Posts
Astute sellers already zeroed in on the perfect thread that points the spotlight on the bizarre goings-on at Etsy these days.
We’re thrilled that Admin posts are now highlighted!
Rokali zooms in from Planet Etsy by evading questions about Privacy Settings AGAIN with this doozie:
RK: Happy to answer this. First, can you define what you mean by "all privacy related information and features"?
And here comes lisajune with her know-it-all declaration:
lj: Social commerce is core to what Etsy is though. It may be what you want to do, but there will be features you can't opt-out of. :/
So there you have it. Rokali doesn’t have a clue, couldn’t answer a question if his life depended on it. And lisajune (aka the Etsy Parrot) has made herself Queen of Etsy the Social Site.
Love it or leave it, lump it or shove it.
What you thought you saw on Etsy (if you can find it on Etsy) is not really what you saw on Etsy because Etsy is no longer Etsy! It’s an Outer Space Orbit of half-assed Admin comments and Announcements that get more bizarre day after day...no matter what you want to sell on Etsy, Admins are DETERMINED THAT NO ONE SELLS ON ETSY.
Be social or they’ll shove more of it down your throat tomorrow!
42 Comments:
This is a bit off topic, so forgive me. I hate the items they are showing on the taste test. I like buying vintage, but they hardly show vintage as an option on the taste test, and when they do it's mostly fauxtiques. I want real vintage items, and I know I'm not the only one. Despite having no help from Etsy, my genuine vintage items still sell rather well.
To me, it's a no brainer, Etsy should promote more diverse items, after all, if it's selling people want to buy it. If they want to buy it, let's show it on the front page once in awhile. However, Etsy keeps promoting the same sellers over and over again, some with lower sales than I have despite the promotion (and no, my pictures don't suck). I just don't understand the lack of Etsy logic.
I also miss the Garagetsy blog.
How can we be so social without the forums? To "be social" I'd like to read other people's blogs and whatnot... OH WAIT that would take me to an off-Etsy site. Nevermind, we can't have that.
Social commerce is core to what Etsy is though.
_____
Social commerce?? Does that mean paying to get screwed? Thats it! Thats what Etsy is!!!
The Taste Test is not off topic because Etsy is using the same dictatorial methods in all changes to force THEIR definition of "social". Turning most forums into private threads is in the same vein. It's what Etsy dictates is the right direction to increase their profit margins - not what sellers asked for and certainly not what they like.
Falloffs in traffic and sales are direct consequences of Etsy making one bad decision after another. Sellers aren't making this shit up, it's tearing the site apart, limb after limb.
Etsy claims that it's getting positive feedback but Etsy does NO surveys, collects no feedback - they pointedly ignore it or censor it. Etsy claims people like the social tools, but where's the proof?
Etsy is so bad at gauging the needs of its users that they are making decisions that use faulty and tainted data resulting in tainted results.
Case in point - the "formula" that Etsy devised for the Taste Test is based on the total views of items that have, for 7 years, been in Etsy's top 100faves list. The Taste Test shows ONLY ETSY FAVES, nothing else.
A front page that actually takes the "faves problem" and replaces it with this WTF Taste Test is actually a stronger, more opinionated, edited, censored, and faved-to-death abbreviated list of just a few products listed by a few sellers that Etsy has promoted for the last 7 years.
Etsy actually came up with a new FP that is WORSE THAN the old FP!!!! It's amazing!
Faulty data, faulty results. Faulty data tied up with a new smelling bow ---- and still smells like shit.
Who knew 150 people could be so stupid and get paid for it?
Only 12.5% of shops are showing in the TT. Etsy's numbers. Curated my butt. Experiment my butt.
The whole lot of them are off their meds. And, the red headed leader is the craziest most arrogant one of them all.
I haven't been to the forums since they disappeared, I'm not missing anything worthwhile, so no big.
I really have no idea what the taste test is since I haven't been to the Front Page of etsy in over a year. Sounds worse than ever.
