January 17th: The Ups and Downs of Selling on Etsy

Oh etsy, you're suck a fickle, fickle beast. As soon as I decide "I'm outta here! No more!," I get a rush of sales. And of course the opposite happens as well. When it seems as though etsy sales will finally pick up: crickets. Just check out the stats above. There's three or four decent sales days and a whole lot of nothing.

There's a recent article that talks about Bushnell's law and how it relates to etsy. Basically, etsy will give you just enough sales to keep you around, but not enough for a full-time living. I'm not sure if I agree with that idea exactly, but the article is worth a skim (it's really, really long):

The Huge Etsy ‘Change’ You Probably Don’t Know About - And How to Beat it

There's some gems in there, along with a decent amount of fluffy math and quasi-logic. Its general conclusion is that it's up to us, the shop owners, to bring in our own traffic to etsy. I've heard this over and over from etsy as well. If someone with a handler complains to etsy about their sales and views dropping, they're told it's their own fault not bringing in their own shoppers. But honestly, if we're going to be bringing in our own customers anyway, shouldn't it be to our own sites?

Overall, etsy sales are higher than last month, but down from just about every other January I've had on etsy. Still plodding along at the moment.

Jan 1st-17th
2009: views not tracked, $2099.80 sales (in 17 days)
2015: 6443 views, $279.48 sales
2016: 3928 views, $222.23 sales