I’m sure it’s different for everyone. But I’m also sure there are bound to be core issues that run across the board no matter what you are selling.

When I first got the idea (actually, I think it was my husband’s idea but, in typical fashion, I took it and ran with it), it sounded simple in my head:  list our handmade jewelry for sale on Etsy, collect the funds, ship the item(s), go on to the next one.

There were a lot of assumptions in that first notion. One of them was not that we’d light the world on fire with sales, but I did think that we’d have a few more by now (it’s been six months since opening our Etsy shop). But I think it would be safe to say I didn’t think the whole thing would be as complex and time consuming as it has turned out to be.

Possibly, I’m approaching it all in a somewhat obsessive manor. But developing a method and setting myself some rules of play usually helps me to be more efficient at whatever I am endeavoring to do. However, if this is organizational efficiency, I’d hate to see what disorder might bring.

If it were just one or two things that I had to do, it would be great. But it’s a long, drawn out process from completing a piece of jewelry to getting it into our shop and offering it for purchase.

Ideally, I’m sure every artist dreams of a situation where all they do is create and then the item is handed off to the people who promote it. But our Etsy shop is the online equivalent of that old cliché of a brick and mortar, mom-and-pop shop. You know, where Mom and Pop do every single thing that needs to be done to keep it running. Except that this Pop has a “real” job and doesn’t help Mom at all.

So, here it is: I get the idea. I make the thing. Then I take at least seven photographs of the thing in different lighting and at different angles (took a while to get some decent photography skills going). Then I profile it. That means I decide on a title, make a list of what went into it, measure it every way I can think of, decide on a price based on the cost of parts and labor, weigh it and figure out a shipping weight, decide on the style (minimalist, Edwardian, etc.), write an informative and hopefully engaging description, and come up with 13 tag words (that’s the max that Etsy allows and they recommend you use all 13).

Then I use the profile I have created to list the item for sale in the shop. Usually, if I’ve done a good job on the profile, I have all the data ready to hand for listing it. But sometimes, there is something I’ve forgotten and I have to figure it out on the spot. That slows down the listing process.

This all doesn’t even count uploading the photos to our shop. Etsy gives you a maximum of ten photos and one video. I have yet to try making a video and rarely use all ten photo slots. Once I get them all uploaded, I check them over for brightness, sharpness and temperature in an effort to get the colors as true to life as possible. Etsy has a wonderful suite of programs for editing your photos.

Because we do not have a dedicated photography studio in our house, I set up in the kitchen. It has the best ambient lighting and I also add an LED lamp in the daylight range. It takes quite a while to get everything organized and ready to go. So I typically try to have at least five items ready to photograph at one time. For that reason, it can be quite a while between putting new items in the shop.

Once I’ve downloaded the photos to our computer, I need to save them in the appropriate file: bracelets, earrings, pendants, etc. If I kept them all in one file, it would take forever to scroll through the file and find the photos I want while listing an item. That’s how I did it in the beginning (just one big unwieldy file) and finally figured out I needed to sort things a bit.

I love making jewelry. I love having an idea and bringing that idea into the real world. I get a sense of fulfillment when I hold the finished product in my hand. But, to be honest, I do not find much joy in listing the item in our Etsy shop. It’s just a lot of work and takes a lot of time and if I added that time to the cost of the items, no one would be able to afford them.

And independent source estimates that most Etsy sellers make at least $417 per month. We haven’t even come close to that.

My main takeaway from all this is, if you are thinking of selling something on Etsy, make sure you understand how much time it will take and are okay with the cost to profit ratio. Right now, I am not okay with the ratio, but I am willing to give it more time.

Things always change. Sometimes for the better.