Oh Amy, I feel your pain! ETSY is HARD! I definitely understand what you are getting at here. I was pretty lucky when I started POD items in my Etsy shop in 2017 because I started making the odd sale straight away. But I had also had my Etsy shop since 2009, so I may have had a leg up in the searches already. I have no idea. But since then literally millions of shops have some online and it is really hard to be seen unless you do paid Etsy advertising. But watch out for that because it get's really expensive.

In all honesty, I really like falling back on Society 6 and Redbubble because they take care of the hard part of marketing and getting the items seen. We just have to make sure our art is named and tagged properly . Then we sit back and get the comission when something sells. Of course, it doesn't hurt for us to market those items as well.

But really, I have heard of people waiting up to a year to get their first sale on Etsy. And it is annoying because they recommend posting 1-3 new items per day, which, of course, costs money with the listing of the item.

I have another Etsy story. In 2020, even though both of my shops were doing really well, I decided to overhaul all of my titles and tags in both shops at once and my sles tanked. Like totally. It deflated me beyond comprehension and I still haven't rebounded from that. I still post the odd new item, but I've lost motivation for my Etsy shops. My focus now is on Medium. They still make the odd sale here and there, and depending on what sells, I can make good money (duvet cover for example) but those sales are few and far between and nothing that I can rely on.

Sorry, I hope this isn't discouraging you. But it is reality. I highly recommend follow Jenny Waldrop on Medium. She is an Etsy queen and knows alot about the platform.

Thanks for sharing your experience here! Best of luck to you! The holidays are coming, try to get your stuff marketed for that. It is your best chance for sales at a busy time of year.