Starting a Goth Business: 7 Built-In Advantages (A Marketer's Unfiltered Take)

Want to start a GOTH business to support your alternative lifestyle dream?

Do you want to make spooky musical tracks that you can collect royalties from for years to come?

Or make handcrafted skull-shaped candles and soaps to sell at alternative markets?

Does your little black heart dream of traveling the world as you build a gothic branding graphic design or website-building biz?

If so, my fellow spooky boo, this is for you!🖤

I'm sharing the seven HUGE advantages you have as a goth running a goth business online.

7 solid reasons why selling with a goth aesthetic to the VERY niche gothic community is a viable business opportunity.

You can run a goth business AND make a good living from it - if you set it up right!

You can make your rent, pay your bills, eat well, AND have enough to spare to invest in the Victorian lace-up boots you've been eyeing on Etsy!

As an alternative lifestyle, transformational, marketing-focused mentor with over 18 years of experience in running online businesses (including my own goth business many years ago!), I want to show you that you can do whatever it is that you want in life if you are a savvy Marketian (which is what I call a creative person with very savvy marketing skills!)

I'm here to help you understand that marketing can be a lot of creative FUN, too.

And that the more marketing skills we learn, the more FREEDOM we create!

I'll also share some personal stories about my life as a goth, creative business lessons, and why I believe RIGHT NOW, more than ever before, is the best time to start your goth business DREAM.

So let's kick things off!

Continue reading, OR if you prefer listening while applying black wing-tipped eyeliner, click below for the podcast version 🪄 🎧💫

Prefer to watch instead of read? Watch the YouTube version here, which includes photos of my creative studio and handmade accessories from my own goth business. 🪄 📺💫

How I Turned My Creative Hobby Into a Life-Changing Goth Business

As a creative and unconventional woman who earned a Bachelor of Arts, I NEVER had any interest in business. Nobody in my family owned a business. I knew nothing about running them.

I wasn't interested. Business seemed BORING!

And I refused to end up working in a corporate office, which is how I pictured everyone who studied business would end up living out their working lives.

Yet, fast forward to the arrival of this amazing thing called ''the internet'' and opportunities to sell everything, from crochet dog beds to farts in a jar.

I started selling my handmade gothic and burlesque jewelry in 2003 on Etsy, eBay, Shopify, and at local alternative markets.

After 8 years in e-commerce, my travel bug got the best of me. So, I became a freelance social media manager and pet-sitting digital nomad.

I did that for 9 years, and am now teaching creative and unconventional women and gender diverse, witchy, goth, all-around a little weird, often neurodiverse people how to make money online.

So, whether you want to start a side hustle or replace your salary, here are 7 reasons why your ''spooky'' interests give you a huge advantage if you are thinking of doing a goth business.

Or, if you have a freelance service business, and for a long time, like me, you were afraid to have a strong goth brand aesthetic.

I want to talk about that and about being your authentic self, no matter WHAT you sell!

Being true to yourself, and why the way things are online, there's no better time to let your true spooky heart out of the cobwebbed closet!

Goth Business Advantage #1: A Strong, Recognizable Aesthetic

Now, the number one advantage for goth businesses is the most obvious one, but the strongest advantage by far is your built-in aesthetic.

Your brand is basically pre-made because there's already branding and coding that goes with the goth aesthetic. So, if you have a goth brand, you're going to be embracing that aesthetic, right?

It's an immediately recognizable aesthetic. Immediately consistent. And immediately going to be noticed and have a lot of signals to the people that you are targeting.

Having a strong brand aesthetic is a huge advantage because one of the biggest problems that a lot of business owners face.

They struggle with not being able to nail down the ''feel'' of their brand. And how their brand messaging speaks to the people that they want to target.

There's a lot of kind of coding that goes into colors, fonts, in images, symbols, right? So, when you have a goth business, all of that is pre-done. It's all pre-built.

You have this huge advantage right there off the bat.

The visual identity is immediately recognizable, dark, aesthetic, whimsical, whatever it might be. And there's a lot of variety these days with the goth aesthetic as well. It's not all just like black and spooky, right?

The funny thing is, when I started my goth business many years ago, I remember there were almost no black graphics.

There were very few, really in-your-face Gothic brands out there.

But in the last few years, it has just exploded now, and there are so many beautiful brands. There are so many different accounts, especially with Instagram, just accounts that just drip with all the aesthetics and the lusciousness of the goth aesthetic. So it is something that you can fully embrace.

Now, what I recommend to create your brand aesthetic if you start a goth brand is to go on Pinterest and look at all the different beautiful brands there and the people that offer branding packages.

It is so important when you start your goth business that you get a professionally done goth branding package.

I mean, for anybody who's going to start a business, you need a professionally done branding package, okay? Don't skip this!

A professionally designed brand guide will include your logo, your colors, your fonts, and your aesthetic.

