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

January 12th: Selling Printed Collage Sheets

I've been selling printed collage sheets wholesale around the world for several years now (for example at Fire Mountain Gems, who are awesome by the way). It's going well, and recently I added the printed sheets to my shopify store. While I initially set it up as an easier way for wholesale customers to purchase the in-stock sheets, retail customers have been finding the site as well, and purchasing ever-more-frequently. With a bit of work and some advertising, retail sheets could definitely replace etsy income. Today was another day where my stand-alone site far outpaced my etsy sales.

Day 43 - January 12th
Etsy Sales $7.88
Etsy Views: 291

January 3rd: Selling Places Other Than Etsy

It happened again. My ugly, unfinished stand-alone website sold way more than my etsy shop. And on a day where etsy sales were decent, too. Perhaps it's time to actually work on a better digital site, whether on instantcollagesheets or my main shopify store. Who knows, if you click on the instant link above years from now, maybe it won't be so bad?

Day 34 - January 3rd
Etsy sales: $55.62
Etsy views: 264

January 2nd: Doing What You Love

By Lilla Rogers for Make Art That That Sells.

I watched an interesting video for artists today that suggested to start 2016 with a Venn diagram. In one circle, list your artists passions, what you love to do. In the other, put items that make money. Somewhere in the cross-over is the sweet spot. For me, I realized etsy no longer exists in either circle. I like making art. I like selling it. I especially love getting positive feedback from my customers. What don’t I like? SEO. Search terms. Playing a game where there are no clear rules, and as soon as you’ve figured something out, the rules change.

Day 31: One Month of Trying to Make a Full-Time Living on Etsy

It’s been a full month of trying to revitalize my etsy shop. So far I’ve:

* listed 13 new collage sheets
* sent out a newsletter
* created several new types of first images (showing images as pendants, longer, more pin-able images, etc.)
* added new tags and titles on 20+ and made over 5-10 new first images

On average, I’ve been spending 1-3 hours per day on etsy. Not much compared to the 10+ hours per day I used to spend, but a decent enough chunk of my time currently that it should be bringing in results.

I’ve also been tracking my views, sales, and search relevancy, along with that of 20 or so of my top competitors. Here’s the stats so far:

December 2015
Total sales: $261.08
Views: 6917

December 2014
(with no new listings, tagging or time spent)
Total sales: $377.08
Views: 9440

Tracking Similar Etsy Shops
In looking at the top 20+ similar etsy shops over the past month, their average net after paypal and etsy fees is $429.61, with numbers ranging from $123.19 to $1728.22 (only one shop is over $1000).

While I won’t say it’s impossible to make a full-time living on etsy with digital collage sheets these days, I’m coming to the conclusion that the amount of time I’d need to put into my shop to even break $1000 would end up paying me about half of minimum wage.

December 28th: How Important Are Etsy Categories

If you've shopped or sold on etsy recently, you may have noticed the categories prominently listed on the top of every etsy page: Clothing & Accessories, Jewelry, etc. Clicking on the links brings up further subcategories, and overall it's not too bad of a way to shop on etsy.

For digital collage sheets, however, it's been a disaster. At the exact same time etsy began emphasizing categories, they did away with the category “digital collage sheet.” I recently wrote to etsy and asked what category collage sheets would fit into, and SEVEN days later they got back to me and said, essentially:

"Items go into categories based on materials, how it's made, who made it, or who it’s for."

In other words, there is no longer a category for digital collage sheets.

You can see the full list of categories on etsy here. There's football helmets (7000 of them), train cases (3000 items). Heck, there's an entire category devoted to golf bags (all 294 poorly tagged results). And yet the more than 100,000 items that are tagged "collage sheet" have no home.

A recent article on etsy search and SEO sums it up well: "I'm sure we've all noticed that invasive new drop-down menu that takes over half the screen whenever you mouse across it; these are the new Browse sections and many shoppers use them. If your item doesn't fit in these you got problems."

Well poop.

