Successful shop without FaceBook etc?

[#1]

Does anyone on here have a successful shop without using social media like facebook/twitter?
I'm finding it very difficult to get my shop noticed without any form of social networking. It's getting kinda discouraging. :(

How do you guys attract customers to your shops? Any help would be appreciated
Tara

[LaurasLastDitch]

I have a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lauras-Last-Ditch-Vintage-Kitchenwares-Small-Appliances/183416251560#!... Twitter account, and blog (http://adventuresinthriftland.blogspot.com/). I'm not sure how successful they are. I've worked hard writing some good blog posts, just to have practically no one look at them, so it's a bit discouraging.

Commenting on others' blogs that are related to what I'm selling does get traffic. For instance, I get hits from the Retro Renovation site from commenting there. It has to be a blog where you can add your name and URL, and I make my name "Laura's Last Ditch--Vintage Small Appliances" for maximum effect, then link it to my store. So you don't necessarily have to write your own blog to harness the power of blogs.

[CutenCraftyDesigns]

I opened up facebook for my etsy shop and so far have not seen much. A couple of likes. I'm not much into facebook either, but if I see it's not doing me any good in a month or two, I'm closing it and just staying with my etsy shop.

[Former_Member]

I have facebook and twitter (twit is new).
On FB I pushed hard and got to about 260 "likes" then I took a break..... i have a bunch of friends, non-friends and other businesses who like my shop. I have had a couple local sales cuz of items I have posted.
On twitter I try to tweet a few times a day and it seems every time i do i get hits to my Etsy shop. :) I don't have a lot of followers there but Etsy is following and so is EtsyLush. Hoping by being active, tweeting treasuries maybe i will get noticed and get some extra promotion.
I am a new small shop.... no fairs yet, just me and time is a real hard thing for me. I am just part time and have no plans on this being a life supporting type of job. I am excited for more sales over the holidays and just keep trying new forms of marketing. :)
I think as long as you are marketing - face to face or over the WWW - then thats whats important.

[Former_Member]

I opened an fb page, and I have gotten a fair amount of traffic
From there even though I only have a few followers. I didn't get my 25 likes until I asked for them, and then it seemed like my friends and family were happy to help me out. I do try to keep my easy stuff off my personal page so that people don't feel like they're getting spammed. I struggle with finding the time as well, but I have been reminding myself that time is part of the price of having an etsy shop. Having a professional website made would be anywhere between several hundred to several thousand dollars, since I don't have the time/ know how to do that myself. Fb gives me an easy way to keep my local customers informed of where I'll be selling and a way to remind people I'm still here : ). I draw the line at Twitter though.
Facebook.com/twentyseven27soap

[Former_Member]

Most of my sales are from social networking--mostly Facebook.

[CDChilds]

Actually I'm not a big facebook person. I might facebook about once every week if I'm lucky.

[Former_Member]

I have a friend in advertising and she says in todays market you have to go guriella warfare! As in, you have to use as many medias as you can because consumers have access to so much so easily.

I use facebook, teams here on etsy, etsy lush, pintrest, and other peoples blogs to stay connected and advertise.

etsylush is a free way to advertise
pintrest allows you to pin anything you like, i pin other work on etsy and rarely my own
facebook lets me tell people that new work is available and if I like a page I can post on it so I often do that when I add a new listing, although it has not resulted in a sell if often results in views
I ask bloggers if they have ad space to buy or if they feature artists I have done free ones and paid for

etsy is a large market place and you have to get your name out there in as many ways as you can in my opnion

[Former_Member]

I do not have a facebook or twitter account. I just a personal choice. However, I do have a stumbleupon account. it is just a discovery sight for search engines. It is simple not chatting or anything. It is a way for search engine to discover things and send it out for others to see.

I am active on a few teams and forums here at etsy. Treasuries seem to be a big way people find my shop.

Your shop is very cool. and I see that you have just joined not so long ago and have 5 sales already. That is very good, especially for fine art. I hope you do not get discouraged. One other thing I have begun to do is blog.

[MythOfTheWild]

I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to use FB or Twitter or anything. It's not like it's going to take hours out of your day! It might take an hour or so to initially set up a good-looking page on a few networking sites, but that's it. After that it's just a moment every now and then to update your status or add a new photograph, and to drop another link to your shop.

You can't expect to succeed without outside advertisement. There are numerous posts on the Etsy blog by admins and guest bloggers that stress the importance of outside advertisement. There is no better outside advertisement than actually getting out there and updating networking sites frequently, and talking to people. Only so many people know of Etsy. What about those that don't? You'll -never- reach out to them other wise, which will limit your market to current Etsy account holders only.

It's not impossible to achieve a popular shop without it though. Just not as likely. I admire your choice to avoid the sites, and I wish you all the luck in the world with it. Don't get discouraged at all. Your artwork is amazing and you've already had quite the number of sales considering your time and your art choice. Well done. These are just my opinions ^^

[Former_Member]

Here are my top 10 traffic sources. You can decide for yourself. I have 1400 fans on my Facebook page but I am also very active on it. I dont believe I would be near as successful on Etsy without it.

Top Traffic Sources

Views
.etsy.com 9076
Direct Traffic 1,147.
.facebook.com 1,043.
google.com 129.
m.facebook.com 103.
10marifet.org 50.
pinterest.com 47.
mainelybaskets.net 45.
mail.yahoo.net 44.
mail.live.com 41.
etsylush.com 31.
Etsy Emails 21

[watermediaworks]

Thanks for those stats, scraptrapped! Very helpful.
I think it's certainly possible to be successful without facebook, but if you have the time to put into fb, you can be far more successful with it than without it, so why not do it?
I say that as someone who resisted it for a long time, but now that my page is up I see that a lot of people who purchased my paintings have liked my shop and can see new works as they're done. So, while I haven't done much tracking, I do think it has helped.

[Former_Member]

I am new here at Etsy. No sales. I started an etsy fb page (after much frustration) and a twitter page. Those two take up so much of my time and I have less time for getting my shop filled. Today I spent time trying to learn the ins and outs of hash marks...now there is another deep subject.

I purchased search ads that are due to run out soon. I intend to get more involved in etsy's teams and the forum.

I think I will get back to my sewing.