Are you starting to think seriously about starting your own website?
You’re selling on Etsy, and perhaps you are seeing some success and some sales – maybe not that much, but enough that it’s encouraging and you are starting to wonder:
“Is it time to start my own website? . . . How do I know when I’m ready?”
That is exactly what we are going to talk about in today’s article!
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
Before we start, there is a myth I want to address, and that is when people think that there is a specific point in time – a precise moment – at which you’re officially “ready” to start your online shop on your own website.
And I want to start off by telling you that – in all honesty – you can sell on your own website at any point on your handmade journey. You can start on Etsy then add a website once you see sales on Etsy, but you can also start right off the bat selling on your own website.
Let’s quickly review the four pathways that can lead to opening your own website.
This free website planner will help you create a simple yet professional one-page website for your handmade shop.
I’m going to cover this very briefly because I have an article that dives into the details of selling on Etsy vs. your own website that you can read after this one.
But for today, a quick review is that when you decide to sell your handmade products, there are four main options you will want to consider:
In my article I talk about why each one could be a good fit for your business . . . and why it might not be a good fit!
Then you can look at each scenario and decide for YOU which selling scenario is going to be the best match and be most successful for your business.
Today’s article is for makers who fall into scenario #2.
You have started on Etsy, and now you are to a point where you’re wondering if it is time to start your own website.
If this is you, this article is going to help you decide if the time is right.
So why might you want to open your own website?
Opening an Etsy shop is a great way to dip your toes in your handmade business adventure to test out if your business and your products are viable.
Once you see some sales, and you realize that yes, this business is working, then you will start thinking about the million-dollar question:
How do you know if you’re ready – if it’s the right “time” to start your website?
Let’s talk about some of the reasons someone might want to start their own website – either instead of, or in addition to, Etsy.
Sometimes you may be realizing after spending a little time on the platform that Etsy is just not working for you. Maybe you are selling very high quality products and you need to have really high prices and be communicating brand value in a way that you can’t do on Etsy.
And you need your own website so you can craft a unique experience and effectively communicate your product’s value.
There’s lots of examples and reasons here but for example, you might want to have a high-fashion look website that allows you to display lookbooks and create a shopping experience that helps justify the higher prices of your items. Or you might be selling skincare products and want to offer a personalized quiz or assessment that allows you to recommend the right products for your customers’ individual skin needs, which is something you can’t do on Etsy.
Another scenario might be that you are experiencing some success on Etsy, and you want to grow your business, but you feel limited because of what you can and can’t do on Etsy.
Maybe you want to have your own products suggested on the pages instead of the competition’s.
Maybe you want to suggest complementary products at checkout, or have an offer show up in the shopper’s cart for one last minute “add to basket” ideas, or a free gift at a certain order amount, etc.
You may be full of ideas that you want to try, and you’re thinking maybe opening your own website is the natural next step.
Some people want their handmade business to provide all, or a considerable portion, of their family income.
It doesn’t matter if it’s part-time or full-time, just that they are looking for their handmade business to provide a big part of their income.
And my opinion here is, if you want the entirety – or a considerable portion – of your income to come from handmade sales, you can’t only be on Etsy.
It’s okay to dip your toes in it.
It’s okay to get market validation from there.
But at some point you have to build your own platform to be in control of your business and your customer experience, to mitigate risks, and – as I mentioned earlier – move past the limitations that Etsy has when it comes to scaling handmade.
If you’re not familiar with these limitations I have an article that talks about 4 ways you can’t grow on Etsy.
Now that we’ve talked about WHY you might want to open your own website, let’s move on and talk about the big question:
As I mentioned previously there’s no perfect time to start your own website, BUT if I had to sum it up I’d say you’re ready to have your website when Etsy stops working for you . . . and you start working for Etsy.
Let me give you a few examples where this is the case.
In example 1, let’s say you’ve actually had some sales. Etsy has worked for you because it brought you sales you otherwise would not have had – sales from Etsy SEO or Etsy ads – but you sort of reached a ceiling with those and are needing more.
But . . . if you start bringing traffic to your Etsy store, now you’re working for Etsy.
Instead, why not let Etsy send you sales from SEO and ads, but direct your own traffic and effort to your platform/website? Then, you have Etsy working for you, and YOU working for you!
