This makes really interesting reading - lots of useful advice for us all. I’m relatively new as well, so will take all these tips on board for myself. Just popped over to have a look at your page. Beautiful prints you create, really lovely. Some of them are a little dark though - Seven Swans, Four Calling birds etc. It may be the colour of the card/printing and I imagine it’s very difficult to photograph art clearly without distorting the colour.
As well as the fab advice above, there is also the Folksy Blog with lots of tip for sellers on it. There is quite a lot to take in though, so maybe just read one of the articles and see what you can take away from it - in one gulp I found it too overwhelming!
http://blog.folksy.com/category/seller-tips
Marketing and selling is hard work, if it was easy then there wouldn’t be companies with depts dedicated to it. As a small business we have to do it all - making, marketing and the boring old admin side too.
There is also #folksyhour over in Twitter, Tues 8-9pm hosted by Folksy where they hold an info session - worth joining in to get tips and networking with Folksy themselves and sellers too.
1 Like
I am having the same problem - in fact people don’t even seem to be visiting my shop let alone buying anything!! What else do I need to do - am I tagging wrong or what?
I’ve not seen your shop before interesting cards
As said before are you promoting your listings, how often and where?
They tags look good photo’s good, etc
I had a quick look at your facebook page and couldn’t find a link to your folksy shop (or any other online shop as the social store app didn’t work). Linking facebook to your folksy store would help people buy your work who can’t make it to the physical store. You might want to consider re cropping your photos so that they are square with the card centred in the middle - folksy crops the photos on our shop fronts (and in search results) to square and if your image isn’t square then it trims bits off the edges. Your ‘numpty’ card has been trimmed such that the ‘y’ has disappeared, its only when I click on the listing that I get to see the whole design.
Hi All,
If anyone is able to spare the time to give my shop a critique that
would be great! There will be a 25% off discount code sent after as a thank
you!
I look forward to hearing you views!
Laura.
Hi Elizabeth. Your prints are beautiful and they have definitely featured in our favourites and gift guides before, so they will have been on the front page but as the home page is constantly changing it’s easy to miss when your work appears. To help sellers find what’s been happening in their shop (so what’s been favourited, added to gift guides, added to our favourites etc) there is a button on your shop dashboard where you can see all your shop activity over the last 30 days or so. This is the link https://folksy.com/profile/events/expanded
I would also suggest filling in your Meet the Maker profile page (there’s a link where you can do that on your shop dashboard) and rearranging the items in your shop so the most relevant ones are at the top - you could try listing original prints at the top and any Valentine’s Day or Christmas cards at the bottom.
I would strongly recommend adding the words Original Print to the title of all your prints as well as the printing method. So for example, this lovely Kingfisher print will show up in more searches if it’s called something like ‘Kingfish original print - limited edition three-colour etching’.
Collections can be a great way of getting views as well – they seem to rank well on Google as they offer many results for particular searches. So for example you could have a collection called ‘original etchings’, ‘original bird prints’, ‘hand-printed cards’. There is a useful article about how to create collections here http://blog.folksy.com/2015/09/14/create-collections-to-get-your-crafts-noticed
The last thing that I would say is think about you want to be known for. You are obviously an extremely talented printmaker, so I would use your shop to emphasise your skills. Explain to people how each piece is made and how much work goes into it, and think about which products you want to sell - for example, are the Christmas cards with animal photographs and computer-generated fonts possibly devaluing your work? Do they need to be in your shop? This blog post might be useful - it’s about how to find your niche and why it’s important.
I hope that all helps.
3 Likes
Learnt allot reading this. Not sure if I should dare ask what could be done to improve my store. Think it may be such a long list it may make me cry lol
1 Like
Hello…my first time contributing here. Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this. It was really helpful and I learned a lot. Just need to apply it to my shop now!
