A high number of favorites/followers usually comes from being in many teams and playing the daily 'fav-a-thons', 'like-a-thons' and whatever else they are called.
When I first started I joined pretty much every team I could get in.
And I spent most my free time online playing those games. I met great people and I loved it then.
Then I could not play for a while and all of a sudden I got good search results without playing any of those team games.
I counted my teams and I was in about 60. So one day I just stopped playing games and I left all teams.
It took me a while to join a team again: Etsy success. I liked, that it said 'a non promotional team".
I am in 5 now, all but this one are Prototypes: shop stats improvements, shop dashboard, shop stats: historic comparison lines and tracking improvements.
All of them are very helpful. (for me) And I don't have to play the games to stay in the teams.
I had so many followers/ many left me, when I left the teams.
Followers only see in their status, what you have 'liked'.
Admirers see your items in their feed. But pretty much also only when you list a new one or renew one.
My sales often come from customers, who just opened their accounts, who have not favorites, who don't show their favorites.
Followers and admirers are great to have. I do love to browse in their shops and find totally different things, that I never would have looked for otherwise.
The number of followers or admirers just does not mean that your shop is better or not as good.
