“It was in Peru, where I spent 40 days learning to surf, that I realized my life has changed 100% since I’ve become a full-time Etsy seller.”
This is how Sol Maldonado reflects on her life and her profession as a traveling entrepreneur who splits time between her two home bases of Brazil and Argentina, and other parts of South America for vacations.
In 2012, she traveled all year with her computer, camera, needles, and hooks — the primary tools for running her two downloadable pattern tutorial shops, bySol and Soles. “I got inspired, visited wool markets, met incredible knitters, learned new techniques, and prepared new patterns,” she says.
Here, Sol talks about how she’s carved out a distinctive corner of the Etsy seller-sphere by selling digital items and recalls her learning curve on the road to success.
Why do you operate two shops and move between countries?
I keep bySol and Soles separate for better organization, so I can manage traffic more easily and focus on stats for each set of items. My family lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and my boyfriend lives in Florianopolis, Brazil, so I move between the two cities, usually for two months at a time. I also travel often to North Brazil, Itacaré, in Salvador de Bahia, to visit friends.
How do you manage your shops while traveling?
I buy yarns, fabrics, and thread wherever I go. My base studio is in Argentina; I make most of the tutorials there, then edit and compose PDFs while traveling.? My advice is to be very organized and have a lot of determination — there are days that I obligate myself to stay inside and work; it’s not an endless holiday.
You sell Digital Items, which allows customers to download your files directly from your shop. What do you think of the tool, and how did you sell your PDF pattern files before the Digital Items tool existed?
It’s amazing, because I no longer waste time filling orders by sending PDFs via email. I can now be totally focused on creating new patterns and stop worrying about whether my customers received the files I emailed them.
Before the Digital Items tool, there were huge problems with sending emails that contained large attachments. Some of my customers weren’t able to receive the files because they were sometimes perceived to be spam by some of my customers’ email programs. I used DropBox for a while, but that confused my customers. Now, we digital Etsy sellers can sleep in peace.
What did you do before you quit your day job to become a full-time Etsy seller?
I worked as a craft artist for a publishing company in Argentina for many years, designing for magazines such as Ediciones Evia. At that time, searching for craft trends and handmade products and patterns on the web, I always ended up on Etsy looking at an item or a pattern. Finally one day I asked myself, “Why don’t I sell on Etsy?”
What new skills did you need to grow your shops?
After I opened my shops in 2009, I realized that I needed much more layout knowledge to make quality instruction manuals. I took some time off from selling and began to study web design: graphic design programs, HTML, SEO, etc. After three years of sitting in front of my computer, preparing myself and gaining confidence in my web skills, I reopened my shops in 2011.
What’s your biggest strength as a seller?
The high-quality directions that I create. It’s important to have good patterns, but the biggest strength of a tutorial is in how clearly you teach a specific project and technique. Photos, text, and page layout are very important. I think my web design study has helped me present each product clearly, in a way that’s easy for the crafter to follow.
It’s good for business not to sell patterns that 20 other people are already offering. Every time I have an idea for a new pattern, I run to my computer and take a few days searching Etsy, Google, Pinterest, and other craft sites in case there’s something similar to what I’m thinking of. When I’m sure there’s nothing like it, I create my own unique pattern.
What’s your advice to new Etsy sellers?
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Take a photo course if you don’t know how to take great pictures, because what really sells your product is the images.
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Describe your item really well. Include all the information a buyer wants to know, but be brief because people have short attention spans.
- Be yourself. Find yourself in each of your items, try not to copy others, and your shop will develop a unique style.
What do you love most about your work?
Thanks to Etsy, I’ve grown in many ways, as a professional, a crafter, an e-commerce business owner, a designer, artist, photographer, teacher, seller, and English speaker — and I’m still learning. Etsy has changed my life, and I’m so grateful for my freedom; I hope it never ends.? The freedom of being in a faraway place and having fun while working is the most exciting part of running my Etsy shops.
Amy Schroeder started her first business, a women’s arts and DIY magazine called Venus Zine, in her dorm room at age 19 and later sold the company. Her goal is to help creative people develop their dream jobs. Follow her on Twitter @amyschroeder and on Instagram at Instagram.com/TheVenusLady.