Day 28 - December 28
Etsy Sales $0
Etsy Views: 239

December 18th-21st: Getting Positive Feedback

I love positive feedback. When I listed my first collage sheet eight or so years ago, it sold 20 minutes later and I knew I’d stumbled onto something good. That’s definitely not the case now. Hours spend on etsy yields very little feedback (so far). This morning I woke up to five incredible emails about licensing, printed collage sheets, and major graphic design projects … but not one etsy sale. At this point I’m proceeding on more stubbornness than hope. Perhaps a routine of an hour a day spent on the etsy site can help roust some sales?

Today I received more sales on my stand-alone, instant site than on etsy. To put that in perspective, take a look at the screen shot above. Do you see the categories on the left that just say “Custom Page 1…..Custom Page 2…..Custom Block 1….” Do you see the sign up at the top that says “We’re just getting set up here”? Do you see how UGLY the whole thing is in general? And the “newest” media is from 2009 I think. Basically, I uploaded my sheets to this site years ago and haven’t touched it. And yet, more sales there today than my whole etsy site. Okay, honestly, that wasn’t hard since I had zero sales on etsy. But still….

Dec 18-21st
views: 792 (198/day)
sales: $15.83 ($3.95/day)

December 17: How Much Money Can I Make Selling Printables on Etsy?

I was having my own little pity party on etsy today. I’d listed six new collage sheets and, after 13 hours, had a total of one view. ONE!

So I decided to check out the competition to see if it was just me. You may remember that back on December 2nd I’d gone through Craft Count and picked out about 20 of the top, comparable sellers of digital collage sheets. In an excel spreadsheet I wrote down their total sales up to that point. Now, 15 days later, I checked in to see how they were doing. I recorded total sales, average price, and subtracted estimated etsy fees. Guess what? It’s not just me. Out of 23 stores—the absolute best of the best selling collage sheets on etsy—only one is netting more than $1000 per month (around $1700). The average is just over $400. To put it in context, not one seller is making above the U.S. poverty level from etsy alone. By comparison, my average sales on etsy in 2011 were $3000-$4000/month.

I know that not every category is down on etsy. There’s even other types of printables (invitations, templates for photographers) that are doing quite well.

But my own niche of jewelry-specific digital downloads isn’t looking too great at the moment.

I’m not pulling the rip-cord yet on this experiment of mine. But it’s becoming more obvious that digital collage sheets on etsy alone will not pay the mortgage.

Day 17 - December 17th
Etsy Sales: $8.94
Etsy Views: 230/day
Total Etsy Items: 398
Updated Etsy Items: 12/398
Facebook Likes: 322 (up one)
Instagram Followers: 500

Dec 16th: Do Sales Cause More Sales on Etsy?

Ha! Remember yesterday when I thought I’d have a sales bump after the piddix newsletter? Nope. $4 all day.

In theory, part of search relevancy is how much an item sells, so after sending out my newsletter yesterday (and thus getting several sales) piddix collage sheets were trending slightly better in search. Normally, I have two sheets in the first 50 pages of “collage sheets,” while for most of yesterday and today I’ve had 4-5. My eventual goal is to have at least one item on every page of that search.

But the small search bump definitely did not bring in more sales. Back to the drawing board.

Day 16 - December 16th
Etsy Sales: $4
Etsy Views: 352 (way up due to newsletter)

December 15: Newsletter Time

For a long time, one of the benefits of etsy was that it could bring massive traffic to your shop, much more so than a stand-alone website where no one could find you. Lately, though, I think that situation has reversed: it’s much harder to be found on etsy now with the increased competition, whereas sending customers to your own shop means they not only “stay” in your shop, but there’s also less fees.

When friends of mine have asked their etsy handlers about their drop in sales or search relevancy, they’ve been told it’s their own fault; they need to promote etsy over their own personal sites, which is of course a bunch of malarky.

All that to say I’m of two minds when it comes to how to promote my digital collage sheets, and where to send potential customers. For the moment, I’m all about etsy. So when sending out my newsletter today all the links pointed to my etsy listings (thus a higher than average day sales-wise). And since sales often beget other sales, in theory there should be a snowball effect for the next couple of days. That said, it’s definitely time to re-vamp my personal site as well. Being beholden to a company that can make major changes on a whim is not a great long-term solution.

By the way, here's what my most recent newsletter looked like, in case you're curious.