BUT I do have a question that may be a bit off topic: links
The etsy rules used to be that you could have a link to your blog or website etc. from your profile or announcement, as long as it wasn't a link to another selling site where you sold the same items...now I've heard from more than one source that Etsy is sending emails to sellers having ANY kind of link, asking them to remove them within 3 days or face shop closure. These are people with personal website links and blog links, not selling links.
Since Etsy doesn't notify it's own members when the rules change, any idea when this changed? Or maybe there has been no change. Is this just another arbitrary bully move by the freaks at big E?
Etsy has become such an insane and abusive place.
That's interesting about off-Etsy links. I've linked to my blog and my Facebook page (I get way more business on FB than Etsy and I get to control how social I am LOL), and of course my Zibbet shop is linked on both those places, but someone would have to look at either of those links to know that.
Haven't received an email like that yet.... but if I do I'll be here broadcasting.
The best thing that ever happened to me was leaving Etsy for good. Far less stress at Artfire...
Have fun Etsy with whatever it is you're creating...
Alert: In a new thread re probs with the TT, this is taken from one of Rokali's quips:
"In general, freaking out over a 1% test is going to be exhausting, heads up. There are going to be many more."
Nice, huh? His pattern of behavior & dramatic disdain towards sellers couldn't be more clear!
Admin CHUCKLARGE (can arrogance be made more obvious?) confirms that the TT results are based on highest views=directed by Etsy as selected Faves.
Etsy is on a planet that can't be defined because it's so openly hostile towards sellers that it's un-definable. Who wants to do any business at all with a company that publicly states how much it hates its customers?
E-nough said:
The etsy rules used to be that you could have a link to your blog or website etc. from your profile or announcement, as long as it wasn't a link to another selling site where you sold the same items...now I've heard from more than one source that Etsy is sending emails to sellers having ANY kind of link, asking them to remove them within 3 days or face shop closure. These are people with personal website links and blog links, not selling links.
Yes, this is true! I received an e-mail demanding I remove links because my announcement says I moved to Artfire and it also has a link to my web site. Etsy deactivated all of my listings a month ago so there are absolutely no items in (what used to be) my shop.
I wanted to open with a line like "I apparently don't know what the fuck social commerce is..."
But, uh, well, I do.
Social commerce (at least the Etsy version) is just influence peddling. A couple employees find their favorite items, and if the people that made those are all nicey-nice and ass kissy and never question anything, then that select group of people can wield all manner of influence.
Unfortunately, if you look that what etsy has chosen, in most instances you will find that those people are assholes. And, yeah, I do mean the sellers. I've met enough of the bad ones in social circumstances off etsy to know that if I saw these folks in real life I'd be shoving a pie in their faces or dumping a drink over their heads.
The retarded selection of items that repeats constantly in the taste test just affirms that etsy's social commerce is just influence peddling within a group of people who will kiss their asses. That's it.
Sadly, most of us would like to just list our fucking products and not feel obligated in any way, shape, or form to waste copious amounts of time on any of these sites.
You know, because that's kind of how ebay works. Who the fuck ever has to sit in front of their computer for 3 hours on ebay pretending to give a shit about other people?
What we need isn't social commerce, it's customers.
The saddest thing about all this shit is that that is retail 101: customers make your business work. Without customers you have no business.
Most of us have no customers, because Etsy's all around approach lacks so much in social skills or actual marketability that they do everything but focus on attracting people to BUY the items that are for sale on the site.
Remember when we as a community used to HOPE that they would buy an advertisement in some mainstream marketplace somewhere?
For all the money wasted on this useless shit — any money spent on advertising would have been so much more effective.
But knowing that involves knowing how to run and sustain a business. You know, because it's business 101.
