Competition - Check Yours Out

If you are trying to sell your handcrafted projects online, you need to check your competition. This means checking price, descriptions, photos, quality. On Etsy, this is easy. Just do a search of "all items" and put in the words you planned to use for your project title.

I was stunned when I first offered my crocheted fur-trimmed fingerless gloves this past winter. I received over a thousand hits for "gloves." I decided to narrow it down to "fingerless gloves." That definitely cut it to manageable size. Still, I was shocked to see how many I was up against. I then sorted them from low-to-high in price, and then from high-to-low, to see the differences in the style, the materials, and so on.

When there are hundreds of offerings, obviously I cannot read them all, but I checked at least a dozen. I checked to see what tags they were using, as well. I found that some sellers mentioned using them for arthritis sufferers and for ice skaters. These uses went into my own description. I noticed that some were wild and others plain, and noted the differences in their prices.

In the end, I revised my listing, several times, and have since sold a few. This is amazing to me, considering the competition I face. Research, even just a little, pays off.