I’m with you Caroline @Caroleecrafts and Joy @JOYSofGLASS on craft fairs, although I am doing a juried one in my home town in November.
Its such an effort getting ready, it takes days, deciding what to take, what to display and what to have in reserve, getting a float, checking the card machine works. On the day transporting everything, finding a car parking space, unloading, finding my table and often being disappointed with my space, displaying my work as best I can and then being on show to the public and chatting (if you’re lucky) to all the customers. Followed by packing up and then unpacking at home and then having to go through my shop to remove the sold items and making sure everything else is for sale. Everything I make is a one off, so I need to do that. It takes me days to recover. I used to do so many fairs, I’m pleased I have folksy now and can do everything from the comfort of my own chair at any time of the day, in my own time and my shop is open 24/7
It does take time and effort to do craft fairs including removing sold items from Folksy, but if I didn’t do them I wouldn’t sell anything. If my shop takes off then I’ll probably rethink them but at the moment its what I have to do. All my items are one offs as I don’t make two bags exactly the same ever so they are always unique.
Theres a lot to be said for holding a product. Most of my sales are direct to people and via word of mouth. I think people are choosing to buy more wisely and less impulsively.
People will continue to have Christenings, Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Funerals Oh and not forgetting Christmas.
We are most of us on here, in the business of selling handmade gifts. So as long as we offer desirable things and aim ourselves at the millions of customers out there who will buy gifts for those occasions, however short money is at any given time, then customers will continue to buy. Whether via direct contact or online.
I’m thinking of creating my own ‘Folksy’ promotion card that I can hand out at Fairs. Sure I want sales and I do well at them, but if we want Folksy to have better visibility then this is what I want to do. I will pop my shop link on the reverse and on the front of the card I’ll be promoting Folksy for my region https://folksy.com/local-shops/region/scotland. I just need a strappy heading … any suggestions greatly appreciated.
@VioletFlameGlassArt maybe Folksy staff should listen to yesterdays “back to business” webinar which was all about getting free advertising from newspapers & magazines. Quite ironic really don’t you think!
Sorry that made me chuckle 
I’ve just posted this on my Insta page. Every little helps when it comes to promoting Folksy. I’ve tagged my region as well as the supporting small businesses.
The wording is. 'Not only do I have my own Folksy Shop there are so many other amazing home grown small businesses that also have beautiful gifts in their shops. Check out Folksy in your web browser. My shop is https://folksy.com/shops/RusticCountryStyleCrafts where you’ll also find totally unique gifts. #folksyscotland #rusticcountrystylecrafts #buyhomemade #supportlocal #supportsmallbusiness
I used to work as a features editor on a weekly magazine. So many big companies would send us ready to go profiles, stories and images and occasional give aways for competitions and we often used them if they were well written by an agency. Folksy HQ could easily put together some stories for the press as its shop owners are one giant marketing resource!
i had quite a few magazine features (i’m harking back to my heydays again 
), either being contacted directly or via camilla for halloween features.
but i’ve always felt like, craft magazine features are not really enticing buyers (likely just more sellers), and higher end magazines aren’t likely to be interested in one-off pieces that’re long gone by the time the article is in print.
seems like wasted effort to me 
i honestly have no issue with how “unknown” folksy is - i grew a loyal customer base through word of mouth, and folksy served its purpose for me; a reputable secure site where my customers could buy my stuff.
…but it was a lot simpler before social media added all the barriers to visibilty, so i don’t know how i’ll fare when i come back to making/selling after a few years away.
I have been here over 10 years and Folksy is no more well known now than when I started. Friends keep saying “how is your E… going?” and I keep saying it’s Folksy, but the name just isn’t as familiar to people.
I know Folksy don’t have a large budget, however it has got to be in their interests to drive custom, as more profit for them, happier sellers who will stay, and happy buyers who will come back.
Come on Folksy, take some of these great suggestions on board.
Amazing!
For those who are wondering about Folksy featuring in magazines:
https://folksypress.tumblr.com/
and for Plus members there was a free workshop in July about how to get your own work promoted:
https://folksy.com/dashboard/plus-account/events
It would be great if this sort of press info was put in a newsletter roundup to sellers.
Can sellers still access the workshops after an event? I notice one coming up is on a Wednesday morning which clashes with a lesson I teach.
If you mean the back to work events - if you register for them you will get a code later on to watch as a recording.
Yes I’ve seen something, I click on it but it never took me to the item. What a waste.
We’re just putting together our update that covers May-August, so there will be a roundup for sellers coming soon (as well as some more features to add to that press page).
For the Folksy Plus webinars, yes, Plus members can watch any of the previous webinars back by going to that events page and clicking “view event” (the one from last week should be added soon).
For the back to business webinars, if you registered to the webinar you will receive a code to watch back, but we know some people missed signing up to them all, so we’re working with the partners to get a way for people to watch back even if they hadn’t signed up.
Thank you Kim, I missed them as my tooth or should I say no tooth after the extraction on Monday, could not concentrate on anything.
I missed it all too, so would welcome a chance to catch up. I hadnt even seen that we had to register.
I’d be interested to know if Folksy actively seeks out journalists in order to feature themselves or others or whether those being featured on this page are randomly picked out by either residual PL or serendipity.