That sounds similar to my experience - I spend very little time promoting my other shop but for some reason that one makes sales and this one generally doesn’t. Although the level of traffic is pretty much the same. Definitely food for thought here!
I don’t want to admit defeat but I need to be realistic. I sell the same in both (well 3 actually as I have a shop on another platform too!!) And this one has the least sales. I definitely won’t be renewing my plus account when it ends. The only reason I would change my mind on that is if it was changed to be towards advertising instead of workshops.
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I sell the same but with different titles and descriptions.
I have items on both sites and when I tell people they say…‘oh I know Etsy but what is Folksy…’ I think unfortunately that that says it all!
I think the point about the refunds was that with Etsy’s approach, you have the total comfort of knowing that you will get a no hassle refund if you’re not happy. Plus, regardless of what we say about returns in our shops over there, it will make not one iota of difference - Etsy bots refund under their guarantee regardless; you can’t even challenge it - Etsy do not want to know the details, the truth or your opinion! Great for buyers, misery for sellers.
I think that with a lot of the things we sell, there’s an awful lot of window shopping. For example, I’ve looked at lots of your pieces, loved lots of them, laughed at lots of them, favourited them and not bought anything yet - I have your spoons in my mind and will definitely buy one if a gifting opportunity comes up! I’m definltely not your preferred audience at this point though as I have very few people left to buy for these days! 
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I don’t have an shop on the other side, so please correct me if I am wrong here, but I get the impression that they allow a lot of mass produced items rather than just strictly handmade by crafters. And every shop will benefit from the popularity of other shops, regardless.
Going on personal experience I think a large percentage of the general population have no idea what handmade actually stands for. Around Christmas time at one of my regular markets I over heard 2 women talking about the type of items for sale & one said “yes well it’s all that handmade stuff isn’t it, not like what you get in proper shops”. I also have a couple of friends who would rather buy cheap imported Chinese tat rather than support a British small business. The older ones probably remember having to wear jumpers your nan knitted when they were younger and younger generations want everything delivered to their door in half an hours time.
I think until we can change the public conception of handmade, Folksy will always be at a disadvantage.
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You and me both Brenda 
That confusion of ‘handmade’ and ‘home made’ still persists and it fascinates me how different people see those as either a good or a bad thing depending on their experience! I’ve tried ‘hand crafted’ and ‘artisan’ too at various times but those suffer from the same problem. We just have to keep trying, I guess…
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Good photography is vital in this respect.
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I can remember when I was about 15 asking for an M&S jumper for Christmas. Having had all handknits up to that point. M&S at that point sold beautifully thin machine knitted, 2 ply. Can’t remember if it appeared or not.
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Although the original date on this blog post is from 2017, we update it when we make changes to the search so all the information there is still relevant - How to write a listing that gets found in search results
It’s a page I link to a lot as it has a lot of good information on how to write your listings specifically for the Folksy search.
For tags I’d use the advice on this post - How to use tags on Folksy
The part saying tags are given the most weight in Folksy search is no longer correct as it’s currently the title, but all the information about what sort of tags work well is still relevant.
You can also get ideas from looking at the theme of the day tags - https://folksy.com/dashboard/themes-of-the-day
For example if you had an item with daffodils on, using the tags ‘daffodil’ and ‘spring flowers’ would be good this month because it would help it show in the theme for those days, but it’s also a good tag in general because it’s a relevant term for the item that someone might search. Some might be things you’d have used anyway (like daffodil on a daffodil item) but sometimes you can get stuck always thinking of the same few words for tags, and the list might help give some ideas on different (but relevant) words to use.
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Thank you Kim, I need to go back to these and do more work on my tags and titles!
Thank you so much Kim @kimfolksy, I appreciate you taking the time to explain and signpost the more recent info. I will also start re-looking at my tags.
I do find the blogs really good but when you ask Google you often get older ones, and most people reading the tags post won’t realise that titles are now the most important thing. The one I referenced above was about how to use hmtl to create bold headings in descriptions - I was super excited and spent ages trying it, until I found that it was for an older version of the platform 
.
I think I must remember to directly to the blog for latest versions, and leave Google well alone
I like Pinterest very much - finding it easier than FB (and I’ve not tried Instgram yet).
On the +'ve, it gives backlinks, and it’s hands off (you pop a pin out there and people re-pin it for a wider reach), but on the -ve, a lot of views will be from other crafters looking for ideas - including some that will downright steal your IP.
I do find Pinterest drives more people to my shop than FB though - I’m possibly a bit more pricy than most FB shoppers want in kids gifts.
A tip - apparently Pinterest favours re-pins more than direct pins. So drop me a link to your pinterest board and I’ll do some re-pinning for you.
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Thanks Sharon. I will haave to try to get to grips with Pinterest, I think there was some tutorial a while back but can’t now find it.
It’s looking good. I’ve re-pinned (saved) a couple of your items, and I’ll follow you and pop back to do more periodically.
I’m not an expert but I think the trick is set up different boards within your account, so you are not just promoting yourself but also showing people what inspires you or what you love. You definitely need one or two dedicated boards for your own makes, but add others that are wider themed collections.
Follow or search for other people that fit well with your brand and repin them, as well as pinning stuff you find online. You can then sprinkle a few of your makes in these themed boards. For example, you could have some boards based around colours, or the names of stones, but also have some non-jewellry themes too so you will be found by a wider audience. A lot of us have a Folksy Favourites board where we pin or re-pin things we love on her.
I’ve got boards on patchwork quilts, my blogs, other bloggers I follow, fabric shops, sewing tips, upcycling, things I make but don’t sell, and a whole load of costume design boards (I used to make stage costumes). Some of them are rather out of date (I am slowly going through and revamping them) but you are welcome to browse round my account to see if you get any inspiration.
The Folksy blog has lots of good articles https://blog.folksy.com/?s=pinterest
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Thanks Sharon, I’ve followed you back.
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Buyer feedback (reviews) is pushed so much more on the other site.
In the Folksy forums to me it seems like asking for reviews from your customers is a big no no, but from what I’ve read from other sellers and experienced myself is the email from Folksy to your customers two weeks later asking them to leave a review never arrives or lands in spam. Customers need to be reminded to leave reviews and it needs to be closer to when they receive their order. They also need to know where to go in their customer account to leave a review.
I think an overhaul on this issue would be really helpful too.
The courses offered in the PLUS account are brilliant for helping small businesses, but it’s no good if nobody knows about Folksy, or has seen Folksy on Google or on adverts in the right places unfortunately. I LOVE Folksy and really want to see it grow for everyone in the right places. I feel that Folksy promotes joining up to sell on the site more than promoting Folksy for being the place to find wonderful products from small businesses in the UK 
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