I found this very interesting conversation on the Etsy forums yesterday:
Unless you live beside the river, you’ve got to go to the river for water.
Let’s get this straight. Etsy DOES advertise… but not for Buyers.
Etsy advertises to attract more Sellers. If you haven’t already noticed, many shops come and many shops go around this place.
I go through my favorite seller list at the beginning of every season and today I removed 1880 Etsy shops that no longer exist. 1880 shops with hopes and dreams that couldn’t make it here because they couldn’t be found.
That’s a Helluva lot of people.
For example: if you put each one of those lost shop owners in a Subaru Legacy wagon, they would create a traffic jam that would stretch 6 1/2 miles long. (and that’s just the shops in my own faves… go look through the back pages of your faves… it’s chilling.
Facts are simply facts and the simple fact is this: our 2 dimes tossed into the pot add up to very very serious money. Many dimes make many many millions of dollars (for Etsy.)
The title of this discussion pretty much says it all….”Etsy Doesn’t Advertise. You’re On Your Own“.
Emphasis on the “You’re On Your Own“.
As this Etsy seller was pointing out, don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you’re selling on Etsy or Artfire or any other third party website service that they’ll also will be marketing your little corner of their world for you as well. Even if it comes as “part of the package”.
It’s not just Etsy…most online venues work this way to a certain extent.
Unless the service is taking a commission from sales, they are in the business of selling website space to you. Not making sales for you or making sure that you’re seen. Even if they are making a commission from you, the majority of the time, the fee they charge you per listing or per month is probably more profitable than any commission they receive from you. What these services are providing you is a place to show your work. That’s the easy part.
There a number of different ways to bring more people to your online store; SEO, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, advertising, business cards, flyers or plain old word of mouth to name a few. The most important way of course is having something unique that people want and are eager to share with others. That’s the hard part.
Don’t be like those 1,880 abandoned shops. Remember, the responsibility for being seen, bringing visitors, and making sales is yours alone.
So what are you doing to be seen? Leave a comment and let me know!
Photo from Surrender Dorothy
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a very good point.
I wonder sometimes if services like Etsy (and even eBay) change the way the products sold via them are perceived.
Hey there and thank you for the article! It was really interesting and you make a good point – my etsy fees are higher then what etsy got from me as their 3.5% of my sales – mostly because my sales are low.
So, what do I do to get seen? I blog. I currently do tara gentils 52 weeks of blöogging, but so far its not working very well – but I’m patient. I now have a contest on my blog, I hope this will help a bit to get more people to read my blog/subscribe to my mailing list…
Great point! When I first opened my Etsy shop, I just expected that people would come. But I had to get out there with my goods at craft shows and in blogs, etc…. before people started taking notice and I started getting regular online sales.