Continuing the discussion from Daily Listing and Promotion Challenge September 2026:
This week I have a new product so obviously I’d be happy to sell this board
It’s made from coconut palm and oak
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Just in case you are not aware, buyers do not visit this forum, only sellers do. Of course sellers can also buy from other sellers, but just be aware that buyers don’t browse the forum looking for products, so posting items unfortunately won’t generate sales from here.
I hope your item sells soon, but you’ll have better luck promoting it in places where potential customers will actually see it.
Actually non-sellers can browse the forums, which is why we have a private Sellers only post category. And of course, sellers are buyers too. Otherwise there would be little point in all the Showcase threads 
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I can only recommend that you join some social media and promote on there . The number of visitors to these forums is limited, mainly by the number of Folksy members and despite Helen’s comment I really do not think there will be many non Folksy sellers who visit this forum searching for their next purchase. That would be silly really when there is a Google out there which searches the big wide world.
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When I googled coconut palm and oak crumb catching bread board, Chantrywood’s item came up. Even one similar on Folksy from the same shop came up very near the top ( not this one, it didnt have the coconut bit. But if only listed today it will take a day or two to register with googles search)
A high proportion of my buyers have been sellers from here. A post here may not reach the masses, but you only need just that one person to see it, and who knows, they might just be on here! Nothing ventured nothing gained.
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I would be concermed if I had to say a high proportion of my buyers come from here as that would mean my market was incredibly restricted.
55 milliion people in the UK aged over 18 and therefore target customers . The chances of that ‘one person’ being on here is incredibly low. It is much better to increase the odds by promoting elsewhere.
I think it is highly inprobable that anyone would in face google “coconut palm and oak crumb catching bread board” and of course if they did then yes the board would come up but only because you used the exact words in the search as the title.
I would query how many of that 55 million out there would think to use that exact expression. 
If I just use the far more likely search term “coconut palm and oak crumb catching bread board” Google gives me 9 pages and Folksy does not appear anywhere.
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Yes, obviously promoting in more places reaches more people. The more places the better, then the more of those 55million people will be reached. And the forum is just one place, out of many, so why not use it?
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There is nothing technically stopping a buyer from browsing the forum - if they know the forum exists in the first place. That is completely different from saying that the forum is somewhere that buyers actually browse for products.
The point is whether buyers actually know the forum exists and have any reason to go there - and those are two very different things.
The forum isn’t being put in front of buyers. It isn’t linked from the Folksy home page. It is buried away as one small and very easy-to-miss link on the UserVoice page, and even that link says:
“Visit our Forum to talk to other Folksy members.”
There is absolutely nothing in that wording to suggest to a buyer that the forum contains pages and pages of sellers showcasing products they are trying to sell. “Talk to other Folksy members” indicates a community discussion area, not somewhere a buyer can go to browse products.
Sellers, meanwhile, have a direct link to the forum when they are logged into their account, through the account menu. So the only people who are most likely to know the forum exists are, unsurprisingly, sellers.
When I first joined Folksy, I actually assumed that the forum was intended to be aimed at buyers. I saw the multitude of Showcase threads with sellers posting their products and assumed that this was a way of putting those products in front of buyers (not sellers). Why else would sellers continually post products they are trying to sell? It was Folksy itself that subsequently stated that the forum was not intended as a place for promoting items for sale. So if that is the case, the existence of all these Showcase threads is rather pointless.
And yes, sellers are buyers too but that doesn’t change the fundamental issue. If the audience of the forum is sellers, then sellers are essentially promoting their products to other people who are also trying to sell products, and most are in competition with each other.
There is little point having all these Showcase threads if the objective is to reach potential customers because the problem is that the people who most need to see those products - actual buyers - aren’t being directed to the forum.
I have suggested to Folksy many times before that they need to put the link to the forum on the home page with an enticing phrase to get buyers clicking through to the forum, but they have refused. With all the different threads on the forum it’s a far more effective promotional tool, getting significantly more products in front of buyers in one place. Sadly it’s a lost opportunity, but you know the old saying – you can lead a horse to water…
So yes, buyers can browse the forum. But saying they can is not the same thing as saying that they do. The real question is whether Folksy is actually putting the forum and its Showcase content in front of buyers - the people who need to see it - and at present, it isn’t.
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Well, clearly forum posts result in some sales otherwise people wouldn’t bother. The Daily Listing thread for each month seems to show that participants make sales. Obviously I can’t prove whether those sales come from the forum posts or from other promotion those sellers do, or whether they are to other sellers or external buyers.
I think it’s wrong to have been telling the original poster that they have wasted their time posting. That’s just not true. Of course, they would be better off doing external promotion as well (and ever better, to have included a link to the item to make it really easy for anyone interested to find) but all promotion is good.
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Helen - as you know (but I’ll explain for others who may be unfamiliar) the main point of the Challenge thread is to get a brief moment in the limelight on the Folksy front page. It’s the hearts over on Folksy site itself that give a listing a boost so it appears on the “Popular now” section. We get a huge boost in views from that, and sometimes that translates into sales. We do actually buy from each other too, but it’s small scale 
But by doing the challenge we are prompted to make and list more things (more chance of a sale), as well promoting each others work on other platforms - again boosting views and sales.
From memory (way, way back), many of the first showcases in the Forum were set up by Folksy admin - when they were looking for items to feature in specific themes. I’m not sure how much admin actively look at them now - they may, but in the days of an improved search driven by algorithyms, it’s probably easier just to look on the main site.
