I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but here goes…
We’ve been on ‘the other’ selling platform for several years now and doing quite well.
This is our second attempt at Folksy, the first time we made 3 sales, this time 0 sales. Its been a few months, but even our views feel quite low…
Despite this, I really really really want to continue on Folksy, as I love that fact that it is UK based - what can I do? Any advice gratefully received. I’ve tried pointing Pinterest and Instagram posts to my Folksy listings. I am a member of Folksy Clubhouse on Facebook.
My partner, Paul - the other half of gorlech - thinks that woodcraft might not have a home on Folksy, but I hope this isn’t the case…
I would really love to hear your thoughts / advice and critique of our shop if you have time,
Thanks so much in advance,
Claire
As another woodcraft shop on Folksy I know what you mean. I have made a few sales but nowhere near the amount on other well known sites. I will give it another 6 months or I will have to revert to the dark side. I like this site much more due to the helpful friendly people who have bent over backwards to make me welcome, but I do need to get more sales. Your shop looks really good, I could definitely learn something about photography from you, your pictures look very professional. I hope your sales pick up.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Your stuff is amazing - those penguins, my nephew would love them! And your bowls are gorgeous. Such amazing work… I’ve only turned one thing in my life - a Christmas tree for my daughter. It was fun, but not as professional as yours… Paul has done some turning in the past and hopes to get a pole lathe set up, now we have a barn workshop on friend’;s land - no room in our house workshop…
Well done for getting sales on Folksy! It’s hard to understand why we struggle with wood products. They are sustainable, enduring and - because no two pieces of wood are ever the same - completely unique… Hard to photograph though, so that the shop doesn’t look too ‘brown’ - since I’ve been adding colour to my photos, I’m doing much better on ‘the other platform’…
Great to see that you have made sales though - it is possible!!
I have been hammering Instagram with a link to folksy shop, haven’t made any folksy sales but have made some good contacts that have given me a few jobs. It also raises the profile of folksy which all helps Glad you like the penguins, they are cute
I don’t think it’s because it’s woodcraft, or because the items are no good (both of you look to have great quality items), I think Folksy still just needs a lot more of a push as it’s nowhere near as well known. Also, when people know you’re selling on multiple different sites, they’ll probably automatically click on the one they’re familiar with or already have an account with. I suspect this has happened to me recently as since I reopened here I share my links to here rather than the other side… but I’ve recently had sales on there to people I know through social media, because I’ve spent years longer promoting there and some had previously bought from me there, so it’s still the first site they think of.
My sales aren’t as much as I’d like here, but I think Folksy needs time, especially when you’re established elsewhere… which is why I suspect @ChrisStoneArtist does better here than the other side, because (I think) he started both at the same time, so they had a level playing field where we’re comparing brand new shops to established ones elsewhere. It gives me a bit of hope for Folksy anyway!
I definitely think I gave up the first time too quickly, which is why I got a plus account this time, to force a full year of properly trying Folksy before I compare it to my other shop (still got 7 months to go).
Yup, good point well made. My shop on the other side was run by my daughter and had a different name so here I am starting from scratch. Folksy does need to raise its profile. But hard work and perseverance will hopefully get us sales
Your shops and items are great @twistedturner and @gorlech.
There are currently two woodcrafters in the Folksy top 40 best sellers list, so yes, a woodcraft shop can do well on Folksy.
If I had the answer to why some shops do better on the dark side then here, or vice versa, I could make myself rich by charging for the advice, but I really don’t. I find the whole thing a huge mystery.
Kim @konyskiw is correct in her assertion that I started a Folksy and an Etsy shop at the same time, in October last year.
In that time, I have had some respectable sales here that saw me in the Folksy top 40 for a while. In the same period, I have sold two greetings cards on Etsy!
All my social media promotion is directed here, but I do get some Pinterest traffic on Etsy. Even my Google traffic is greater here. I don’t know why!
I suspect Kim is right. if you are already established elsewhere, than perhaps Folksy is disadvantaged in some way, but I’m not sure why the reasons for that might be.
I had one very good sale in monetary terms through Instagram, in which I posted a story of a painting taking my subject photograph, through to initial sketches and finally the end product, which seemed to engage people throughout and the final painting sold within two hours of posting.
The only additional thing I do is to visit the Daily Listing Challenge thread here on the forum, in which we all take the time to love and promote each other’s items, which potentially gives you a spell each day on the front page under the “Popular Right Now” heading.
I think the key probably is to nurture the avenue with the track record of bringing you the best results, wherever that might be.
Good luck.