So, even if you have a goth aesthetic, I recommend hiring a graphic designer if you're not the most visually or, you know, graphically designed capable person to put together a brand package.

With a brand guide, you'll know exactly how to design your images, your graphics, your blogs, and promotional materials.

And if you hire someone like a social media manager in the future, you give them your brand guide, and your social media manager will know exactly what to do and what to use.

Please do this! I hated working with people who didn't have decent brand packages!

In fact, at the end of the nine years, I refused to work with people who didn't have a professional brand package because it meant huge headaches during the content approval process.

Additionally, it meant that their social media just didn't perform as well if they didn't have professional, consistent branding across their entire online presence.

Okay, so that's advantage numeru uno.

And my advice here is to lean fully into the goth aesthetic, right? Don't dilute it!

Your goth vibe is your first filter for attracting the exact right audience to your products and services.

Goth Business Advantage #2: A deeply Loyal Community

The second Goth business advantage is having a deeply loyal niche community. Goth communities are famously tight-knit and very, very supportive.

They actively seek creators who get them. This is a huge advantage because it's very easy for you to find your tribe and for your tribe to find you.

If you are a part of the Gothic community in your local town, then it's very easy to find the Goth markets, the alternative markets, to show up in person, and to sell your wares directly.

Even if you are selling a service or you're not selling physical products, you can still have a market stall where you can meet people and let people know that you are a Gothic business, right?

And then there's of course, the obvious like clubbing, the local communities online, all the forums. It is such a beautiful community, and I was very tight-knit with the community here in Melbourne for the first like 16 years I lived in Melbourne. It was only when I started dating a guy who went to more sci hippie type festivals that I stopped going to the goth clubs regularly.

But it's still a huge part of my life. I still have my own little gothic community up here in the hills outside of Melbourne. It's like we just kind of recognize each other, right?

No matter how many years it might be from your community, they're still going to support you, and they will see your aesthetic with the products and services that you make and it's instantly going to let them know that you're one of them.

Here are some personal anecdotes that I've noticed about the Gothic community, which makes them a very good market for online marketing products and services.

1) They are typically higher income.

A lot of goths are white-collar workers, or they work in tech, or they have jobs where they may have had a degree.

They're intelligent, they're intellectuals, and so with that comes higher pay.

Not ALL people, this is just my personal experience, of course, okay? Don't come at me!

But I have noticed that a lot of people work in tech or are, you know, very well-paid.

And that also ties into the second anecdote, which is that...

2) Goths are very tech-savvy.

We order things online and hang out in niche online forums like Discord.

Years ago, the goth community was huge on LiveJournal, one of the first kinds of Gothic community social media networks that existed.

So, tech savvy means that goths are already really savvy when it comes to online shopping, marketing tools, software, and getting around all the tech, which is a huge hurdle for a lot of people who are not so tech savvy, right?

Online tech stacks can be a huge limitation for people, but goths? NOPE.

They're gamers, they're IT geeks, DIY goth decorating YouTubers, goth fashion bloggers, goth Instagram make-up artists. Goths are already LIVING online MORE than people in other subcultures or more mainstream lifestyles.

We don't have any problem with tech; we love being online, and we love finding our people online.

And if you'd like to learn more about how to find your tribe online, check out Hexotica's podcast episode number 33, Stop Allowing the Wrong Energy into Your Business, How to Attract Your Tribe.

Also check out 4 Steps to Find Your Tribe, Feel Less Lonely, & Live Longer, which is not directly about marketing.

Goth Business Advantage #3: Storytelling Comes Naturally

Storytelling is a natural advantage for goths.

We have a very strong history of literature and of storytelling within our community.

Goths are often steeped in literature, in music, mythology, and subcultural history.

Storytelling is seeped in everything that we do in how we dress, in our music, in our photography, in our language. There are references to Frankenstein, to Dracula, to The Raven, etc. All of these different literary greats of the Western literary canon, right?

And so this is not just in how we write our text and what we refer to in our music. But also how we write our music lyrics or things like that.

Storytelling is in our visual language.

Take, for example, the Instagram creator, Chloe Hurst, who's famous for The Gothic Garden, where she grows all black plants.

There is a strong storytelling narrative happening in her photography and videos.

And that storytelling is of a classic literary archetype: the woman of the Gothic manor.

The lady of the haunted house. Or the spooky lives of a thousand-year-old vampire.

There is this lucious red-on-black kind of aesthetic where it's referring to that kind of blood aesthetic that is so popular among vampire literature, right?

Storytelling is also in the underlying, ongoing narratives that goths recognize and love.

A person who does this really well that you may have seen on Twitter is a creator called Doth the Doth.

He does comedic micro tweets about wanting to run off to the forest or live in a historical mansion.

There's a whole storytelling aspect to his micro tweets that kind of keeps you pulled in with open story loops.

