Get the Free Worksheet I made for Your Handmade Product Success and follow along!

---

Hi! My name is Laser Lady!
I have been successfully selling my handmade laser cut jewelry online for 10 years. I have sold over 17,000 units on Amazon Handmade in just the last 2 years and have sold over 22,000 units on Etsy in the lifetime of my shop. I also have a website, but let’s stop with the numbers, I think you get it.

I have come up with 100s of products over the years and I have had plenty of product failures. Today, I am going to tell you why I think your products aren’t selling and I’m sorry in advance if it hurts your feelings. I’m also going to give you ACTIONABLE ways to fix it, cuz why not?

1: You Don’t Know Who You’re Selling To

I make weird jewelry for people who want to make a statement. Which is, admittedly, broad. But that is what I niched into from what I started with, which was anything I could think of making with my laser. 

I am going to make my point really quick with this, because if you have ever researched anything to do with selling products, you know you need to know who you are targeting.

For example, let’s use one of the last handmade things I bought. It was a Christmas gift for my dad and is a yummy candle that says “Having Me As A Daughter Is Really The Only Gift You Need” by thesnarkymermaid.com.

• First thing to figure out is the – WHAT. In this case, the What is Candles.
• Next thing you must know is the – WHY. For the candle the Why is Gifting.
• The third one is very important – WHO. Can you guess? For the candle it is Daughters of Dads, with a sense of humor.
• Bonus points for this fourth one – What problem does it Solve? For the candle, it solved my need for a gift that was personable for my dad. 

When I was searching for a gift (Why) for my Dad from me, his daughter (Who), it’s no wonder I picked this candle, because we are both sarcastic and ridiculous.

I am absolutely guilty of not considering the What, Why and Who when I started out. Slowly but slowly, I started to whittle down to what was working and rolled with it.

Here’s my W’s for my Laser Cut Jewelry Biz.

• What – Laser Cut Handmade Jewelry
• Why – Because commercial jewelry is boring
• Who – Eccentric Fashion People that Express Themselves with Jewelry
• What does it solve – Expression and not having to settle for boring mass produced jewelry.

I’ll have a free worksheet you can download that covers all this and everything else in this video, more on that later.

If you are thinking to yourself, “Whoops. I didn’t think about that.” Then that is probably why-

2: You Made a Product for No One

Imagine this. You are invited to a workplace potluck and asked to bring your favorite dish! This is your opportunity to show the world how good your silken tofu blueberry and kale muffins with savory vanilla hummus frosting are. You could eat one of these everyday. Your sister even said, they are surprisingly good!

You laugh as you set down your display in between one of the many plates of boring brownies and basic mac and cheese casseroles. The event ends and you go back to retrieve your plate, and all but 2 muffins are still there. All the plates of brownies are gone, the mac and cheese is gone, all the meat rolls, chili and cocktails sausages are gone. Only muffins remain.

Your muffins are admittedly the most unique food in the whole room, there is no denying that. But, do you think your entire workplace wants to eat those? 

Here’s a real world example. Imagine a room full of my customer base. These earrings I made (Cats + Books + Plants) are super personal to me. So, as far as my jewelry customers, this design separates from the masses to people who like these 3 things. Quite a smaller crowd. Now, I show this specific crowd these earrings and the crowd shrinks again to those who like the size, the shape, the colors. They tell me they are so cute! Then I say, “Who wants to buy it?” 

 No one. 

It can be especially hard when you have friends and family who say they like it. Yummy muffins! Cute earrings, I love them! You are so good at breakdancing! Wow! But that doesn’t lead to a sustainable business.

I made a pair of earrings I like, and didn’t consider what the people wanted. Which, to be honest, does work… sometimes. If you like to gamble, then keep on gambling. 

Here’s how we fix this.

Do the research. In the muffins example, let’s still  make muffins! Muffins are you WHAT. Maybe we’ll google, best muffins for a potluck. Then we find out chunky chocolate macadamia muffins should be a winner, telling by the rave reviews online. It’s not YOUR favorite flavor, but they completely disappear at the next potluck. Research, testing, put it on the menu in your muffin shop.

For the earrings, what I should have done is involve my audience and done more research. I could have made a few versions and done a poll. I could have looked if anyone else sells jewelry on this topic? If not, there might be a reason. Perhaps it’s a design that would be better as a plant stake or bookmark, considering the content of the design?

So, do the research and ask for feedback, especially from people who will be honest.

3: You are Just Not There Yet

This one might be a little hard to hear, but you just might not be as good as you think you are. It can be hard to get honest feedback when you are surrounded by people who love you. 

