Hi
I definitely think there’s a market for your products, and I personally like the idea of a product with good environmental credentials. I would always suggest that it’s a good idea to have multiple outlets.
Good luck with your decision making
Ali x
1 Like
I think fortunately now for a lot of people, environmental pluses sell! I’m 28, husband is 29 and while we don’t have a whole load of money in the bank (well- none at the moment thanks to the costs of emigrating) but we’ll always try & buy with the environment in mind.
We were members of Surfers Against Sewage in the UK & spent many a time doing a beach clean finding disposable sanitary towels that people had for some reason decided to flush down the toilet. (Yet they’re probably the first to complain if their kid unearths one playing on the sand at the beach).
So for me and a lot of my friends of a similar age, buying with the environment in mind comes high up on the agenda. I feel like we’re the generation now trying to back pedal on the whole throw-away culture so making & selling things like this is great. I follow someone on Instagram who’s made similar for several years now & she always sells out as soon as she’s made. Definitely a good thing to push!
I think you should try & stay on here- it’s a presence if nothing else. People may stumble across what you do here & they couldn’t if you close up. 
Good luck! And glad it’s going so well so quickly over on Etsy.
2 Likes
Hi,
Interesting topic. I joined Etsy middle of 2014 and shortly afterwards joined Folksy as well. I made a few sales on Folksy but it didn’t seem worth it as my Etsy store raced on. I closed my Folksy store after a few months so I could concentrate on Etsy store and website.
My Etsy store/website has since gone on to do well enough that I’ve been able to turn my full-time job into a part time one as my own work now brings in enough money to cover the loss in wages.
However I always felt like I had unfinished business with Folksy. So I rejoined a few weeks ago but I’m already starting to remember why I left in the first place. I haven’t re-joined this time as a ‘plus’ member. I just thought I would list a handful of items and see how they performed. Well so far I’ve actually been quite surprised at just how poorly my store/items here have performed. It’s made me wonder if ‘plus’ members maybe receive some kind of boost in search or something?
I regularly get 0 views a day over here compared to hundreds on Etsy plus I also sell very well there too.
I get people will think ‘if you’re doing fine over there and with your website then why sell here as well …’ but that’s the point, I want to make this a full time thing so am in the process of trying to increase the places I sell my products.
I don’t know. Being British I just hoped that Folksy (which I consider as the British Etsy) had a bit more to offer me. I’m starting to think not and may well just let my items expire as the original poster will.
Sean.
There are definitely a number of factors as to why UK based makers do better on Etsy than Folksy.
One is exposure. I assume that Etsy, being larger just has more users and gets more clicks than Folksy. It appears to be more well known.
The branding of Folksy itself could play a role. It suggests craft by amateur makers which can be double edged when trying to win over customers.
The community over on Etsy is very different too (IMO). Much more focus on optimising listing for better placement. Click farming is still a thing but I think new algorithms are helping to reduce that activity.
Hi
I also sell more on the other site and am selling really well, fantastic over Christmas and getting about 50 veiws, on average, per day! So I don’t know why we don’t have as much traffic here. I really want to support this British site, but am thinking if Things don’t pick up soon I might have to leave, which would be a shame.
I’m certain the sheer size of Etsy compared to Folksy plays a massive part.
If I search for the items I list there you get thousands of results, search here and you’ll get a few hundred. I don’t have a problem showing up in searches on either site so the main issue has to be the lack of traffic/buyers that come to Folksy.
I wonder what ‘the top’ sellers here on Folksy consider to be a good days selling? I’m nowhere near a top seller on Etsy buy usually average between 5-10 sales a day over there.
I guess having spent a good 2 years away from Folksy I hoped it had become more popular.
Anyway I’ll see how the current batch of listings I have up performs and that’ll decide whether I give up on Folksy completely or not.
EXACTLY why I came back to be honest.
The past 6 or 7 months on Folksy has been really slow, there have been quite a few threads on the forum regarding this. Many established sellers who have been here for a number of years have seen their sales dramatically dwindle, myself included. When it happens you think there is something wrong with what you are offering, but when so many are experiencing the same you just wonder what is going on.
2 Likes
Ok, so I’m still reading. Wow, this is all interesting. I didn’t know the other place did TV adverts. Is that just in the US, or here as well?
Also don’t know what click farming is that Andy mentioned. I don’t actually know how the listings are optimised - I just know that like GagaKidz I’m still getting the views there despite there being so much competition. I do also think Andy may be right that maybe the branding plays a part.
I’m sorry other people are finding Folksy slow at the moment. I hope it picks up for you. I think, though, that anyone thinking of trying the other place has nothing to lose at least.
Also thanks to the people who’ve said they like the products (I have browsed everyone else’s shops and think they’re all really good).
I have had more activity this week and have been added to the Folksy Favourites (thanks Folksy) but (and I realise this is an incredibly stupid question) I can’t find where the Favourites are or how I look at them myself - can anyone point me to where they are?
I may reconsider adding more, but unfortunately not this week - I’ve just sold another nine pads on the other place since I wrote the last post and I’m not making them that quickly, so I’m now worried that I’m not keeping up…
2 Likes
Lots of interesting and informed comments here, and an issue I’m sure many are thinking about. Thank you all, and thanks for kicking this off RedRags.