Showcases did give sellers a chance to find each others makes when we were doing promotions like Folksy Friday. That was super helpful in seeing and sharing each others work, especially in the early days of “Search” when it was really clunky, but again we probably search Folksy first.
So generally nowadays, while someone may click on a link and heart the item on Folksy, a post in a showcase thread is mostly passive.
Yes, the public can find things in the Forum, but as others have mentioned, I doubt many know about it. I have never seen a Forum post pop up in a google search for a specific item. Although they do pop up for a general admin query or help request about how Folksy works, the Forum is probably not optimised to show “products” on the wider web.
I actually don’t use the showcase threads now. I sometimes do the fun ones like the Alphabet Game, but I know it’s not really driving sales.
The promotional threads on here specifically set up to share offsite, e.g. “Pin something from the shop above you” are certainly helpful though. Although as most social media sites are making it harder and harder to “sell” products, our promotional tactics will probably need to shift again to new methods.
When I show an item on the forum I am not under any illusion I am showcasing it to anyone other than other Folksy sellers, and that could well be the case for the original poster. If any non seller sees it that is a bonus. And they, as I am, could be completely aware that there are lots of other ways to reach the rest of mankind, when they made the original post.
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Well, if forum posts genuinely result in meaningful sales, then that surely makes the case even stronger for Folksy to make the forum visible to buyers by putting a link to it somewhere buyers actually visit, such as the home page. But they flat out refuse.
As for your assertion that I have been “telling the original poster that they have wasted their time posting” - point me to where I actually said that. If you want to disagree with what I actually wrote, that’s perfectly fair. But don’t invent something I didn’t say and then argue against it.
Of course all promotion can be good. But not all promotional channels are equally effective, and simply asserting that something must be effective because people continue doing it isn’t evidence that it is. Many sellers have come to this forum in genuine despair, asking whether they should carry on or give up, because they are spending an enormous amount of time posting and promoting their products across the various threads and getting no results. They say they are persisting in the hope that eventually one day they will make a sale.
Many new sellers have looked at the forum with all the promotional threads and believed it is a buyer-facing channel, as I did when I first joined. Folksy themselves have stated that it isn’t. If you were new to Folksy and believed that buyers are the target audience for these threads, wouldn’t you want someone to tell you the reality before you spent hours and hours posting here with the expectation of lots of sales that don’t materialise?
I did not tell the OP they’ve “wasted their time”. I gave them important information so that they can make an informed decision for themselves about where their time is best spent promoting their items for the best possible chance of making a sale. I also said I hope their item sells soon.
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I do love reading your posts Poppy I think Helen was maybe responding to Joy’s comments rather than yours.
I too always wondered about the seeming pointlessness of the Showcase thread when I joined, but it does seem to work to some extent for those who take part actively, which is great. I also wonder about the functionality of this forum where you can make a point of replying to a particular post to make the thread clear but sometimes, it doesn’t post that way at all - irritating!
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Sorry Debbie but don’t tar me with that "“telling the original poster that they have wasted their time posting” brush either. I never said that. 
I simply pointed out the limitations of promoting solely on here.
Oops seems I’ve opened a can of worms
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Dont you worry - wishing you every success with your shop.
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Sigh…
How about “implying to the original poster that …”
I stand by what I said, despite my maybe slightly imprecise wording.
Helen
There really is no need to be confrontational like that. I don’t know whether you were attacking me or Poppy and to be honest I don’t care but our point stands.
It is unfair to advise or suggest to a new seller that they don’t really need to bother promoting outside Folksy as they will do fine with sales on Folksy just by posting on this sellers forum…that is a really bad suggestion and also misleading.
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I don’t feel I’ve been confrontational here at all, rather the opposite,.
Sorry if anyone’s offended. It wasn’t intentional. Just wanting to give an alternative positive opinion for the original poster.
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Not at all
The forum being essentially a seller-facing channel is a source of frustration because I can see so much potential in it.
With all the different themed threads and all the wonderful things sellers post, I genuinely think it is an excellent place for buyers to browse and discover things that catch their eye. Not just items they have specifically searched for, but items that wouldn’t have appeared in search results or items they stumble across and think, “Oh, I love that!” That’s one of the great things about browsing - sometimes you don’t know you want something until you see it, or you see something that you think someone else would love.
I’ve suggested to Folksy several times that they should actively bring buyers to the forum, because it’s such an obvious opportunity. The content is already being created by sellers. There are hundreds of products being showcased across all sorts of different themes. Sellers are doing the work, all Folksy needs to do is direct buyers to it, but they won’t. Therefore, sadly, the forum is a huge missed opportunity.
Buyers browsing through all the themed threads can discover products they would never have thought to search for, or discover something quirky or completely unexpected. Those are the kinds of discoveries that can turn browsing into buying. Instead, the forum is hidden away from buyers, while sellers continue creating all this fantastic content for an audience that is actually just other sellers.
No-one wants to waste their time shouting into a void, and it’s frustrating that Folksy isn’t making better use of something that is already here. It would literally take less than five minutes for them to put the link on the home page with an enticing hook to get intrigued buyers clicking through to the forum.
Until such time that Folksy wakes up to this, we have to make sure that new sellers know that the forum is not actively browsed by buyers so that they have the information they need to make an informed decision about the best use of their time, and the best use of the most effective advertising and marketing channels they have access to.
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