Online Tutorials – Increase Etsy Exposure

Could publishing online tutorials be your key to ultimate online press exposure? Yael Falk, the handmade seller behind Etsy’s YooLa, was recently published in The Storque, Etsy’s online resource for sellers.  After this exposure, Yael contacted HandmadeMarketing.org to share her article with us.

Yael’s article is about how she found handmade sales success by stretching her design into new dimensions.  “Many Etsy sellers have successful designs in terms of high views, many hearts, appearance in Etsy Treasuries and even front pages, but somehow…low sales,” she shared in The Storque.

Yael said that her most successful item for press was her knitted wire pomegranates (available in her Etsy shop.)  “They appeared everywhere: numerous front pages, numerous blogs (small and big) with interviews, articles, even Etsy blog articles,” she said.

However, Yael said she saw very little sales.  In fact, only two of her pomegranates sold!

“I had to do something, and I felt I had to tackle it in an original way,” she said.  “I knew that if my issue was only a matter of price, it was a dead end. My work is time consuming, and I could not afford to cut my prices any more than I already had. I just wanted to translate my Etsy visual success into a financial one — this is where my stretching began.”

Yael said she focused on three assumptions. “First, maybe people just loved its visual impact, i.e. the photos. Second, maybe people just loved poms because of all that they represent. Third, maybe people were curious about how I make them,” she said.

After establishing these three assumptions, Yael found she had several potential directions to take the sales of this handmade item.

1. Develop a line of prints, greeting cards, or postcards with my pom photos.
2. Develop more pomegranate items that would resemble the big ones, but would be more affordable.
3. Write tutorials that would teach anyone to knit a pom.

“I decide to start with option 2, which is what I do best,” Yael said.  “I designed a mini pom bead, and it was received quite successfully. My mission was partially achieved, but I wasn’t yet satisfied.”

Yael said she debated for several months about implementing option 3 – publishing tutorials.  “After discussing it in the Etsy forums with many fellow Etsians, I came up with a list of pros and cons,” Yael shared.

Yael shared her outline of the cons to creating a tutorial below:

1. Risk of exposure to copycats and competition with the sharing of knowledge.
2. The item will no longer seem as special when it pops up everywhere.

However, Yael developed a list of pros as well:

1. Publishing your knowledge gives people get the opportunity to respect you as a designer and a pro.
2. There are many enthusiastic crafters who would love to have a pom, but would not be ready to pay its full price, and by offering them a tutorial I enable them make their own.
3. The wider exposure will benefit the finished products because more people will have a respect and appreciation for my skill and my vision, and so sharing how they’re made would enlarge its sales figures as well.
4. Different people would purchase my finished items and my tutorials, so its not actually one instead of the other.
5. The GREEN aspect – distributing tutorials creates less pollution than mailing items overseas.

Yael said she eventually decided to follow the pro path and offer tutorials on her blog.

“The tuts were and still are a great success in sales terms,” Yael told HandmadeMarketing.org.  “I’ve sold a couple of hundreds since it was published.  There was a sharp jump in Etsy sales when I published my first tut and it keeps on going up.  The interesting thing is that some people buy both my tuts and my finished items.  Some people only buy it out of curiosity to see how I work.”

“It’s been a success ever since! I am now encouraged to write more tutorials,” she said.  “The stretching, of course, can never end. Once the tutorials started taking off, questions about supplies started to emerge. Thoughts about offering my clients an easy and fast solution gave way to kits.”

What did Yael learn from the experience outlined in the Storque article?  “The bottom line is stretch, stretch, stretch — your mind, your media and your boundaries.”

Yael found that sharing her experience with Etsy.com was natural because of the success she has seen with the help of the selling platform.  “I find Etsy a great place to be in, I got tons of support form other Etsians and Etsy admin when I just joined and am happy to share what I know and accomplished with others.  The Storque is a great place to publish anything it has many readers that have the same interest as me, handmade and internet selling and buying. I felt it was my turn to share what I learned and accomplished.”

The press her Etsy shop received on Etsy.com was an accomplishment in and of itself.  “I received a lot of feedback both from people that have been following my work and Etsy shop for a while, and wanted to say well done, as well as from people that discovered me through the article.  I was also contaced by Etsy sellers asking for further advice,” she told HandmadeMarketing.org.

Where does Yael look for great tutorials online? “I love Ravelry.com.  It is a wonderful place for textile lovers to hangout and find unique patterns and tutorials.  I also like youcanmakethis.com.  That site has many cool tuts in various fields,” she told us.

Yael also shared some advice she has for sellers worried about sharing their craft via tutorials.  “Many sellers feel that by sharing and publishing their secrets they build their own competition,” Yael said. “People ask me, “But aren’t you afraid that it will be spread on the net with no control”? My answer is that the world is so big, there are so many people.  What if some will pass it from friend to friend? And besides, I will always be making new ones.  I gained was incredibly vast exposure by publishing tutorials online.”

You can follow Yael’s handmade happenings at her blog or by visiting her Etsy shop.

Do you create online tutorials showcasing your craft?  How has the tutorial helped increase sales?  Do you have any advice for sellers questions whether publishing a tutorial is right for them?

Share your ideas with HandmadeMarketing.org!  Submit your thoughts to our “Join” tab, or comment on this post.  If we publish your thoughts into an article like we did for Yael, we will link to your shop, blog, and website in order to give you added exposure in the handmade community!