I have been on this platform for some time now and just nothing happens in my shop at all. I speak to hundreds of people a week and no one has heard of this site. I much prefer this to Etsy anyday but Im wondering wether its worth the effort and work that goes into it when the shop may as well just be closed. Im not usually this despondent but its hard to get excited over nothing.
1 Like
I have a lot more success on Etsy too, I think because my target audience is more familiar with it. I keep promoting Folksy online and I am noticing a difference - it’s just like anything in retail, it requires a lot of work to get the traffic and a lot of work to convert into a customer.
2 Likes
Hi, have loved a couple of your cards, hope that helps.
Dawn
1 Like
Etsy has a much larger base of browsing shoppers (people who know about the site and automatically go there to use it) compared to Folksy so a shop on Etsy will generate sales on its own without any promotion whilst Folksy really does require you to drive customers this way through social media promotion. It is possible to get organic sales on Folksy but you need to work on getting your titles/ descriptions/ tags right so that the google and folksy search algorithms rank you highly in search results. Google’s search bots can’t see the images so you need to make sure your description fully describes the item and includes the appropriate key words to get its attention. This is one of your descriptions -
This card is 14 x 14 cms square
The card inside is blank
It is wrapped in a clear cello sleeve
and is delivered with a white envelope
no mention of it being the ideal card for a gay wedding/ to help a same sex couple celebrate their big day etc etc. There are articles on the folksy blog on how to write a description that gets found and other bits of SEO. http://blog.folksy.com/category/seller-tips/product-listing-tips
6 Likes
Sasha. Thanks for your comments. I haven’t said what type of card it as its obvious. If I saw a card that said Happy Birthday 40. I would know its for someone turning 40. So my cards are all self explanatory.
Thank you. X
1 Like
I don’t have an account on Etsy at all. I will continue to promote this site because its got so many advantages over Etsy. Lets see hey.
This is very true, but some people require a more detailed description. One of my regular customers initially purchased from me because I described my item fully - she’s blind and relies on her computer to read things out to her.
5 Likes
Once someone gets to your listing, then yes, your listings are self explanatory. But you have to get the viewer TO your listing in the first place. Titles, descriptions and tags do all that. Its a small change, but worth doing if it means your items show up on searches. What do your stats say? Are people coming from Google? If your results here are low, it suggests Google isn’t finding your listings in response to searches, so you’re less visible than you could be.
4 Likes
Yeah it’s a hard slog. Good luck with it though! Everyone on this thread has really good suggestions, so a bit of SEO-tweaking and some social media and I think things will start to look up. There’s a huge market for what you do and your stuff is lovely. 
3 Likes
Thank you very much.
1 Like
Thank you to all who have commented on this topic. I will look into the ideas you have all suggested. Thank you again.
1 Like
Hi Ivor, love your cards, I’ve just had a search for some of your cards and put in different descriptions into the search bar and found very few came up. Looking at your tags you still have room to add some more. Some of the things I searched were… mr & mr cards, mrs & mrs cards, beards card, gay friends, gay best friend, as a few examples.
One that did show in the search was gay sister because you have that in the tags.
I’m sure that if you play around and add some more tags you will be seen more.
Jan x
3 Likes
Your cards may be selfexplanatory once someone has found them but you need to get people to your shop for them to see them … Where are you social media pointers to your shop here… your Facebook page is all about your own selling website. As you know from your retail experience if your shop opens down a back street and you don’t send out any flyers to tell people you are there they are not going to know you are there.
5 Likes
It’s obvious for someone who can see the photo, but search engines (Folksy’s own or Google) can’t see the photo, so they’re relying entirely on how you describe your item and the titles and tags. If search can’t tell that this is a wedding card then it won’t bring anyone searching for gay wedding cards to your listing, so the only people who are going to find it are the ones you’ve brought to your Folksy shop yourself through links on social media.
It may feel like you’re stating the obvious, but if you describe your items as if there are no photos then it’ll really help search (and as @elliestreasures says, also any blind people who are shopping).
3 Likes
As Joy @JOYSofGLASS, your Facebook page sends people to a couple of other websites. No mention of Folksy. Presumably these sites are already established, so the chances are that searches will also direct people to your other sites. Folksy is great, but it can’t perform miracles… 
2 Likes
I wasn’t expecting a miracle
So why should people buy from you via Folksy when they are constantly directed elsewhere?..
4 Likes
In addition to my earlier comment about search algorithms using the description and title to figure out if they are putting something in the search results (without being able to seeing the photos), algorithms also dislike finding finding duplicate copy on different pages. So by having the same brief generic description on both your website and on folksy for the same card AND having the same brief generic description for different cards on either site you are in effect spamming your own results meaning that google won’t return as many listings for your items in search results. By expanding your descriptions and making them unique to each card you will increase the chances of google showing multiple listings in the search results. There is an article explaining about this and demonstrating how much variance you need between listings on the blog which I provided you with a link to earlier.
4 Likes
Hi, I would agree with much of the advice above. I have been on Folksy for a few months and I get some sales but not massive. You will also appreciate that if you sell mostly wedding cards, and most weddings have been cancelled this year…Here are some of my tips:
Relist frequently: this pushes your products to the top of the pages. I looked at one card which was listed on 24th October. I can guarantee it will be now on about page 25, so nobody will see it unless they specifically search for it (advice was given about tags etc).
Though it’s tempting to list 10 of everything, sometimes it’s worth just putting a couple on- scarcity can increase sales.
Price: maybe try slightly different pricing? There’s sort of an unwritten ‘rule’ on Folksy that people don’t use .99 (happy to stand corrected), as this is a ‘big retail’ thing. For example I sell my cards of my artwork at around £3.50 with free P&P. Due to them being small batch, this means they are not massively profitable, but I think there is a price ceiling for cards.
1 Like