← How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy
Ep 233 | She Used Pinterest to Hit 13,000+ Etsy Sales –with Emily Moravec
00:54:01
Loading summary
Transcript109 lines
- [00:01]
A
Hey, my name is Lizzie Smiley and I absolutely love helping people connect with their calling and all the tools they need to kick roadblocks and excuses right out the door so they can cultivate the life they dream about. If you want to launch, grow, pivot or scale your Etsy shop, or you've always wanted to develop the mindset and skills to run your own business, then I'm your girl. I've had that entrepreneurial spirit going strong since my very first lemonade stand. And now I'm a work at home mama with multiple online companies and a full time Etsy shop, all while being present with my kids for the everyday chaos and most important milestones. On this podcast, we'll talk about all things business, mindset, Etsy, creativity, dazzling our customers, and so much more. There's plenty of room at this table for you, so scooch on in and let's go. I'm holding nothing back. Welcome to how to sell your stuff on Etsy. I'm so glad you're here.
- [00:59]
B
Hi, my friend. Welcome back to the podcast. This week, this is one I have been really looking forward to. Like, like on the edge of my seat. So excited. You guys love a Pinterest episode. You love hearing about Pinterest for Etsy. And so for years I have had different wonderful Pinterest experts come on and share their wisdom, but there's always been just the tiniest little disconnect because they don't specialize in Pinterest for Etsy. And so one of our very own, like Emily has been on this podcast before. She is an Etsy seller. That's where she started, that's where she got interested in Pinterest is because Pinterest produced such amazing results for her Etsy shop. Now she's a Pinterest manager, she's a Pinterest expert, and she is coming into our world to just blow this open for us. And I just can't wait to see. Like, if you listen to this episode, if you follow Emily's secret suggestions and start pinning now, it's May 2026. You're going to learn the ropes. You're going to get the algorithm working for you. You're going to be getting your account warmed up and by the time Q4 hits, you could just blow the top off of your sales. So this timing is, is very intentional. I want you to hear this and do this now. The summer months, I know it's fun to unwind. I want you to unwind a bit. I just want you to know that if you put some effort in now in your Etsy shop, if you can be consistent when it's otherwise a bit slower, you're not going to get the immediate gratification, but you're going to be building something that three to six months from now could literally change you and your family's life and finances. I just don't sleep on this right now. Okay. I'm super excited. This month inside my membership the Scaling society is Pinterest month. We're doing all things Pinterest and so it was very appropriate that we do this episode with Emily, who's now an expert on Pinterest inside of Scaling Society. We're going to be doing a live training with her later this month. In fact, if you've always wanted to check out my membership, you want access to all of my trainings, you want access to myself and my coaches, you want to be on live coaching calls with me twice a month where I can look at your shop and give you feedback and you can be learning from other people and not doing this alone and just really activating your progress. I am. I kind of went rogue at the end of this recording. You'll hear it later if you stay on for the whole thing. I'm doing a coupon code for, for this month and it's because it's Emily. We're doing Emily 50 E M I L Y 50. It's down in the show notes to get $50 off your first month in scaling Society so you can get in there with us scaling, see what it's like, work with us closely, meet my coaches, hear Emily's where she's going to do a live training with us. I just want you to know that that is there. If you've been just like wanting that extra push, now is the time. Don't sleep on the slower months. This is when we get ready for like the blow up harvest time. This is when we start planting. If you, if the farmer doesn't plant their seeds, they don't have the harvest but they have to plant early. They have to plant when there's no immediate gratification. They have to plant and trust and wait. They have to, they have to sweat without having any immediate result. And so if you do that with me, I promise you you're going to be ecstatic to see what happens in a few months time when we let those seeds grow. So let me tell you about Emily and we are going to launch into this. This episode alone can catapult you forward. She's so generous. We are sharing so many tips. This was like a hearty meal. Emily is an Etsy seller turned Pinterest Manager. Emily scaled two digital Etsy shops to 13,000 sales in under three years using the power of Pinterest design and SEO. She loves a blend of science, nature, and art, which comes out in her Etsy shops. These interests transferred naturally to Pinterest marketing, a platform where visuals speak louder than words. And she now helps other creative visionaries scale their small businesses with sustainable, quiet, and powerful Pinterest traffic. We are here for the long game. We are here to do this and build something sustainable. Guys, let's dig into it. Let's welcome Emily to the podcast. Emily, Yay. Welcome back to the podcast.
- [04:51]
C
Thank you, Lizzie. I like hearing your yay at the top of every episode. I was looking forward to hearing that again.
- [04:59]
B
Do you know what's funny is just as I said that, I'm like, oh, I do that. But I do. I'll go, I'll go. I have, like, different ones, right? I've got my, like, yay. And then this was different. I was like, yay. I don't know what's going on, girl. I am vibrating about this episode. You need to know I get asked for Pinterest content, training, information, guidance, perspective all the freaking time. So. You are such an answer to prayer. I am so excited. We have to give context. Okay, so you. The last time you were on the podcast was about a year ago, May 2025, episode 181. Guys, go listen. Emily was selling digital guides. I'll let her tell you more on Etsy. We touched on Pinterest on that episode. What has happened since? Like, okay, like, open Pandora's box. What has happened since? Why are we here? All of that.
- [05:48]
C
Okay, cool. Yes. It was super fun to meet with you last year. And at the time, I was already leveraging the power of Pinterest in that digital Etsy shop. And that digital Etsy shop had maybe around the time of, I don't know, 10,000 sales or something like that in the wellness niche. And I don't think I got into this on that episode with you. Maybe a little bit.
- [06:14]
B
I.
