I have my own website. I'm in some soap maker groups on fb and the general consensus there is that etsy is too difficult to get into these days. There are thousands and thousands of handmade soap shops, and shops that already have reviews get pushed to the top. Also they changed their search algorithm to only look up product names, so if a customer tries to look up your shop directly they wont be able to. Having my own website has presented me with a lot of challenges, but I like knowing that the traffic I get is a sign of successful marketing, and that other people's products wont be advertised to shoppers while they are looking at mine. Hopefully you are able to get vaccinated soon! I didnt think I would be able to as soon as I did, but the national guard stepped in and set up a few mass vax sites in my state and once they were up and running the wait time went from months to days!
Right now I am reading a book called The Start-up Owners Handbook, it's used by Stamford to teach business students, and I am following the steps in there to handle my company. I'm currently in the Customer Development phase, which means not spending money on marketing until I know the exact demographic to pinpoint. I am mostly posting on social media, using lots of hashtags to get attention from potential customers. I'm also going to sell at 2 festivals this summer, to give me a chance to meet customers face to face. This time last year I only had like 1 visitor a month, but I am up to about 15 visitors a day now. My conversation rate is only 5%, but once I identify my exact target demographic I can start pinpointing who I market to.
Well that sounds like a well thought out plan. Good to not spend money until you know exactly what demographic to target. I thought about it before to start a side hustle by selling things online but never followed through, no idea where I’d find the time to do it.