And the more that you know of the Gothic lore and literature, the more enchanting that kind of storytelling is.

Storytelling is an extremely important part of marketing.

Our brains kind of switch open to stories.

So the more stories that we can tell in our marketing, the more memorable our marketing is going to be.

The more that we can kind of stop people from scrolling and pull people in.

People, especially now with AI, love to hear personal stories!

Sidenote: I've heard recently (May 2026) that content that uses ''I'' (as in the first person personal pronoun) is gaining more clicks and more attention than generic titles because people are so tired of AI slop being spit out at us.

Goth Business Advantage #4: Goths Are Aligned With Alternative Thinking

Being goth means that you don't mind going against the grain. You are already unconventional. You've likely been unconventional your whole life!

So getting online and doing something different that stands out, that might be controversial, is totally okay with you.

You have a thick skin. Able to weather all the batshit crazy comments that come in on a social media post.

Or, crucially, of all the criticisms of how you look. Because you've been looking, you've been putting up with that your whole life, right?

You are already naturally geared to being able to court controversy, to stand out, to question norms, to embrace your weird online. And this is marketing power!

This is true marketing gold because online, with all the saturated markets that we have now, standing out is everything.

Getting attention is everything.

When you are not afraid to be your true, authentic, weird-ass self, that's only going to help you to grow your business. Especially if you do it in a way that is authentic. That is dramatic.

And if there's any one word that can describe the goth community really well, it is dramatic.

So my advice here is to be as controversial as you want.

Say the things that you are maybe afraid to say that you know you're going to get a lot of push back, but that you believe in.

Be unafraid to share your real values. Especially when it comes to politics, or when it comes to things that you know a lot of people are just not going to agree with.

Anything that makes you shrink a little bit and second-guess yourself is usually the thing that will get the most attention when you say it online.

Because a lot of people are thinking those same thoughts, but they are too afraid to say them.

So being naturally unconventional is a huge advantage online!

Goth Business Advantage #5: A Natural Talent for Mood, Ambiance, and Ritual.

Many goths intuitively understand atmosphere, ceremony, and immersive experiences. Whether that's in a shop, at an event, or in their products.

They will create amazing and super super memorable sensory experiences around the products that they package, their email newsletters, their websites, their shops, their marketplace stalls, whatever it is.

Goth business owners understand that the customer journey is about a sensual experience.

From first seeing a brand in an ad online to receiving a product in the mail. And I'm sure everyone has received a package when they've ordered something from a Gothic shop online, which comes beautifully decorated in black paper with ribbons and maybe even perfume. All

of that kind of thing is just completely natural to the Gothic community.

These make really memorable marketing experiences as well.

Goth Business Advantage #6: Subcultural Trends

Goths embrace subcultural trends early, and these can help your tribe find you online. It helps them stand out and get found.

So goths will often notice the micro trends happening in their culture before they hit the mainstream or just as they're being talked about.

For example, referring to the latest new season of Tim Burton's TV show, 'Wednesday' or the new 'Frankenstein' film at the beginning of a piece of social media content will instantly be a scroll stopper for your audience.

It will also show up in search results thanks to SEO, like when people are looking up the new season of 'Wednesday'.

If you have a Gothic blog selling clothing and you've done an SEO optimized review of the new season, ALL the goths who are looking up the new season will find that blog post. In that way, cultural trends are super useful for helping people find you.

You can use subcultural trends as a way to position yourself as an authority within the online goth community.

So, this is a savvy marketing tactic to help your audience know that you are an authority within the Gothic community.

And it helps your content get found and seen!

Goth Business Advantage #7: Magic Adjacent Credibility

If your business touches witchcraft, tarot, or cult-adjacent services, being goth is naturally going to help you with authenticity.

This is especially helpful if you work in any kind of psychic, wellness, spiritual, or health-related areas where people kind of naturally gravitate toward subcultural, alternative lifestyle communities.

The goth community is kind of like a subcommunity within spiritual, alternative industries.

If you are doing any of those kinds of services, being goth is going to make you look a little bit more authentic in the eyes of a lot of people who are also doing it. It's a large part of the community.

That's kind of why I embraced the archetype of the 'Magician' with my brand. It TRACKS with who I am, and who I want to work with.

And I've infused witchcraft, which is my manifesting witchcraft practices, into Hexotica.

My Personal Experiences Running a Goth Business Online

Now, I would like to share a little bit about my own experiences running a goth business.

And what my advice would be to you if you are thinking of running an artisan craft-based business like what I had.

Because here's the reality with having a business...

If you are doing a tangible product-based business, it is going to take you longer to reach profitability. It usually takes between 9 and 13 months to become profitable if you are selling products.

If you're having inventory, if you're making things and shipping them out yourself, right? If you are doing a service-based online business, it's typically going to be profitable a LOT faster.

