Are you at a crossroads?

Can’t decide if you should have an Etsy shop or set up your own website?

I spend very little to no time marketing my Etsy shop.

I make a few sales a week and it’s a great place for side income with minimal effort and maintenance.

Etsy is great for starting out since you don’t have to know HTML or CSS to set up your shop.

But if you’re serious and committed to building a sustainable, long-term business, you should consider a more viable solution.

Building your own website doesn’t have to be expensive.

There are sites out there like Shopify.com that act as website builders for non-techie people.

It’s super easy and visual for us creative folks.

Or you can power up Wordpress and install a plugin like WP-Ecommerce or download free Wordpress e-commerce themes.

There will definitely be learning curves to using Wordpress or setting up your own website, but you’ll be set for life once you get through it.

Compare that to the perpetual effect of marketing to your Etsy store, where you’re essentially marketing for Etsy.com themselves.

The more you market your Etsy shop, the more Etsy as a marketplace is advertised and the more sellers will join, increasing competition for you and commissions Etsy makes as revenue. Whether or not the customer buys from you, this is not your revenue. It’s Etsy’s.

With the former, you’re building equity for yourself that you get to keep with you for as long as your domain name lives.

With the latter, you’re simply funneling all your efforts into a pool at a party that’s not yours.

Having said that, I still run both my Etsy shop and my own website.

I only choose to prioritize my own site.

My business cards and social media all point back to my website.

And when I get that Etsy sale, it’s just an extra cherry on top.