Getting discouraged

[AmyEsryTreasures]

So how are your sales doing, dollmakers? I haven't sold a doll since December and I'm getting really discouraged. I get compliments on my dolls, but no sales. This is such a niche market, how do all of you stay motivated? I have a couple of art fairs that I'll try this summer, and if they don't go well then I think I might get out of dolls. There are so many great dollmakers out there, maybe mine just aren't good enough, or I'm not doing the right things to market them. I don't know. I've been working hard on my facebook page, and I'm on pinterest and wanelo, and I've dabbled with instagram. Perhaps its time to try something new.

[Guenillesetboutons]

Hi Amy,

I am working on my 37th doll, I have been making them for 4 years now. Since November 2012 I have sold 3 dolls on etsy and 2 dolls outside etsy... From my perspective, I think it's good.

Of course I would be lying if I said I would not like to sell more, I am looking forward to my next sale and to know wich one of the dolls will be the lucky one!

I think that the doll world is a small one. It is not an object that appeals to everyone. I find it to be more of a collectors item so the buyers are less.

And then their is the kind of doll ... It seems to me the dolls made of clay sell more than the cloth ones ? The style and character of a doll might be attractive to someone and not to the other. Some people find my dolls creepy and unhappy and some find them very nice, but are not ready to pay for one.

I have been to one fair, it cost me 60$ to rent the table and did not sale one doll ... I had prepared myself for that so I was ok with it. I wanted to try it so I did, but I will not do it again.

They are just a handful of doll makers that sells fast and are well known, maybe it also took them a while to get their ?

I like to look at everyone's dolls, even if they have a different approach than mine. I found it inspiring and fun to see all the different dolls their is out their.

I also ask myself why am I not selling more, are my dolls not good enough ? But then I get an Idea for a new doll and get all exited again to start a new one, and forget the rest. Do you still like making dolls ? In the end, that is what's important... the satisfaction It brings you. If you love it, you should not stop because of the low sales.

I hope you will continue, you are a part of this little doll world we have here and it's always nice to discover what you have created.

[ChatterSox]

Amy your dolls are lovely...please do not think that they are not good enough! I certainly don't know the answer regarding sales. Although I have sold some dolls outside of Etsy, I have yet to make my first Etsy sale. (My dolls have been listed in my shop for about a year.) I just keep making them because...well, they want to be made.

[Guenillesetboutons]

...I just keep making them because...well, they want to be made.


Sandra, I love that, it is so true !

[ChatterSox]

Cath, thank you for expressing so well in your first comment what I wanted to say.

Amy if you still get excited about making dolls, please don't let low sales stop you from creating your little jewels.

[AmyEsryTreasures]

Cath and Sandra, thank you for your kind words. Very insightful really. I'm not ready to give up yet, I'm just feeling really discouraged. And of course, I'm spending too much time on the forums where people complain if they only sold a dozen items one day. geez.

[Tattermedallion]

Hi Amy
I would say don't get discouraged but don't put all your eggs in the Etsy basket. I have sold about 20 dolls on etsy since I started and I find it is certain types (fantasy) that seem to sell well here. I also sell in two local galleries and, again, different types do better in the two settings. It's worth spending some time looking at the sold items in other shops to get a feel of the market. It can be worth playing around changing the titles and tags of your dolls as well. I had one that had been sitting in my shop for over a year, I changed her name and tags and she sold within days. At the end of the day we all make dolls because we love it, it will never make our fortunes!

[Former_Member]

I think your dolls are beautiful. I also have very slow sales. Thankfully it's not how I make my living! I've sold 25 things on Etsy, and 3 were to my very supportive brother! and my shop has been open since 2010. I've noticed that most art doll makers here on Etsy have very slow sales. I got discouraged and almost gave up after my first year or two as well. But I'm glad I stayed. I agree with the advice given about also looking into other places to sell. I would just ask how much do you love to make your dolls? If you truly love it, keep it up! I hope you do! And I hope the sales eventually come. I've had better luck with smaller priced, silly or fantasy themed dolls myself. But make what you like to make! the $50 and up range seems very hard to sell, and of course, most hand made art dolls are worth at least that much and more! It's a tough market.

