Hi folks, im currently stocking my shop with all my makes, and updating or filling in all areas thats required… about you section etc…
My question is i am thinking of closing my other shop on the dark side shall i say… and focus on here 100% promoting etc i cant really run 2 and after the changes over there i am wanting to leave and maybe open my own website? (Not sure as yet?)
Do you have shops on both? Or your own website to run along side your folksy shop…
For me its a fresh new start in this lovely handmade market place where all things are handmade…which is whats Folksy is about…
Would love some advice or opinions on this thread x
I have shops on both and my own website, but I don’t have a huge turnover of items per day so it’s very manageable for me. Majority of my items are made to order so I can stick an ongoing listing on that I just renew as it sells. I do also sell one offs and I do sometimes add them to more than one shop, but I rarely do any international sales here so as I’m near my laptop all day, if it does sell to a UK customer in the day or evening, I can take it off sale at the other shop. Or leave it on overnight as that would more than likely sell to an international customer and only from one place. I don’t do that very often though. I think if you’ve got a lot of one offs you’re probably only going to want one shop and focus all your social media and online marketing to head there. At the end of the day, wherever your shop is, and however many you’ve got, marketing well is the key Jo
Hi I had the same dilemma
I closed my dark side shop and built a website x peeps are friendlier here I think and I love the real sense of community on folksy x
I say go for it x and good luck
I was on the site that cannot be named too, but it’s like screaming into the abyss there, I can’t imagine my pieces would ever come up in searches. I love folksy, the community is brilliant on all platforms and so friendly. As has already been said it’s really all about marketing, as long as you send them all to your shop I suppose it doesn’t really matter where that is, but I do think I get better footfall on folksy. Hope that helps and good luck
This is such a good place to be…I do have a shop on the dark side and sales on there are ok…but since all their changes I don’t really like it there…everything is too technical and weird payment systems…I haven’t got a clue what they are doing or what I am doing…lol…
Much nicer here. Lots of friendly faces and always someone here to help,
xx
In an ideal world this would be my only selling venue. But sadly it’s not an ideal world and the other side brings me more sales despite me hating the way they do things. Occasionally I spit my dummy out and will take a month or so off from here as I get fed up of all the promotion you have to do with very little to show for it but I do love folksy. I will probably always have both shops.
I reopened my shop here in October, I’d like to get my sales through here so now try to point most of my promotion to my Folksy shop… but I do have a shop on the other side and still get more sales there, so I think it would be silly to close my shop there until I’m getting more sales on here (or until they make a change I really can’t cope with).
As my shop is already set up on the other side and has been running for years, it’s not really much more work. I mostly just click renew on 1 item a day and then leave it ticking over. As I take new photos of items for here I might update my older listing on there… but mostly I feel like I’m ignoring my other shop.
It might take a year or two, but I’m hoping if I have both shops open but just push this one, slowly my sales will swap to this one too, and then I’ll feel comfortable to start closing down there (or at least reduce my listings so everything’s on here and there’s just a selection on there).
We did quite well on the dark side without much effort until the ‘changes’ last year so we closed that shop 6 months ago and now only have a folksy online shop.
At certain times of the year our folksy sales have been quite good so this year we will continue to promote our folksy shop when ever we can.
We made a commitment to ourselves to support Folksy primarily because it is UK based ,like us, and it’s also a very friendly place to be.
I have a similar dilemma. I choose to do all my promoting to my Folksy shop. As a result, views outnumber the other side by about 2:1, sales by about 4:1. But I do make sales on the other side, mostly lower value items like cards, without any effort, But the payment system bamboozles me and, like Brenda @teabreaks, I don’t know where I am with it half the time.
I have sold some quite high value items on Folksy, so I’m happy to be here. If things don’t improve on the other side, I may ditch it.
I would love my own website, but I worry about the work involved and my abilities to keep it going.
It is lovely here. Like Royston Vasey, I’ll never leave! Not in a hurry, anyway.
The ‘darkside’? Now I’m taking a guess, but it starts with ‘E’, ends in ‘Y’, but is NOT a well known auction site…*which also by chance starts with ‘E’, ends in ‘Y’.
Well I have a presence on both 'E…Y & on E…Y, (this is very silly!)
I sell x5 to x10 items per week on one & have made just four sales in total on the ‘Darkside’ site
…& nothing at all on here!
