This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Hey, what's up Silenceful School listeners. Thanks for tuning in today. From time to time, we talk about different website platforms. If you wanna make a website, you often are gonna sign up with a plan from a company like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, among others, Shopify. Some have been sponsors of the show in the past.
There's not really many bad options. They all kind of do the same thing, perhaps in a slightly different way. But today we're gonna hear a question from a listener. Should I use Etsy's new platform? It's not that new these days, but it's still going strong.
It's called Pattern. Should she use Etsy's new platform or build her own site? What's the best way to branch out? She's seeing some initial success. She's been selling, let's see, blankets, throws, and scarves, monogrammed blankets, throws and scarves, I should say.
So she wants to build her own website, which I think is smart, expanding beyond the initial platform. And she's wondering about this option from Etsy called Pattern. Is it a good option or should she do something different? I'm gonna break it down and give her a helpful response, all in a short, action-packed episode. Her detailed question and my answer coming right up.
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Hi, Chris. This is Bethany from Canberra, Australia. I've been listening to the show for the last four years. I love the daily updates and the tips you have for people starting a side hustle. I've just opened an Etsy shop, monogramming, blankets, throws, and scarves.
I would like to have my own website too. Etsy offers a website platform called Pattern. It looks relatively easy to use, but I wonder if I should use something totally outside of Etsy. Thanks for the show and I look forward to hearing from you. [Music]
Hey Bethany, thanks for calling in from Australia.
So why are these platforms popular? The Etsy platform known as Pattern or also Squarespace, Wix, others. Honestly, they are popular because they're easy to use and there's nothing wrong with that at all. Obviously you have to pay for that, like there is a fee to pay for the convenience, but I think for a lot of people, including myself, there's a lot of benefit in having a really simple system that you don't have to be a coder to mess around with or a designer. So I tend to think like, why would you not want to do this?
You know, these services usually pay for themselves. Now, whether it is this service, this platform, Pattern, or one of the others, I don't think it makes a huge amount of difference. They often work pretty similar. If you start with one, there's usually a 30-day trial or worst case scenario, you're paying for a month or two and you don't like it, you can go somewhere else, you can usually export everything. It might be a little bit of a pain to start over and, you know, to go back and learn a new system and such, but it's not a huge learning curve.
The only reason you really wouldn't want to do it at all is if you absolutely want total customization and you do want to tinker a bit beyond the capabilities that these platforms offer. And so in that case, it is going to require more skill from you or more resources from you in terms of investing in somebody else to do that work. So, you know, for me, I used to do everything custom. I used to be opposed to these kinds of templated sites or platforms 'cause I was like, well, I want my stuff to look better. And sometimes there's a case for that and other times I think the higher value is just to move on and just to have something that's easy.
So is there a big reason not to? I don't think so. I think it's going to be fine. Let us know how it goes, Bethany. Good luck, listeners.
Pest of luck to you as well. If there's something we can help, sidehustleschool.com. You can ask a question there. There's resources and email list. Notes for every single episode, 3,392 and more.
More on the way. Seven days a week, always free. Subscribe, follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
