Review: Good resource, could be improved
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2013
I am considering selling on Etsy so I gave this book special attention.It is very easy to read, everything is explained in a logical sequence so you can follow it when establishing your Etsy store.The book covers all the major points: is Etsy right for somebody, establishing identity, setting up a shop, marketing and providing customer service. It saves some time to do the research.I found the part on market research to be really useful and I think this is the most important part before you even start thinking of selling something.I like that the emphasis is put on establishing an identity, because it is today very hard to be visible and remembered with so many sellers on Etsy. Still, in that chapter, I would have preferred the author to list all the items one needs to design and create to have an essential group of own branded items (for example, invoice is nowhere mentioned). Some of the items can be found in another part of the book, it is just that it would be useful to have it all in one place so that one can have a to do list immediately.The chapter on setting up a shop is quite detailed and I like that the author is making you aware of a cost structure when pricing your own products.The chapter on marketing is OK because it lists the tools you can use. You can quickly see what are the tools you are familiar with (for example Facebook) and what are the tools you need to learn more about. However, here I would like to see more examples from author's experience - how quickly did she gain following on Facebook, or Twitter, or is she only listing her own items on Pinterest, for example.And I loved the final chapter on customer service, because it is really important. So many sellers neglect this, so it is a solid differentiation point.Overall, the book is a solid start if you don't know anything about Etsy, but I would say it is not for persons who already have established shops. In some areas it is quite detailed (for example dividing the length of your packaging tape to come to per package cost) which you might find useful.Therefore it was quite surprising to me that nowhere in the book the cost of listing items on Etsy is mentioned. Or the cost of PayPal.My recommendation to the author would be to address all the costs that are connected with doing business on Etsy, so that readers can understand it. And to include a link to her shop so that we can see how she developed the things she is writing about. I would love to see the photos, the identity and examples of good product descriptions.As you can see from my suggestions for improvement, I would love to see the book a bit more practical, therefore I give it 3.5 stars.