I know a lot of you have Etsy shops and I'm thinking about signing up for one as well, however I just wanted to know what people think of it.
I love Etsy. You have to do some advertising for yourself though. Like give out business cards, flyers, join groups online. Patience is the key with Etsy. Risht now there are a lot of sellers and not so many buyers. That will change when the rollout happens in June though, and as they do more advertising. Etsy is a good place to have your stuff. It's only 10 cents to list for 6 months so it doesn't hurt you to have your stuff up there. I sell pretty well on Etsy and I know others that do even better. The forum on there is a good resource as well as the chat room. Flickr is a good place to put your photos of your products, and join the Etsy.com Love group on Flickr. I think patience with Etsy is the key. It may take some time to get established. Make sure you fill out the location and profiles parts. Hope this helps. If you do join (and I hope that you do and need any help let me know. I am http://libracreations.etsy.com And I am usually online all day. You can shoot me a conversation through Etsy if you need anything. *hugs* Kate
Cool, I think I might join. I was discussing Etsy with a friend who frequents Craftster and she says I should go for it. My only problem is... I need a credit card first.
etsy is just starting to get going ....you can look and see how many items a seller has sold ..and i noticed alot of them have not sold to many for the amount of time they have been there....thats why esty is so cheap....
I have sold two things on etsy. I'm going to list a bunch of earrings because I think cheaper things might sell better until I get established. All I know is I am sick and tired of wasting my money selling on eBay. I can sell used store bought clothes on there and sometimes for a lot of money, but I can't sell things I made. I can't sell stuff I've made if I list it for $1.00, and I don't want to sell anything that cheaply.
I adore etsy. If I had a credit card, I'd start selling there. I reeeeeaaaally hope they give other possibilities then credit card.
iv sold 2 things on etsy,within my fist 3 weeks. you haveto be pacient to start off but i think its great, i was a bit down hearted about not selling for a while, but as soon as i got my 1st sale my opinion changed greatly! funny that! its a great little community too. and waaaaayyyy cheaper than ebay
I've wanted to start an Etsy shop for awhile now, and I've just never gotten around to it for some reason. I might try to do it at some point over the next few months, as I'm planning to expand and take my business in a new direction. I've heard a lot of people have success with Etsy as a way to advertise their primary website or store.
I think a lot of people, opening their first store or trying their hand at auctions for the first time, often have a bit of an unrealistic view of what it takes to start a business, and what it takes to get sales. People often tend to think of online businesses in particular as "easy" because they can be very simple to set up and there's usually very low overhead, and they get this sort of naive notion that if they slap up a webpage or an ebay store the customers and money will just come flying in on their own. I've had only a handful of sales at my shop here at the forums (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=408) but I'm not complaining because it's only been there what, a couple of weeks? I don't have an etsy account because I don't have a debit card yet, but I have to say I like etsy and I think it has tremendous potential. I think a lot of people are getting frustrated with ebay, and I suspect in the future there's going to be a trend towards more specialized auction sites, like etsy, where people will go looking for specific items (like handcrafts in this case) rather than trying to navigate the huge mixed environment of ebay - which is already so big I fear it's going to collapse in on itself sooner or later. People can get a higher price for their goods at specialized sites, and shoppers have an easier time finding items and being assured of quality.
