How many days is it normally before your first Etsy sale?

[Ariel S.]

I'm on Etsy and still haven't made a sale and I was just wondering if anyone knew how long you normally have to wait before you make a sale on Etsy.com? I feel like I've been selling on there so long now and still nothing. Help please!

[Seana]

It depends on the demand for what you are selling. Knit goods, for instance, aren't going to do as well right now because we entering spring and summer. I think its kind of an exponential process too. Once you make a few sales people start to trust you more so you get even more sales.

[Diane B.]

It also depends a huge amount on how well you've "advertised" your site, and how good your stuff actually is compared to others of the same type.

It's a little more complicated than just putting items up for sale then just waiting, unfortunately.
I believe there are forums on etsy for suggestions on ways to promote your site and get the info out there to those who might be most interested, or you can also just google something like etsy advertis
Here's one link from a similar search:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=4505


Diane B.

[Two Seaside Babes]

I sell on Etsy and I feel as though I do very well. It took me 1 week to make my first sale, but at the time I had originally started selling jewelry. Now, I sell crocheted goods.

Selling handmade goods/goodies is hard work...you cannot expect sales to simply come to you. Just like any small business, you need to treat it seriously and invest work, effort, and money into it. You need to market and promote to get your name out to the buyers. Here is how I do it:

Twitter: It's an excellent tool for getting your name out there. Twitter is like blogging, only you get 140 characters per post. The more followers you have, the more you get noticed. 14% of my store traffic comes through Twitter and I have made definite sales because of the followers that I have there.

http://twitter.com

Blogging: This is yet another great tool that is absolutely free. It allows you to promote your items and those of other Etsians (atleast that's what I do...I also want to get the Etsy name out there...and not just mine). It doesn't take much time and it is easy to post the links for your blog on Etsy forums, chat rooms, and on Twitter.

http://www.blogspot.com

Flickr: An excellent tool for getting people outside of Etsy to see your products. Post your pictures, leave a description, but don't obviously market your store there. You can get your profile closed for this. You can place your store information in your profile but not the photo descriptions. Post pictures into various groups to get noticed even more.

http://www.flickr.com

Google Base: Don't freak out...it's way easier than you think. Upload your RSS feed from your store into Google Base and watch the clicks. Use Let's Ets to upload get your RSS feed easily...save it as an .xml file! Then upload it into Google Base...it's that simple! Do it every month. I make 32% of my traffic through Google, and Base is the easiest way to do it...for free!

http://www.letsets.com/
http://www.google.com/base/?gsessionid=J...

Plaincraft: It's all about SEO...and Plaincraft allows you to do that easily. Simply upload 3 items per day to see how popular your items are through the votes your recieve. It not only lets you know if your items are appealing, but also gets your name out there on Google searches.

http://www.plaincraft.com/

Don't forget about MySpace and Facebook, among the other hundreds of other social networking sites out there.

Send me the URL to your store and I can check it out, perhaps giving you some more personal advice!

I hope this helps! Good luck!

http://www.twoseasidebabes.com
http://www.twoseasidebabes.etsy.com

[Glutenfreegirl]

Unfortunately its all relative! I had my first sale in a week and then nothing for months! It depends a lot on what you are selling, how many competitors you have, how often you relist and how good your photos AND items are!
Also, Etsy is very big, thats why I am also on Artfire.com..I like it A LOT and it has a lot of the things Etsy SHOULD have like ONE PAGE LISTING!
That being said, I still love Etsy and have made TONS of friends there!
Give it time, do your own marketing (etsy wont do it for you!)
Keep trying
Share your link I'll take a look!