You can checkout the best selling woodcratfters on Folksy I previously alluded to here: https://folksy.com/bestsellers
Thanks Kim. Like you I really don’t want to give up on Folksy, but I do want to make sure that I’m putting my effort in, in the right areas…
Your shop is great, by the way, fun, funky and original - just the dirt of thing that you think would do well on any forum…
Hi Chris, that’s really useful - thank you. It’s good to see that items made from wood do sell on Folksy.
Great advice about telling a story of a product on Instagram - definitely one to try. I’ll have a look at your Instagram account to see how you did this in practice…
I know that it’s a cliche, but it really is hard to balance all the different marketing strands. It is reassuring though to see that Folksy is working well for some people…
I have been on Folksy for 8 years in which time I have been in the best sellers list several times simply because selling one of my items would get me in to it. I think most woodcraft stuff is that much higher in price and by selling 1 or 2 would get them into the list. I have sold about £3000 in the 8 years which is not very good really,luckily I had a pension as well . I’m afraid I have lost interest lately and haven’t bothered to relist items,but have joined another well known site where I had quite a bit of success initially.
Paul
Thanks for your comments. Your boxes are beautiful. It is encouraging that you did make sales on Folksy - though, like you say, it wasn’t the best revenue stream. Unfortunate, Paul and I are trying to do this as our sole venture (although we are both currently doing washing up shifts in a local restaurant to keep us afloat) after moving to West Wales and giving up the office-based ‘career jobs’ 4 years ago… I don’t need Folksy to make us huge sums of money (as the outlay is low until you sell), but it’s pretty discouraging getting no sales at all…
I will try and find you in the other site in a moment to see if you have started selling your chess sets there - or whether your still struggling to part with them. This made me smile, as plenty of things we made to sell have found a permanent home in our own house too…
Thanks Claire for the compliment,I still haven’t listed my chess sets,they are all wrapped up under my bench,4 in total,they are on my F/B page but I don’t fancy sending them through the post,I’d rather sell them personally at a craft fair,but I only do about 1 fair a year.
I like your stuff and can’t see why they are not selling they’re beautifully photographed. Perhaps a bit more promoting, Dottie at British Crafters Facebook page is good for promoting,its worth a look if you haven’t already.
I wish you and Paul all the best for the future.
Paul
What a pleasure to read this thread. Everyone helping each other out. This forum thread just goes to show how friendly Folksy is .
I suspect that us pottery types suffer the same issues as wood crafters ie stuff sells better at fairs where customers can see what they are buying .
We try online promoting , admittedly in a half hearted way , . Quite frankly we have found posting on Instagram, Facebook etc to not be of much use.
We’ve said it before on this forum but for us doing craft and gift fairs and promoting our Folksy shop to visitors to our stall seems to work best for us.
When we’re busy doing fairs our Folksy sales increase. When we are not trading very little online sales happen for us.
Others would seem to do fine promoting online but for us the effort involved in regular promoting online has proved not to worth the returns we’ve experienced.
Dave and Dos
In my experience (nearly 8 years on here/Etsy/my own website) I think anything can sell well on Folksy, or any online site, but you really need to be very good at marketing on social media to gain a loyal customer base or, as Dave and Dos have said above, catching face to face customers at fairs, and have all your links/business cards pointing to one shop. Online marketing does require you to keep your social media ticking over to keep people engaged, so if you don’t make items regularly maybe find another thing that you can weave into your posts which people interested in your work might also be interested in. Ideally one or two posts daily seems to be about the right amount for me to not annoy FB/Instagram too much so it hides your content, but is enough for people to keep seeing you and have you in their minds the next time they need that special handmade gift
Thanks Paul, I’ll have a look at your Facebook page.
We have a scroll saw and I’ve started to do small things like bookmarks with it, but I’m not sure that I’ve got the patience or confidence yet to try a whole chess set - maybe one for Paul, he is much better at this sort of thing than me…
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question.
We have only just started to do fairs, but as we have our own website gorlech.com and people are able to purchase our items through it, I won’t be directing them to our Folksy shop… its really hard isn’t it? I’m not overly convinced by either Facebook or instagram personally. I’ve started to use Pinterest this year and I hope this might be good as I can direct people to our website, Folksy and other platforms variously with different pins.
I guess it’s just a case of trying a little bit of everything…
I was just concerned that the ‘price point’ of our items (over £20) was too high for Folksy. I might try some of our other products - bookmarks, egg cups etc, to see if they do better?
I definitely try with social media marketing. I have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, but I’m not confident that I’ve got all these right yet - still a lot to learn…
Good to hear though that you think woodcraft has as much chance as any other type of craft on Folksy. Onwards and upwards!
Glad you like the penguins, they are cute
