Hi everyone, it’s lovely to be here and be able to learn and be inspired by so many entrepreneurs!
I opened my Folksy shop towards the end of April paying per listing and at the start of June I decided to go for the monthly membership to be able to relist every day. I have linked my shop to Instagram shop and I had 1 sale so far (one of my best friends 
) but I keep thinking I should sell more and maybe there are things that I’m not doing right and need improvement. I did an ad on Facebook and one on Pinterest and it did increase my views but no sales came out of them. Please can I ask for your advice on any improvements to have a more attractive shop?
https://folksy.com/shops/ThePaperKaleidoscope
Also, does anyone know how you can get featured on the website and in the Gift ideas department? 
Thanks so much and have an awesome end of the week! 
Welcome, you are not necessarily doing anything wrong And can take some time. Your price point is higher and maybe worth making some items cheaper to entice customers in. Buy from you, get to know you and then they will come back.
I reopened my store in May last year took until a July to have my first sale. Been quiet lately think the good weather plus some folks could be running low on funds. Join in the daily challenge, you can show a realist does not matter. Visit the other participants and tweet, pin, love their item and like on Feb. Spend approx 5 hours a day, not all in one go, on social media. There is a Folksy a Friday but not a clue how that works, hopefully someone will be along later.
Keep going you will get there.
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Hi Alexandra.
Your products are very different, beautiful and have photographed very well. Ticks for that! I notice that your Instagram link isn’t working which has prevented me following you on Instagram. If you can build followers on Instagram (use hashtags aimed at your target customers and other makers, they will have followers too, some of whom might be buyers), you are building a good base. Social media is a bit of a marathon, but today’s follower might be tomorrow’s buyer. It can take a bit of time.
Join in with threads here on the forum, the mutual liking and promotion of each other’s items will increase your exposure on the Folksy site and on social media.
Personally, I don’t think your items are expensive. People will pay for quality, but I think we are entering a bit of a lull now after a bonanza at the height of lockdown when all the bricks and mortar shops were shut. We are in a very unstable trading environment at the moment, but things always settle down eventually. Good luck.
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Hi Carolee, thanks so much for the insight. I was actually thinking of making some earrings that could go for a smaller price point to have more diversity. Because I have a full-time job it’s a bit harder to focus on the business after work but I’m trying to split my work into chunks so everyday I’ll be able to invest time into building it. I will definitely look more into the forums and get to know and appreciate more makers. Have a lovely day!
Hi Chris, thank you so much for your feedback. We are already following each other on Instagram actually but I didn’t think to double check the link I have on my shop, so thanks for that. My friend actually bought the most expensive earrings that I listed so that came as a huge surprise so I totally understand what you’re saying and that every shop has their own type of customers. With it being my first venture of this kind I’m still figuring things out so it helps getting an opinion from more experienced makers. Do you think I don’t have enough listings for the shop to function or is that not that much of an important thing at the end of the day? Hope you’re having a great day!
Getting featured in the gift guides and on the website comes down to having relevant products with good photos. The folksy team do searches of the site (so you need to make sure your titles/description and tags gets you ranking highly in the search results) and then choose items with attractive images. Your goddess iris earrings are a good example of the sort of photo I believe they are looking for but if you look at the puzzle earrings on your shop front because the site crops images to square (in search results and on our shop fronts) bits of the earrings are missing. Personal opinion - the straw hat back drop doesn’t show the earrings off to maximum effect, the flat lays on coloured paper are more effective and attention grabbing.
I think you need to tweak your descriptions. Search algorithms (esp google) scan through the first 2 paragraphs looking for the search phrase and place a much lower emphasis on the rest of it. So for your ‘autumn grapes’ earrings they will scan through
'Autumn grapes
A fruit that grows in abundance. A fruit that symbolizes wealth, happiness, a prosperous future, fertility. What more can we wish for nowadays? ’
and if the search term was something like ‘statement earrings’ the bot will move on as they haven’t found that phrase. The advice I was given was to write the description as if describing the item to a blind person (search algorithms can’t see photos) so that your first paragraph contains the key phrases. (Going back to the autumn grapes earrings all the stuff about Greeks could go in the inspiration section) The folksy blog has several articles about how to write a description that gets found. http://blog.folksy.com/category/seller-tips/product-listing-tips
Having a range of price points is good, some people might not be prepared to pay £45 for a pair of paper earrings in the first instance but once they have tried a cheaper pair and seen the quality they are more likely to come back and spend more.
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PS you use a lot of US spellings - the folksy algorithm isn’t smart enough to realise that jewelry and jewellery are the same thing so doesn’t return jewelry results in a jewellery search. Since most of the folksy users are UK based the UK english spellings might do better than US english ones.
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Hi again Alexandra,
It’s all been said very well here already. Just to say that your jewellery is beautiful and you have . really good photos. I’m sure your shop will do well if you follow some of the excellent advice on here. I have just faved your shop and followed you on Instagram (from Spangle Lab). Good luck and keep going.
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Thanks so much for popping on here and for the follow, you have a lovely shop 
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Just a quick point as I’m pn my way to bed…your Instagram link from your shop front doesn’t work and you say you’ve had an ad. on Facebook and Pinterest but you have no links from your shop front to those. Social Media is really really important and if I am looking at a shop with few reviews I would always have a check on social media before buying.
xx
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Hi Joy,
Thanks for your reply. This is something that Chris pointed out as well, I will have a look and see if I can include Facebook and Pinterest as well, really helpful suggestion! Have a lovely weekend!
I cant add to the great advice you have already been given, but just wanted to add that your shop looks great, with unusual jewellery, and beautiful photos too. Just followed you on Instagram. Good luck.
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Hello
I follow you on Instagram and am amazed at the unique earrings you create and am in awe of your very professional looking photographs
Your posts on IG are always friendly & informative so i just cant see anything your doing wrong.!
Its a particularly bad time for all businesses at the moment so my advice is keep at it !
lots of love
Angela & the whippets Chip Sky & Stan xxx
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Hi Angela, omg those are the kindest sweetest words I’ve read, thank you so much! I have relaxed after talking to everyone here, I understand it’s a process I have to go through but I guess I became a bit impacient and excited to get into that flow of preparing and packing every day (a bit overly enthusiastic, don’t you think?
)
I think your shop is very charming and has a lot of character and I feel very lucky to get to know people as yourself.
Good luck to you!
Alexandra
