Snapshot from my CreateRadiantly etsy shop
This morning I decided to update my Etsy listings.
I started this shop back in May 2025.
This was a time when I was asking ChatGPT to spit out business ideas and names for me. I used ChatGPT to build my entire business plan. The challenge was I am doing everything by myself.
I am my own social media manager, my own designer, my own strategist, my own editor, my own filmmaker, my own photographer..
I ran out of titles there.
Once you start a business, everybody tells you it’s hard but nobody really understands it unless you’re dipping your toes into yourself.
Every morning I used to wake up and wonder what should I create first today.
I use Notion for this. This is how Notion content planner looks. I’ve my little money affirmation on the side to remind myself that it’s going to happen or it has already happened
What was my shop selling?
Since I was into content creation, blogging and the whole creator economy bit, I thought I can sell anything I’m using in my current creation journey.
Anything you can think of that links back to content creation
- Digital content calendar
- Content planners
- Digital planners for creator productivity
- Affirmation prints related to content creation
- Social media templates
- PDF guides and ebooks on branding, social media growth
Sounds great, right? Niche figured out so soon right?
Yeah, that’s not enough. And not because digital products were such a saturated market. My personal take is that nothing is ever saturated. It’s just a lame excuse for you to not put in the work for being more visible.
The mistakes I made
- I was creating without any intention. I was creating products all over the place. Anything that was popular on the Etsy explore page - I went ahead and created that.
- I didn’t have an existing inventory of products. I opened my shop but each day was wasted in me opening up Canva and creating products. Always have an inventory of 20-30 products to kickstart the Etsy journey
- After I opened the shop, I didn’t market my products consistently. I used Pinterest but only 2 days in the first two weeks and that’s it.
- I forgot about my shop and my listings. I never bothered to renew my listings or update some photos or add videos that shows my process
- I barely did keyword research but I didn’t have money for the typical Etsy tools like eRank or EverBee.
My interest fizzled out gradually since I was contemplating on leaving my 9-5 job and doing all this over the weekends
How my shop performed?
After I decided what to sell on my shop, I ignored my Etsy shop after the first month itself. I uploaded a bunch of digital print on demands - affirmation quotes, some random artwork and expected sales.
Yes yes, I did optimize all my listings with SEO, tags, attributes.
I even ran Etsy sales for 1$ per day.
I used Pinterest to promote my designs.
But nothing.
I was barely getting views. In fact, I stopped putting in the work because I thought Etsy has shadowbanned or banned my shop.
ZERO VIEWS
What happened next?
I forgot about my Etsy shop. Especially after I got the bill of running my sales and Etsy shop opening fee. One monetization stream dried up.
I focused on my other streams.
Started writing blog posts
Started making videos for YouTube
Started using Pinterest more but for my blog
What am I doing now?
It’s December 2025 and I decided to add some oxygen into my Etsy shop. What changed from the last time?
- I got intentional
- I did keyword research (still not as much as I should) without the paid tools.
- I’m reading the bestseller shop blogs and studying their shop diligently
- I stopped using ChatGPT to give me titles, descriptions, tags and keywords. Turns out this was really hampering my shop. I got a few views after I manually put in the work
- I wrote a detailed About the shop section. I talked about my journey, my process
- I created sections to match with the products I’m selling.
- I participated in Etsy forums to ask for advice (and got roasted)
I still have ZERO sales but I’ve some views
What if I don’t make money from Etsy?
I will be okay. I realized that being a solo creator is hard. I am busy writing a blog, Substack, a newsletter, a YouTube channel, Instagram & Tiktok shorts. I’ve enough on my plate now.
Even if one of them kicks off, I’ll be satisfied
I would rather start my own shop on my website when I monetize my content
So I started this newsletter. It helps me threefold
- Building a community
- Building my email list
- Practice my writing
Until then, keep reading Create Radiantly.
Love,
Anamika
