Sorry to hear that. I’m considering this too after very poor sales in the last year and zero since October! I hope you can still keep going at your other sites! All the best!
Your jewellery is lovely. I just made a purchase 
x
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Well I don’t blame you. It’s very quiet here. My plus account ends in a week. I was going to renew but, I’m not so sure now. Good luck, see you on the dark side!
Thank you Suzanne. It’s much appreciated. 
Thank you all for the well wishes. Sorry to see that so many others are leaving too. My listings all expire on the 25th of January that’s why mi off then. It feels like an end of an era for me, and after much thinking of the last few days I have made an even bigger decision to condense the button jewellery down all together to give me more space and time for the new pieces I have been working on. I am running 50% off everything to clear my stock. Code is: CLOSING50.
I will miss this place, especially the forums. I never seem to use the forums on ‘the dark side’. I am not so sure it would be as lovely and friendly as here though. Good luck to all of you whether you are staying or going.
What a shame so many are going, I sold on here under my old name back in 2010 ish, had a few sales, came back last year, a handful of sales in that year, only 2 at Christmas. I don’t promote but then I don’t promote other stores either and getting sales via there
I was trying to decide whether to put more effort in or not as lots of my photos need a redo, I’m not sure if I should after reading this 
Oooh I like your work @daintyROCKS.
It’s taken me 12 months of umming and ahhing to make a decision. I tried all I could and it just didn’t work. Don’t let my experience put you off, but on the other hand if you know you have tried everything you can…
Good luck x
After posting on here about leaving I had a lovely email from Camilla @folksycontent giving me some pointers on upping my sales, etc. I was touched that someone had taken the time to do this for me…just made me think…I doubt very much you would get that personal attention over on the dark side! It’s certainly given me some food for thought.
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,That’s really nice of her to contact you I hope it has given you a little encouragement. The people running Folksy are always so hands on and very helpful that’s what I like about it here.
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It’s funny how so many suffered a dramatic slump in sales at around the same time. As we’re often encouraged to change the wording of our listings for different sites because otherwise Google gets confused, is there any possibility that the constant relisting by Plus sellers may be confusing Google? Sorry if this is a silly suggestion- I’m a complete dummy when it comes to such things. I’d just be interested to know what happened to so many of our shops…
That said, I’m not going anywhere because a) I was encouraged by reasonably good sales in the run-up to Christmas b) I’ve got nowhere else to go (my other shop is even quieter) and c) I do like Folksy.
So, good luck on the dark side, Claire! And I hope things continue to improve for those of us who stick around.
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I have had dreadful sales over the last year and I’m seriously considering not renewing my Plus account.
I feel something different has happened over the last 18 months… not sure what?
My “views” have dropped therefore sales have too and as I sell low price items the thought of spending £40 for a plus account makes me wonder if I should just list less items or close my shop down for a while.
Maybe someone can enlighten us to the reason for poor sales.
I agree that something has changed - I think it may be more sellers so the sales are spread more thinly- my best years were probably 2013/14 as others have said too.
I also put less sales this year down to not having a plus account, funnily enough though the shortfall didn’t equate to over £45 worth of sales, so I don’t feel I have lost out but I would like to see growth year on year, as I assume most businesses, however small, would.
I haven’t promoted though so as usual it’s my fault. I only have myself to blame.
Sorry to see you go Claire @Realicoul
Strangely, after 2 years of declining sales here, this month has so far been the best one for me for ages. Not sure why…my promoting is at the same level, I’m listing/re-listing at the same rate…maybe the tags/keywords are kicking in on google, maybe Folksy is getting known a bit more, maybe it’s just a temporary upturn…who knows? But I’m grateful!! 
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The current tags / keywords on Folksy are purely for internal search apparently, they do not affect google search.
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Thanks Deborah…it’s not that then!! It must just be a good month…maybe I’m finally ‘on trend’!
All the best to you Realicoul, good luck on other platforms -hope you don’t stop crafting because your work is beautiful!!
Hopefully sales will keep ticking over as Folksy are making improvements and doing their best! I did notice I had quite a boost this year with the improvement of the tags and the front page but I found once the ‘Just listed’ or ‘Newest items’ was taken off the front page, my views and sales went down.
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I’m afraid I’m in the same boat too and I’m letting all my items lapse in all three of my shops.
Autumn 2012 was the death knell for my shop with the changes that were brought in then. But I’ve persevered with trying to keep them open, but there’s just no point.
I confess, I don’t promote my shops as much as I should. But I busted a gut for way too long with no results so I gave up. I transfered my efforts to other use and have seen the rewards.
I have appreciated the efforts made by Folksy to improve things, I’ve had a regular feature in a gift guide on twitter, but NO significant increase in views as a result. I battled through my tags, improved my search rank within the site, nothing. I took advanatge of the recent free listings, nothing.
I find it very sad to be shutting up shop on Folksy. As a Sheffielder, I’ve always felt particularly loyal to the business, but the bottom line is, I need business too…and I’m not getting it here.
x
Ah that’s lovely! Mind you, I didn’t get an email…food for thought too!
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Lots of people seem to think this - not sure why! Would love proper keywords back! I loved Folksy best when it was in Beta!
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Beta was best for me, too
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