The real kicker is on page 9 of that thread, in a reply by Rob himself, where he says:
" We're working on better ways to communicate that what's public is public -- e.g. your real name. And when data like this is public, we're going to display it publicly in all areas of the site. For example, we'll be adding real names to the forums, for people who have their real names on their profile. "
So if you've made the mistake of signing up with your real name, it will soon be EVERYWHERE on Etsy. And I doubt Etsy will ask your permission first, after all, you filled in your real name yourself so you must be OK with Etsy using it all over the site....
Taste Test?? Same shit different day. Looks like it's live now.
It's was "very interesting" to see recommendations for me AFTER I signed in based upon my supposed anonymous choices that were made while logged out.
My, my.
P.S. I found the next snippet humorous. I was accused by "no Play" in one of the offshoot Inc. articles of being one of you guys.
I was honored. :)
The other doozy in that thread was when Rokali responded to a question by refusing to answer a question because (I'm paraphrasing here) "he hoped etsy would be around for 100s of years and had no idea what future site owners would do."
Seriously. It's like the crazy boyfriend who deflects your argument by picking apart your word choice.
Also, look through the thread to the post where he states real names will be added to forum posts soon.
Samantha, Etsy only promotes vintage items as far as they fit in with their marketing trends list.
Vintage that is industrial/ salvage, obsolete in some way, primitive country, utilitarian items made unchanged over the decades, import Asian gift shop wares (again traditional and unchanged), or new vintage-style, might make it into the TT. Vintage items clearly belonging to past decades will not make it, unless they fit into one of the themes I mentioned above.
Etsy hasn't been about the artist's or crafter's unique vision -- and I include the designers of vintage items in this -- for a long time. Everything promoted on Etsy is about contemporary mass marketing trends now. Etsy corporate is MadMen circa 2011, where the staff gobbles cupcakes and holds up staches-on-a-stick instead of smoking and guzzling booze.
An update to my previous post. I did not remove 'I moved to Artfire' from the announcement of my already deactivated shop and Etsy deleted my account today. Any links to anywhere will cause Etsy to delete your account.
Well it's official. I'm now a member of the
Mute, boot and scoot club.
TWO very busy shops, hundreds of sales, perfect feedback. Gone! Even with sales pending! I can't even leave feedback for my customers now.
And... I can't even SHOP! How stupid is that? Ban someone from selling if they break rules. You know, resellers, horribly vulgar cards, knock offs, all those people who seem to be most welcome.
I put the whole story on my site if anyone wants the full read.
Meanwhile Zibbet just released a feature that allows sellers to VOTE on what feature they'd like to see happen next on a new idea forum. And to not abuse the power to vote for your own item repeatedly, they are limiting your votes until the feature you voted on gets implimented. Amazing.
Auction Bytes has a blog write up about the latest greates antics of Ginger Snap.
http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2011/4/1302663948.html/1/-9#1302687344
Just to confirm Violet's post about linking - Yes, they will shut you down. After coming off a one week muting, I was perma muted within an hour for posting about my first muting, then my shop was shut down for mentioning I moved to AF even though I had NOTHING in my Etsy shop.
lol, I found out what really goes on at Etsy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6BKhvhSehc&feature=player_embedded#at=138
The elusive "no links" rule is currently being used by Admins to ding sellers who have been posting about hot issues in the last 2 weeks in protest of Etsy's refusal to respond re Privacy issues and the TT plus other changes.
It's another form of censorship that is only applied when Admins are feeling particularly vindictive.
The question we should be asking about this no links policy is - what the hell is Etsy so paranoid about? That shoppers are going to see so many links that they stop trusting purchases on Etsy?
Etsy doesn't care about shoppers anymore than they do sellers.
The paranoia is in response to posts in forums which Etsy takes personally, so the sudden rash of shop closures for links is another Admin hissy fit.
What multi-million $$$ biz treats its customers with such hamrful, anti-biz, vindicative actions?
RK said is himself - Etsy sellers don't like the changes but they're not going to do anything about it!
So, why not do something about it? Remember that every negative Etsy action eventually results in your loss of customers and your loss of sales on Etsy.