Day 15 - December 15th
Etsy Sales: $36.78
Etsy Views: 608/day
Total Etsy Items: 392
Updated Etsy Items: 5/392
Facebook Likes: 321
Instagram Followers: 500 (finally!)

December 14th: Promoting My Etsy Shop

Back in the saddle again: pinning and promoting the etsy shop. I even listed a new image. It seems to have helped. Views are up, and even had a sale. 

I looked at my promoted listings, though, and the numbers are not good (I spent more than I made so far in December). Definitely something to address.

Day 14 - December 14th
Etsy Sales: $11.15
Etsy Views: 272/day
Total Etsy Items: 392
Updated Etsy Items: 4/392
Facebook Likes: 321 (up one)
Instagram Followers: 498 (down one)

Days 10-13: Etsy vs Craft Shows

Setting up the Crafty Wonderland booth for Deck & Lock Rocks.

Things have been quiet here on the etsy re-vamp front. Instead, we spent the last three days at Crafty Wonderland, selling more in 2 days than I usually do in 7 months on etsy. Talking with another long-time etsy seller there, she said that this year etsy for her was down by 70%, while Amazon.com’s handmade was picking up. It definitely begs the question whether the time spent on etsy is worth it. Are there better (and easier) ways to make money with crafts? Definitely seems like it.

I’ve been with etsy long enough, though, and perhaps I’m just stubborn enough, that it seems fair to give it one last shot.

Over the last four days I’ve averaged $8/day, and that’s without any time spent on etsy or in making any improvements. For the most part, etsy is a fire that needs to be constantly stoked. In other words, ignoring it for 4 days isn’t doing my shop any favors, but I also really can’t complain too much about $30 with no effort.

Days 10-13 - December 10th - 13th
Etsy Sales: Average $7.78/day
Etsy Views: 174/day
Total Etsy Items: 392 (20 expired)
Updated Etsy Items: 3/392
Facebook Likes: 320
Instagram Followers: 499

Day 8: Making Pin-Friendly Images

I wrote yesterday about coming up with new "first images" for etsy that were fresh but still true to my personal style. After a lot of futzing, I ended up with an extra tall image that has a collage at the top and sample uses at the bottom. On etsy, I can arrange the image to only show the top collage, but on pinterest or once someone clicks on the listing, it will show the entire piece. So far it's been testing well, with the new design outperforming similar images that have the collage only. I might keep playing around with it a bit, but for now it seems like a good direction in which to head.

Day 8 - December 8th
Etsy Sales: $0
Etsy Views: 212
Total Etsy Items: 412
Updated Etsy Items: 3/412
Facebook Likes: 320
Instagram Followers: 497

Day 7: Better Photos and First Images on Etsy

Having really, really good "first" photos on etsy is key. You can have an amazing product, but with dark, blurry, bad photos, you won't get many sales at all. 

Roughly half of my listings on etsy are just low-resolution, watermarked version of the full sheet (see example on left below). Nothing fancy at all, and hard to see online. So as I go about my shop remodel, I'm looking for new, better ways to portray my digital downloads.

At first I thought I'd show the images in use. Quite a few sellers are mocking-up their images on pendants and glass tiles and they look good. I tried it....even scanned in dozens and dozens of blank pendants and set up ways to input my images...but it just wasn't me. It didn't feel right to follow that particular trend. In general I'm stubborn, and would rather innovate than follow. 

So for now I'm scrapping the pendant mock-ups in favor of my old collaged style default (3-4 larger images as the focus, like the Valentine circles at top right). I like it; it's my style. And companies have even licensed those first-image-collages for products such as wall art and calendars. I'm worried my reluctance to copy other successful shops' styles is short sighted; that sometimes it's better to be a follower. But having thought about it over several days, I just can't do it. Thus, the next step is seeing if I can improve upon my current collaged style. Perhaps there's a hybrid version that's still me.

In other, very, very exciting news, a good amount of sales today. I really hope this is the beginning of a trend!

