It’s a pleasure and if it helps in any way I will do a very happy bunny dance. Your photos really are very good. All beautifully in focus. You use the consistent light spotty background for your knitwear. I do think that Folksy like ‘clean’ backgrounds,and maybe the jewellery you have trademarked which has a whiter background would be more acceptable to them.
My early Folksy photos were awful compared to my latest:
Eg. My daisy in a heart with a border 2010: eek - but better than others from the time
Maybe @folksycontent will pick this up and kindly add one of your pieces to the Favourites. That way it will every now and then be on the Front page. I do note that classic jewellery and knitted garments are not often included in there ( more modern versions are more usually to be found) but maybe they should be. sometimes…your knitted things are lovely as once the latest (8th) Great grandchild of Bob’s has been born and I know the sex I will be visiting your shop .
Enjoy your puppy. My daughter’s had puppies in April… 7. Gorgeous. I find them a lovely breed of dog whether a mix of breeds or not. I know several and they are all friendly and non aggressive.
Hi I understand what you are saying and I don’t know why you don’t get more sales via Folksy. As you say you have Social media but… you don’t have a big following on any of them which means your posts are not getting very far. Not sure how you get more followers, mine have grown over time but I Do get sales via Facebook and IG enquiries and traffic to my shop from both and from Pinterest, xx
Lovely to hear from you. At long last someone else agrees with a few of us. All of your suggestions are well founded.
Years ago when I started Demelza Designer Knitwear I had my own retail botigue in an idyllic North Cornish Cove selling only my own work for nine years. I also had lots of free publicity from BBC Radio and even appeared on a BBC children’s programmes and all for free plus endless magazines and local newspapers articles written about my work. That was thirty years ago and I am having to sell my work cheaper now than then on Folksy.
I have thought about E put I don’t like their individual shop set ups and my work will get lost amongst the thousands of items such as hand knitted baby cardigans. However, I could earn more as quality hand knitted baby knitwear is much more expensive on E. I have also been told there is a lot of unfriendly people on it tweeting about one another. I can’t be doing with that sort of behaviour.
As for my jewellery it would be a complete waste of time even attempting to sell it on E.
We must just keep our chins up and hope the CEO of Folksy.com called James Broadwell with an annual turnover between 6-7 million realises a lot of his sellers are really struggling now.
My mam just discovered Folksy last weekend (despite the fact I’ve been selling things on here since last year…but never mind…). I saw she was E, and I asked her what was she looking for, she said a bookmark, so I gently geared her towards Folksy. She loves it now, and then at breakfast time she randomly asked why doesn’t it advertise everywhere like E does… I couldn’t answer… I pay about the same as I did in fees when I used E
The other place is not as friendly, and the customer service is worse than rubbish. And we won’t talk about the fees! Jewellery is so competitive. I used to make it and never really did well. Yet some people do really well charging twice the price. I guess it’s just a case of hanging in there and hoping for the best.
I think maybe the millions you are talking about are not very much related to Folksy and maybe not a good idea to suggest they are. James has fingers in other pies and is a successful business man apart from Folksy.
I also don’t think this is an appropriate place to discuss this at all especially on an open forum.
I for one am exceedingly grateful to our CEO for his vision in creating Folksy which gave me a platform to sell my glass and avoided me using the other E** place which I have largely avoided (I have a shop there but its been on holiday so long I am surprised they haven’t closed me down and I holidayed it before the massive fee increases of recent years so wont be reopening…ever !)
I will give you some of my figures which I am happy to give as I am very happy that Folksy is here for me and other like-minded crafters and artists.
Not sure how many active sellers there are on Folksy at the moment but the New Shop list would indicate 3800 but not all those are ‘actively’ active and lots will not actually be selling anything very often
As as an example… Last year 2020 because of Covid was my best year Ever by almost double.
For the fantastic selling platform Folksy provide me…I paid them £658.42 + £60 fees (Plus Vat but Folksy don’t get that, the vatman does). I have no problem telling you these figures. I was busy, I have a lovely shop and shopping platform, lots of lovely customers and am happy to pay my fees.
oNB: I achieved these figures without the assistance of Folksy adverts but through my own promotional efforts.
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Now if 3878 sellers did the same then the turnover would still be well under £3 million AND I am one of the best or better sellers and I strongly suspect that the total turnover figure is a teeny weeny bit less than that.
I see what you mean, I do really try but I broke my neck 13 years ago and I have an incomplete spinal cord injury at c5-c6. My main diet to keep some limited mobility is morphine 24 7. It’s really difficult positioning my head to take the photographs. Three years later I had emergency open brain surgery for a slow rupturing anyrism on the main right artery deep within my brain. This has left me with poor speech problems and mental fatigue. It’s also very painful holding my arms up, forward or sideways to take some photography shots. Doing the watermarking is a professional suggestion from the NAJ to stop the jewellery copycats as my work has been subjected to it whilst I have been selling on Folksy; need I say anymore on that subject. I knit in the evenings with my arms sitting in my lap. Funny I know but it works for me and I find it relaxing.
My jewellery looks so much better in the flesh. The high end local jewellery boutiques who i did sell my work took exorbitant commission charges (up to 45%) and only on a ‘sale or return’ bases. It’s the same no matter what you sell it’s not just the jewellery and fashion industry. So I know what high commission charges are all about!
