Hello everyone! This is officially my first blog post. I am very much excited to start this new blogging journey with you all and to tell you about another new journey I decided to start as well.
A little background about me is that I love Disney and all things Disney, I love vacationing and visiting new places and trying new experiences. On top of that I live in the Bay Area and work a full time job, and guess what? Still not able to afford moving out with my boyfriend because well, we live in the Bay Area. Oh yeah forgot to mention, I am also a student trying to get my degree in Business Administration. A lot right? Well let’s dive into my side hustle journey.
If you’ve seen my “about me” post then you will see my Etsy link and also my Youtube link. First I am going to dive into Etsy, we are not quite at YouTube yet. I started Etsy a few years ago around when the pandemic started. I was considered an essential worker so thank God I did still have a job. But like I said I live in the Bay Area so I was trying to find ways to make some money on the side on top of my full time job and school. I started making snow globe tumblers out of the clear venti Starbucks tumblers. At first I had no idea what I was doing, it was a lot of trial and error trying to figure out how to keep the glitter floating inside the tumbler. And just like anyone else trying to figure out how to do something, I turned to Pinterest, Youtube, and Google. First I tried putting in contact solution because I saw a creator on YouTube swearing by it, and you know what, worked terribly. The cup looked decent but the glitter was not floating, I shook the cup and it would float for a few seconds but then, gravity would win. Not to mention the glitter that I had bought, was staining the contact solution. Just imagine the red glitter turning the whole tumbler, bloody red. Like I said, a lot of trial and error, but that is how we learn right?
As I kept on watching videos I actually stumbled on Tiktok videos of creators sharing how they make their tumblers. As it turns out, using equal parts water and vegetable glycerin; it gives you that perfect float for the glitter in the cup. I was ecstatic that I finally found out how to beat gravity that I started promoting my cups to family and friends. Happy to report that it was going great, I had multiple orders from my family because they were being very supportive. I took multiple photos of my cups and I started showing my coworkers/friends which brought me in even more sales. Business was booming! My coworkers started bringing their cups into work and displaying them on their desks that people that were coming into the office started asking questions about them. I started getting even more orders and I was so happy and proud of myself.
Finally after so much persuasion from my friends and family, I decided to launch my Etsy store. You’re probably thinking I started making thousands on cup sales right? Not even close. I didn’t really have a social media presence, and I still pretty much don’t. So sales were not coming in left and right how I had hoped or wanted. I tried promoting on my Instagram, I also tried promoting on my Pinterest account and it did kind of work. I started getting a few more sales but not as fast as I wanted them to come in or as many. Unfortunately my sales started to come to a halt. I started watching more videos of other creators and saw that they were putting designs on their cups and decorating the caps amazing and crazy ways. So of course I wanted to do the same, but did not have the materials to do it. I discovered that I needed a Cricut machine.
I saved up some money and was able to invest in a Cricut cutting machine. They are not cheap by any mens but they are not impossibly unaffordable either. I was happy to start being able to make my cups look more appealing but then just like when I started making cups, I had no idea what I was doing with a Cricut. So guess what, I turned to Youtube. One of the top places to go if you want to learn to how to do something. I got my Cricut all set up and I was ready to start making my first design. It did not turn out too well, I could not figure out how to make the designs that required multiple layers to put together. I was novice trying to jump to expert level Cricut making. So I decided to watch a bunch more “how to” videos on Youtube, and finally I was able to figure out how to create a name on Cricut. It wasn’t multiple layer complicated designs but it was something and it was my first design. And so it started, I promoted my new designs and started getting a few more sales on Etsy.
It was going well for a while, not as great or as fast as I wanted it to go but it was something. But then customers wanted more designs on their cups and you know what, I was up for the challenge. I started creating beautiful cups with design inspiration from movies or Pinterest. My Etsy store was doing well and I was getting a lot of positive feedback, five star ratings across the board.
But then it happened, Covid was coming to an “end” and things started to open back up. I was starting to go out more with friends and family that I was just not finding the time to create more cups or to promote them. My sales started to drastically decline that I was lucky to even get one every few months or so. But I wasn’t as sad about it because finally I was able to get out of the house more except for just going to work.
As my Etsy account kind of just sat there, along with my Cricut in my room collecting dust, I started to think of more ideas to sell on my Etsy store. I started looking into digital downloads. It was a lot less time consuming and I did not have to spend money on materials to create products. But how does one create a digital download? I had no clue, I went to Youtube and Pinterest once again. I had to learn it one way or another.
Unfortunately it was not as easy peasy as I thought it would be. I needed to have some type of app in order to customize my designs. I then discovered Canva. What I didn’t know was that in order to be able to customize my designs and make them my own, I needed to purchase a subscription. Could I afford it? yes, did I want another monthly subscription? Absolutely not. But in the words of my boyfriend, “if you want to make money, you need to spend money.” So that is what I did, I purchased the subscription and I started trying but not succeeding to design.
I was trying to get inspired on Pinterest by what I should be creating, I found examples on budgeting planners, coloring books for kids and adults, and also stickers. I finally stuck on stickers and just PNG and SVG files. Now you’re probably wondering what PNG and SVG files are, well it just depends on what you want to use the design for. For example I would use SVG files to print out designs for my snow glove tumblers. I found that that was best for my vinyl designs that I would use my Cricut to cut out. I would then use PNG files to print out my sticker designs. PNG files have a higher resolution and the quality looks much better when printed out as a sticker. The SVG files were easier to create designs on Cricut for my tumblers.
Now I found something new to create and sell on my Etsy store, not you’re thinking I’m making big bucks right? Wrong again. I have not made a single sell on my digital products, I have gotten a bunch of likes and saves but no sales. I have tried to promote on Pinterest and I get the views and likes just not any sales, which is what I want. But I am still trying to figure out all of the kinks still.
You all probably thought this post was going to be the usual, “this is how I created my six figure Etsy store.” Well no, this post was about my trial and error on starting my Etsy store and the different things I tried doing in order to monetize my store. I started my blog to bring you guys along with me on my journey to be able to create a six figure salary compromised of my Etsy store, Pinterest, and YouTube channel. I haven’t reached the end of my story yet, this was just the beginning and I haven’t given up yet and I don’t plan to. If you want to continue on my journey with me, stay tuned for my next post!