Day 7 - December 7th
Etsy Sales: $20.82
Etsy Views: 189 (down quite a bit)
Total Etsy Items: 412
Updated Etsy Items: 3/412
Facebook Likes: 320 (+2)
Instagram Followers: 497

Day 6: Customer Experience as "Negative Factor" in Etsy Search

In their recent announcement about search, etsy warned that "recent cases and past intellectual property infringement issues can have a negative effect," while completed "about" pages and shop policies can have a positive one. I believe this is an attempt on etsy's part to stop shops that pop up quickly full of copyrighted knock-offs, since many of those shops don't necessarily take the time to fully complete their profiles. Yet the announcement caused stress among many shop owners who asked what specifically was defined as a "case"? What if someone brought a copyright case against them but the matter was found in their favor; would that still count against them? And for how long?

I, too, had some stress about the ambiguity of the statement. Two months ago I went out of town and completely forgot to pay the last $30 of my etsy bill. I was late for a whole four hours before getting a reminder notice, then hopped online and paid it off. Not a big deal, right? But for four hours my shop was suspended. Would a suspended shop count as a "case"? I was pretty sure it did, since that coincided with a big drop in sales.

So I wrote a note to etsy support and asked about search factors, and received a surprisingly helpful answer that no, a temporarily suspended account does not cause etsy to denote or diminish sales or views (thanks Andrew). If you have any questions specifically about any cases or issues against you in the past, a visit to the etsy help page may hopefully bring some illuminating details or reassurances.

Day 6 - December 6th
Etsy sales: $4
Etsy Views: 291 (not bad)
Total Etsy Items: 395 (whoops; look like 10 items expired)
Updated Etsy Items: 3/395
Facebook Likes: 318
Instagram Followers: 497 (+1)

Day 5: Getting Sales on Etsy

I got a sale! The biggest one so far in my 100-day-attempt to revitalize my etsy shop. I feel like a total etsy newbie with her first sale, which is kind of fun.

Views and hearts are both way up, too.  Previously it had always been the case that sales beget sales on etsy, and it did seem like after the sale piddix was showing up higher in the search rankings, and views definitely increased. It would be great if the increased views could carry on into the next day or two. Definitely baby steps, but still exciting.

Day 5 - December 5th
Etsy sales: $19.95
Etsy Views: 357 (Up by more than 150)
Total Etsy Items: 405
Updated Etsy Items: 3/405
Facebook Likes: 318
Instagram Followers: 496 (actually went down by 3; boo)

Day 4: Getting Seen in Search on Etsy

Every few months it seems, Etsy changes their search algorithm. For shop owners this equates to frequent shop updates and a frustrating guessing game: changing titles, re-doing descriptions, testing whether renewing and advertisement dollars still result in sales.

In November, 2015 etsy announced they were changing how search works, with criteria now including:

- Relevance of titles and tags
- Listing quality
- Customer and marketplace experience
- Recency
- Shop Location
- Shop Diversity

According to the related etsy help article on search, listing quality...increases "if a buyer clicks, favorites, or purchases an item after they’ve seen it in search results." In other words, the higher the number of hearts or purchases per view, the better.

So in addition to listing a new item today, I also joined a marketing team that focuses on swapping hearts. I discovered this concept recently when I kept seeing items with 500+ hearts and only 200+ views and tried to figure out how that happens. Basically, you join a view/heart sharing team, post your item, and then favorite X number of people and they'll favorite you back.

It feels a bit pyramid-scheme-y, to be honest. But I'm trying to throw everything possible at this etsy re-vamp, so figured it's worth a try. At least for today, hearts are up, but sales are still down, so we'll see how it all goes.

Day 4 - December 4rd
Etsy sales: $0
Etsy Views: 195 (Down, but 50+ new favorites)
Total Etsy Items: 405 (+1)
Updated Etsy Items: 3/405 (+1)
Facebook Likes: 318
Instagram Followers: 499 (+1)

Day 3: How to Increase Views on Etsy

Today was all about getting more views on etsy in an attempt to increase sales as well. You can see from the above chart my views have been going down all of 2015 (with the exception of May, which is when I advertise the piddix subscription). Last month was just 6,000; that includes total shop and item views (the blue and purple lines). By ways of comparison, in 2014 my total views were over 10,000 per month, and back when I was full-time-etsy they were closer to 15,000.