[adelepo]

Hello fellow dollmakers,
I'm doll artist from Lithuania, I recently opened my etsy shop, so it's hard to tell whats working.
Lithuania is quite small country it's easy get noticed, but it's hard to sell art. Currently I'm working part time normal job and making dolls.
I'm interested whats working for your shop? How do you get noticed on etsy? And finally, are dolls popular? people want to buy interior dolls? Because sometimes I think there are just a few people who interested in dolls and a lot who think dolls are scary/unnecessary/etc.

What do you think? :)

[Guenillesetboutons]

Hi Adele. Lithuania might be a small country but I notice there is lots of doll makers from that country!

My shop has been opened since november 2012 and it took a while (one year for sure) before the views on it became regularly (by regularly I mean 5 views a day :) ... not 500).

I think if you follow people, favorite shops and items, make treasuries, participate in teams, you get more people looking at your shop. So you have to work a bit to get people to notice you ... but it's all fun since you discover wonderful things while doing it.

Having a full page of items in your shop seems to be more interesting to viewers (makes the shop feel more alive). I tend to look more at shops who have simple and clean photos of their items.

I think time and patience his needed, especially in the doll world, since it's a small and special one.

[Former_Member]

Welcome to the team Adele. It's different for all of us, but the market for art dolls is an odd one. Not everyone appreciates or understands art dolls, but sometimes those who do will gladly collect them in great number and are willing to spend a good bit of money! It's hard to tell how you will do here on Etsy until you try. I average about one sale a month and I'm happy with that, but I certainly don't support myself on it! Cath, it took a long time for anyone to find me, and I found that having a bigger number of items in my shop helped. But with art dolls, it can take a long time to get even one done, so it my take a while to fill up your shop! Best thing I can say is be patient and don't give up!

[adelepo]

Thank you all for replies! It's nice to have discussions with other dollmakers. :) Your advices are great and i think it al through. I think my biggest problem now that I don't have more listings in my shop, but I'm working on that. :D
And Jennifer, I really won't give up, because I don't imagine my life without dolls. Like everyone in here I think. ;)

[Former_Member]

The way I think of it is that only truly exceptional people can have one of my dolls!

I do get frustrated because if I did the same thing only made them from wood, they would be "art". From stone, they would be "art". From metal, they would be "art". But because they are cloth, they are "craft".

I get a few sales a year and have slowly been branching out to other venues, but it's hard finding the time to juggle my day job, time to sew, tweek etsy, find other sites and create new listings, tweek other new listings....

[Guenillesetboutons]

Hi everyone !

You know how we talk about sometimes being discouraged about low sales, having doubts for why we make dolls...

Do people really like dolls ??? Is their a market and interest for it ? Why should we continue making them just for ourselves ?

I found two wonderful interviews of Beth Robinson's Strange Dolls.

Ok... she makes a living out of it, but It has not always been like that. And still now she seems down to heart with her art and we can believe even with her success she still makes dolls because she loves it!

It find it inspiring, maybe it can inspire more of us to pursue doll making, even more than just a hobby (hey why not right ? :)


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlb4uiEzZNw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kib34DzgDZk

[LadyAstarte]

I think we all love to make dolls, love dolls and we really love each doll we make. The each have a "personality" It takes time to make a doll, and her clothing, and accessories. Everything has to be designed and made for each doll. I think that for every doll, there is someone somewhere who would love it just like you do. It's a matter of that person actually finding the doll in the haystack of etsy (and other ) doll sellers.

[Former_Member]

I know have not been in a while, but wanted to stop in say everyone of you makes wonderful dolls, and I am glad that you all love dolls, I love dolls!