- [06:15]
C
Maybe six months prior to our meeting, I had sort of taken the foot off the gas, if you will, in that digital Etsy shop. And I kind of just stopped creating, which I realized for many reasons now why that was not great for the Etsy algorithm. But I was able to swing back and kind of get to that 10,000 mark using Pinterest. In my opinion. I, like, I started going Hard, hard, hard on Pinterest. And long. Long story short, it got my traffic up in. Yeah, it's 2026, so 2025, it overall boosted my traffic about 35%. So it was. It was like a big, like, I think 2025 was my biggest year because of the power of Pinterest. And then that started getting my wheels turning and I started to talking to some other smaller digital shops, and they were asking about Pinterest and stuff like that, and I was like, what if I just did Pinterest too and became a Pinterest expert and stuck with my digital product shops? So long story short, it really. I don't know, it kind of saved my butt. It kind of saved my shop. I think without being too dramatic about it. It was like I sort of shifted from cranking out new printables each week, and instead of, you know, and it was. It is a traffic driver. That's what Pinterest is. But I just shifted gears into how do I sell what I've already created using the power of Pinterest.
- [07:52]
B
Okay, there, I'm. I'm already going off script, girl. I'm warning you right now. What's so crazy? And I want people. I want this unlocked to happen in people's brains. Before, you were leveraging the organic power of Etsy, which is spectacular and the perfect place to start and what I want everyone to do. And you had a ton of sales just from that. But it does require slash. It's better if you're constantly feeding the Etsy algorithm with new listings, like, especially when you're in growth mode right now. The Etsy algorithm loves a sale just as much as it loves a new listing. The thing we have to worry about, not worry about, keep in mind, is that over time, products become less relevant in the marketplace. However, not yours, because you're a freaking genius. Products may become less relevant as trends and fat. I mean, even just the thing of, like, how this year it's all about thrifting. Last year it was all about books, and there's still tons of people who love books. But, like, the hotter thing right now, like, the.
- [08:51]
C
Yes.
- [08:51]
B
Or. Or like how pickleball. It's like, all about pickleball. Like, and it used to be probably something else. I'm not. I'm more of an outdoorsy, less sporty. So I don't know. But whatever it is. And you know, these trends, these cultural trends come and go. So what happened, though, is you just shifted from driving one algorithm to driving a different one. Pinterest has its own algorithm. So instead, Emily's like, and this is what you guys can do if you have a really solid set of content. This is what I can do in my business, like helping Etsy sellers as well. This is what so many Etsy sellers can do. You have a great product that sells over and over again. It's still super relevant. You can pivot to just starting to pin on Pinterest. And instead you were feeding that algorithm every day and it took you another. It built you another 30% of it. That's crazy. Would you say that's a fair characterization? Is that what happened, in your opinion?
- [09:36]
C
I think that's what happened. And now that I've sort of shifted into being more of a Pinterest manager and taking on that freelance role, I'm seeing that evidence in other types of accounts too. It's like if you have something super evergreen or even something seasonal that, you know, performs well, it's almost. And I'm going off, off script a little bit now. This is kind of coming to me. It's kind of your way of giving that product, like a longer life and maybe even a second chance at life or something. Like. Yeah, it's a way to like. And I've heard, I've seen it in my shop. I've had a pin that's driven traffic for two years. And I've heard through the coaching community of pins that drive traffic for five years.
- [10:18]
B
Yep. I have some of those on a blog. I just shut down. They were still driving to stuff. I didn't even agree with that. I wrote, you know, 10 years ago, it was still living. Exactly. Yes. It can be so, like, give it so much longevity. Okay, so here's what I want to talk about, though. How can someone figure out if their type of content would do well in that way? Do you know what I mean? If their type of product. I should say, this is what's so fun because you worked with Emily Vails, who's a Pinterest expert. She's been on the podcast. I love that woman. She is pure gold. But it's so funny because even when we talk, she's like, I'm not as like Etsy. And I'm like, we need someone who gets Etsy and Pinterest those together and then we can create magic. So how does somebody who is like maybe has a successful Etsy shop or they're getting regular sales. I know we define success differently. I'm saying they have multiple products that are selling regularly or they have. How can they Then go and assess. Well, this. Would adding Pinterest really help my type of product?
- [11:18]
C
Yeah. Okay, so. And you're probably going to ask this question, but I think it makes to start here, like assessing where your shop is today first. So digital products, I think you and I chatted like if you've got 500 sales on digital and you feel pretty confident in your gut and brain, like, I want to stay, you don't even have to stay super, like super niche. I think, I think the community is kind of getting away from that. I mean, or I mean, I don't want to confuse anyone, but how do you say that, Lizzie? Like sub niches. It's like you have a pretty micro niches. Yeah, it's like you feel pretty confident. I'm going to say, I'm going to throw this out anecdotally. Let's say you have five little micro niches you feel like you're going to stay consistent in for the next year, we'll call it a year. Or you have a hundred sales on a handmade product that you feel super passionate about and you know that this is where you want to stay for a little while. You can start to research and you can use your Etsy SEO for this process and the terminologies that you've been using. And just start by opening the Pinterest browser. Use their search bar and just start to type your product names in. And just see what auto populates, see what auto populates in the search bar. See what visually starts to come at you. And click on the first couple. I'm going to say first five pins that pop up on that Pinterest dashboard, click into it. This can be a little bit clumsy, but click down. It's like the lower left hand corner of the pin. Go ahead and click on that creator's name and just see, did they build a Pinterest account? Did they build a Pinterest business account in this, we'll call it niche or this product and just see if there is a, you know, some sort of demand there on Pinterest for it. The answer is likely, yes. And yeah. Does that answer your question?
- [13:14]
B
I think it doesn't. And here's what I mean. I think I'm hearing you say, correct me if I'm wrong, that Pinterest is going to work best for sellers that are very intentional about serving a specific niche or cluster of niches.
- [13:26]
C
Yeah. At least in the niche.
- [13:27]
B
Is that true?
- [13:29]
C
Okay.