The negative buzz about Etsy is a lot bigger than they will ever acknowledge; someday it will damage your biz, your name and your reputation as well.
The great Rokali certainly didn't like this forum thread this morning:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/6854093/
and after closing this one, they closed a few more...
shameful...
There's another interesting forum thread that Rokali, himself, shut down (didn't like the heat maybe??). It was about revealing real names in the forums:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/6854093/
And then a flippant post by Rokali here the same day (which Sean closed down, citing that the topic has to be branded as an idea and that it has to be constructive):
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7714/ideas/discuss/6854325/page/7
And yet another forum the same day about the previous forum asking "Who do you contact when Etsy Admin member are arrogant and disrepectful to the legitmate concerns of their clientele?" Also closed down!:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/6854477/page/1
and now an update to my previous post...
there are now at least 5 closed threads today...UNbelievable!
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/disc
uss/6854445/
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/6854525/
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/6854477/
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7714/ideas/discuss/6854325/
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/6854093/
Didja see where Rokali compared Etsy sellers to Wal-Mart employees wearing name badges? It garners "trust."
Lectures about trust from someone who cheated his way into college.
AAAGGGG *!@# ... I'm sooo tired of etsy trying to shove it's favorites down my throat !!!
mother...f..k...rs !!!
Didja see where Rokali compared Etsy sellers to Wal-Mart employees wearing name badges? It garners "trust."
___
Where is this? Why doesn't he wear a Walmart name badge? Or better yet clown shoes to go with the rest of his look.
@for the hell of it,
I appreciate your responses and you have some very valid points and questions. Many of which we asked ourselves when starting this "adventure", I can ceratinly understand your reluctance to look at anyone new, in the light of the fly by night and shady businesses that pop up these days. I do take offense to "your having your cake and eating it too". You said in your reply to me that you want a venue that has put the time and research in and has a viable and working finished product. This is not realistic if you are looking for a site that has compassion, trust. ethics and morals - willing to listen to its customers and build the site the way the customers want. These days either you have money and do it your way or you have a business plan and implement it over time using the feedback from customers to build your business slowly and steady. But building it to last, to stand behind and service its' customers.
Most sites being built are done so with outside money, which usually means that someone else is pulling the strings based entirely on financials and revenues. When you look at a site like amdrm.com and how we are running it, the final word is not someone in an office in a big tall building, it is one of us, just like you, that has been working and know how things really work. Who appreciates a real person to talk to if there is a problem and, someone to really admit that we are human too and do make mistakes also. I learned a long time ago that you can create the best customer by taking a bad situation and doing right by the customer. It may cost a little in pride but the customer is what makes the business. I have written a longer response to your reply on our website blog, detailng our plans and direction, as well as answering some of your questions directly. I invite you visit and read. One last thing, talk is cheap and really easy in todays' blogosphere, we have put everything on the line in creating our site to provide the outlet, that so many people are looking for.
http://amdrm.com/amdrmblog/blog1.php/all-about-amdrm
We welcome question and suggestions, and yes the sparring from critics. We are very proud of what we have accomplished so far and really look forward to the future and our growth.
Again thank you for the opportunity.
Jeff
amdrm.com
Hello - my question might be a bit off-topic, but not really... sign me up as clueless about what exactly is going on at the new social Etsy.
I'm still a newbie, I started my vintage shop on Etsy last fall (selling genuine vintage, not fake ;)) and at first the sales were surprisingly good. I don't take droolworthy artsy photos and I had no feedback to start with, but I had high quality items for sale, and the very first item I listed sold within fifteen minutes! I was very pleased about that. After that I sold something steadily almost every day. Even at the slowest times, I sold several items per week, and I thought that was pretty good for a small-time seller with no following.
But there's been a drastic change in the past couple of months, and it came suddenly. One week I was selling several items, next week I sold only a couple. Since then it's been about one or two sales a week, at best. A week can go by without any sales at all.
