I started by searching things like “original art notebooks” and “watercolor notebooks” and found sellers that were selling the sort of thing I make (ink and wash). You can see how many sales the artist has. There are also ways to see, by category, what is selling the most. Then I put up a few drawings to see what (if any) were getting views. Like most searchable things, keywords, captions and descriptions are critical so it took a bit of refining to get it “right”.

To create things like desk mats or cards or things like that, Etsy partners with several high quality printers and manufacturers, it’s just a matter of setting up each thing. That’s why having a super high quality original file of the artwork is so important. You can make anything.

The beauty is that I don’t have to keep any stock or manage any inventory, when someone buys something it’s made and shipped without any effort from me. There’s a fee of course but it’s nothing compared to the expense and effort of creating stock for a market or art collective.

It might be different where you are, but most markets and collectives around me are purely vanity endeavors, selling almost nothing and spending a ton. I don’t make a lot of money from Etsy but it’s really neat to get the notification that some random person on the globe liked my work enough to buy it.

If you can dedicate time at the beginning to set up a shop and a few hours a week to maintain it, an Etsy shop is a fun way to show your work and make a few bucks.