Basics Get a shop live and compliant, and know what Etsy leaves you
- The three-check pledgeDownload TXT
chapter 1
The one habit that beats platform blindness: before you publish or pay for a listing, check that Etsy can find it, permit it, and what it will leave you.
- True-take-home calculator — "what Etsy leaves you"Spreadsheet XLSX
chapter 2
What a sale really leaves you after every Etsy fee — and the Offsite-Ads trap that makes the same sale pay two different amounts, which you don't choose.
- Permit record (allowed & yours)Download TXT
chapter 3
Dated evidence you checked one product against Etsy's two account-safety tests — the rights you control, and Etsy's own rules — before you make it.
- Fit test — can the platform carry it?Download TXT
chapter 4
A ten-minute, no-spend go/no-go on whether Etsy is the right shelf for a product — permitted, worth it, deliverable, thumbnail-legible, representable.
- Shop foundation (decided once)Download TXT
chapter 5
The opening path in order and the settings your listings reuse — payment, shipping profile, policies — a baseline you change only for a stated reason.
- Listing hygiene (found by Etsy)Download MD
chapter 6
Fill every field Etsy's search reads — title, 13 tags, attributes, category, description — with real buyer words, so Etsy can match you at all.
- The human half (clear & credible)Download TXT
chapter 7
Build the side a person sees — a lead image that reads at thumbnail size, trust-building photos, an honest price — so a stranger can understand and judge it.
- Go / no-go (publish the listing)Download TXT
chapter 8
The six-green preflight that pulls every earlier step together, then publish — and verify it live from a logged-out window with its public URL.
- First-week review (read the quiet)Download TXT
chapter 9
A calm record, not a test: what the early numbers mean, why a handful of visits is noise, and the one deliberate move that beats quitting or thrashing.
Intermediate Get found on purpose and turn browsers into buyers — not by luck
- The three-sale record + the one-change ruleDownload TXT
chapter 1
Prove to yourself what you can't yet see: for your last three sales, what you actually know versus can't — then sign the one-change rule that ends the thrashing.
- The funnel instrument panelSpreadsheet XLSX
chapter 2
Enter each listing's impressions, visits and orders; it works out your click and conversion rates and flags whether each rate has enough sample to trust yet.
- The diagnosis + the test contractDownload TXT
chapter 3
Read your panel top-down to name your one real constraint, then sign a test contract — one change, pre-set verdicts — before you touch the listing, so the result can't be re-spun.
- Impressions evidence cycleDownload TXT
chapter 4
Compete for a smaller, winnable keyword, run as one logged cycle — demand-checked in Marketplace Insights, judged over a window Etsy's own noise can't forge.
- Click evidence cycleDownload TXT
chapter 5
Test the lead image the way it's really judged — small, in the grid, beside its rivals — sequentially, since Etsy has no split test, with the exposure traps flagged.
- Conversion — silent-worries audit + cycleDownload TXT
chapter 6
Can a stranger resolve every doubt without messaging you? Audit the page, run a conversion test, and earn reviews on the right side of Etsy's rules.
- Break-even + the Etsy Ads testSpreadsheet XLSX
chapter 7
Your contribution per order, then the ads verdict: did the orders the ads drove cost less than they made? Precommit a spend ceiling; it reads PASS or STOP on your numbers.
- One traffic channel — the ruleDownload TXT
chapter 7
Add one channel to a written rule set before you switch on — Etsy Ads to a test-spend ceiling, or one Pinterest loop to a time budget — never untrackable outside ads.
- The engine ledger + weekly cadenceDownload TXT
chapters 8–9
The binding proof — two completed cycles — plus the 15-minute weekly cadence that keeps the engine turning without becoming a second job.
Advanced Scale the shop, and own what Etsy only rents you — so a suspension is a setback, not the end
- My starting positionDownload TXT
chapter 1
Three honest numbers before you fix anything — how much of your income runs through Etsy, how many buyers you could reach without it, and how many months of cash you control.