There is nothing wrong with sending traffic to Etsy – I want to make that clear. It is something that I would recommend to grow your Etsy store!
But in the context that we’re discussing for this article – your vision of having your own website – why put time and money and effort into bringing more traffic to Etsy when you could be putting in that exact same amount of time and effort into bringing traffic to your own platform?
Because on your platform you can OWN the traffic that you bring, remove the limitations that Etsy has, and grow faster and stronger!
In this example, Etsy has worked for you because even if you never got a ton of sales from Etsy SEO or Etsy ads it saved you time on things like setup, technical details, and payment – all the stuff that could have been a big enough obstacle not to start your business. So you were happy to send traffic to your Etsy store via your social media efforts for example because it still ‘worked for you’ to test the water.
But now that you have… why are you still working for Etsy?
The point I’m trying to make is, if you get comfortable in this place where you have to rely on yourself to bring traffic to your Etsy store to make the sales you want, you have started working for Etsy instead of Etsy working for you.
And that can be okay if your goal is to stay on Etsy and only on Etsy!
But if your vision includes having your own website, then you need to catch yourself when you get to this place, and tell yourself it’s time to take the leap and build your own website — you are ready to grow beyond Etsy.
You got what you needed from Etsy, which was the easy setup and built-in traffic. You tested the waters and learned that people want to buy your products once you send them to your shop.
So now it’s time to move to the next step.
In my experience with makers – and Etsy sellers in particular – it’s easy to lose track of that initial vision.
So you might initially start on Etsy because there are a million good reasons for it — Etsy is a great platform and I love it.
So you go into it with the intention of just testing things and dipping your toes, but by the time you get those first few sales, you kind of lose track of that vision and you unconsciously start thinking of yourself as an Etsy business.
And so it’s natural and normal for you to start working for Etsy in the way that I’ve just explained.
Everything you have read and learned up to this point is about how to grow on Etsy and you kind of lose track of where you were initially going.
And sometimes you need to remind yourself of your long-term vision, that you came to Etsy to get that validation, the confidence boost, and the proof that sales are possible. And if you have reached that goal, you are ready to move to the next stage of your long-term goal and build your own website!
The third example I want to talk about is something that you don’t NEED to have going on before starting your own website, but is a scenario that indicates that 1) you are not only ready to open your own website but that 2) you will get a lot faster results on your website once you open it.
And that scenario is if you have some products on your Etsy store that sell well pretty consistently — you have best sellers, or products that you can rely on that are responsible for most of your sales.
This means that when you move to your own website you can leverage those products to make sales quicker, because if your products sell on Etsy … they’re also going to sell on your own website.
Since you already know the profit margins that you have on those products, you have a good idea of how much you can afford to spend on ads for those products once you are on your own website.
You don’t need to be spooked by the word “ads” when you’re making sales and you’re making a profit (which you are because you’re priced for profit!). You should have enough to reinvest into your business and spend on ads.
And so having those bestsellers is really great news because you know they sell, so you know you can spend money on ads for them. You don’t need to go out and spend money experimenting on test ads to figure out which products will sell, right?
You have data that tells you that customers buy those products, so if you start selling those with ads once your website is up and running you’ll probably make that money back – and more – really quickly!
When that happens, you’re then able to scale and reinvest in other areas of your website. Plus it’s an easy way to start building traffic and momentum on your new website, which in turn will build leads and build your email list.
So if you have those bestsellers – even if you don’t want to use paid ads – having those bestsellers is still really great when starting your own website because even in your organic marketing strategy you know that you can focus heavily on those bestsellers to build momentum.
And knowing that potential is there will give you more confidence that you’re definitely ready to start your own website.
Each of the above examples shows little signs that tell you that you are ready to take that next step and open your own website — that you are ready to transition from bringing traffic and having traffic on Etsy to bringing that traffic to your own website instead!
If you know it’s time to move forward in your business but feel overwhelmed with the thought of opening your own website, I have a program that is extremely helpful that you will want to check out here.
And finally, if you’re still not sure whether you want to stay on Etsy, or you’re not convinced that scaling on Etsy has limitations, you will want to read my article about the 4 ways you can’t grow with Etsy and helps you fully understand the limitations that exist if you choose to sell there instead of on your own website.
Thanks for reading and until next time, aurevoir!
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