Am hampered somewhat by not owning a mobile phone (no signal where I live & am housebound disabled) & with no mobile phone…=no facebook, =no instagram. Which sorta hobbles marketing promotion to a degree.
I used to do quite well via Google+ (That’s gone/going now). Have regular presence & interactive following on Twit, & run a youtube channel. Also have a presence on about x20 other sites - which feed to my own .com website - which feed to Folksy, Darkside & another selling platforms where I have a presence. (Seriously, can we not mention them??).
Promo on Stumbleupon, Reddit & Digg used to feed sales to my sales sites, but not so much now.
Seriously? I think we can… I know I’ve slipped up a few times and actually wrote the word, and nothing bad happened to me
I guess people just don’t want to feel like this is a forum all about them and promoting the competition (they do get mentioned quite a bit) so not mentioning them by name is a bit subtler. I’m not sure though… I just do it because everyone else does!
I am not afraid to name Etsy, it’s just a competitor (I think I will survive to finish this post) . I was on there until about October last year, I did ok with sales but I decided to return to Folksy as I prefer to support a UK company. I know a lot of people have been moaning about Etsy recently, especially with the new fees system but as Wubsys has said it’s all about marketing. I think as more and more people join Folksy it will start to have more of a presence, obviously that also brings more competition for us all. I have only sold one item since returning, I can’t post all the time (due to work) but I love the community on here and will continue to try and improve.
I still have an Etsy shop, but have been running it down since starting on Folksy. My sales were ok but the changes made outweighed that in my opinion. My sales with Folksy have been slow but I’ll give it another six month to build up. I have found all the sellers on Folksy have bent over backwards to help when asked which makes me want to stay.
I have had an Etsy shop for a few years but didn’t list anything for almost 2yrs. I joined Folksy in August and decided to close the other shop at xmas but then I made a sale in January so have left it open, I hardly look at it and virtually never promote as there isn’t enough time for both or I wouldn’t get anything made. I try to put all my effort into Folksy and FB (majority of my sales come locally from FB) and I am still considering closing the other one. I have very limited stock in ‘the dark side’ so not sure it is worth keeping open but once it closes I understand it can’t be reopened under the same name so until Folksy really takes off I may have to leave it sat there. They are totally different, Folksy is like a little community, I feel as though I have known people on here for years which is lovely, I would definately choose Folksy over the other one but obviously everyone is different and I know there are many people who struggle on here but do well on the other sites, hard decision I think.
Thank you everyone for your replies just checked my other shop and made a sale last night thats 83 sales in about 18mths yes i do put alot of work in to it and to here the ka ching sound makes me feel good…but after fees taken out of the sale at £7.56 I’m left with £2.58 it doesnt seem worth it
Before the changes one fee covered everything on there now its pure greed…
Right i will focus on here and fill my shop and drive traffic here but keep my other open for now as i do have a few regular customers, but hopefully very soon i can close the dark side …
It seems Folksy is the favourite…so onwards and upwards
Im not happy @Beesandblossoms but for now the way i see it is wait till i get more exposure on folksy then i will slowly fazeout the other over the coming weeks i will concentrate on folksy … i dont get a bill at the end of the month as its paid out if sales… but i never see anything in profits for my hard workover there, im not wanting to make millions but see something …i enjoy what i do and have mire ideas up my sleeve so here’s to the coming months and my first sale on folksy…
I think it will come down to cold hard economics for me. Since November, I have turned over a sum well into three figures on Folksy. Over the same period on the dark side, I have taken £7.00!. They have taken so much more from me.
I am going to let my stock run down on Etsy by not renewing it and concentrate even more on Folksy.
Selling on Folksy can be hard work, but it is fun!.
I see you are posting on the 365 thread @AuroraJaynesPaperieStudio. This really does seem to bump up your exposure. I think it’s great that everyone mucks in and loves each other’s stuff to give us a chance on the front page and more views. We are all potential buyers ourselves too, of course.
I am also starting to see results from Instagram too (though that can be a chore as well!)
Upwards and onwards.
Jo
just checked my other shop and made a sale last night thats 83 sales in about 18mths yes i do put alot of work in to it and to here the ka ching sound makes me feel good…but after fees taken out of the sale at £7.56 I’m left with £2.58 
over the coming weeks i will concentrate on folksy … i dont get a bill at the end of the month as its paid out if sales… but i never see anything in profits for my hard workover there, im not wanting to make millions 