The reality for me was that I had a seasonal goth business.

I shared my experiences in detail in this post, 'The 5 Essential Business Systems You Need To Turn Your Brand Into a Magical Money Magnet.'

My business was seasonal because I was flat out from October till a week or two after New Year's Eve. Then, all the other months were pretty quiet in comparison.

So, it was kind of a 'feast or famine' business model. It never quite supported me full-time. I always had to have a little part-time job to keep going.

The main issue that I found with having a product-based business was just the location dependence of it.

I had to have my craft room with all my beads, my wire, my cutting, and my big desk. it required another room in every house that I rented. So, it was a lot to accommodate.

The biz model was not conducive to letting me travel overseas. That was just a personal preference, right?

But if I were to go back and like look at how I marketed the business, the biggest thing was not having one of the five most essential business systems.

So if you have a business now, no matter what type it is, make sure that you cover all five.

And if you're not sure about any of them, hire a professional to help you do it.

You will save yourself so much time!

And you will get to your goals and make your profitable income faster and easier if you get help. In the eight years that I ran my business, I did not hire a marketing coach or business coach.

It was DIY all the way for me, baby!

I knew lots of other goth business owners, lots of other people in the goth community, and in the alternative community. Many of my closest friends were running their own goth, rockabilly, and burlesque businesses.

So, I was always learning a lot on my own and through my community.

But if I had hired a marketing mentor, I would have known to focus on those five business systems...

And to make sure that I would get the essential system that I missed, which was my lead generation and capture system. EMAIL!

Check out this post to learn more about the importance of email marketing, and how it differs from an email newsletter.

Some of the advantages of having email is that you're not always relying on sales on just the front end of your store, on your website, or on social media. Or even in in-person events like at markets.

You're able to sell more on the backend in your email.

If your business is optimized only for the front end and you're not selling in email, you're not growing your email list, you have a dangerously under-optimized business.

You could lose your audience at the front end at any time.

A simple change with Google or a social media platform gets hijacked or scammed or changes an algorithm.

It is very dangerous to only be selling on that front end. You need to be building all five systems and working on your email as well.

That is why I encourage you to hire a professional.

Now, when I started my second business as a social media manager, I very quickly became self-employed.

It only took me 4 months.

Within 3 years, I was making more than I ever did at any full-time job.

It's much easier to get a service business going. If you want to become self-employed FAST AF, start a service-based business! I explian exactly why in this post.

With a service-based business, there's a whole other layer of things that you will need to work on.

For example, professinal communication with clients and contractors, your own contracts, and boundaries.

You're working with many clients. Many small bosses!

Now, in some ways, running my eBay, Etsy, and Shopify business was a lot easier because I didn't have to deal with clients and customers directly as much. It was just a few emails between my customers and me. My ratings were really, really good, too.

But with managing multiple clients, there's a lot more going on. There's a lot more communication required. Sometimes, you'd get some bad clients, and sometimes there would be pushback.

You're constantly having to deal with scope creep. Or clients texting you at 10:00 on a Friday night. That kind of thing.

Whatever kind of business it is that you do, though, make sure that you are building the five essential foundations.

And that you are also diversifying your income when necessary.

For example, if you have a business where you are needed for every aspect, from making your product to making or fulfilling your service, that is also a liability for your business.

If something were to happen to you and you were to get sick or someone in your family died, and you needed to take time off to grieve, who is going to bring in the money, right?

If you hire a marketing mentor, they can help you diversify your income, so you have multiple revenue streams.

For example, if you were to work with me, I would help you to identify where you could create some digital products in your e-commerce store. Or how you could get some affiliate income happening with your blog or newsletter.

And any sort of passive income streams that might boost your daily revenue.

I would teach you the basics of how to get these income streams started and going so that you have more than just one.

And you could have a goth business that can grow with you as you grow.

While also being the kind of business that can pay your rent and your bills, and the alternative lifestyle of your DREAMS!

Ready to Start Your Goth Business? Here’s How I Can Help!

So if you’re thinking, “Damn, all this is exactly what I need…”

Well—that’s exactly what I help you do inside my SWAN Academy.🪄🦢

It's my 4-week mentoring program for business noobs that makes building your business actually feel doable. Even fun!

Contact me, and I'll tell you more about how it can help you set up your new online goth AF business the right way from the start. To suit YOU.

But if you're not ready to contact me just yet, you can start by downloading my FREE SWAN Transformation Marketing Strategy Guidebook.

It walks you through the same 5-step framework I use with my students that I've just described here.

It’s a FREE 30-page PDF printable resource guide of everything you need to know to start, grow, and run an online business – in order!

Start changing your life TODAY by building an online side hustle or business and mastering marketing to become a Marketician.

Download the FREE complete step-by-step guidebook by signing up for the form below! 👇