I’m beginning to wonder if the fashion for hand crafted items is starting to wane. 2011-2012 I didn’t sell on online but through craft fairs and everyone who attended seemed to do reasonably well at 80% of the fairs. Last year was really dire and many a weekend and lots of money was wasted. Sadly it seemed to affect all stallholders, regardless of what they were selling. I decided in December after a bad Xmas that I wasn’t going to waste my time with craft events this year so now only sell online. I’ve spoken to a few of the very talented people I have met over the past couple of years and sadly, over 50% have stopped doing their craft. We all agreed we had fun and we met some lovely people, but it was costing us money to go the events. Sales this year for me could have been better but they are over 100 % than last year. The site “Not on the High Street” had a starting price of around £600 plus VAT when I enquired at the beginning of the year so a definite no for most of us !!!
Its so frustrating isn’t it. We are all putting in so much effort with our Folksy shops, and it seems for a lot of us like a ghost town.
I only upgraded to the plus account at the beginning of the month so I will continue to promote and make things like crazy in the hope things turn around.
Its sad to hear month after month that it’s yet another quiet spell. I’ve yet to have a busy one lol 
I do love it here though. The forums are great, and the new updates to the shop front not long ago are fab, but where are the most important ingredients… The customers!!!
Is September normally a good month??? June, July and August have been pants 
sending everyone a lucky four leaf clover:four_leaf_clover:
Karen 
I wasn’t looking at NOTHS with the idea of selling on there, couldn’t afford the fee. I wanted to look at their stock and photos to give me some inspiration (my shop is closed for the time being). It amazed me that they stated that they had only over 3,000 designers/sellers, but Folksy has 6,000. Marg. x
They have less designers/sellers because they cherrypick who they want to sell on their site.
To be honest, I’m surprised they have that many.
I set up an Etsy shop about a year ago now, and to be honest I didn’t really think I was pulling in that many views and definitely not that many sales. So after spending a lot of time on Twitter I was sort of persuaded to move across to Folksy. I think it was sort of sold to me due to it being UK based, and I sort of felt all my views on Etsy were from US viewers and they didn’t want to pay delivery fees.
Strange thing is, since I have moved things over to folksy and have totally stopped advertising my Etsy shop (with a view to let it dwindle and then close) I have actually started getting a lot more Etsy views!! Not sure how that’s happening.
I’m also seeing a lot of dissatisfaction on this forum with folksy. Which is a bit frustrating really as I’ve only been on here for about 3 weeks now, and they take a lot more money than Etsy do for the priviledge.
If you’re a seller like me, who has another full time job and just makes things on the side, then you won’t have a shop full of stuff and you will actually notice that folksy is a lot more expensive to run than Etsy.
hmmm…I’m not sure what to think/do anymore. After I have tried advertising my folksy shop on all the social networks that I use in the last few weeks I can hardly just say I’m moving back to Etsy now and to ignore my folksy shop…it’s a tough one!!
Might give it until Christmas say…and if Folksy still isn’t doing it for me, then hop back over to Etsy. I prefer their seller options/app etc as well.
i wouldn’t worry about it too much @curiousseagull, just remember - only a fraction of folksy sellers use the forums at all, and of them this thread contains some of the…
…quotient.
i’m doing okay, but i’m reluctant to bring any kind of opposing view (balance) to one-sided discussions like this anymore after receiving snide comments on previous occasions.
Likewise, I’ve received snide comments for suggesting that Folksy is anything less than 100% perfect and could do anything better… Susannah, just give it a try and see how it works out. You may be one of the successful ones…
Yeah well I will definitely give it a go for a while and see how I get on. I think i just assume things will do ok- I will just do what I normally do and promote promote promote! 
It’s sad that you both received unwelcome comments. I don’t agree with censoring comments or feeling like your can’t express yourself- especially when you’re simply offering your own opinions, personal views and your own experiences and let’s face it, in the grand scheme of things the comments don’t do any harm to anyone.
Oh well…better get out there promoting!
Hope sales pick up for everyone!!
Susannah, Love your shop, just bought the Puffin, I have been looking for one for ages. Keep going, your shop is lovely. Marg. x
Aww thank you!! I wish you could have seen it when I first started making him…he didn’t look anything like a puffin then all of a sudden he just took shape!!
He’s definitely one of a kind- I don’t think I could ever make one like that again even if I tried!
I will get him wrapped up and sent to you tomorrow.
Thanks again!!
Susannah
Mine is the same. Maybe we should set up our own online shopping “village”. We could call it Tumbleweed Crafts.
I’ve not been on the Folksy Forums since before it all changed - yep, a long time! So Hi to anyone who remembers me from the olden days and hello to anyone who hasn’t seen me before.
I did actually make 1 sale last week on here, trying to be positive and I am not giving up too soon on Folksy, I would rather be with a UK based site.
Oh, I got so excited - i got a sale at the weekend but it looks like i might have to cancel as they haven’t paid, i have emailed them and will wait until this weekend, so fingers x the tumbleweed is blowing away 
That is so disheartening @biskettblue . I had a sale like that a couple of weeks ago that I had to cancel, then the following week they re-ordered and it all went through fine. So fingers crossed for your sale.
Pauline.
Must have been the weekend for those sort of non-sales Yvette.
We had one from US on Friday, put an item in their basket, wanted it personalizing, and then left it there.
We contacted them and he said he was in the middle of moving and couldn’t decide what address to give.
Better that way, as we have had someone from the US do the same to us, giving us the old address so the print trundled it’s way there, get returned back to us, only for us to send it back out to the new address!
Here’s hoping they all come back and make their purchases 