- [13:29]
B
Because I say that because I want to, I want to draw this out on Etsy there's different ways you can build a shop. It can be extremely effective. Like all of the big print on demand sellers that I know, or even a lot of the digital product sellers I know, they create products for hundreds of niches. It's like the niche blast concept that I talk about in my free workshop, how to blow up your Etsy shop. You do some testing and you find something that works for one niche, like a design aesthetic. And then you go, if it becomes a bestseller, you go create that design aesthetic for a ton of other niches. You already know that that aesthetic works well. So that's one way to build a shop on Etsy that's perfectly acceptable. You don't have to niche down. You can literally be. Your niche is kind of like your product. I do print on demand gifts and then you do it for everybody. Or I do like in my case, PNGs, but I do them for tons of different niches or I do T shirts and whatever. That's one way. The other way is you are extremely niched down and you are creating products only for a specific kind of person. That's more where you're trying to build a very visual brand. You're trying to establish yourself as a provider of choice for a specific community. It would be like Hannah, who was on the episode a couple. Couple ago. She's the one about Squirrel Brain. Freaking love her. She is serving a very specific niche of people. She's. She is doing postpartum and sympathy tea kits. Their gifts, they're. They're boxes of teas that are, that are like, it's literally a gift ready to go to somebody. And like it's a very specific type of person. We, I was just talking to her last night. She's thinking about adding some print on demand products. And I said that's totally fine. Just make sure they're for the same person. Because she's building such a niche shop. So there's two different. Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is you're probably going to have more success on Pinterest if you're like Hannah and you're serving a very specific person with a very specific aesthetic. And like you can build your Pinterest account around that niche as opposed to someone who's doing the more of the niche blasting. And they're tell me, is that correct? Pinterest is better for the. The niche down.
- [15:24]
C
Yeah. And I actually really liked you describing those two ways to think about being successful on Etsy. Right. Your niche blast version or this more I'll call it hyper specific. I believe you could use both of those two mindsets that you frame frame of mind to and still be successful on Pinterest after you set it.
- [15:45]
B
Really?
- [15:46]
C
Yeah, I think so. So let me, let me use your example that you use. So Hannah and the sympathy for what
- [15:52]
B
did you like post Postpartum and sympathy. So like those kinds of life events, it's very, a very, it's, it's a comforting, soothing kind of a bundle.
- [16:00]
C
Yep. She can build out a whole Pinterest around postpartum and she could do a blog about it. She could do journaling prompts. She could do aesthetic and inspirational, like feel good clothing. I mean she could run the gamut with that and be very successful with her overarching postpartum. And then you were talking about, well, if I'm a PNG seller, but under my P&GS, I might sell for birders, for trendy, I could sell groovy. I could, you know, and you have this big umbrella which is I'm a P and D creator.
- [16:38]
B
And then that's your niche.
- [16:39]
C
The power of your boards and Pinterest boards. If you're, if you're really a Pinterest newbie, boards are more or less a way to stay organized and categorized, just like your Etsy shop settings. So think of your Etsy sections as your Pinterest boards and so you could be that PNG seller and make your boards hyper specific to each of your Etsy shop sections. That was a mouthful. Hopefully that was clear.
- [17:05]
B
No, it was absolutely brilliant. And that's kind of, that's kind of what I was hoping. That's why I was really interested to talk to you about like what you've been learning in this because I think as we've talked about so many times on the podcast, I get really concerned when someone comes in guns a blazing and I understand the passion and the energy to get going on Etsy, but they're, they're like right out of the gates, they're like, I am going to open an Etsy shop and I'm actually going to try two shops and I'm going to open a Shopify website and I'm going to do social media. And I'm like, okay, I love your energy and your passion. Let me just tell you what I see and that's that when Etsy sellers come in and they do that, they burn out really fast. Because even for me, and I have a, now a pretty large team of people helping me, I cannot do it all. And sometimes I'm on my game on social media. Sometimes I'm on my game on my email, like sending out emails to my list, sometimes I'm on my game, but I can't do it all all the time. And so one person coming out into entrepreneurship trying to do it all, it's, it's not a good, it's not a good plan. Start with organic Etsy traffic. Figure out what works for you. Get organic sales, get up to like, especially in handmade, you could get up to like 50 to 100 sales in print, on demand you want to get up. And digital products, you want to get up to more like 500 sales and then start building the email list. Start thinking about like social media. But I even say don't do social media, just do Pinterest because it's the best quote unquote social media platform for Pinterest sellers or for Etsy sellers, bar none. There's, there's no interaction. You don't have to deal with the people. You're just pinning and going. You can set up an automation for it. You like, there's, it's much lower barrier to entry in terms of like work level. So all of that to say I think that Pinterest is the first place that people should start looking. Let's talk though about like, like, let's actually go way back to what is Pinterest and how is it different from social media? And that's where I really want to draw on your expertise because it's completely different than launch and Instagram.
- [19:00]
C
Yes.
- [19:01]
B
Yeah.
- [19:02]
C
And I, I've been really thinking about this, this concept lately and kind of honestly like self auditing my own behavior. So, and I would encourage your, your listeners to do that too. When you open your Instagram app, pay attention to your behavior. At least for me, it's often the first thing I do is just scroll, scroll, scroll and I'm looking at like 90 pictures of a golden retriever. And then like, you know, like, I don't know, I just, I don't know, just whatever it's delivering to me, I receive. Would you agree with that? Like your feed on your Instagram is just like you're receiving, you're not inputting anything and you're just kind of getting what your social media delivers to you. I think that Pinterest, and just to be very clear, Pinterest is not a social media. It performs almost mirrors Etsy. Exactly. And so I totally agree with everything you said and I've been playing with this kind of. Is this an allegory when you describe something, Pinterest to me is like, you're walking into the library. And when you walk into a nicely curated library, the librarians have like a pretty shelf up front with all their best picked books on the pretty display each month.
- [20:21]
B
Yeah.