I'm just... puzzled. My items are as good as the earlier ones, and better, at the same reasonable prices (compared to other successful vintage sellers); I take better pictures than before, my thumbnails are clearer than before. But I suddenly get fewer sales, fewer hearts, fewer views even.
Has anyone else noticed this kind of a change? Can "Circles" have had such an effect, and if so, how on earth...? The reason I'm wondering is because I know another seller who lives nearby, sells similar (but often of lesser quality, e.g. significantly flawed) items to mine at similar (or higher) prices, and she usually gets several sales PER DAY. She also belongs to 200+ circles, while I only belong to a couple. I don't even know what exactly the "circles" mean - can they have become so crucially important so suddenly?!
I'm feeling just a little bit discouraged about the whole thing. The last thing I need is more social media to worry about.
(I'm especially puzzled as none of this social media business has affected my own buying habits on Etsy: I still make specific searches and find the things I want my own way. I don't understand HOW any of these changes could possibly have meant that fewer people find my items, but it really seems to have happened, for some reason or another.)
Puzzled Person, this kind of "lights on/lights off" thing happened to many of us for a long time. My guess is that they're doing something to the code to cushion their server needs, but it could just be data mining and stacking. Look for topics about "rolling blackouts".
Replying to Puzzled Person.
Yes, the site has changed. Started around the beginning of this year when they cluttered up everyones profile page with junk that doesn't belong there and very few wanted there.
We all complained.
Next came circles. AUTOMATICALLY OPT IN. ANd when anyone circles, you get an email. Sending emails when you got a heart was against the rules. But etsy can change the rules any time.
We all complained. (I sent their damn emails through spamcop. THEY opted me out.)
Now these things are annoying but ok, sites change. LIve with it or leave. Fine.
Then came the privacy dig issue. (Go google etsy and privacy. You'll see TONS of news blogs about this.)
now EVERYONE complained LOUDLY! People up and closed.
But instead of LISTENING, their answer to all the complaining was to fracture their forums.
I personally love forums and really liked theirs for a long time. The complaining got even louder only now, the gestapo started closing thread after thread. Hours or even minutes after starting one.
People kept right on complaining, and being ignored.
Then came the muting. Something you wouldn't notice since muted people can't post anything.
But it sure does make for some angry customers!!!!
Folks like me who say hey! I'm not a five year old, I am YOUR PAYING CUSTOMER!
Do NOT dig my contacts out of my email
Do NOT send me emails each and every time someone circles me or circles my circles or what ever. (That turned into nothing but a free way to promote ones own shop. I want no part of it.)
Further complaining, no matter how carefully worded WILL get you perma muted.
Then will NOT answer support emails. Not good for any business to do that.
And next, came the boot. (Of course, this was after I stuck links to my new artfire shop all over the place. Knowing full well I was leaving anyway. May as well get a few free plugs first.)
Only..... booted people CANNOT EVEN SHOP!
now how ignorant is it to kick shoppers out of your business for good?
And I'm finding a LOT of people over on Artfire alone who also got the boot. Lots of those shopped once too.
So is it any wonder why your sales are down?
etsy isn't what it used to be. It's right DOWN THERE with ebay now. Doing all the same shit. Muting, booting, banning any form of link to other sites. (They used to be ok with that.)
Better start looking for other baskets for your eggs now. Etsy seems to be steadily getting worse all the time.
@Jeff, Thank you for responding to my post. I will be going to check out your blog once I finish this post.
If you could clarify your reference to "the cake and eating it, too", because I'm not seeing it.
I also fail to understand why a compassionate, and ethical company would not be able to conduct its own research towards building a workable "product". How is dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's" going to detract from an ethical perspective?
I am essentially neutral with regards to companies getting investors. But then again, that knarly little research concept of mine, makes me believe that it is up to the owner to do some real research into the investors and to take some time to think through whether a given investor is a good fit. I just can't believe that guns are being held to anybody's head and forcing contracts to be signed.
