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Otherwise known as: How to lose a lot of money on Etsy, fast!
Lo and behold, Etsy continues to rake in record profits on listing, relisting and Showcase cash, AND on items that sell for an average of $15.00!
The site is fast filling up with doodads and trinkets priced mostly in the $5-15 range, and we wonder WHO’s really making the money here!?
Especially now, with DXO’s latest project with 3,590 tips for spending more money than you make!
That’s it, folks, the Etsy holiday formula for losing your shirt in that distinct Etsy style! Follow their wacky advice requiring huge gobs of time and labor and you too can get 10 slots in the GG’s, 62 repeats on the Front Page, be included in 29 repetitive Dorkies and those ever obnoxious Etsy Finds! Just keep it cheap and stock up on ric rak for clever, wasteful, but cute packaging!
From your pocket to Etsy’s (free labor included)!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Etsy 101: Seller Tips on Spending More Money Than You Make
Posted by The Funny One at 1:54 AM
Tagged: daniellexo, loco, virtual labs
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14 Comments:
And on the Dorque article, one of the items featured below is peanut butter cookies-- nowhere does it say they are baking in a licensed kitchen. Fail.
Fingerless gloves with blatant tag stuffing.
then I got bored.
WTF does DXO know about
"We'll talk about everything from developing the perfect gifts that will fly off your virtual shelves, to making sure you're prepared to ship all of those items."
Um, don't most sellers already HAVE items to sell? Oh, that's right, they must be etsy approved products. Flimsy, easy to make, and oh-so-hip.
Shouldn't you know how to ship before you list items to sell??
But have you ever noticed the faves never use this Etsy holiday formula.
That should tell you something.
Oh look!
http://community.etsy.com/selling/gifts-for-him-showcase
Another (yeegads) Showcase primed for more seller spending with no sitewide stats on conversion to real sales! Showcases (at a cost) are mutiplying like rabbits!
Priorities at Etsy, ka-ching = 1, seller = negative another $7.00 a pop.
Holy shit, I’m 30 years old and haven’t heard of “BUST” magazine, which I bet will be going bust in about 7 months. Anyone remember a little magazine called “Jane” or how about that good old “George”. Ugh, why would I buy an ad in a magazine that is aimed at people who really have no money? Aside from the fact that the target age of my customers is 38+.
Hey, etsy, how about an ad in “Good Housekeeping”? Maybe “Ladies Home Journal”? Seriously, no Yokoo, no cat perches, no cloth shoes, no severed baby doll hand soap… actual products that appeal to actual people with actual expendible cash!
Oh shit, wannabe hipster fucktards are too kewl for stuffy old shit like marketing degrees or demographic analysis. Yeah, Bust magazine, neato!
Fuck, I’d like to tighten someone’s cowl.
I agree Funny One. All I ever see are sellers saying the showcases did not result in sales. It would be helpful to see some real stats from Etsy. I also would not participate in an expensive group ad. Unless you have the money to really saturate targeted media with your name and products, these tiny expensive shots in the dark don't bring back much return. At least the group ads are on a first come first served basis (or so they say) I would also like to hear some feedback from sellers who plunked down their money for these ads. Advertising is necessary but where and how you do it must be thought out carefully. The newbies on Etsy don't know this yet. Word of mouth from happy customers is the best choice for advertising...and its free!
I couldn't get past the title of the article to actually read it.
Holiday Rush my ass!
Wake up Etsy sellers, there is no holiday rush, it's an etsy urban myth to get you to list and renew like a maniac in the hopes of making a sale or two. This is going on my 4th holiday season on etsy and there is no holiday rush! If you aren't selling regularly in August, you aren't going to be rushing around in November! Unless of course you make a terrarium with a moustache on it wrapped in a cowl.
Like taking candy from a baby.
"Flying off the virtual shelves" is the latest Etsy gimmick to get sellers to watch money "fly out of their bank accounts" into Etsy's cash register. It also seems to have given enough busy work for DXO and marymary so they aren't posting needless random thoughts in the forums. It's an alternate reality. SyFy Etsy!
About a month ago, I watched my page views drop to zero, in spite of the fact that I was putting up lots of product and turning out some very tasty-albeit expensive-finished pieces. I then spent an hour one evening sitting at the computer and watching the Newly Listed items scroll by.
