If you check into the forums and read the announcements you will see that there have been many changes. The biggie is that Etsy has now embedded a Localization feature for the UK and Australia. When anyone in those countries search they are shown local shops items first and the "Ships Anywhere" or shop location feature is no longer enabled. They have been testing this for at least two years and it is suspected that Canada will be added to this algorithm. I believe they are testing for this in the US as well as they ramp up their Etsy ASAP program.
This and the inadequate categories and sub-categories has made it difficult.
But specific tweaks to the algorithm favor listings that have sold and automatically relist - this quote from Etsy:
"The second component that determines your volume of impressions is the quality of your listings. Etsy wants to make sure that high quality and relevant listings are showing up in the promoted sections of search results so that buyers find the things they want and buy them. So Etsy assigns each listing a quality score that takes into account a variety of factors, but primarily past buyer behavior on that listing and similar listings. To boost your quality score and show up higher in the promoted listings within search results, you’ll need to do the same kinds of things that drive your success in Etsy search. Those things include upgrading photos and using more descriptive titles and tags. In general, the higher your click rate is on your ads, the higher your quality score will be, and the more likely your ad will be to show up higher in the search results page. We’ll discuss ways to improve click rate below, in the “Interest” Section. Again, the key here is to experiment to find ways to boost your quality score. And while your participation in Promoted Listings has absolutely no effect on where you show up in Etsy search, the kinds of changes you make to improve your quality score for Promoted Listings will likely have a positive impact on your performance within Etsy Search."
For vintage sellers in general and pattern sellers particularly, since many times we have only one copy of a given pattern, our visibility is going to be tougher and tougher. Methinks, since Etsy's main source of income is not from sales but from user services, that those who do not perform well in sales will end up paying more in promoted listings.
This time of the year has not always been this slow for me. It may be slow for those selling Valentines or Easter bunnies, but for those of us selling supplies our sales should always be robust.