One Folksy seller has contacted me offering me help free of charge, which I am deeply touched by. You have all been so lovely and kind towards my problems with Folksy regarding them not accepting my photographs to be a featured seller. My best friend told me my storey to keep going with such determination is a story feature in itself, never mind not being able to take a professional photograph! Lol. I suppose she has a point.
I think the photos are good. I think what they need is some editing to make the background whiter. I’m pretty sure someone can help with that. I’m not going to suggest I do as the software I use is Pre Photoshop and no longer compatible with my windows 10 so has some issues of its own but I’m so used to it… I dread the days it dies !
xxx
PS enjoy that puppy
Joy, I have a question you may be able to answer for me.
My son bless him purchased a light weight Samsung tap for me to use to take my photos. There are not many options to adjust the camera settings so I think that’s part of my problem along with your constructive comments my background should be lighter. I will have another go when I have a reasonable pain free day. Your help is very much appreciated.
I have also just discovered my new tablet is not connecting to Pinterest or Twitter so I can not start to promote myself or others sellers. I have no idea how to make up advertising promotions pages some of you are doing for one another, which is lovely. One seller a few weeks ago kindly included some of my work. I of course emailed her straight away to thank her.
I am terrible using a computer and have very little technical know how, I am ashamed to admit it. Partly why I shy away from using social media, apart from not actually liking it. I am however determined not to be beaten. Its the lesser of two evils for me.
I had a seven year break running my own business twenty years ago to attend university to study operating department practice (theatre nurse training). I just managed to us a computer to do my assignments and i learnt how to do research on the internet. The younger students thought it very funny I can’t even turn one on never alone us one on my first day. I did tell the university during my interview and I was assured I would be computer savey within weeks. Little did they know me! Lol.
Is the connection problem due to my new tablet not being compatible or is it yet again the stupid user!
First of all I should explain that I first became computer literate while at university in 1969…(oops that ages me), I did a course in ‘computing’ to avoid having to do pure economics (and I didn’t have maths Alevel so wouldhave been a challenge !)
. I discovered I had rather a good aptitude, got a job in London, got trained and worked in IT until I retired early in 2003 as my husband, 6 years older, took a pension package which was too good to miss. I thought I would miss my computer work which I really loved (give me a problem and I Will solve it) but had a computer at home and my laptop and could always use those.
My elder sister was a nurse, first a sister in hospital and eventually a district nurse. She also had to learn to use computers and always struggled. I set her last two tablets up for her from scratch and have her password so I can do things like get into her emails when she gets stuck.
So there is nothing wrong with not being totally computer literate. Nothing wrong at all. Just the timing and details of your working life experience.
I can’t see that any tablet would be incompatible with either Twitter or Pinterest. How are you trying to get into them ? By downloading the app or by finding them on Google and trying to register… What messages are you getting that stop you connecting ?
We had a double whammy of Brexit and Covid, and it has knocked many many people for six! I am actually one of them.You can’t spend money you haven’t got… especially people who only have one income coming into the house. Or in some cases no job at all. However much you advertise, you can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. How can you spend money you haven’t got. We are in a recession at the moment, but things will change, nothing stays the same … we will just have to ride out the storm …… things will get better when people adjust.
Oh dear now your already getting technical. I am trying to connect my Pinterest account registered with my Folksy shop account. My daughter in law did Facebook for me but we can’t get it to connect to the others. I see other seller’s have managed it on their Folksy shops. Laura was doing all my Facebook social media promotions but poor girl is having a nightmare of a pregnancy. Yes, I am also going to be a grandma. It’s a boy. I am still working part time for the trust. Gess what, helping running the anesthetic and surgery computer system. I only work 15 hours a week I know what too do to get my work done, buts that’s it. Any problems I just contact CITS and they remote my computer. I have worked from home for seven years. Only twelve months to go before I can take my state pension and retire. My husband is also retired so he’s doing all the hard work clearing up after madam Lottie, housework, cooking, shopping and gardening. I just get the lovely guddles from Lottie. Bless her, she has instinctively known her Mum is having a bad day with pain. How on earth do they know so young. Sorry, I am waffling on and not keeping to the subject in hand!
If you explain to me what I am doing wrong Laura will sort it out next time I see her. She also helps me with the fiddly work on my jewellery making when my hands and arms are too painful and shacky. She will aventually be taking over my business making the jewellery and I will just do the desiging which is the bit I really love doing. My best friend helps sewing up the knitwear when I have days my hands just will not stop trembling. But I design the garments and write the knitting patterns and do the actual knitting.on good evenings. Yes bring severally disabled has it’s challenges when you are a crafty person.
Go to dashboard, shop appearance, scroll down and there is a list where you can enter your username, url etc for loads of sm. they should then appear on your shop front.
My head hurts just reading these latests post, wow there are some clever people on Folksy
I love the help and encouragement one gets on Folksy. Keep going DemelzaDesigns, you are an inspiration to us all.
I think there can be a variety of things that go wrong when you try to connect to Pinterest or Twitter. Particularly Pinterest which for some time I couldn’t use at all. I don’t use Pinterest a lot, to be honest, I don’t find it a medium I particularly like for promotion. But I do know that you have to clear the cache and cookies from time to time, or make sure you’re not using certain ad blockers. Perhaps try a different browser.
I’ve had problems on Folksy too, and that was down to Google Chrome. I had to switch to Firefox for a while.
It wont be a cache problem as she is just trying to connect via a new device. This will simply be a process problem which I will try out on my husband’s tablet and explain when I’ve done what I have to do with my glass for the day.