I cringed. I shook my head in disbelief. This..trash, this amateur garbage is what Etsy wants to be known for?? Bibs that say "IPood", jelly jar candles, earrings that are nothing but a couple of cheap beads on a headpin, badly sewn handbags with huge pink flowers? THIS is the Etsy brand?
I started moving my stock back to my old Ebay account. It flew out the doors. I was stunned to find people buying who had been customers 2 years earlier when I left and moved to Etsy. They'd been waiting all this time. One woman said she wouldn't waste time on that "ugly, childish site" and was glad I was back on ebay.
I'm not wasting time this holiday season on Etsy. The good stuff goes to ebay and my private website, if my techie gets off his ass soon.
And WTF good are fingerless gloves in sub-zero weather?
Oh god! Has anyone else been to Regretsy?? It is hysterical-there's YOUR brand, Etsy! Take special note of the cheese-grater clock held by a chick with a cigarette in hand..
Go look, go look. Great amusement for the EBers, massive embarrassement for Etsy. The best of all possible worlds..
Blogger The Funny One said...
Oh look!
http://community.etsy.com/selling/gifts-for-him-showcase
Another (yeegads) Showcase primed for more seller spending with no sitewide stats on conversion to real sales! Showcases (at a cost) are mutiplying like rabbits!
Priorities at Etsy, ka-ching = 1, seller = negative another $7.00 a pop.
November 5, 2009 8:21 AM
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I would like to address this one point, as I pretty much agree with EB about this article.
I purchased a number of showcases in my early days on Etsy, when they first appeared, and there was no one you could ask whether or not they were successful. They happened not to be for me, so I haven't purchased one since.
I've also read the threads in the forums asking whether or not showcases are 'worth it', and the overwhelming response is that they are not, although a handful of sellers will say they were successful and they would do them again.
While it would be nice to have an idea of how successful showcases are, I can't think of any advertising that I have purchased that gave those kinds of stats to anyone. Advertising on Project Wonderful or Craftcult or blogs or social networking sites are a gamble. You do them and evaluate their worth because what might not work for you could work for someone else.
I can't think of a good reason to try and persuade people NOT to at least try one showcase so they can learn for themselves whether or not they want to continue to invest in them. What if you persuade someone that might have been successful?
And here's another thought; the steady stream of people who buy showcases, and new showcases popping up to be sold, just might be staving off listing hikes, which would affect everyone. If everyone stopped buying showcases, I would imagine that Etsy would have to find another way to generate income and higher listing fees and final value fees would probably be the route.
Or maybe they would go to a flat fee system like Artfire. I don't know about the rest of you, but I couldn't afford to do that. And by the sounds of the forums, neither could the majority of sellers.
So if my listing fees stay reasonable because people are buying showcases, then so be it. I would imagine after buying one or two without any return on their investment they would have enough sense to not continue to do it.
WindyDesigns makes some interesting points, but Showcases aren't what they were. The front page has relegated them to a minor box on a page surrounded with Etsy controlled promos, so each paid spot is competing with ALL ETSY PROMOS of their faves. Shoppers are 10 times more likely to click on an Etsy pick than a seller pick.
Basically, Etsy has designed all promo sections of the site to WORK AGAINST PAID SELLER ADS that compete with Etsy for attention.
They may have had some value 4 years ago (just like relisting used to have value) but they are totally out of date, and completely inadequate. And Etsy competes against them. Pay Etsy to be put on page 5,643 of their style magazine? Why would any seller think that's worth paying for?
Showcases are not a promo opp for sellers, they simply generate boatloads of cash for Etsy.
They should have been canned at least 2 years ago. Today, if you aren't a fave seller on Etsy, promoted for free by Etsy, you don't sell on Etsy.
The Funny One said...
Another (yeegads) Showcase primed for more seller spending with no sitewide stats on conversion to real sales! Showcases (at a cost) are mutiplying like rabbits!
My thoughts exactly.
Having spend 2 decades in advertising, from both the buying and selling ends, the Etsy showcases are the first and only advertising opportunity I've ever seen that sells space with zero data to back it up.
It's stunning to see how many people will just buy ads with no stats. You'd never see this in any other business.
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