I am so excited! My men's stationery was featured on the Huffington Post today! Thanks Etsy for helping me out! Here's the link if you want to check it and the other shops featured:
I watched the Nate Berkus show last week (I think) and he featured ETSY so people hear about it.
I took a graphics class for visual artists at the college this semester and learned photoshop. I'm thinking about making up some Shop ETSY posters and putting them around some of the coffeehouses, natural groceries and other places here in Austin that people have public bulletin boards. It certainly can't hurt.
No sales, very few views. I've been up a week now and was hoping that the time of year would be in my favor...maybe not! Just one sale, Santa, pretty please!
Congratulation, Allison!! That is REALLY awesome!!! So happy for you. And Minervax, I think that's a great idea. I'm actually planning on doing the same & posting it at the place I have my hair done. (Also where I go for manicures!) HOWEVER, I think Etsy should spend "SOME" of its own money...the money they keep accumulating every time we list and renew our items. Don't you think it's only fair??
It was my hope and goal to have at least one sale today, and surprisingly enough, it happened! There's still time left in the day, I hope everyone sells at least one item for a little confidence boost :)
Allison, congrats! Definitely something for you to be proud of and the rest of us to aspire to.
I've had decent views and likes thus far in the day, no sales. In the posts, I hear a lot of complaints about how Etsy does us wrong, but ultimately I think we as artists/craftspeople need to take ownership of our own success - otherwise we'll never grow as sellers. I know that the largest reason I'm not making outrageous sales right now is because things still need to be tweaked in my shop, I haven't yet mastered the art of social media and I really should have linked my tags/titles for sales-appropriateness earlier, since it takes a few days for SEO to catch up.
I think as a marketplace, Etsy is fantastic - otherwise most of us would be selling at craft shows with high fees and hit or miss sales, or hosting our own websites with either high overhead or the need to really reach out for advertising. The fees that Etsy charges are nearly negligible, and if you put forth the adequate effort making your shop work for you, one should be able to adjust one's prices to pad for that cost. If you think of Etsy as the mall, and all of us as the individual shops, then you can see who should really bear the onas of advertising - us, as individuals. And sometimes if the basics aren't met yet - clear and interesting pictures, excellent tags and titles, branding, and meaningful participation in the community - then that advertising may be wasted.
Just my two cents, for what its worth. It's easy to complain, and some days I'd really like to, but I feel its more empowering, and useful in the long run to look inward and change what we have the capacity to change in order to make things better for ourselves.
1 sale, it was less than a dollar... I was hoping to get some money so I could start on my own Christmas shopping, but I've got worse views today than any other this week end. *sigh* I thought this month would be my busiest, so far it's my second slowest....
Rebecca...I do agree with you, in respect to us looking closely at ourselves and seeing what we can improve on. There's ALWAYS room for improving...and I'm continually trying to do so. Thinking of "Etsy as the mall and all of us as individual shops"...is a good analogy, but I still think it would be nice if Etsy did some advertising so that the world knew we even existed. Even Ebay advertises. Why not Etsy? I just feel sort of slighted...just my personal opinion. I think many agree with that sentiment.
