This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, Side Hustlers. Thanks for tuning in today. My name's Chris Guillebeau. Coming up on the podcast, we've got a question from Paul. I enjoy making this podcast every single day, seven days a week, and several of those days each week, we hear from our listeners.
If you have a question, you can always send that in to me, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Love to know what you're working on, what you're thinking about, and how we can help you, how we can help you get closer to making extra money without quitting your job, preferably a lot of extra money. That's actually better than a little extra money, although, you know, extra money in general is good. Now, when it comes to Paul, he is on the cusp of launching his woodworking business, selling a variety of handmade products. So far, so good, but where's he gonna sell them?
You know, lots of different options. In his case, he's thinking about Etsy, eBay, or Shopify. Could be something else as well, but, you know, that's what he's starting with, and he's unsure which of these platforms might give him the best odds of success, okay? So let's see if we can solve this problem for Paul, help him understand the information he needs to make that decision, and perhaps help somebody else as well. Like, if you've got something you wanna sell and you don't have all the time in the world to list on three or five or 10 different platforms, how do you make the decision to be the most profitable and best set you up for the success you want to have in the future, right?
Because that's a core principle of sideustleschool. What you do now affects the options available to you in the future. I want you to be able to make some choices and take some small actions today that will allow you to have a different, even a better life, three months from now, six months from now, a year from now, and so on. So let's look at Paul's question. It's coming up.
I've got a little shout out to our sponsor. I appreciate them. I appreciate our listeners even more. Listeners, hang tight. Should I sell on eBay, Etsy, or Shopify?
That's today's episode. [Music]
Hey there, my name's Paul, and I'm calling in from Austin, Texas. I've been honing my woodworking skills for a couple of years now and crafting a variety of items, from bespoke furniture to unique small decor items. With a growing inventory and a drive to turn my hobby into a profitable side hustle, I'm considering various online platforms to sell my products. Etsy, eBay, Shopify, and stuff like that, they're all on my radar.
But I'm unsure which might give me the best odds for my particular product range. Is it possible that certain items sell better on specific platforms? If that's true, how can I figure out which one would be most beneficial for my handmade wooden items? I would really appreciate some guidance on this. [Music]
Paul, thank you for the question.
Let's start with this part here. I'm unsure which might give me the best odds for my particular product range. Is it possible that certain items sell better on specific platforms? - Easy answer, yes, absolutely. Some items and some categories are much better on one platform compared to another.
For example, if Paul were reselling clothes, women's clothes, in this case, Poshmark, that's where you wanna go to resell clothes. I mean, obviously you can do that on eBay, some people do. You can set up a Shopify store, some people do. Poshmark and a couple of other platforms really focus on fashion, okay? So yes, it definitely makes a huge difference because you wanna think about where the buyers are, not just what are the tools that make it easiest for you, what's the platform that you're most comfortable with.
Really, you have to make most of these decisions, I would say, based on what the best odds of connecting with the most potential buyers, okay? So largely depends on what you're selling. Etsy, for example, let's just run through them here. Fantastic for unique handmade and vintage items. It has a community of buyers who value craftsmanship and are willing to pay for one-of-a-kind pieces sometimes, at least, let's say.
So Etsy might be a good bet. eBay, I don't know about eBay as much for, you know, what is this handcrafted, bespoke furniture, unique small decor items, could work. It also has this large buyer base, so that's definitely an option. Meanwhile, Shopify is giving you more control, more branding opportunities, definitely a lot more work, but there are a lot more features. So if you're gonna build a full-fledged online store, that's the way to go.
The problem, the number one problem here is you're responsible for driving your own traffic, unlike Etsy and eBay. So I actually think, you know, of the three, Shopify is the least viable option, in this case, for Paul and for what he is selling, okay? But again, it all depends on what you are selling, and if you have an existing customer base or an existing community or following, if you don't, you definitely want to go where the buyers are. So think about that, and of course, you can use a combination of those platforms to maximize your reach, but you don't wanna just try to be everywhere. Most of our side hustlers are really busy.
They can only be in one or two places. And in fact, that's what I recommend. Focus on one or two, just like with social media. Choose two networks that you're gonna post to. Do a good job with those networks.
Don't worry about the 74 others, because you just can't. It's not gonna work. Anyway, that's my take. Listeners, if you have a comment or question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We've got new episodes every day, one new episode every day, in fact, seven days a week.
I'm excited for all of this to come. Take care of yourself out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