- [20:22]
C
And so we really, when we're using Pinterest, you might open the feed that's you walking into the library and you see these books, you're judging them by their cover, but then you want to go a little deeper. So you might go to the librarian or the computer and index, like, look up the index. Like, I want to learn about X today. I want to find an answer to Z. So Pinterest is the same way I got my feed. It's open. But I want to go deeper on a certain subject, find the answer to a problem, find inspiration for my next wreath design or, you know, whatever thing you like. I like to illustrate and be creative with paint. So I might look for some sort of inspiration in that search bar. And then it's going to give me this curated feed of exactly that. That wasn't me just hitting a scroll. Like, it's much more. To me, Pinterest is much more intentional, if that helps.
- [21:15]
B
Search engine. It's a search engine.
- [21:17]
C
Yep. It's like a visual Google. It's like a big magazine.
- [21:21]
B
So where do, like the Pinterest users actually come from? Like, and what, what is their intent typically? Like, are they shoppers? Are they browsers? Are they like. I think you touched on this a little bit, but I think really drawing it out. Where, like, where are they coming from?
- [21:36]
C
Yeah, so it's first of all, Pinterest, a Pinterest board can actually auto populate in Google. So if I search, if I type, gosh, I don't know, what do people buy? People buy everything on Etsy. If I want to buy a charm bracelet and I go to the Google search bar charm bracelet for Mother's Day, because that's what I would like to buy my mother for Mother's Day. Okay. And I type that into Google. You might get some Etsy listings at the top, but you might also get that same jewelry listing via Pinterest if the SEO is optimized even stronger than the Etsy version. Right. So that's one way it'll kind of auto populate. But to answer your question, these are all of the above. These are shoppers, these are browsers. These are also people just looking for inspiration. And I've also heard the term that Pinterest are planners. So, like, super far out Planners like, you know, this is, this is really random, but follow me here. Every year we have a bocce party for my husband's birthday. We do his birthday bash. And so, and it's become like so popular with my friend group. I literally plan out this bocce birthday bash in January. And so I can plan his birthday using cute little visual pictures on Pinterest in January. I create a board for that. This is separate from, this is personal Pinterest use, not how I grow my Etsy shop. This is me as a Pinterest user. And then come this May for his birthday, I reopen that and I come back and I'll collect all my ideas. I might go shopping now on that board. It's like I'm revisiting that content that I had indexed months ago. So for your Etsy sellers, you know, think about fourth of July. I mean think about all those big holidays, think about the gifts, the birthdays, all of it. And that, that is the true sustainable power of Pinterest. It's like these planning cycles, like way far ahead. And so you'll see these really cool traffic spikes to your Etsy shop, you know, at random times of the year, even if you've got evergreen content. So yeah, to answer your question, these are also planners Pinterest search, which makes
- [23:55]
B
me think like if you're doing anything seasonal, you really need to be even more ahead than we talk about on Etsy. Like rather than, rather than creating the listing three months in advance, I would be doing it six months in advance to be getting it on Pinterest to really be working with that group of people.
- [24:10]
C
Yeah, I've found, Yeah, I mean, 12 weeks minimum. But if you can, if you can push that way further out, that's another beautiful thing and an easier thing in my opinion than a social media. It's like you can have your content live and be done with months ahead of time. And it's not this snappy like viral effect on Instagram. It's like calm and steady, like it's a great source of traffic.
- [24:41]
B
You guys know I am constantly testing strategies and frameworks on Etsy so I can tell you what's actually working and what's just noise. And one thing I have noticed over the years is this, most Etsy sellers aren't stuck because they're lazy or they're not doing anything. They're stuck because they're second guessing everything. What to work on, what matters right now, whether they're even on the right path. I hear this all the time. And that feels exhausting. So after years of teaching Etsy sellers through courses and workshops, the trendspotting membership coaching and this podcast, I built something that brings everything together in one place. It's called Scaling Society. Scaling Society is my all inclusive Etsy membership for sellers who want clarity and a clear plan without hopping between programs or wondering what to focus on next inside. You get my Etsy Seller roadmap so you know exactly what to work on and when with direction on what resources will help you master it. You also get every single one of my courses and my workshops. You get access to trendspotting and the weekly Trend Report, my template drop, which means a weekly template that you can resell in your own shop. SEO training, a bunch of done for you resources like prompts, SEO and branding templates. You get a coaching group with real support and that's where the magic happens. You also get access to two live coaching calls with me every single month. You'll also get automatic access to all of the new trainings and resources I have planned for this year, including special guests. It's designed to meet you right where you're at, whether you're brand new or you're ready to scale and help you build intentionally instead of guessing your way forward. And honestly, the biggest feedback I hear from members isn't just about sales. It's relief. They finally know what to focus on. So if Etsy feels harder than it should, if you're putting in effort but you want more clarity and direction, or if you're ready to treat your shop like a real business and have actual support behind you from people who know what they're doing, you can learn more about Scaling Society at the link in the show notes. There's monthly and annual options and you can cancel anytime. So just pick what's right for you. I'd love to support you inside. And you know, just so I'm like freaking people out. It's just that's just for like specific like the dates on the calendar. You know, you've got to be probably six months ahead. You probably need to be doing Halloween now in May, you probably need to be doing Christmas in July, you probably need to be doing like 4th of July in January. But anything else, like birthdays are happening all the time, births are happening all the time. Sympathy needed all the time. Basic like you know my PNG designs that are serving all different niches all the time, you know, it's. But I'd be watching the trend report for when things are first popping because you want to be riding that wave, if people are ahead of the game on Pinterest, they're going to already be looking for those trends. Wow, that's kind of crazy, because. Let me tell you a little quick story. So with my PNGs, ever since I started becoming, like, a trends expert for Etsy, I get mad because I'll create. I'll create Etsy listings, and they won't sell for, like, three months because I'm just too ahead of the freaking trend. And it's a great thing. Like, later on, I'm like, okay, I've still got it. You know, I wasn't wrong. And I have to warn people, like, you're gonna be ahead. But I could actually create the listing, go put it on Pinterest, and maybe get sellers faster that then stoke the Etsy algorithm and help me draw out that listing longer. Like, I am pumped about that idea.
