since I know Bree personally and we were able to work together to complete her vision.

///

So, that’s a little bit more about how Scott Street Paper is going. If you ever have a design need and think I can help, don’t hesitate to email me: katie@atouchofteal.com.