Myself, I let Etsy go after a few months and concentrated on Folksy for a year, but now think I’m gonna head back - a little more informed and ready for business. Sales on Folksy are poor and most views, likes etc come from other sellers. That sense of community is very supportive and encouraging, and may be a big factor with Folksy. Not sure if this type thread would get a decent airing on Etsy, DaWanda etc. But as for a decent living…
Best wishes all. Paul
So long as you can keep up with production demands there is no reason why you can’t have shops on both platforms. (obviously if you are struggling to keep up with orders generated from a single platform like redrags is then it doesn’t make sense to spread to multiple platforms) My etsy shop generates sales on its own so I don’t promote it instead using the time to promote my folksy shop and make things. The time and effort that I’ve put into promoting this shop means that it is now generating sales on its own as people find it via google/ pinterest (I get very few sales to people I know and other folksy sellers) but I accept that it has taken a while to get it to that position.
Sasha
Hi, I call it click farming but there is a lot of click and like exchange threads and forum/teams over on Etsy. i.e. post 1 link and view 5 above. You can get lots of views, but then, so does anyone else participating so…you end up in exactly the same position really.
Thankfully the algorithm has changed so these can actually harm a pages ranking in search now since they are not generated organically. I started a similar thread here but I am better informed now 
Your shop has been on the folksy front page a few times now, But that could be because of activity in this thread.
Read up on Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimisation Its not all jargon and is actually useful to know where your views are coming from and what keywords are searched.
Just wondering after reading this thread started in Jan 2017 how people feel now? It’s not a very promising read tbh. Have things changed for those shops who stayed at Folksy?
I’m not the best person to answer because I haven’t been here all that time, but I first opened my shop near the end of 2016, and closed again in spring 2017 because I’d only had one sale. It was very slow, but I also think I didn’t give Folksy enough time or effort… which is why when I came back I signed up for an annual plus account (when that was still an option), to force myself to give the site a full year of listing as much as I could before I made any decisions on if it’s for me. That year ends in October.
I’m definitely doing better than the first time I tried Folksy. I still get a few more sales on the other site but definitely not in such a big way as the person who started this thread (and I’ve had my shop there for 13 years, so I expect I’d get more sales where I’ve got more sales history, feedback and favourites). I get the feeling that if I were starting both shops brand new now, my sales would probably be fairly similar on both.
Yes the other site is a lot bigger and more well known to the general public, where I think most people haven’t heard of Folksy unless they have a particular interest in handmade. The other site is a massive company though, you’re comparing a site that has about 6 staff to one that has over 800. One that now has shareholders that they have to keep happy… and with that it feels like they’ve lost their original vision a bit. More and more sellers are becoming unhappy with the way they’re run and looking for other sites to sell on.
To me, Folksy feels more like that other site when I first joined 13 years ago, when it did still have that friendly, community feel and seemed to listen to/care about its sellers. I think Folksy have the potential to grow into something bigger and be the site people immediately think of when they’re looking for a unique/handmade gift… but they can’t do that without our support. If we all just give up on them because the other site gets a couple more sales, they will never become that.
For me it’s putting my efforts into a site that gets a few more sales, but has irritated me with every announcement they’ve made for the past couple of years. Where I now feel like the site is less for sellers like me and I dread what other changes may come in the future… or put my efforts into somewhere smaller but where I feel valued. Where sales may be less certain but has lots of potential to grow and improve.
Folksy may not be the site for you if you’re looking for quick money, but I’m trying to think of where I’ll be happier long term.
5 Likes
I feel the same as you, @konyskiw. I joined Etsy in 2013 and do okay-ish, but they are doing my head in. I know my stationery is only ‘designed’ by me (I don’t have a huge printer in my house, shockingly) but at least it’s all designed/shipped/marketed/etc by me; Etsy is choc full of rubbish these days.
Folksy is so much nicer to deal with, although I do sometimes wish it was a little more user friendly. I’m putting the effort in, and promoting Folksy as a site as well just my shop, so I hope more and more people shop here.
3 Likes
Robyn @RobynCoetzee Folksy is improving for me year on year - dividends for all the efforts I’ve put into my shop.
Given all the changes Etsy have very recently made to their search algorithm (specifically the priority placement in search results of items with free shipping for searches made by people in the US (who still make up the bulk of Etsy’s users)) its too soon to tell what difference that will make to UK based shops and could potentially be very detrimental to those who can’t or won’t do free shipping to the US. I suspect that if you ask the pro Etsy people how they feel about that site in a few months time when the impact of those changes has started to become noticable they might give you a different answer to the one they would give now.
2 Likes
I started a Folksy and an Etsy shop in October last year. I have done far better here. Like you @francescaswords, Etsy does my head in! I have sold some higher price tagged items here and have been in the Folksy best sellers chart twice this year, getting as high as number 7 at one point. My Google search results are far higher here than on the other side.
Apart from a fluke in May, when I had a good month on Etsy, my sales nosedived here over the same period, but have picked up again since. Also, if I don’t promote my Folksy shop, views and sales drop significantly.
Yes, selling on Folksy is quite hard work sometimes, but I do like it here and it is worth the effort. I’m so past caring about Etsy that I have decided to let it whither on the vine and not list anything new there.
4 Likes