1 Like
I like your prints very much Elizabeth. I have had the same problem trying to get traffic to my shop and I do promote on facebook too. I use this forum a lot but it has made no difference to sales but has got me more views.
1 Like
Facebook is becoming less and less effective as a promotion tool this is due to the fact Facebook is now a business and wants us to pay for advertising with them.
It’s ok if you use it as part of your overall package of promotion but no really effective if it’s your only outlet.
You’ll need to use as many different social media platforms as possible as different one will widen your reach just that wee bit further as not everyone uses them all. Bascially you’ll be in the big pool rather than the little pool.
Also don’t forget lots of word of mouth, using your business cards/flyers.
here is a little list of great places to promote from
Pinterst very easy to use and we have the button/icon on our listings
Twitter some love it, some hate it and we have the button/icon on our listings
Craftjuice excellent for getting your items up in a google search
Wanelo just another place for google to pick up your listings
Google plus excellent for getting your items up a google search
Instgram now that’s very fast so you have to post almost daily and you’ll require an android phone.
Hope that helps
I am really insulted by the suggesting I don’t put enough effort into my listings, I quote from the one you are suggesting is ink-jet rubbish: "Hand-made red rose love heart Valentine’s Card.
Red roses entwine within a heart shape, to symbolise how love also grows and blossoms. 13.5 x 13.5 cm, printed on 240 gsm ivory card, with matching envelope."
Alongside the ‘Inspiration’ section reads "I designed the image myself, first drawing some rough ideas on paper. The best image was then re-drawn and carved into a block of lino, inked up with a roller, and finally printed by hand onto ivory card. Please note that as each card is hand made, there will be some variation in ink coverage between cards (as ink has a mind of it’s own!)’
Or perhaps you are suggesting I cram all of this into the Title section?
I have spent a lot of time promoting my work on FB, I have paid quite a lot of money promoting listings on there and built up 731 page likers. However, it never seems to result in any traffic to my ETSY page. I’m afraid I simply don’t have the time to use any other social media platforms, I’m limited in the time I can spent at the computer these days. I actually do reasonably well on ETSY, at least on there you can pay to get your work promoted by them, and doing that has resulted in an increase in sales. I had thought there must be something like this on Folksy that I was missing, or maybe I needed to upgrade to the £45 one off option to get preferential promotion on the site etc
Hey if you don’t want feedback then please don’t ask for it. If I don’t read the inspiration then perhaps other potential customers don’t read it either.
6 Likes
Continuing the discussion from What is wrong with my shop?:
Also, I don’t suppose you really give a toss, but for your information I have been severely ill with rare neurological issues for the last few years. Until I was allowed to take methadone for the pain I was more or less bed-ridden, and it’s been slow trying to get back to doing any sort of activity at all, I can only sit down if I’m under strong fans, which dry my eyes, which all limits how much work of any kind I can do a day, if I’m distracted by looking through and posting stuff on umpteen platforms it will seriously eat into creative time. It’s a miracle that I’m actually managing to do ANYTHING, so please don’t patronise me on the occasionally typographical mistake in failing to capitalise something, I probably had to rush off and find an icepack for my face at the time, then forgot to double check as being on strong medication doesn’t make me as perfect as yourself.
Why ask “What’s wrong with my shop?” if you don’t want answers? Nowhere does Stephanie @StephanieGuy suggest that your work is “ink-jet rubbish”. I don’t think buyers always read the “Inspiration” section, but I think you’re being over-sensitive. People are just trying to help.
9 Likes
A lot of us on Folksy have medical problems but don’t use it as an excuse be rude…
6 Likes
I’m sorry, but I thought the comment was very rude, especially as the person had made remarked about lack of information without even reading the listing, then makes claims that perhaps customers don’t actually read anything, which is a bit patronising to them as well in all honesty.
I’m bowing out of this thread, I don’t need to be attacked in this way for offering what I felt was balanced and helpful feedback.
13 Likes
I’m off too…
5 Likes