Etsy is useless how do you get your products seen!

[Thomas younger]

My partner and I have exhausted our knowledge and energy whilst trying to find a focus group and market for our work. How do you persist and keep motivated when you loose your steam.

 

Exhausting is an understatement.

 

Thanks all 🙏

[sandspider]

Facebook marketplace? Quite a few scammers.

 

There's Folksy, a UK Etsy equivalent I think, but never sold or bought anything on it.

 

I like the Jack Skellington(?) figurey things.

[Muddy42]

Facebook market place is good and doesn't charge fees.  But people tend to be quite flakey and don't reply to messages.

[Steve Bullman]

Facebook is horrendous for selling on. Every time I list an item I instantly regret it

[devon TWiG]

Selling stuff is far more difficult than making it !!  marketing is a very difficult thing to master , even the biggest brands in the world still have an expensive marketing dept , some people seem to sell craft stuff online quite successfully it would seem , but I know far more who have spent a LOT of time and MONEY to promote their stuff , from what I gather ETSY fees work out about 25% on smaller sales  and you do the work ....I have no idea how stuff is sold on Instagram , I think those who have gathered a lot of followers over time , and post a lot , direct them to their own website ...

[Mick Dempsey]

Watching “make it to market” atm which is just about that!

[Steve Bullman]

Also don't be fooled into how much stuff other people are selling. Missus follows a lot of people on Instagram who constantly boast about their sales, going far as to take videos of piles and piles of orders boxed up ready to mail. Another printed off a load of mailing labels and did a video of them trailed out in a long line starting upstairs, going down the staircase, and through the house. Quite pathetic really. A bit of research and you can quickly see that they are not selling anywhere near the amount of things they say they are, you just need to know where to look.

 

Its a sad sad world

[william127]

I'm spending a bit of my  free time at the moment making chopping boards, serving boards,  tea light holders, the normal stuff. To be honest it's mainly nice pieces of timber given a good sand and bit of an oil to show it at its best.

My plan is to get a good load of stuff together then do some local craft fairs, with plenty of advertising for my actual money making  job 😆  price labels on the back of business cards, pile of leaflets, back drop banner etc. If the sales on the day pay the entry, pay for some more timber, consumables and a decent lunch from another stall then I'll be happy enough. 

 

As for how  to actually sell quality wooden items for sensible money day to day, I haven't a clue. Apart from knowing that Facebook marketplace is almost certainly not the answer! But then it is free, so where's the harm in trying, just put the prices where you want them, not where others do. The right person may just see it...

 

 

[Steve Bullman]

21 minutes ago, william127 said:

As for how  to actually sell quality wooden items for sensible money day to day, I haven't a clue. Apart from knowing that Facebook marketplace is almost certainly not the answer! But then it is free, so where's the harm in trying, just put the prices where you want them, not where others do. The right person may just see it...

The problem is theres so many people that do it which makes it a very competetive marketplace to advertise in. We had similar with the partners business. One of the products she makes herself is teething necklaces. They are easy to make and anyone can do it. Only thing that seperates us from people selling cheap is that ours have been tested, along with all the components. It took me 4 years of constant work to get us to the top of google for teething necklaces. Problem is now we are there its all we are selling, and the business has grown significantly since then to offer a wider range of products that mostly just sit there 😀

[Steve Bullman]

Selling on Etsy you are going to be competing with a lot of people selling more or less the same stuff, unless you have something truly unique. Not spent enough time on Etsy to really understand how their system works and how to get items listed above other similar items.

 

Some people seem to have success on Instagram, but like I mentioned earlier you have to take it all with a pinch of salt. Undoubtedly people are influenced by what they see on social media sites and do end up buying, but bottom line is people aren't strictly on there to shop. For the time being Google is where its at for us as far as conversion rates go.