- The exposure auditDownload TXT
chapter 2
Turn "too dependent on Etsy" into five measured concentrations — platform, product, top listing, owned buyers, runway — each with a line it must not cross and the move you pre-set for the day it does.
- The capture charter + insert scriptDownload TXT
chapter 3
The always/never boundary for building an owned, opted-in audience inside the guardrails this book draws from Etsy's off-platform and consent rules — with the residual policy uncertainty stated, a stricter no-insert alternative, and an insert script that carries no code, no link and nothing to buy.
- Go live + the first-fifty trackerDownload TXT
chapter 4
Today's binding action — the insert goes in the next parcel you pack, with that buyer or order recorded — the offer-run rule that stops you fiddling it, and the tracker for your first fifty confirmed opt-ins.
- The sovereign custody planDownload TXT
chapter 5
Your list with its consent records, your design files and your financial records, each in a second home you control, automated where possible, and restore-tested on a date — because a backup you have never restored is a hope.
- The liquidity bufferSpreadsheet XLSX
chapter 6
Sizes your cash buffer against the actual shock — committed-cost runway plus a plausible payment-reserve hold plus one stock cycle — and tells you whether today's cash is above the floor, inside the trigger margin, or below it.
- Ad-spend disciplineSpreadsheet XLSX
chapter 7
Your contribution per order becomes the cost-per-order ceiling; enter real spend and attributed orders once the roughly 30-day attribution window has matured and it returns PASS or STOP — never a silent pass on zero orders.
- SOP index + suspension-response planDownload TXT
chapter 8
The load-bearing tasks written so anyone could run them, and the calm sequence for a suspension — verify and classify first, follow the notice, evidence from your backups, order-logistics-only messaging — drilled once, simulated.
- Continuity protocol + stress testDownload TXT
chapter 9
Deploy every defence at once, wired together, then run "Etsy is gone this morning" against a declared interruption window — cash, records, audience, appeal, the off-Etsy postage path tested — and date it only when every break is fixed.
- The operating cadence + handoff markerDownload TXT
chapter 10
The quarterly hour that re-proves every defence against the bigger shop that success keeps building, plus the measured marker that tells you when your own audience has earned a checkout of its own.
Kept current Etsy's fees, checked by hand
The figures the book uses for the reader's arithmetic — the fastest-changing thing in this business — checked by hand and dated below.
⚠️ The 6.5% is not the whole fee. Processing is charged on top, the listing fee is a fixed amount per sale, and Offsite Ads adds 12–15% only on the sales Etsy's own ads brought in. Always work it out at your numbers — the spreadsheet does it for you.
Etsy seller fees — per sale, unless noted
- Transaction — 6.5% of the whole order (item + shipping + gift wrap).
- Payment processing — charged separately, at country-specific rates: about 3% + $0.25 in the US, ~4% + £0.20 in the UK. Use your own country's rate.
- Listing — $0.20 per listing, charged again every four months or when it sells.
- Regulatory operating fee — a small fraction of a percent in the UK and parts of the EU; it varies by country and has changed over time, so check your own current rate.
- Offsite Ads — 15% of the order for shops under $10,000/yr, 12% at or above it, capped at $100 per order — only on orders Etsy's ads drove; automatic, opt-out only while under $10k, then mandatory for the life of the shop.
- Optional — a possible one-time set-up fee for some new shops (the amount is shown during setup and can vary by location); Etsy Plus at $10/month (rarely worth it for a beginner).
Checked at source 12 October 2026; next review due Jan 2027. Dated copy, not a live feed — verify at Etsy's own fees & payments policy and help pages before you rely on a figure. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.
Take them free — that is what they are for. When you want the argument for using them, Etsy — Basics takes you from never having sold to a real shop live and compliant with its true take-home known; Intermediate is how you stop hoping to be found and start getting found on purpose, turning browsers into buyers you can repeat; Advanced is how you scale it and own what Etsy only rents you — an opted-in audience, your records, a cash buffer and a continuity plan you have actually drilled — so a suspension is a setback, not the end.
See the Etsy series →