Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement - much appreciated.
Thanks for your comments. I did suspect as much, regarding the external advertising. But there does not seem to be much visibility internally either, unless you do something like the listing challenge. I will step things up a gear and see if that makes a difference. Though, if one is doing all the promotion perhaps just selling through your own site is more appropriate ?
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Yes I am seriously considering adding a shopping cart to my own website for exactly that reason. The cost of upgrading my website roughly equates to an annual Folksy Plus subscription, so I won’t be any worse off than I am now. If I do make a sale I will keep more of the proceeds.
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I have a gallery site but must admit thinking of adding a payment facility and start to move stock over. Notice if I search my shop name my website appears often higher than Folksy.
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Hi Rhiannon, your shop looks amazing. I think others have covered everything. I just wondered do you get involved in any online markets on Facebook? I get a few sales from these. There are loads of them and I’m quite selective as some are just post and run type groups. I also do the Market of Kindness every 3 months, it’s currently running for August and I’ve had 15 sales so far. All proceeds from the market go to charity too. It might be worth looking at.
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Thanks for your reply Debby (from Bearlescent ) and useful thoughts. I know jewellery can be a tough category to sell in, but I’ll give it a bit more time and effort and review at the end of the year.
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Thanks for your thoughts Hilary, no I haven’t tried any of the online markets on Facebook. To be honest, I wasn’t really aware of any - are there some you would recommend having a look at. I did see the mentions of the Market of Kindness, but didn’t properly investigate. I’ll check that out for the next time. Thank you . 
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The ones I get most traction from are Handmade Gifts UK and they also have a Christmas one Handmade Christmas UK. I’m sure there must be ones specifically for jewellery but I’m not sure. There are quite a few of us that do the market of kindness and do quite well, I’d really recommend giving it a go.
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That’s what I will be doing Chris (when I get time to sort the website) I am definitely having a shopping cart on mine and although I do make regular sales on Folksy I think it’s time I had another place to sell as well especially as so many sellers on here get very little or no sales at all, I don’t want to wait until sales slow down before I do it. I reopened my eB.. shop, moved all of my scrap kits over along with some bear making kits and have already sold more on there this year than I have all the time they have been on Folksy so they definitely needed to be elsewhere.
I think a website may work better for me than a second platform so I will keep my Folksy shop for now and I do get new customers on here that may not find a website. I like the idea of having a gallery of high end bears and being able to write a blog on a website. Once it’s up and running I can decide what the next step is and see how things go on here, I often wonder if high end items might be better on a curated website but they do sell, will play it by ear.
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Thank you Hilary - I’ll have a look for them.
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I’ve caught up on this thread, and all the good advice given. I’ve been on folksy a month now, and have been active on socials too. Yet to have a sale directly through here but have had 2 from an event where I advertised here.
I’m thinking I launched wrong time as having cosy items during a heatwave may not sell! But it’s getting seen and I’m enjoying it so far
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I’m sure your high end bears would do very well on a website. The advantage of a website over a marketplace is that once you have a visitor (to have got that far, they must be interested), they can’t be distracted by other people’s stuff. The disadvantage is that you have to attract the visitors in the first place, but we are already doing that now (because Folksy doesn’t advertise). I’m running out of excuses not to put a cart on my site and will do so once my current run of art markets subsides a bit. I’m doing two markets a week at the moment which is more than compensating for the slow down online. I always get a spike in website views after a market, so they are a good way of driving traffic.
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Thank you Chris.
Very true we are already driving traffic to our shops so I may redirect some to my website when I sort it which would be beneficial as once the annual fee is paid there won’t be any commissions to pay, it would be silly to drive traffic here especially on high end items to then pay fees on sales. I will possibly only put the artist bears on a website and leave the smaller items on here, I would like to showcase the bears without all the cheaper items.
Pleased you are keeping busy with markets and gallery work, I expect sales are better at in person events as the detail can be seen much clearer on your paintings. I always did really well at craft fairs, like your art my bears also show more detail in the fur especially the embroidered ones and I think buyers like to meet the creators behind the work I know I do.
There are so many artists and makers online now it’s easy to get lost amongst it all, it’s changed an awful lot in the 12 years I’ve been selling, nowadays SM is all about reels and videos, I’ve yet to start on those really (another thing I need to add on the to do list).
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There is no internal advertising either. Unfortunately most sellers think the threads on this forum are a way to advertise listings to buyers, but that isn’t the case. The forums are used by sellers, not buyers. While sellers can buy from one another, buyers don’t visit the forums or even know they exist unless they’re also sellers. So there isn’t any form of internal advertising to buyers either. You are right that if you are doing your own promotion, it’s more appropriate to just have your own website.
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It really is a pity that there is little traffic generated beyond what sellers do themselves. When I sold on E* I drove some of my own traffic ,but a good amount of sales came from activity within the site. I really like the ethos behind Folksy, so wouldn’t like to give up on it, and the feeling of a bit of community that it creates. But if I don’t manage to sell here then there is little point and I’m better putting my energy into good SEO on my own site.
Thanks for all your thoughts and comments, it’s been useful and good to hear how others are dealing with these issues.
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Just have to menton that your silver pieces are delightful 
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That is so kind of you to say .
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