Bargar Art

Almost two months ago I opened an Etsy shop to sell my photography prints. I didn’t really know what to expect. One part of me wanted to believe, who knows, maybe something will sell immediately!? The other part of me thought I’ll never sell a print ever. Either way, I was already making prints for my own entertainment so the risk felt low. 

As I began to build out my shop, I talked to ChatGPT about how to gain visibility on Etsy. I use ChatGPT a lot on this journey, for technical help, for business help, for moral support. It’s nice having a coach, even if that coach is a language model. So ChatGPT emphasized the importance of consistent updates. Etsy rewards active shops and engaged sellers. I took this to heart early on and I’ve been making updates to my shop almost every day. New listings, new photos, new videos, keyword tweaks and more. I’m trying to tell Etsy “this shop is for real, please show me to people!”. 

Once I started shooting product videos, I thought maybe I should crosspost this content to social media. Maybe it’s not the most engaging social content but it couldn’t hurt. I decided to start with Pinterest and Instagram. 

Once again, ChatGPT told me these platforms reward consistent updates. It seems to be the same with all of these algorithmic platforms. Unless you’re posting especially viral content, it takes time for the algorithm to figure you out. It has to test each piece of content with different audiences to figure out what type of people respond to your content. New accounts can go for many months of consistent posting without gaining traction. It’s not necessarily a content quality problem, but rather an audience fit problem. 

So it began to hit home that no, my prints were not going to sell immediately. I would have to gain visibility first and that would take time. I reset my expectations. I am going to try to work consistently for at least three to six months and then see where I’m at. It’s a bit of a let down, but not totally unexpected. 

The gnawing question is whether my art is good enough. I fear I could post consistently to these platforms for years and still never gain traction because there simply isn’t a demand for what I’m putting out there. ChatGPT tells me that truly bad art is rare, it’s just a matter of finding the people with whom your art resonates. But what if I’m one of those rare cases? The maddening part is that I can’t really know until I try. And trying takes time.

Patience and consistency are the name of the game. Volume of output is less important than showing up and doing a little something every day. Which is nice, in a way. I can work on these different platforms in parallel in a sustainable way. An Instagram reel one day. An Etsy update another day. Create one Pinterest pin every day. Feed the algorithm, step back and wait. I decided to revive my old Redbubble shop as well. Since I’m only doing a little everyday I can afford to add in an additional platform and start putting in my time there as well. 

The actual work of running this business is pretty easy. The mental part is the hard part. Some days I don’t get any visitors to my Etsy shop at all. I’ve never gotten more than two likes on an Instagram post. My Pinterest audience is growing slowly but engagements are hard to come by. Everything feels stagnant at the moment. I have to be consistent, but it’s hard to continue posting into a void with almost no positive reinforcement.

Many days I feel like quitting. I would have already if ChatGPT didn’t keep telling me that these numbers are completely normal for a new business. I have a tendency to quit things too early and I’m really trying to give this a fair shot. ChatGPT tells me I’m not failing, I’m just early, and I’m trying to believe it instead of the voice in my head that tells me I’m not good enough. ChatGPT also told me Saquon Barkley still plays for the Giants, so I’m not always sure what to believe 🤷‍♂️😁

I don’t know where any of this goes. Maybe nowhere. Maybe somewhere unexpected. But I’m here, showing up, one little piece of content at a time, and trying to give this a fair chance.

More posts coming soon in this little series. In this post I really wanted to cover what it felt like to start this business, but later I’ll write more about some of the practicalities, the decisions I’ve had to make, and the things I’ve learned. 

If you want to follow along — or if you’re curious what kind of art I’ve been making — you can find my Etsy shop here and my Redbubble shop here. Follow me on Pinterest here and Instagram here.