- [28:01]
C
Yeah, no, and that works really well. And like, all algorithms. I mean, I was. I'm thinking about it. You could still. You. You mentioned, like, Christmas in July. I mean, whenever you get it up is fine. Also, I mean, yes.
- [28:16]
B
Right.
- [28:16]
C
Done is better than perfect. And the cool thing is, is, like, I think at the top of the episode, we spoke to this, too. Well, let's say you have a sort. I'll call it an Evergreen Christmas listing, meaning it's not super trendy. It's not like a groovy Christmas card. We'll call it more of a traditional Christmas card. Well, you might miss this Christmas. But how cool if next Christmas you get an additional 20 sales out of the blue because one of your pins got picked up from last year? I mean, that's just, you know, that's cool, too. So, you know when everything is great,
- [28:55]
B
like, Emily, I'm freaking out because everyone's like, oh, it didn't sell. I'm deactivating my listing. It hasn't sold in three to six months. And I'm like, no, listen to me. I have created listings for Christmas that didn't sell the first year in Christmas, but it sold the next one. Like, I understand if you're in the beginning and we all get a little cringy, right? About our first listings, I totally get it. But if you're going to have a more discerning eye, the more listings you get up, the more designs you create, you're going to be able to look at those and be like, you know what this is. Okay. Like, I don't. I can let it ride, you know? And I mean, you could deactivate it and then Just set it back up like Q3, reactivate that listing again. But just like to on the curtails of that last. Can you tell? I'm so excited. I almost can't even like put thoughts together. I'm so excited. Emily. There was another recent episode. I will link it below. It was with Alex, who sells sensory play kits. She's freaking incredible. And she. Her whole story was she literally like, how do I want to say? She jump started her Etsy shop by posting. She was in on Instagram, I think also Pinterest. I don't remember the exact story, but she now gets a lot of all a ton of organic traffic from Etsy. But it was because she got a ton of sales that she drove traffic to and then the Etsy algorithm picked it up so it can feed both directions. It's like so exciting. Like the organic traffic can then continue to feed you in the Etsy algorithm if you're in the beginning stages and you're just using Etsy. But stoking the fire, creating your own sales from driving traffic will then get the algorithms of attention and you'll get more organic traffic on top of it. You guys got to hear her story for that though. That was crazy. Oh my gosh. Okay. Do you. I'm so excited. Do you think there are certain product categories that do better on Pinterest than others? Like is it really just best for handmade or like what do you. I know you did digital though. What do you think? Like bust our myths on this?
- [30:41]
C
Yeah, kind of all and everything with like. We'll do. We'll start with the one asterisk for my. For my Etsy friends first. If you are in that vintage world. Oh yeah, I would. Without going into too deep of a rabbit hole. If you're a vintage seller without a blog or something like that, maybe this isn't the space for you just because of the one off sale thing. But everybody else and to those vintage sellers or those like, let's say they, they only have one beautiful handcrafted table or something like that.
- [31:16]
B
Yeah. I have a woman, Jenny. She's incredible. She's coming on the podcast soon. She does pottery. She's the same thing where she just has one product per listing. Like she can't resell the same thing.
- [31:26]
C
Do you know if she has a website?
- [31:27]
B
I don't know if she does or not, but that would help, right? That would kind of.
- [31:31]
C
Yeah. So. So let's. Let's speak just for one minute without confusing anyone. Hopefully let's speak to the Seller who, who has a one off, very beautiful handcrafted special thing. If you can figure out a way to make a very simple website, maybe you can still get a massive Etsy sales boost. But before you post it on Etsy, just. And I know blogging might feel dead in 2026. Well it's not the case. But just go ahead and take some simple photos or repurpose your Etsy photos and let it live on a website even in the most simple way because that'll drastically increase their Pinterest views and so they can click to their, their website and then go see what color mug you most recently created. Is that confusing?
- [32:19]
B
No, I think that so because what you're saying is if you link it, if you only have one off products and you link it to Pinterest as soon as it sold out, if someone clicks over from Pinterest, Etsy's just going to, is going to try to get them to go buy from someone else. Whereas if you send them to your own site, even if the site you don't have checkout on there, like then have it linked back to your Etsy shop, you know what I mean? Like that's where they can go buy it. Still it's going to be very simple but it's going to allow it to live and then hopefully keep them in your world where then they'll buy something different from you that's new that you made, right? Is that.
- [32:50]
C
Yep, yep. So that's fine. So we'll put them in a special category. We love you guys but you're. They're in their own category but everybody else print on demand. You know, I'm going to use the word prolific handmade sellers, like maybe they make the same beaded jewelry over and over again or the girls who do crochet like little keychains and stuff like that. You guys all can be successful with Etsy and you don't need to have a website and you can just link directly to your Etsy listings and the you can't domain claim. So it's not going to be as powerful as a website. But that being said, I was able to boost just my Etsy with no website a good 30%.
- [33:36]
B
So can you tell us what that means? Like break it down a little bit with it. What is domain claiming on Pinterest?
- [33:41]
C
Yeah, so domain, Domain claiming is like Lizzie, your, your. The way you sell your courses is how to sell your stuff.com, right? Yep, that is your domain. But Lizzie's Etsy shop how to sell your stuff.com shop, Etsy, you don't own that domain. And so we can't claim or input that you own Etsy. Right. And so the Pinterest, Pinterest is looking at that like, am I sending traffic to Etsy, Am I sending it to their own domain claimed.com or.org? but what I've been seeing recently, actually, I don't know how else to say this, but Pinterest is very friendly. And yes, it likes the domain claim, but it's very friendly to Etsy. We've also been seeing lately. And like all algorithms, things are constantly changing. You can actually claim YouTube's now. Amazon sellers can actually be claimed now.
