I'm still looking for the holy grail, so I thought I'd blog about it and see whether anybody has found it. Here's the problem. I love making beads. And I love making jewellery. And I love all these outlets that are available for them. The question is - what do you put where? I mean, as a buyer, do you really want to flip from etsy to website to folksy to artfire, checking out and paying via a couple of different sites, then get one parcel in the post? Or do prefer having just one place to go, with everything under one roof?I've pretty much given up on Folksy (nothing at all against folksy, but my day has limited hours!), but I'm trying to persevere with etsy. My clever idea was that I would move jewellery from the site and onto etsy, plus the beads made to order. And yes, I've had a sale - hurrah!! A pair of my earrings is now winging its way to California!
The trouble is, since the jewellery moved to etsy, I've sold far less than I normally would, because people *don't* move from my site to etsy. They also aren't doing what they were doing before, picking beads and asking to have them made up into jewellery. I don't know why, but it's been two months now that my jewellery has been on etsy.
So what to do? Do you split it? Having bits of jewellery as well as beads in both locations? Doesn't that mean the double-shopping again? Do you just accept that your work will get exposure in both places, just *different* exposure? I love the community spirit on etsy, the street teams, the treasuries, the buzz. I love that 'convo' is both a verb and a noun. I just don't know where the holy grail is.
I get exactly what you are saying. I currently list on my website and etsy I have had some etsy sales but I wonder how many people are put off by etsy cos it is in $. I have just made my first Folksy sale but at least 6 months after signing up and I have not bothered with it for 3 months in fact I forgot I had stuff listed! Shame cos I like Folksy!
ReplyDeleteWhen you find the holy grail hun please share ;O)
I know what you mean Sabine.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have started to do is list pieces on my website first - and I email my customers, then whatever hasn't sold after a a couple of weeks I start moving over to Etsy.
That way my regular customers get to see the goodies first - and as I clear it down and add new pieces it looks fresher - and I do get comments saying that it's nice to see new stuff!
That's just my thought!
Trudi x
I meant to say - love your kitty!
ReplyDeleteThanks Saffie & Trudi - Trudi, I really like your idea of moving stuff - I'm always really happy when something sells that's been in the shop a while - maybe switching audiences will shift stuff faster....I shall ponder that one!
ReplyDelete