Investor money in theory allows for Economies of Scale. IF the owner has done his or her Due Diligence, and done it well, investor money, in theory, should be little more than an additional tool towards building a business.
If the number crunchers wind up in control, whose responsibility was that, really?
I believe that a customer is right, most of the time. There are though, occasions when they are NOT. AND to give a customer what they want 100% of the time, could in fact wind up being a disservice to the customer based upon greed. There are times when it becomes neccesary to, "as politely as possible", tell a customer, "No, that cannot be done." It is then neccesary to explain why and to be able to give reasons behind the "NO" answer.
I am in full agreement with admitting to a mistake and being willing to do what it takes to correct a bad situation. I do though believe that there is more pride involved in not allowing false pride to impact your ego, when needing to admit that a mistake has occured. I have received more heart felt praise, from fixing mistakes, and by going the extra mile, than I could ever hope to achieve by "getting it right" on the first run.
So, I'll read your blog. I NEED to figure out how to get this online stuff to work, because of quite a few inescapable reasons.
Whose to say, maybe your site will wind up being the 1, that works in ways, that jive out for me.
Just out of curiosity Jeff, why AMDRM?
Every time she types something, the dumb shows.
"lisajune says Highlighted Post
In all honestly, promoting is one of my least favorite parts of running at Etsy shop. You'll also notice my shop's kind of slow. Haha!
I'm trying to find ways to manage my time and find ways to promote that I don't find tedious and annoying. It's important to plot a business plan and find a way of promoting your work, that works for you.
I'm really enjoying reading the suggestions here! Great discussion.
As for fixing search, one of the engineers on our Community and Content team, Vernon, spoke on the ways in which we're working to improve search;
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/6822949/page/1/?post_id=60317548
"We *are* working to fix search and it's a hugely important priority to us. But we want to do it right. It's more than just tweaking a few outputs and sorting things a little differently. It involves fundamentally improving the data that's coming in, creating new tools to manage that new data, and then evolving search to take advantage of that data.
We're getting there and we'll let you guys know as soon as we having something to share. If we have to earn your trust back, then that's only fair. I just wanted to give a peek behind the curtain and what our thought process is."
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/6822949/page/1/?post_id=60317548
Thanks for posting this!
Posted at 7:44 pm, April 18, 2011 EDT - Report this post
"
@don't remember my handle - amdrm is a new handmade marketplace, built, run and designed by real people. We are a smaller private family run company and got tired of the politics and the way other sites are run. We have set up http://www.amdrm.com/ as a selling site. We have the social as well but our focus is on handmade by individuals and small business, the only reselling allowed is in the vintage and supply catagories. We have been building the site with input from customers. Our focus is creating a place where buyers and sellers can create business. We are new and growing and plan to be here for many years to come. Got more questions go see the site, or email me jeff@amdrm.com or you can call 970-872-3648 leave a message, we will call back.
To Puzzled Person, the vintage seller: If you go look at vintage, you will see that there are 1250 pages of vintage with 40 items per page. That equals 50,000 items. The total amount of listings for vintage on Etsy is over 1,241,000 items, much of which is probably fake or vintagesque.
Etsy did the same thing to supplies and jewelry last year. It killed many shops.
Whatever you do, don't start playing the Etsy lotto...renewing a lot. People have done that to the tune of $100s of dollars because admin(Particularly Lisa June) have told them that is the way to get seen. That $.20 does not give you four months in search, unless someone hits the right keyword.
Etsy should have mentioned a listings cap was put on vintage. If they did, I didn't see it, but I am no longer there. I took my real vintage beads to ArtFire.
The other issue is that Google shopping is messing with their parameters again. At Etsy, it's not clear whether one is on Google shopping. At AF it is, and everyone's items are pending. That is hurting my business a lot, but our admin is very straightforward with us, so we know they are working on it.
