Does Playing Favoriting Games Help At All??

[Former_Member]

Just wondering, because I don't want to waste my time completely with it! I can see how it helps sometimes, but if the same people are doing in over and over again then it probably doesn't help, right?

[Former_Member]

Are you talking about the kind where you post items and teamies favorite certain items in your shop?

Sometimes it does. We've been doing something like that on one of my teams, and for a while, it did seem to boost relevancy. It doesn't seem to be working as well anymore, and I think this is the last week we're doing it for right now. Some people have slacked off, too, so we're not getting as many hearts overall as we were.

[Former_Member]

Yeah that's what I meant. I find that sometimes people will forget to favorite your item as well, which can be a little annoying.

[Former_Member]

It bring some views to your shop... You never know. ;) but you can always hope. But it keeps you busy and you have a feeling that you are doing something, not just waiting.

[Former_Member]

That's true, Ella. Lol sometimes idk what else to do with myself.

[Former_Member]

:) I know the feeling Teresa...
But the etsy's advice is also: join the teams and participate... So...
(But I find annoying games where you MUST fav 10-15 items above. I like to think if someone gives a <3 to item, that that is because he or she truely likes it. So I choose not to participate in such games. I started having really unlikeable things (unlikeable to me) in my fav list. I don't feel it is right.
And if it's a game where you must fav something from the shop above, if I don't really like nothing, I will come back letter, to check out when someone else posted.)

[Paintspiration]

I feel the same, Ella. I don't favorite something unless I actually like it. I have also been wondering if promoting on teams works. I run through the teams I'm on and promote when I have 3-4 new items. When I stop doing it, it seems like my views and sales drop, but I haven't been able to figure out if that is a coincidence or not. I figure, it can't hurt so I might as well!

[Former_Member]

Well I can definitely say without fav games there are no views. (I can't say about sales, cause there are none)
So Michelle it's no coincidence. Btw love your avatar. :)

[Orchiada]

LOL Ella I agree I have a hard time faving something that I don't like. I have seen lists of items that I am not really in to and don't like, just not my style, so I don't participate in that round if that is the case I come back later. I also like to use my time carefully, especially since I have so little of it.

[KnottyCovers]

I check my shop stats every day and can tell you for a fact, when I take the time to go look around and chose some things I like to favorite, shop's I want to add to my favorites and other sellers I want to follow that my stats show a high return for the effort.

The minute I stop participating my stats drop tremendously.

On the other hand I am not much into the favoriting games either, i like my favorite lists to represent my taste. That said, i do try and help other people who are on my teams. So have participated in some of them.

[MycrobeCatnipToys]

I am an addict of the "Favorite an item from the shop above you game" and play it mostly for fun. I join teams with active game threads just to play them.

But, I have also received many sales from them! And it turn, I have purchased items from other etsy sellers whose shops I might not have discovered otherwise. If you're thinking of dabbling in them for the increased sales, I recommend playing during the holiday shopping season.

[Former_Member]

I tend to follow people who favorite items from my shop (I don't do this all the time) and also see what other items they favorite. I see the other items from different shops they favorited and see who else favorites those items. I then follow those people who favorite similar items, but haven't favorited anything from my shop yet. This way I have a better chance of people following/favoriting me or my shop back. This way I attempt to get new people seeing my items in their threads and therefore are brought back to my shop.

Uh, confusing maybe... but it makes sense to me :)

[Former_Member]

I have had a few sales from the "faves" game. Someone faved my item and someone that was following them saw the item and purchased not long after. I had my own reservations about the fave games as well. But I don't pay for any ads and aside from facebook and various instagram posts I will take any chance to "cast a wide net" to show my items. I always try to remind myself the millions of ppl there are in the world and I need my items seen by any means possible! I don't take too much time. Every other day or so I participate in the teams I am in, takes an hour or two. Exposure exposure exposure. =)

[Former_Member]

Since at least 50% of my customers come from outside of Etsy, I've not seen any long term success with playing the favourites game.

In 5+ years of selling on Etsy, I've had a total of 5 people tell me that they purchased from me because they had the item in their favourites.

[Former_Member]

Not really very much into teams which play games like that, although I have frequently participated in treasury, favourites games which only help for as long as the games goes on for, after that I find it becomes irrelevant.

Many of these games are found in teams which are just about long threads of promotion and I've never seen much sense in these, many are just about posting rather than actually going through and finding items in the thread you like. And like others have said its difficult to favourite something you don't like

[silentmagician]

I've gotten a few views from those threads, but no sales (as far as I know?) I only play the ones that you post the favorite item, and then I only favorite it if I really like it. I figure if someone is following me, they are doing so because they like my style and it's better to focus on items that fit it :-) I think it works best when there are a lot of people participating and you get to see a wide variety of different things. I quite the ones that have the same people over and over.

[TerraRhapsody]

I've found it helps a lot, as those games can allow your items to spread through people's networks as well. If someone has a lot of followers, those followers may add your item after the initial favourites are given too!

[Former_Member]

I used to try it when I first started, but found that it was too easy to get 'lost' and waist all my time doing it :-) Now I just work on listing items and trying to grow sales- I've really seen a greater improvement in my sales AND visability within my shop mostly due to the fact that I have over 400 sale (!!!) and over 300 items listed- now I have at least 1 item on the front page of a search within my categories, and sometimes more! Being one of the first shops that people pull up has helped my sales way more than the games ever did. But, for a shop just starting out I think it's a great way to start to build views and favorites - just set a timer & discount the spike in stats when you participate!

[rhodyart]

I do participate in them because, as some people have said, my views increase when I do. However, I limit the time I spend on them. For example, I belong to three promotion teams. BUT, I only do favorite threads on ONE of those teams each day and I am choosy about what I do.
For my "interest group" teams, such as Etsy Paper, Art and Book Illustrators or my regional teams, I usually do the one or two favoriting threads on each team as these are more within my personal interests and I am happy to fave items for the art related teams.
For those of us who have not yet hit the magic daily sales threshold, self promotion is even more vital than the really successful sales. And for better or worse I suspect these types of things are, in the long run, really important for exposure.
I do other forms of promotion as well--I don't limit it to teams. It's all about what you're willing to do, able to do, and how much time you really have to do things, I think

[Former_Member]

I've played those games, but not a huge fan of them. Not sure if it helps or not.

[lemontoes]

I stopped playing the games. Not because I made a conscious decision to, but because since I committed to a painting a day I have been finding it very hard to fit everything in. There has been a massive drop in views and favourites since I stopped, but my sales are not great anyway so I don't know if they have been affected. I know I have to put more effort into teams etc. but time is so short I want to do the things that will really help. It seems opinion is equally divided on whether these games help. I think the ones I was participating in did tend to be the same people, so often I would run out of things to favourite! Interesting thread. :)