To increase views, I listed a new collage sheet and posted it to:

facebook
pinterest
instagram
shop updates

And added almost 20 items (17 that were sold out, 1 brand new).

I also started using the "Sell on Etsy" app, feverishly checking the "Stats" tab for both views and favorites.

And it worked (kinda). Views went from 174 to 223, which is nice. However, today's sales were a big fat zero. Well poop.

Day 3 - December 3rd
Etsy sales: $0 (boo)
Etsy Views: 223 (+49)
Total Etsy Items: 404 (+18)
Updated Etsy Items: 2/405
Facebook Likes: 318
Instagram Followers: 498 (+2)

Day 2: Tracking the Competition on Etsy

Day two of performing CPR on my etsy shop involved lots of competitive research. Specifically, I wanted to see if selling my product (digital collage sheets) on etsy was still a viable option. Is anyone still making money with jewelry and mixed media printables?

I started with Craft Count, which lists top sellers by category. I went through all 100 top digital collage sheets sellers and chose about 20 based on similar products, pricing, and high quality to briefly track. So far it's not great. Even the top shops are only selling 10-20 items per day. While that may sound like a lot, it's nowhere near the numbers the category once had and most of the products are low-priced ($3-$4 each).

Then a took a look at general themes, strengths and weaknesses. For example, Christmas is definitely trending (makes sense) and many of the shops with blatantly illegal images are no longer there. Having a good, consistent look and feel was common for the best shops, while a scattered non-cohesive look anchored the lower performers. All bringing up points I can improve upon.

I also pulled up my old Uncle Gravy account to check out my relevance for search terms, discovering that I'm only on 2 to 3 pages out of the first 50 for the search term "collage sheet," while others are on every page (really not good for me). Tags and titles are definitely something I'll need to tackle soon to be seen in search.

Now on to the details.

Day 2 - December 2nd
Etsy sales: $7.93 (hey, that's twice the day before!)
Etsy Views: 174 (slightly lower)
Total Etsy Items: 386 (all the rest are the same)
Updated Etsy Items: 0/386
Facebook Likes: 318
Instagram Followers: 496

Can You (Still) Make a Full-Time Living on Etsy?

I have a confession to make: etsy, I’ve been ignoring you.

While back in the day (2008-2012) etsy was most of my income, ever since they started offering instant digital downloads two years ago, I’ve put the shop on auto-pilot. I average $250-$300 per month in digital sales, which isn’t too bad considering I do almost nothing to keep the shop updated (most of my income these days comes from licensing and wholesale printed collage sheets).

I also seem to have lost faith that etsy is still a viable income source for small-time designers, even asking back in May “Is Etsy Dead?”

In talking with other full-time sellers, their experience seems to be a mixed bag. While most had their best etsy year in 2012, and all have opened their own shopify stores as back-ups, there are still plenty who have stemmed the tide, who have made all the crazy changes (titles, tags, photos) necessary to keep relevant in a sea of mass-produced goods.

So I’m curious: now that both my boys are in school and I have a bit more time, can I bring my etsy shop back from the grave? Is etsy still a viable option to make a full-time living?

Because I know I do well with 100-day challenges, I’ve decided to spend the next three months and totally re-vamp the etsy shop. I’m going back to the basics: new product images, better item descriptions, re-doing tags and titles, growing two specific social outlets (Facebook and Instagram) and most excitingly: lots of new collage sheets. I currently have 386 items in stock and would love to have 700-1000 by day 100. I also have a very ambitious financial goal: from $7-10/day to $70-100/day by the beginning of March. Gulp.

And because I’m the type of person who loves and is inspired by seeing hard numbers, I’ll post here every day to share my daily sales, stats, and goals with the hope that it can inspire (or perhaps warn) others. Here we go:

Day 1 (December 1st)
Etsy sales: $3.96
Etsy Views: 184
Total Etsy Items: 386
Updated Etsy Items: 0/386
Facebook Likes: 318
Instagram Followers: 496

I’d be curious to hear how etsy is doing for others. Do you think etsy is still a good option? Is there anything you’ve done or noticed that works (or doesn’t)? I feel like I’m starting all over, which is in many ways very exciting. Thanks for coming on this journey with me.