How Blogging Helped Grow My Etsy Shop

My name is Eléonore: AKA “la fourmi Elé.” I create and handmake joyful, useful, and sustainable fabric accessories such as reusable makeup remover pads, zipper pouches, bread bags, jewelry pouches, tooth fairy pockets, large bibs, ect. I really love colors, fabrics, and I love my job. 

As far back as I remember, I have always loved to create, paint, craft, sew, and draw, basically anything I could do with my hands. I worked more than 15 years in communication, and more specifically in web communication for international companies. It was great to work in such a multicultural environment. 

Around 2012 I also started to blog. I used to sew for myself, my kids, and I cooked a lot too. I am a real foodista! I love discovering new things to taste. Blogs were really trendy at the time and I decided that I could share my passions through blogging, so I started lafourmiele.com. I used to publish three posts a week with recipes and sewing challenges. 

After the company I worked for closed, I reevaluated my personal aspirations. I thought it was maybe possible to turn my passion into a business. For years I’ve wanted to give more time to my children, take control of my own time, and do what I have really wanted to.

So I decided to give myself a chance by starting my small business. I was already an Etsy customer so it was rather clear to me that Etsy was a good way to get started. However, I remember when I pushed the button to make my shop live... It was like, “Oh my god, what am I doing?” 

Now it’s been 5 years since starting my Etsy shop and I am really happy and every day I feel very lucky to do this. Financially, I earn less than my former wages, but I have earned more as far as life quality for my family and myself. It’s much less stressful. I do exactly what I want to and when I want. I work from home, I have a dedicated workspace, and no more time lost in commuting. I’ve also met so many wonderful people and they are part of my new professional environment. It’s very fulfilling.

Starting the Business

Starting my new business wasn’t a piece of cake. I worked for 15 years in a regular job and starting a business on my own wasn’t a simple decision to make. I wondered If I was able to do it and if it would be accepted by my family. Was I serious enough? Will I be able to make a salary off it, will I be able to simply make it? The decision was hard. It was a lot of questions to myself with lots of pros and cons. 

I am an anxious person so that made things harder for me. Once I decided to go for it, I made my business official and opened my Etsy shop. When I clicked on the “validate” button it was as if my “life depended on it,” but honestly, nothing really happened. I started to get orders and my blog helped me a lot at the very beginning because I already had an audience. My friends also supported me. 

I faced different challenges along the way. First, one of the hardest things when you start this kind of business, is that nobody knows you and you’re just lost among millions of other Etsy shops. I didn’t know many people with small businesses either. It was completely new for me and I lacked confidence.

So to face all of that, you really need to have a strong will to do what you love and to pursue your goal because few people really believe in you at the beginning and no one is waiting for you. 

After I launched my shop, I quickly started to sell in some dedicated craft stores near where I live. Then I started to meet other people like me, we discussed a lot of things, and day after day, from one craft fair to another, from one sale on Etsy to another, I have built a customer base with really loyal customers. 

I am now surrounded by a great community of crafty women through a local Etsy team, female entrepreneurs, associations, and so on. I feel really lucky to have met all these people. It is really great and it continues to get better.

The best thing is that I now feel comfortable with my professional life. 

Blogging Helped My Business

I started to blog in 2012. At this time, I followed a lot of blogs about sewing and cooking. I also liked to write and I wanted to share my stories too: sewing experiences, challenges between blogs, and also recipes. Lots of recipes because I am a passionate foodista! 

I blogged for almost 4 years before launching my business and it helped me a lot. I wrote articles about what I did, about my new activities, new business, and occasionally presented new product launches to tell the story about each new product. Because all my products have a story. They exist for a specific reason because, at one time, I needed them in my life. 

For instance, I shared the story of my little tooth fairy pillow I launched a few years ago and I blogged about moving to a new home and finally getting to have my own craft room and how I organized it with an IKEA desk and other furniture from flea markets.

Each time I wrote stories on the blog it definitely drove traffic to my Etsy shop. Then, I added banners to announce new things. shopping ideas, sales. ect.

It’s now a major source of traffic for my shop and I hope people enjoy reading something about the craft woman, mother, cook, and entrepreneur that I am! I definitely enjoy reading other people’s stories. It brings humanity to products. It really shows that everything is carefully made by hand. When I make something, I’m always thinking about who will buy and use it. It becomes very personal and that is something you don’t find when you go to the shopping mall.

However, for the last year, I have posted less because I am not a technical person. I really need to fix a lot of issues on my blog. This is something I’ll need to tackle soon. I would also like to feature other people’s stories on my blog as well. I already share shopping ideas featuring other craft women but I would love to do it more. 

If I had to sum up my advice for other sellers, I would say that the most important thing is to believe in yourself, no matter what others say or do, and work hard to make things happen. 

Never stand on your own, either. Meet other people in the handmade industry that you’re in. Exchange tips, best practices, and so on. It is wonderful and rewarding too.

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