[Guenillesetboutons]

Thank you Pamela! Happy to meet you :)

[PrimFun]

I think there may be a new wrinkle in getting found if Etsy revises the search categories. I was recently searching for fairy dolls for my treasury. I used the term but when I went to refine the term, I found not Dolls and Miniatures on the left but Toys. I don't make dolls as toys. I make Art dolls. Lumping them into the category Toys isn't fair to either group. I tried cloth art dolls and once again they were in Toys. I expected to at least find them in Art as a sub-category.

I tried a few other items not related to dolls and found that equally frustrating. I found quilts under Home but found no way to further refine the topic.

It's hard enough for doll makers to be found even in the best of times. These new categories test hides dollmakers even further.

Perhaps I missed something in doing my searches but I'm kind of wishing for the old categories back.

[Guenillesetboutons]

Thank you for the infos JD, I did not know Etsy made changes in the search categories. I will have to see if my dolls can be found easily. I am getting a tad frustrated with all the unnecessary changes Etsy have been making for the past few months, I wish they would just stop for a while.

[PrimFun]

Fortunately I don't think everyone is in the test but if this is the new way of searching we may all need to revamp our tags to get found once they decide and with the holiday season coming up...... I know it's a big one for many. I would hate to see our talented people lose out.

[WildflowerToys]

Hi! New to the group. I've been selling dolls on Etsy for a year and actually have done really well. My dolls are toys, so that might make a difference....I spent a ton of time getting my name out on different sites...Instagram, facebook, Pinterest, Twitter...and I have my own website. I also have a blog where I post pictures of my dolls...that has really helped because Google indexes images from blogger faster then they do other sites. Also, before you upload pictures be sure to change the name of the file to match the description of the item...for instance, on one of my pictures I might name it "Flower Fairy Bendy Doll by Wildflower Innocence"....using key words that people use to find dolls like mine...that way the search engines know what your picture is about.... computers can't see pictures, they read pictures. The better key words you use in naming your picture files the better chance you have of showing up on a search outside of Etsy.

[DreamTrainOfDolls]

Hello, Suzanne! Talking about naming pictures, do you mean naming all pictures you upload to your blog, website, FB page and others? For example I upload pictures to my Google website and blog from Picasa. Shall I name them? Should it be just names or tags? Thank you for time and good luck. Your dolls are beautiful!

[DreamTrainOfDolls]

Hello Dear Ladies-Dollmakers!

You cannot imagine how surprised I was to see this conversation thread "Getting discouraged". This is exactly my state of mood now. Here is my short doll making story:

*Started making dolls - almost 3 years ago
*About 25 dolls are made
*Sold 5 dolls at the dolls exhibitions-fairs (they are very popular in Moscow). Two of the sold dolls were portrait dolls of Russian celebrities. And one of them was purchased to be gifted to the protype. This fact encouraged my greatly but this happened 1.5 year ago.
*One more portrait doll was made to order and also sold.
*In early June I opened my shop on Etsy and sold nothing. Actually I receive a few views and likes which disappoints me.

I also spend a lot of time on working on my Google+ profile and page, blog, Pinterest. Recently I started a FB page which as I expect will absorb more time. I participate in various teams here on Etsy promoting items. I make collections. I also have a shop in a similar Russian online handmade site called LiveMaster. No sales there either. I understand that my dolls are rather complicated and thus expensive and I cannot hope for quick results. But what really discourages me is that there is no even hypothetical interest in my dolls on Etsy. I am now working on a boudoir type of dolls which will not be expensive.

At present moment my big concern is correct tagging. I read everything I could about tagging and tried to do my best tagging my dolls. But it looks like it doesn't help.

Dear ladies, do you think we could help each other with this? What if any of us (I am ready to be the volunteer) present a doll from her Etsy shop and the other Dollmakers suggest their best tags for it. Kind of tags brainstorming. We could start a new thread for this purpose.

Please feel free to comment/reply/suggest. I will be happy to hear what you think. Good luck to all of you! Have a nice day!

