Saturday 19 June 2010

Etsy Old Timers

Yesterday was Etsy's fifth birthday! Discovering Etsy and the online craft community at the end of 2006 and deciding to set up my own Etsy shop quite literally changed my life. I'm now self-employed (with a house full of felt) and I get to make stuff for a living!


Etsy has seen lots of ups and downs, lots of changes and has grown hugely since I first set up shop... Back in Feb 2009 I blogged about finding an old piece of paper on which I'd scribbled down the details of some of Etsy's categories as I was trying to get to grips with how the site worked. It amazed me how much the site had grown in a couple of years, and it's now even bigger:

Geekery - THEN 3,558 items - LAST YEAR 17,165 - NOW 41,859
Books and Zines > Zine - THEN 295 - LAST YEAR 1,318 - NOW 2,306
Housewares > Kitchen - THEN 3,564 - LAST YEAR 23,385 - NOW 49,069
Accessories > Pin - THEN 4,443 - LAST YEAR 24,969 - NOW 27,968
Needlecraft > Pincushion - THEN 400 - LAST YEAR 3,241 - NOW 4,353

Oh and last year there were 827, 839 items listed under jewellery... today there are 1,429,890! Wow.

I'm starting to have conversations about Etsy that start "in the old days..." like some nostalgic little old lady! Rather appropriately I've recently been invited to join the Old Time Etsy Team which is made up of people who've had shops on Etsy for 3+ years.

There's a little interview with me over on the team's blog this week: you can read it HERE.

9 comments:

Sarah said...

Your cakes are beautiful! I read your post on tips for sellers and though I'm not a seller myself I found it interesting. I wanted to say that I think you write a wonderful blog for your business - you seem to get a lovely mix of showing off your stuff and 'bloggy' content - thank you.

Pyschodelic Elephants said...

Wow those cakes look yummy!

Zohar said...

I've been on Etsy for 3/4 of a year and I already see how much it is changing my life in a direction I want (which is self employment). It's crazy how Etsy has grown even in the little time I've been there. I wish you and me and all the other seller lots of luck :)

JO SOWERBY said...

now i've learnt a little bit more about you laura. what an achievement to have etsy'd for 4 years already. it must be g8 to get up in the morning in lupin world. i start my new job on monday so less time to blog but still keep up-to-date and maybe have some cash for the odd lovely lupin design now
Jo xxxx

WinnibriggsHouse said...

Hi Laura
Congratulations, it must be working for you to have stuck with it.Mind you your work is lovely so that obviously helps. Noticed that you have done a post about selling and so am off to study it as am contemplating setting up shop myself. Wish me luck.

Jenny said...

Ive only just seen your blog but I love felt, and you've got some really great designs. thanks for sharing

Andrew Thornton said...

Lovely cupcakes!

Isn't amazing what one little idea could do? I really think it put a lot of people in direct contact with artisans and has empowered a lot of people to follow their passion. I love Etsy!

milenamb said...

Dear Lupin,
You are very successful at etsy.com and at your other shops because you are amazingly talented! Everything you do is beautiful and we can see the love you put into it. I'm going to open a shop at Etsy soon, but I'm just a "weekend crafter", maybe one day I'll be able to make that my living. Not that I’m anywhere close to you when it comes to talent…
Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!
Milena Borges
http://thereisalwaysroom.wordpress.com/

Bugs and Fishes said...

Good luck with your shop, Milena! :)