Etsy, (etsy.com) the online “create something, sell something” website is a great place to market your hand-made items to a web audience. It’s free to join, and the transaction fees to sell products are relatively low. But what happens when you put all of your products to sell on Etsy, and they remove your store because of rule violation, trademark infringement, or other reason?
There is a long list of stories from people who got banned from Etsy. A simple Google search for “Etsy banned me” has over 6 million results. What’s even more jaw-dropping is that many of the stories come from long time Etsy store owners making lots of money, that were banned without warning, never to return (unless they create an alias name and try to fly under the radar until the next lashing!)
The vulnerability you face as a business is a scary reality, and it isn’t just on Etsy. It’s anywhere you rely on a 3rd party platforms to sell your products, where you have to follow their rules. Etsy, Ebay, Shopify, LaunchGrowJoy, MadeitMyself, and other websites like that.
If you are a business that only sells products through 3rd party platforms, you are at risk of losing everything overnight. All of your listings, all of your SEO, customer contacts, sales history, your revenue, all gone.
Why you need a custom business website design
The single most important marketing, and branding asset you can have as a business is your website. A real, dedicated place on the web, with a real domain name, real code (not WIX, Wordpress, or GoDaddy builders), that was designed and developed specifically for your company, and performs the sole function to attract people into your business.
Having an Etsy store is fine, but it should only serve as an augmentation to your custom website itself. Letting your website work together with outside 3rd party platforms insures your business won’t disappear overnight and lets you stay in contact with your customers.
A good compromise that works well, is to use those 3rd party platforms to sell through, but use your website as the main focus, and drive people to recognize your branding through great blog posts, item descriptions, and other forms of engagement to your growing audience. Etsy will just become a place where the “merchant transaction takes place”.
You’ll find that rather than drowning in a sea of people on Etsy selling similar items as you, and all trying to use the same Etsy SEO hackery, that when people go to the web to search for products like the ones you sell - your website will become a high ranking result that soars above simple Etsy listings.
But what if I’m already successful with Etsy and don’t need a website?
So you are doing well now, good for you! Keep that up! But building a sustainable future for your growing business starts with a website design that lets you market not just a single product, but an entire brand of your products, and the best part - you don’t have to follow any rules other than your own, because it’s your website!
In comparison, look at this list of benefits to having your own website:
- Ownership. Your livelihood isn’t in jeopardy because of a change in someone else’s policy.
- A real domain. A domain name is much easier to tell someone, rather than “find me on Etsy by typing “my greatest store ever”.
- A place to start. A website warehouses everything. Your news and blogs, videos, links to your stores (like Etsy), newsletter signups, and much more.
- Rankings. A well built website will always rank higher than a single Etsy store link.
- Backlinks. You can use Etsy, and many other platforms to link back to your own website for higher rankings.
- Identity. Customers will know you by it.
- Scale. Websites can scale much farther than just a 3rd party platform all by itself.
- No competition. When people see your products on your website, they won’t be surrounded with other people’s products too, enticing a buyer to “get theirs instead”.
- Taken seriously. Businesses with professionally built websites are generally looked at by customers as “legit”, and “here to stay”.
We design professional websites for individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses. What’s more than that - websites by Moonbeam are highly ranked because of our unique website SEO advantage that we code right into the basement layers of your custom website.
When you are ready to be taken seriously, and not worry about violating someone else’s rules - contact us. We can usually bring a website online within 24 hours, with a final publishing in a little as two weeks.
Author
Richard has several industry recognitions and endorsements from tech companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google for accomplishments in the mobile market. He was part of the early Google AFMA program, and also involved in the foundation of Google TV. He has been developing for mobile since 2003 and serves as CEO of Moonbeam Development. He is also the co-founder and editor for App Developer Magazine, the number one ranked app developer news publication in the world. He has been a featured presenter at trade-shows and conferences, and stays active with new projects relating to mobile development.