Here is a drawing my son did when he was little. You all can guess what I said. “I have no idea what this is. I appreciate you trying, but this is awful. Maybe if you moved this around, and this needs to be a different color. Keep trying, and maybe you’ll actually be good at it!”

No. Obviously, I told him it was amazing and that I would keep it forever. Which is both true. It is amazing to me, but good luck selling that you silly little 4 year old.

When I am stuck on a design, I have a set of people I run it by. I ask them this color or this color? Too big? Does this look like the thing I am trying to make it look like? Would you buy this or do you know who would? 

If you don’t have brutally honest people in your life, you may be able to find an online group that can help, but I encourage you to be your own worst critic.

Answer these questions:

• What would someone not like about this? (Too big? A Little Heavy? Too bland?)
• What would make this better? (More color? More detail?)
• Why would I buy this? (Because I need ____ to Solve ____.)

4: No One Knows About It

I research how to get better at this whole business thing everyday. I read articles and watch youtube videos a lot. I recently watched a youtube video on how to make more sales and it came with a promise to make at least one sale right now if you do this secret thing. 

Here was the secret: go on facebook and tell people to buy your product. Do it on your personal feed or find a group in your niche and tell them you sell this thing. There were a good amount of people who said it worked and wow and thanks! 

What was the lesson I took away from this? No one knew these people had something to sell.

I am not very social media savvy and I don’t really do facebook, but yes. Just about every time I have shared a sale or a launch, some kind and wonderful family member or follower will buy something.

You know how sick I get of hearing about holiday sales for the last 3 months of the year? Would you know Target is having a holiday sale if they stopped doing ads about it? Of course you would know they are! They always have a sale! So why the ads?

There are a million shops out there. You are like a dog being called into a million directions, and the person with the biggest, tastiest bone, yelling at the top of their lungs, has the best chance of getting you to come to them. 

So how do we fix this? Figure out which mountaintop you want to yell from.

• What are your top 2 favorite social media platforms?
• Do you have a way for people to subscribe to an email list? If not, start one.
• What in person social settings could benefit from your products? (Work, school, church?)

Marketing and social media marketing is a huge thing in itself. It is worth your time to research your weaknesses in this category and learn from others here on Youtube.

5: Your Online Listings Suck

My first online Etsy listings were… a disgrace. Check out this wire jewelry tree I never sold. Ew. The pictures are on carpet, shoes in the background, out of focus. Bland and gross. I had zero What, Who or Why. I had zero photography skills. I think my listing title was Wire Wrapped Jewelry Tree. The whole thing was a mess.

If you are selling on Etsy, you need to master it. Amazon has another set of rules to master. Your personal website needs even more and you need to drive your own traffic to it, unless you are an SEO genius and are ranking on google. It’s tough! But, it is possible. 

We are just going to dive right into how to fix this, as fast as I can. This will broadly cover the basics you need for a good listing, no matter where you sell online.

Pictures: Have at least one each of these types of pictures of your Product:

• White or Plain Background Shot
• How it is Used (Sign on wall, Jewelry on Person, etc)
• Size Comparison (Holding object, object next to common object)
• Up Close
• In Process of Being Made
• In Packaging
• Multiple Angles

SEO Tags and Keywords for your Description:

• What:
  • 12 muffins
  • Chocolate and nut muffins
  • Handmade muffins
• Why:
  • Party muffins
  • Potluck snacks
  • Food Gifts
• Who:
  • Potluck Attendees
  • Generic Gifters
  • Sweet Tooth Snackers

Mix and match these words and terms to get the best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your tags and description.

Title: Answer the What, Why and Who

• One Dozen Delicious Muffins with Dark Chocolate and Macadamia Nuts, Snack for Gifting, Parties and Potlucks

Indulge in a dozen heavenly handmade muffins bursting with rich dark chocolate and crunchy macadamia nuts. Perfect for sharing at parties and potlucks, or as a thoughtful gift for any occasion. Delight your sweet tooth and impress your guests with these irresistible treats!

Be sure to add any information that customers will need to know, such as wait times, sizes and measurements, pretty much anything someone might have a question about.

To make this super easy on you, I made a free pdf worksheet that will help you figure out what products you can more easily sell and brainstorm all the info you need in order to sell it!

Conclusion

Selling stuff is hard. It has never been easy in the 10 years I have done it, and everything I seem to know goes out the window with a website update.

It’s hard to have the time to keep up, but that is why I carefully select where I sell my handcrafted goods. If you are still figuring out where the best places to sell online and in person are, then this video is for you.

➕ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel HERE

Watch the Video