HOAX or NOT?!: "How I Improved My Etsy Shop" Threads

[YarnYardCo]

Hello fellow Etsyers,

So I wanted to start a discusion regarding these threads I keep seeing popping up. They are always along the same title, something like: "How I improved my Etsy Store" or "My Journey to Improving My Etsy Sore", etc.

Are these a hoax? If you actually look at what the person who starts the thread, the message is always the exact same. They talk about Maya which lead them to Fivere and then the list a whole bunch of gig details. It is just copy and pasted. I think when the person says they improved their sales but they do not even have a link to their Etsy Shop so that we can see the proof, that really seems odd, don't you think?

Personally, I feel as though these are just gimmicks to rope us Etsy Sellers to pay money. I doubt they work and I would not spend money on them. It's like a get rich quick scheme, a scam even?

I think we Etsy sellers are smarter than this and shouldn't have to rely on these gimmicks to make our shops grow. Our products and our passion/creativity should speak for themselves and we should use smarter approaches in gaining more sales. There is so much help on these teams and such great discussions. I think we should rely more on these to help our shops grow.

Please let me know your thoughts. 

[NobbyandNice]

 These are spam advertisements and they are against Etsy legal policy for community threads. 

 Like I said in a previous post you can get all of the information they are advertising on YouTube with YouTube coaches for free.

 There is no magic to getting Etsy sales, the magic is in the hard work and research You put into it. 

[YarnYardCo]

@NobbyandNice Thanks for your insight Linda! Yes, I agree with you! I also just saw your post on one of the threads where you shared great resources to help market our Shop. Thank you for that!! I really appreciate when I find someone who wants to genuinely help others without any gain for themselves :).

[YarnYardCo]

@NobbyandNice Also, is there no way for us to delete those posts as they are against a Etsys Rules? Can we report this and also kick those people off the team?

[Former_Member]

I concur with your thoughts / assessment.  There are far too many people out there who try to take advantage of people like us.  All it takes, to be successful, is some research and a little work.  Sometimes the research can be difficult, and the work hard, but, in the end, it is far more satisfying to have become successful by doing it on your own.

[YarnYardCo]

@Former_Member I agree!! Thank you for your thoughts on this matter!

[MustardThread]

I’m so grateful that you are speaking about this because I myself want to genuinely improve my shop for the better but I would see these posts and I would be like something doesn’t seem right about them. 

[YarnYardCo]

@MustardThread Yes exactly! And it’s sad that some of us are just getting pulled into these schemes. When I see the comments of people thanking the owner of the original post, I feel as though I should warn them...but I wasn’t sure if I was wrong. But now I see I am not the only one that feels the same way.

[KMHVintageFinds]

I actually have been thinking the same thing!

[Former_Member]

It’s great that someone id attentive and shared it, thank you! 

I’ve not checked out many of those threads but if the same information is repeated it’s probably off in some way.

[HarmonyRanchCrafts]

Agreed.

The posts you reference are too vague and always include the same Buzz words. E-commerce Is fundamentally based on buyers and sellers being trustworthy and honest. The tactics mentioned in these posts are far from ethical.

We all want to be successful sellers, but there is noMagic bullet and no substitute for being creative and having a good work ethic. 

[YarnYardCo]

@HarmonyRanchCrafts Yes! So on point! Thank you for your words! I agree with you all the way :).

[CleverClayShop]

I agree and have thought the same thing.  

[FrannieandElinor]

I agree with our assessment about people exploiting Etsy to advertise their services. Prior to seeing the posts about Maya, however, I had found her through a direct recommendation from an Etsy seller about her Fiverr gig. I got her gig for $10 to review my shop for ways to improve and increase sales. She prepared a detailed, professional 8 page summary with examples that I have found very useful. I also found Handmade Titan University and Renae Christine's free online tutorials through a similar post. While I didn't like the soliciting via Etsy teams, I am really grateful to have found out about those resources. Totally changed things for me. Perhaps we need a group/team where people can post about their own direct experiences with resources that have proven effective in building their business. That would be useful and the leaders of that Team could be gatekeepers against profiteering by checking that people have shops before the join that team and post. I totally agree, however, that Etsy needs to enforce it's own policies regarding these back door solicitations within Teams. It seems they are proliferating.

[YarnYardCo]

@FrannieandElinor Thanks so much for sharing this! See, this is the kind of review I am hoping to see. Can I ask though, did you see an significant increase in sales after using the paid service?

Yes, Etsy needs to be a bit more strict. Honestly, these teams and forums are so trusting that people think every post is a genuine one. I am sure it started that way but unfortunately others have infiltrated the community in a negative way.

[KustomCutzVinyl]

I for one have used Fiverr 3 times to help myself out.  I work full time (Military) and have a family so time is limited. I have used Fiverr to create a logo, re vamp my Etsy page and also a few SEO redos to visualize how I need to do my future listings 

[YarnYardCo]

@KustomCutzVinyl @Thanks you for your feedback and review! Again, this kind of feedback is so much more reliable. If you don’t mind me asking, do you find that using this paid service helped your shop and sales grow significantly?

[KustomCutzVinyl]

Well one service was creating a store logo, the other one was to re design my Etsy shop with a new banner, categories, etc

the SEO gig has only been three days since I made the changes.  Too soon to tell but for what I used Fiverr for I really like what I got / paid for 

[NobbyandNice]

 When people make a post claiming they can get you a certain amount of sales per day they should be able to show you their store with back up showing that they were able to do that. Ranae Christine  is a legitimate coach  but she doesn’t advertise and ask for money. She has a YouTube channel and she has a thing called handmade tight University which comes out once a year.  Some of the  other coaches have universities like this as well that come out once a year     Which they do charge you for but they are courses they aren’t guaranteeing you sales.

   They don’t claim they can get you sales but they show you what typically works on Etsy, but all of this depends on how much work you put into it and what you are selling and what audience you are targeting.  This is what they teach you in their classes.  You can’t give anybody $5 or $10 and  suddenly you get tons of sales, it doesn’t work like that.  

I don’t see anything wrong with purchasing a banner from somebody or having them do something like that for your shop if you are not able to do it yourself and want it to look professional but when someone claims they can get you sales that’s a red flag. 

[3xRE]

@YarnYardCo Thanks for starting this thread. I completely agree with your post and think this kind of threads are hoax/phishing as all of them are started by people without Etsy-seller profile.

These members have password-like names and have no Etsy shop. As they are not sellers (you can check it when you click the link beside the photo), they only can be shoppers (as far as I understand there are only 2 kind of people who can register as team/community members) and the question is: if they are registered as buyers aren't they abusing Etsy space for whatever they want? I think they do.

The particular member from the beginnig of this thread posted the same ad in more than 20 teams (he/she has 3 pages of ad-posts with similar content). Here's another with a title: Journey to 6400$, per 7 day!!! My methods and proof (screenshot)  which she/he concludes with: 

• Don't ask me to show you my shops.
• No posturing, we are all here to learn including me.
• Don't ask me to prove anything, if you don't believe me then you know where the door is.

I've gotten too many such emails and just followed them and this the result.  

[3xRE]

• Don't ask me to show you my shops.
• No posturing, we are all here to learn including me.
• Don't ask me to prove anything, if you don't believe me then you know where the door is.

[ExploreJewelryShop]

@YarnYardCo I have seen those too! They are everywhere! I agree with you and thank you so much for sharting this discussion because more people need to know about it.