- [34:43]
B
Wow.
- [34:44]
C
So I'm like, over here, like, fingers crossed.
- [34:46]
B
Fingers crossed.
- [34:47]
C
Maybe they're gonna open that up to our Etsy friends soon. I mean, this is me, anecdotally speaking. I have no idea.
- [34:54]
B
Of course. Interesting.
- [34:56]
C
Yeah.
- [34:57]
B
You know what, though? Bottom line, if you have your own website, you can claim that domain. What. What is the advantage of claiming it? What does it help with?
- [35:04]
C
It just brings you up higher in Google.
- [35:07]
B
Oh, it's gonna get you searched outside of Pinterest. Okay. Yeah.
- [35:12]
C
To my understanding, I'm not like a web designer or anything like that, but
- [35:16]
B
no, I think that's all we. Yeah, yeah, that's. I'm so sorry, that's. That's all we need to know though. The bottom line is you don't have to be able to do that. Pinterest is going to invite you to claim a domain on your Pinterest profile. You can't claim an Etsy shop yet. Fingers crossed. But in the meantime, it doesn't matter. You can still drive tons of traffic to your Etsy shop. That's the bottom line. Right. Most important.
- [35:36]
C
And here's like, I don't want to go into this rabbit hole too much, but I think you've spoken or one of the people on your. On your podcast has spoken about this. I did open a domain claimed Ever be store.
- [35:47]
B
Oh, yes. And.
- [35:50]
C
Which is very simple, you guys. And it speaks. It mirrors Etsy very, very well. And I did see when I domain claimed my Pinterest account, it did shoot up my views a lot. And even though I'm not really active on that website, I mean, when I say really not active, I mean like 10 hours a year or something, it drastically increased my Pinterest traffic, which then also, then again boosted my Etsy traffic. So just something to think about. If you're in a space to open that Everbee store, maybe that would Work for you.
- [36:27]
B
Okay, I'm going to tell you exactly what that is in a second. But Emily, just to understand, were you sending your pins to your Everby store or to your Etsy shop? No.
- [36:36]
C
Very. I only have four products on my Everbee store. I literally, I did it as an experiment, Lizzie, to see what would happen when I domain claimed my Pinterest account and it did increase traffic. There's not a whole lot going on on that Everbee store, but it did, it just, it was like fodder to the Etsy algorithm even more. It drove even more power behind those
- [36:59]
B
pins, I think it feels like. And I mean none of these companies tell us what their algorithms are. We have to just run these tests and figure it out. But it sounds like Pinterest just trusts an account more that has a dename claim to it. And so it doesn't even matter if you use the links now. So. So you guys know Ever Be is the, the tool that I recommend all the time for keyword research. Most of us use the free plan for that. It's perfectly acceptable. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna provide my link for all of this below. But Ever Be also has other services they provide Kody and Everby. They are incredible. They are one of their, one of my oldest partners. I love them, trust them. I think their tools are incredible. Ever Be also has Everbee email so it helps you to build an email list. And they have Everbee Store which is basically Shopify, just easier for Etsy sellers. It's got all the same functionalities. It's like having your own website. But when people say, you know, should I go build a Shopify? I say, well actually if you're already on Etsy, build an Everbee store because it's going to be. Everything else is going to be the same in the wash, except it's. There's so Everbee has you linked up. So anything you publish to Etsy with one click you can publish it to your website and you are not going back and forth. And I'm sure there's third party tools that you can pay for to do that with Shopify as well. But if you're already using Everbee as I recommend for your keyword research and everything, it is so much better to have all of that data in one place because then everything talks to each other more smoothly. There's not a bunch of tech you've got to deal with. It's going to cost you something to do in Everbee Store. You're going to have A monthly subscription to it. Do you know what it is offhand, Emily? Right now I have no idea. I don't remember.
- [38:28]
C
I think it's $29 and you can pay a yearly one and it, it'll, the cost will come down and if this helps anyone, I definitely learn differently. And ever be has been the simplest email, the simplest SEO tool and the simplest website and it's really helped me just stay kind of calm and organized. So if that helps someone, I, I will also vouch for it.
- [38:52]
B
I completely agree. I think it's so user friendly. I think they're so fair. They don't do any weird price gouging. I feel like they're extremely generous. I'm, I'm a huge. I have. And you guys know I would tell you, even though I'm like friends with Cody, I would tell you if I had concerns. It's literally the best and so many of you are able to use it for free. So I will link that below. But it sounds like if you want, if you have it in the budget to have a 29amonth, you then get the benefit of your own website. So like anything, like if anything ever happened to your Etsy shop, you've got your own place. This is a really good long term strategy. But claiming that domain would be yes, a good plan.
- [39:25]
C
Yeah.
- [39:26]
B
Not you don't have to if you are strapped for cash, if that feels like too much. If you're just getting started. No, we don't do that. We say no, we'll do it later. But like that's an advanced. That's my strategy for my advanced sellers. Let's go into some really specific strategy, Emily, because you know how we are on this pod. This is like, this is what we do. Can we talk about keywords on Pinterest Because I know it's a search engine so SEO is going to be important. Important. Can we just like use the exact same keywords on Etsy on our Pinterest pins and it'll work or is there more research that we should be doing?
- [39:55]
C
Okay, so if you're, if this is becoming overwhelming and stressful for you, just use the same SEO. But if you can back off for a second, maybe pick, I'm going to say pick one of your most general keywords from your SE listing and marry it with one of your more specific keywords and put it into the Pinterest search bar at the top right hand corner. See what auto populates on that drop down bar. Very much like the Etsy search bar. And it's going to bring up more specific Pinterest SEO. I would say nine times out of 10, it's going to be very similar, if not the same.
- [40:38]
B
Wow.
