Etsy. I just opened a store. But I used a bad name that I thought was just a user name, not my fucking STORE NAME. For chrissakes. No matter. I’ll fix it.

But I learned something. If your art sucks, you probably won’t sell it, even on Etsy. You fucking retard.

First, make art.

Second, make GOOD art.

Third, steal a carcass for me. Mmm.

But the point I want to make is that I found several artists by searching the Etsy profiles of artists making a full-time living and/or have quit their day jobs. It’s inspiring. It makes me want to slam my face into the wall.

So I went to the galleries … the SOLD galleries of these artists to see what they were selling. Guess what? LOTS of crafts and jewelry. Painters were few, and of those, most were just coloring in drawings with acrylics. A few were doing oil paints. Many were making wonderful niches, like the lady that will make a woodcut-looking portrait from your photograph.

A couple of key things here…

  1. Successful folks on Etsy tend to produce a LOT by making smaller, cheaper derivatives from their larger pieces – prints, art cards, even their images inside pendants, on teacups, plates, and a massive array of shit
    1. Make small shit
    2. If you can’t do that, make your big shit into small shit
    3. ?
    4. profits!
  2. Successful folks on Etsy tend to have a strong visual style. Make cartoonish, doe-eyed dollish girly paintings? Stick to it. People eat that shit up. Doesn’t have to be earth-shattering, new, trendy, or anything like that – just have one! I know I struggle with this myself.
    1. Okay, well, if your style is bad, you won’t sell anything
    2. Come up with an idea that YOU like and run with it
  3. Successful folks on Etsy tend to not just put up a store and expect people to flock to it. You have to utilize your other venues: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, your personal blog, giveaways (postcards), mailing lists, newsletters, etc. It’s a fucking business, in case you didn’t know