I'll admit it. I was obsessed with making Etsy Treasuries. I made at least one a day and was on a team that had great communication to the point that I was reading emails for hours on end. That and my part in teamwork and the other team that I occasionally made treasuries for took up a good chunk of my day. All in hopes that my Treasury would make it to the Glorious Etsy Front Page.Why the Front Page? Because there my friends, teammates and I might be seen and draw more sales to our shops. Treasury making is fun, but if you think you're not doing if for glory and sales, you're kidding only yourself. How many buyers make Treasuries, even though they can? And if they make one do you thank them? If you don't you could be missing out on sales too.
I have another confession to make. I've been kicked off of Etsy. No more Treasury making for me. This time it was my fault. I ran a bit behind in my payments and they want their money. Can you blame them? Most of the time they shut down shops, they are unreasonable, although they did refuse to work with me. It's all or nothing, and as Etsy was my main source of income, it will be a very long time before I can pay them back and get my shops open.
There is a point to all of this, since I've stopped making treasuries, I finished my taxes; learned how to make linkable widgets (see them over there ----->); started making that website I've been talking about; opened up a few new venues to sell at; followed tons more peeps that are following me back; found and implemented addthis and designed some lovely new fascinators that will soon be listed at my Artfire shop. And yes, I am actually selling there too, not much, but it will grow. When I do a search for my items, I see the links to Artfire and Zibbet ranked way higher than my Etsy items ever were.
In summary, I am doing the things to promote and grow my business that I should have been doing all along. Etsy wants you to think that the Front page is critical to your business. It isn't. It's critical to their business. They charge high fees and then contract you for your valuable time to design their front page. With relisting fees, my overall percentage to Etsy was closer to 8%, not 3.5%. Please, make Treasuries if it's fun for you, make them if you want to get to the front page, but don't make them at the expense of loosing out on other opportunities to make your business grow.
4 comments:
Diversification in all areas...that's the ticket!
Hi Cinders. Well said. I enjoy making treasuries in part b/c I discover some very cool stuff. But it usually takes over an hour and in the end is a marketing tool for Etsy if it is "good enough," which it most often is not. It can be fun but probably not the best use of precious time.
I'm glad to hear Artfire is working out!
I'm sure all the promoting you are doing will pay off and your Artfire sales will go up soon!
And closing up a shop for non-payment might not make sense if they want to get their money. If you're not selling, how are you gonna pay them back?
cheers to all of that! i have had a few rushes of sales when i've hit the front page, but i have wondered if it's worth the time and effort. i enjoy doing them, and i'm only obligated to make about 8 a month. that i can handle. i've been thinking about big cartel, actually ... have you looked over there?
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