- [40:38]
C
Right, so that's for the actual search bar. Now, anywhere where you can place SEO and search for SEO on Pinterest, you can get a little bit more refined and really learn exactly what Pinterest users are calling it. At least in the niches I've explored, it's pretty similar.
- [40:59]
B
Okay.
- [41:00]
C
I do think in Etsy, we end up doing a little bit of like, shorter keyword type things. In general, when you're building out your pins and your description and your titles, you can be a little bit more, I'm going to say the word conversational compared to Etsy. So my pin title might read a little bit more like a blog title or a magazine title or a book title versus Etsy. We're doing nuts and bolts of the SEO. Does that make sense, Lizzie?
- [41:30]
B
It makes perfect sense. It's like the way, the way we teach to write your titles on Etsy is ideally a little longer, like little longer fragments than the tags that you can only have the 20 characters or whatever it is. So where on your Pinterest pin does SEO go?
- [41:46]
C
Okay, some of this might be anecdotal, but, you know, it is based on research too. The Pinterest algorithm will read pin text top to bottom. And what I like to do to keep it very, very simple. And you can, you can experiment where you're overlaying that text. I like to have my shop and I encourage people to put their brand or their shop name somewhere at the tippy top on the actual art on
- [42:13]
B
the design of the pin, like teeny tiny.
- [42:15]
C
So it might be Lizzie's PNG store at the top. Then she could have a title. And this is where it might be a little bit different than your Etsy title. It might be Groovy PNGs by Lizzie or something, but maybe you make it, you know, the best PNG source for this Mother's Day. So it's just, it's just a little bit more conversational. Like it reads like a magazine. You're going to put that title at the top, then you'll have your pretty picture in the middle, and then at the very bottom, some sort of call to action. So download your PNG here.
- [42:52]
B
Like you're making a button.
- [42:53]
C
Yep. You could do text, a little button. It's not a clickable button like the way we would think of a clickable button, but Pinterest will then Auto populate a little arrow that the user will very naturally click on and then take you to your Etsy listing.
- [43:10]
B
Nice.
- [43:10]
C
Yeah, pretty. It'll. I encourage everyone to just, even if you don't have a Pinterest account set up, just go poke around on Pinterest today and just, you know, kind of absorb and see what we mean by, by those SEO words being on the actual pin.
- [43:28]
B
Okay. And then. But you're also putting it on the text next to the pin. Right? There's like a title and description basically for. Are there tags too, for Pinterest?
- [43:35]
C
Yeah. So, I mean, again, this is where the beauty of Pinterest is for these Etsy sellers. It really mirrors the process. But just think a little bit more conversational friendly for Pinterest and a little more brass tacks maybe for Etsy.
- [43:49]
B
Yep.
- [43:50]
C
Yeah, it's anywhere where you can put SEO. Do it in a conversational tone. So text overlay on the physical image, a conversational exciting title with a keyword in there and then write a little description of your PIN in a conversational tone. I don't know, add three to five of your keywords in your description.
- [44:10]
B
Just like a listing description.
- [44:12]
C
Yep, just like a listing description. From my understanding, tags and hashtags are nominally important. Don't stress about it. I personally don't use them. I have not seen an advantage to using them, so I wouldn't worry about it for your Etsy sellers.
- [44:29]
B
Okay, so somebody's thinking this and so I'm going to ask you when. Okay, because. Because when it comes to Etsy SEO, I am like hardcore. You need to be using Ever be. You can use the free version. There's no excuse not to, but people still tend to go to ChatGPT and they'll say, I'm selling a basketball mama. PNG, write the SEO for me. And sure enough, they get no, I know you're already shaking your head. Sure enough, like, you know. And then at ChatGPT acts like it's God and knows everything and like pumps this stuff out. But then the person gets no views because ChatGPT isn't actually integrated with Etsy to see what's, what is actually being searched and what is the demand and what is the competition. Whereas everbee will tell you exactly how valuable a keyword is based on their own calculations. Should. Is it okay for somebody to go into ChatGPT to write their Pinterest pin text?
- [45:23]
C
I wouldn't, I wouldn't encourage that. I would encourage them to kind of go through the process that we just said. And use the Pinterest search bar, scan for what's auto populating, and then visually look at the pins that auto populate and read those titles. I'll say of the first 15 pins. And Lizzie, I'm gonna do a quick plug for your scaling society because I know you're gonna have a bunch of Pinterest trainings coming up in there. But there's one other one that might be easier to see when we're in that scaling society. There's one other place that I can think of off the top of my head that I would rather them look for SEO for Pinterest. And they're called bubbles and they're super cute and colorful and they're at the top of Pinterest. And that is another great place to find your long tail keywords. And I would not use ChatGPT to find that. I have not seen success with the two matching or talking very well at least yet. So I would encourage them. If I were to boil it down to three places. I would use the Pinterest search bar, I would use the top 15 Pinterest pins, and then I would use the Pinterest bubbles. And if you're a little confused on the bubbles, you can, you know, jump into. Yep.
- [46:44]
B
What about this? Because this is, again, this is the time we're living in. If someone already has done that SEO research and they've got like a little, they've got their like, you know, document where they've Googled doc sheet, they're like writing down their SEO that they've confirmed on Pinterest. Would it be okay to then take that, those exact words into ChatGPT and say, Please use these words and give me some title suggestions that are conversational, or please use these keywords and write me a Pinterest description for this product. Would that be okay? Because you're using the actual SEO?
- [47:14]
C
I, I, yeah, I think that's more fair. And I know people in your community are probably a lot more AI savvy than I am, at least right now. That to me, I have done personally in an account, in my personal account. And as long as, and you've, I know you've spoken about this. As long as you've sort of trained your Chat GTP to talk in that tone that you would. I think that kind of works.
- [47:40]
B
Yes. And frankly, Gemini does that better.
- [47:42]
C
Oh, okay. Well, that's a great tip.