Olga

[Guenillesetboutons]

Hi Olga! I went to look at your shop. You already have 54 admirers, in only 2 and a half months, some of your dolls have almost 60 likes in the same small laps of time ... I understand you would love more, but it seems already wonderful to me! You seem to give a lot of time to promote your dolls so maybe it's just time that's needed.

Your dolls are original, don't think otherwise. I love your boudoir doll daisy. I think your selling price of course might be a reason for low sales, but I don't think you should sell your art at a cheap price. We all know how much time and heart we put in our dolls!

You know what I have notice, artists (dollmakers included) that manage to create some kind of buzz around their art and their process of creation, their lives in general on facebook, seem to create a fascination and a need for people to own a part of it! In a relatively small lapse of time, those artists started selling like crazy on etsy.

I saw this with

The Pale Rook ... she actually sold like 5 dolls the first week her shop was opened on etsy.

(https://www.facebook.com/thepalerook?ref=profile)

Mr Finch (https://www.facebook.com/MisterFinchTextileArt?ref=profile)

Antropomorphica (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anthropomorphica/350614524960062?ref=profile)

Cara Carmina (https://www.facebook.com/caracarminadolls?ref=profile)

...just to name of few. Of course doing this take time ...lots of it. You also have to like sharing a lot of yourself with others, letting people in your life, your creative process, taking picture every hour ... and so on. I personnaly could not do this. I like to work in the dark, I need my secret place :) I also don't have the time and the discipline it takes to manage all that buzz.

When I look in the stats of my shop, the only thing that seem to have got people around my shop is the tag ''cloth doll ''. I rarely see anything else. So I don't know if it's the obvious way for people to find what I do, or if it just that all my other tags mean nothing !?!

Anyway, I think you need to give time a chance. Two and a half months is not a lot to be selling on etsy. Don't give up !!!

[DreamTrainOfDolls]

Dear Cath!

Thank you for such encouraging words! Of course I don't think of giving up. The point is that I simply cannot stop making dolls. It's just like a kind of madness. I wake up and go to bed with new doll images in my mind... So I have no way back.

Actually I didn't quite realize that my likes stats is rather optimistic. I mostly got these likes through some promoting teams here. By the way I find them very helpful. I spend at least 1.5 hrs every two days promoting my dolls on various teams threads.

You are absolutely right how much time and efforts the promotion process takes. It absorbs time and yourself! In mid June when I decided to make my Daizy I started doing it like a flashmob. I worked rather quickly and it took me 11 days. Every day I photographed the work done and posted the pictures in my personal profile in FB. I also added some text to it. Beginning from day 5 my girl "talked to me" and started telling me her life story. I got so much involved in the process that Daizy's stories just popped out of my mind. I published the stories in FB along with the pictures. I got a lot of new friends at that time and received lots of likes and compliments. By the end of day 11 when the doll was ready and gave her fare-well speech to FB readers, I was "dead". I had to take a week break after that marathon.

When I pulled myself together and had some rest I realized how valuable was this experience of taking "step-by-step" pictures and sharing them. Now while working I always have my camera by my side. I also keep close some nice trays and cloths which I use as pictures background. I make pictures every day. At night I upload them in Pinterest and Google+. Recently I started my FB page where I will be sharing them as often I can. Interesting fact is that pictures of the process are often more attractive, touching and even romantic than pictures of the finished doll. Sometimes I make them right on the table among my working mess and it gives pictures a very peculiar look. I think that many artists do the same.

I am not complaining about my "no sales". It is just that I am trying to find a right balance between creation time and promoting time. Trying to understand what particular ways of promoting should be worked out and what can be left aside. And more important - I need to find those promotion directions which are enjoyable to me. I want to treat the promotion part like a part of the pleasant creation process but not as a dull and boring duty.

Cath, sorry for being so talkative. I am very happy to meet people with whom you speak "the same language".

I follow this thread attentively and will be glad to learn any other personal stories of making their way in the Dolls World!

Good luck to all! TGIF.

Olga