What to Sell on Etsy When You Can Make Many Things

The people who struggle most with this question are not the ones with no ideas. They're the ones with too many. If you can knit, sew and make candles, or you draw and also design planners, every week brings a new "I could sell that", and the shop never opens because the first product never gets chosen.

What you sell shapes everything that comes after it: your photos, your prices, your shipping, the buyers you attract. So it's worth choosing deliberately. This post is a five-step way to do that. It starts wide, narrows quickly, rules out the ideas that get new sellers into trouble, and ends with one product and a plan for how it grows.

Start from what you can already do

The easiest first product is the one you already make well. You know the materials, you know how long it takes, and you've made enough of them to know where they go wrong. Learning to make a new thing and learning to run a shop at the same time is a lot to carry, and most people who try end up doing both badly for a while.

So the first step is a list, and the rule for the list is: don't judge it yet. Write down everything you can make, or could produce digitally, with the skills and tools you have now. Include small things and odd things. In the book, Dana, who later opens Copper Fern Studio, lists ring dishes, plant pots, spoon rests, coasters, small vases and a glaze she invented by accident. The glaze isn't a product, but it ends up mattering, because it's the thing that makes her dishes hers.

Your list might be five items or thirty. Either is fine. The point is to get everything out of your head and onto a page where you can look at it.

Narrow it down

From the list, pick the three to five ideas that interest you most, and run each one through five questions.

Can I make it consistently? If every one comes out differently, that can be charming, but buyers need to know what they'll get. Your photos and description have to match what arrives, every time.

Can I make it at a sensible cost? You'll work this out properly when you price it. For now, a rough sense is enough: do the materials and the hours leave room for a price a buyer would pay?

Can I ship it safely? Fragile, heavy, bulky or perishable items are harder to ship. That doesn't rule them out, but it adds work, cost and a category of complaints. Digital products skip this question entirely, which is one of their quiet advantages.

Do I enjoy making it? If the shop goes well, you'll be making a lot of them. An item you're already slightly bored of is a poor first product.

Is it allowed? This one gets its own section, because it's the question beginners skip and the one that can get a shop closed.

What not to sell

Read this part slowly. None of it is complicated, but all of it is easy to get wrong when you're excited.

Other people's trademarks and brands. A trademark is a name, logo or symbol that identifies a company's goods. Sports teams, film studios, fashion labels, toy makers and car makers all own them. Putting their names or logos on your products without permission is likely to break the law and Etsy's rules, and so is using a brand name in your title to attract searches, like describing a bag as "in the style of" a famous label.

Characters, films, games and celebrities. Cartoon characters, film and game characters, book characters, and the names or faces of famous people are usually protected. Fan art is the gray area that catches the most new sellers, because it feels harmless and it's everywhere. It often isn't fine, especially when sold, and Etsy shops are regularly asked to remove such listings. The safe path for a new shop is simple: don't sell products based on characters, shows, games, bands or famous people unless you have written permission.

Copied designs. Don't copy another seller's design, photos or wording, even with a few details changed. That includes patterns, printables, fonts, illustrations and product photos found online. "I found it on the internet" doesn't mean it's free to use. If your digital products use fonts, clip art or stock images, check the license on each one and make sure it allows commercial use in the way you plan. And protect your own work the same way: keep your original files and drafts, which show that you made it.

Prohibited and restricted items. Etsy keeps a list of things that can't be sold, and things that can only be sold under certain conditions. The list changes, so read the current prohibited items policy and the policies on handmade, vintage and supplies before you list anything. If your product is anywhere near a category on that list, assume it's not allowed until you're sure it is.

Products with safety or legal rules. Some products carry extra legal requirements in many places: children's toys and clothing, cosmetics and skin products, candles, food, pet products, and anything that touches the mouth or skin. These may need testing, labels, warnings or registrations, and the rules vary by country and region. This isn't professional advice; check the rules with a qualified lawyer or your local trading standards or consumer safety office. If your product falls into one of these groups, it doesn't mean you can't sell it. It means you research the rules for where you live and where you ship before you start, and you describe the product plainly rather than making claims about it.

Score your ideas

Now compare your three to five ideas side by side. The book gives this as a scorecard; the idea is simple enough to do on any sheet of paper.

For each idea, give yourself a score from one to five on each of eight questions: whether you can make it consistently, whether you can make it at a sensible cost, whether it's easy to ship (or digital), whether you enjoy making it, whether it's free of trademark, character and copying risk, whether it's clear of Etsy's prohibited list and any legal rules you can't meet, whether others sell similar items (which means buyers look for it), and whether you can make it different from what you see.

The scores are your judgment, not a measurement, and that's fine. The point of scoring is to make your thinking visible, so the choice stops being a feeling and becomes a comparison you can defend to yourself.

One rule overrides the totals: any idea that scores a one on either of the two risk questions is set aside, however well it does elsewhere. A strong idea with a legal problem is not a strong idea. Write a line of notes under each idea too: what worries you, what excites you, what you still need to find out.

One product, then a family

Once you have a winner, don't stop at one. Think about how it could grow into a small family of related items. A family helps shoppers who like one thing find the next, it gives your shop a clear identity, and it makes photos, descriptions and branding easier because everything follows one style.

Willow & Thread, in the book, starts with a single embroidered hoop: a sprig of wildflowers. The family grows in natural steps from there. The same design in two sizes. Three other flower designs in the same style. A printable pattern for each design, for buyers who'd rather stitch it themselves. A starter kit comes much later, once the shop has settled.

Sketch yours the same way. One product, then three or four close variations: sizes, colors, sets, a digital version. Those variations are also your first ten listings, which is a problem you'll be glad to have solved early.

What makes it yours

Many products on Etsy look alike, and yours doesn't need to be wildly different. But it helps to know what makes it yours. It might be a style of illustration, a color palette, a material, a size others don't offer, a way of packaging, or simply the care in the finish. Dana's accidental glaze is the kind of thing that answers this question.

Write one sentence that starts "Mine is different because..." If you can't finish it yet, that's not a failure; it's the next job. An evening of looking at what's already on Etsy, which is the research step, usually finishes the sentence for you.

Do this today

Make the long list, all of it, without judging. Pick your three to five. Run each through the five questions and the what-not-to-sell section, honestly. Score them. Then choose one, sketch its family, and write a first try at your "different because" sentence. If the sentence won't come, that's your cue to go and look at what shoppers are already finding, which is the next post.