- [47:44]
B
Yeah. Just so you guys know, Gemini is better at matching tone than ChatGPT. It's still, ChatGPT still wants me to sound like a corporate something or other that I'm not. So. Yeah.
- [47:52]
C
And what I did do for my first digital Etsy shop is exactly what you just said. I think on chat you can save your prompts, right? So as long as your SEO research has been done and you know exactly what kind of tone it's going to use, I don't see any issue with
- [48:11]
B
that because it's using the keywords that you researched and you've confirmed are going to be relevant to both. I'm like ready to sob because I like, I want to talk about, like, what makes a Pinterest a pin look good. Like, what should the visuals be? I want to talk about metrics. I want to talk about what expectations realistic would be. I want to talk about like, like, oh, there's so much I want to talk about Emily. And we're, we're like at time. So. Okay, so here's what's happening, guys. And Emily is, I'm fingers crossed. We're working at trying to do some more projects together. So she's going to be around and we're going to be bringing her back on the podcast and having more conversations. But later this month, she's, she is like, our Pinterest is the subject for Scaling Society this month and she is going to be in there doing a live training with the group, going into more of these stuff specifics that we were hoping to like, cover some today. But also it's going to be really helpful to like, be live with her and be able to see what she's clicking on and what she's doing. So if you're at the point where you want to be starting, like doing Pinterest for Etsy, you're going to want to come at least this month and join us in Scaling Society. It is where you get access to all of my trainings. I have AI design bundles, I have Etsy courses. We have so many design trainings. We have like, you get access to my trend spotting. You get two live content coaching calls in the group a month. Like, we're doing so much and it's also the most friendly community you have ever. I can't believe how fortunate we are. So you can literally post a question and same day have it answered by someone who knows what they're talking about, knows what I would say. I'm in there too, so I don't want to go like to. But anyway, if you want to go deeper with this, this would be the month. Join us and you're. You will not regret It, Emily, where can people find you and connect? Like, where are you on the interwebs where they can, like, follow along?
- [49:49]
C
You guys can say hi to me over on Instagram at Emmypins. E, M, M, Y P I, N S. And just one other plug, Lizzie, for your group. I just. This kind of came to me. I think it would be a great time for these Etsy sellers to be in your group because they could get their Pinterest business account set up in May. They could practice pinning all summer and totally explode their shops by Q4. It's honestly perfect timing. And I don't know if that was strategic from you, but I was like, that's genius. It's perfect. Yeah, that's perfect.
- [50:23]
B
I would never. I would never. Yeah, I want to set everyone up because here's the thing. Summer is a bit slower on Etsy. This is the time to be sharpening our, like, people want to go take a break. I'm like, no. Now is when you put your head down and you figure it out and you learn the strategies, you learn the techniques, you get the help, you get the, the support so that when Q4 comes, you are blowing up. You are not just like, oh, afterthought, I could make some money. Q4. No, you're like, making thousands because you planned ahead. So I love, love, love that you said that. I'm so. We are so fortunate to have you. We've had plenty of Pinterest experts come on the podcast in the past and talk about it. Nobody could be as specific as you, Emily, about Etsy. No one had actually done this with an Etsy shop. I feel like we've struck gold. And I just want you to know I'm so grateful for you.
- [51:10]
C
Yeah, you're welcome. It's. It's super fun to be in your community. So, yeah, thank you.
- [51:14]
B
Also, we're gonna go a little rogue. I just decided to give you guys a discount on your first month in Scaling Society. And the code is Emily50. Because I want to know who got excited about Pinterest and came for that reason. So if you use the code, Emily50 can get $50 off your first month. Scaling society is typically where 147amonth, which, like, comes out to. I was just talking to Becca about this the other day because I'm not like a good. I don't think about things this way. 147 divided by four. That comes out to about $36.75 a week. To get access to daily coaching, like hundreds of hours of training. Lots of live. It's ridiculous. And then the. Just the community alone. So I'm going to actually take $50 off of that and you're going to get your first month for 97 with Emily. 50. So I am gonna just turn that on for like. So if you're listening, this is coming out in May. If you're still listening in July, it'll still be good. It's gonna be a three month coupon and then it's gonna go off. Do you guys love when I strategize with you live? This is just how Lizzie is. There's just no, there's no pretense. Okay. I'm freaking excited. So let's go. Let's do it. Emily, we have so much more to do together. Do you have any parting words, anything you want to make sure you say no?
- [52:23]
C
Really? You just made me really excited for them. I really hope that they, they do something on the algorithm, the Pinterest algorithm this summer. And I, without a doubt, I'm sure they'll see some success in Q4. So that's really exciting.
- [52:35]
B
It's a really good place to spend your time. If you're going to don't Go launch the TikTok or the Instagram account, hoping it will go viral, go to Pinterest. Tried and true. Steady Eddie. We're looking for sustainable long term results, not flash in the pan that probably won't even happen. Pipe dreams. So I've got you guys. This is where you come for the truth. This is where. Where you come for the real resources and not the hype and the fairness. So Emily, thank you. You guys, I. There's no words for how much I love you. I look forward to this every single day. Being able to be with you in your corner, watching you thrive just in your earbuds is the biggest honor. You are very strapped for time. The fact that you would choose to spend it here. It means the absolute world and I will never take it for granted. So until next week, my loves, go make something awesome. Bye, guys.
- [53:19]
A
And that's a wrap on this episode of how to sell your stuff on Etsy. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. If you're looking for more resources, head on over to howtosellyourstuff.com where you'll find podcast show notes, all the links from today's episode, the blog courses, coaching and more. If this episode was helpful to you, awesome. The greatest compliment I can receive from you is a rate, review and subscribe on this podcast. Not only will it allow us to connect again on a future episode. It lets me know I'm providing you with value and helps other people find this content more easily. From the bottom of my heart, thank
- [53:57]
C
you for your support.
- [53:58]
A
Have a great day and see you next time.