The average buyer at ArtFire spends more because we attract an older audience rather than hipsters. It's really a whole different world.
Picklevalentine actually adds a lot of clarity to the Etsy-do-it-their-way-or-die formula while pointing out the newest Etsy slap in the face --- no notice to sellers about the dramatic changes for Google feeds. Is Etsy even paying attention? Or is this more proof that sellers selling is still not their priority?
All the new, forcefully imposed changes on Etsy are based on formulas and data that are loaded up front. Etsy spent 7 years promoting a small fraction of sellers and product types - so their data is heavily weighted to increase the benefits of any new site features to the same group of sellers and products. (Proof? The new TT - who do you see there? same sellers, same products!)
Any seller not in that group are throwing money down the toilet. Etsy is using data that they manipulated to force vistitors in one direction (to their fave sellers) ---the results are the same but only more pronounced.
That's all Etsy is -- a tiny, very labor intensive, expensive boutique that flogs a few hundred sellers they like. Their new social network is simply a more elaborate (and confusing) push to the same sellers and the same products.
Very few sellers actually sell on Etsy because Etsy set it up that way.
Yes "funny one" !!...you took the words right out of my fingertips !!
Talk about hitting the nail on the head...
People, people pay attention to her.
She is telling the truth !!!
I've been trying to sell on etsy for three miserable years, and the abuse and put down feeling is driving me nuts.
They think that we don't know what's going on.
FOOLS !!
I'll give it about a couple more months, then, etsy can stick their cupcakes up their a... !!
Thanks so much etsybitch, I could not have made any sense of it without you ...and without loosing my sanity.
A big (()) to you.
For anyone selling in ANY venue, here's a link to a Bonanza blog post explaining some of what Google is doing next.
http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Google_Product_Feed_UPI_Changes?utm_campaign=mass_mailing_24&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email
Bonanza has had a much better success rate with getting items into Google shopping that either Etsy OR Artfire.
Sellers need to file for exemptions if they fall into certain areas of merchandise. Supply sellers and Vintage sellers could wind up losing their uploads. There is only so much that the venues will be able to do. The onus of this is on us.
Here is the link to a Bonanza thread explaining what needs to be done by the individual sellers:
http://www.bonanza.com/topics/158953?forum_id=1&utm_campaign=forum_topic_reply_notice&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email
More proof that Etsy is both out of touch with reality and have a set of (personal, ego-driven)priorities that have nothing to do with sellers selling is the new Rokali playroom - the front page.
The TT was removed and replaced with a scrolling cupcakeland of the most unappetizing, unshoppable crap ever to be found in ecommerce.
And right in time for the most crucial week of Mother's Day gift shopping! yes, that's right, Etsy is fucking with sales during the one week in the next several months where people are going to actually spend money on something other than filling their gas tanks.
Etsy is imploding right in front of our eyes.
To top of their continued display of uncontrolled arrogance, Rokali decided that putting the Sign-Up fields in the prime real estate location of the right hand column--scaring MORE new visitors away from the site. The TT blew them out of the water, now the new Sign In, which looks like it's REQUIRED to shop the site, will turn away even more potential shoppers.
Any site that asks me for personal details UP FRONT before I can shop has lost me at their front page. I am not giving away info about me for the site to use once I decide the site stinks.
And Etsy's funny, odd, weird, and total-turn-off rotating Front Page smacks like they want something for nothing. My personal data for a site that looks very unappetizing from the Get Go.
What the hell is Rokali thinking?
If this isn't proof for sellers who are not selling on Etsy that Etsy is determined to prevent you from selling during a very important retail week, I don't know what will. Don't put one more 20 cents in their pockets.
Etsy is in full self-destruction mode. Don't let them take your money with them.
@for the hell of it, ArtFire items are all good to go on Google Shopping now unless they're disallowed anyway. If your studio is pro the Base Doctor tool can usually let you know which word is causing the disallow.
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