Same here, views down considerably. Only one sale for September, my lowest ever, usually average about eight per month. It’s not looking good Folksy.
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I haven’t been here long, but was encouraged when I had quite a few sales in my first few weeks so I decided to upgrade to the plus account so that I could list and re list without watching the cost rise.
Since then I haven’t sold anything and my views are right down…
I don’t think the new look front page is helping…it doesn’t show people much of a selection.
Kim
x
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I really hope that the Folksy team are looking at these comments and hopefully do something about it especially that terrible front page.
So many of us are not renewing the plus account so things can only get worse.
Its a real shame that we are not getting the results for all our hard work.
Valerie x
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In my opinion the problem with the FP is that it is all the same - as in the style that Folksy favours is what you see, then the links to each gift guide, sections that are curated are the same style shops and look. Featured shops are the same shops with the same Folksy look. So if you have that look, fit and and are picked then you appear in all of these little bits and probably do pretty well and if you don’t, well it is easy to get lost and have to rely on the search etc.
My organic views are under 10, my Etsy shop sits at just under 100 views a day if not actively promoted. I find it hard to believe that I get so many sales in the vast Etsy market place and the sales that I get on there from the UK I so want to be via Folksy with my heart as if people in the UK are looking for UK handmade items then they should be finding here and not there! I just wonder if these people come to Folksy and can’t find what they want or if in fact they just never come across Folksy in there quest for their item.
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Maybe the front page could have a ‘see what’s being listed’ link on the front page for people to click on even if they don’t actually show the recently listed items on the front page? And this needs to be seen without signing in as many shoppers just browsing won’t have accounts.
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Yes I agree, the front page before signing in is the most important, but what potential customers are seeing is Gift Guide, Favourite Finds and Featured Sellers, all chosen by Folksy, and then it seems as an afterthought (or browse categories if you must).
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I agree with the comments regarding the front page. Another idea is maybe the recently listed items could be shown in the form of a gallery on the front page. Why can’t we the sellers be able to choose or vote for our favourite finds or featured sellers?
Esterina x
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Plus sellers may well be at least partly responsible for the fact that newly listed items aren’t shown on the fp any more. I understand of course why plus sellers relist but relisting is not listing new items. And endless strings of the same old stuff drown out those listings that really are NEW 
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I agree with you, @mecki. I’m sure Folksy admin didn’t introduce the Plus Account so that people could constantly get all their stuff on the front page- it was mainly to make it economical for sellers who made and listed a lot of items. My shop slumped seriously with the changes last autumn and, although some sellers who are doing well tell me it’s my own fault for not trying hard enough, I’m convinced it was something to do with the site. I renewed my plus account a couple of weeks ago as it probably is more economical for me and I don’t want to shut my Folksy shop at the moment. Here’s hoping for a good Christmas for us all, things may pick up!..
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My shop slumped last Autumn, too, but I don’t think that it had anything to do with the plus account as that’s been around for a couple of years now. I too relisted a few items several times a day, not to get on the front page but so that my items could be found within the first 10 pages of the recently listed section. Now that search facility doesn’t exist (as far as new buyers are aware) the only chance of my shop being found is if buyers know what they are looking for and browse the categories.
My shop views and sales went into a downward spiral too last Autumn. I had hoped things would pick up for Christmas but last year was my worst on here since setting up in 2009. I have not renewed my plus account, but do not think it has made very much difference to my lack of views like above I only renewed a couple of items now and again.
What I would like to know is why is it that my most viewed items are one which sold a few years back. At present it is a set of Christmas decorations which sold in 2011, why are my current items not being found?!
When Folksy went into Beta mode last Autumn - and remained so for over six months - it changed the way items were being found on Google.
You were effectively starting from scratch again, which is why the older items (pre Beta) were/are being found first.
The Beta mode period had a huge effect on my views, with no noticeable spike in Christmas views, compared to the previous year, whereas views/sales on my other site has been increasing steadily.
It’s sad really - whereas on the other site I expect at least two sales a week, with Folksy it’s now a surprise if I get one!
There are many things I love about Folksy, but (lack of) consistent sales is not one of them.
Sarah x
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I too found last Christmas was my worst since 2009.
What can we do to get Folksy back on track and make it a wonderful site again?
Any suggestions???
Valerie x
another reason for older (in some cases aaaaancient) items still being found & receiving high views can be pinterest.
2 of my consisently “highest viewed” items are things i sold 3+ years ago.
they also feature on numerous “things to copy” type boards, so i would assume i lose potential sales there too…
and then there’s facebook.
my biggest referrer had always been fb, but since they last changed the algorithms, effectively blocking my posts from most of the people that chose to follow my page, my daily views on folksy have plummeted.
i didn’t find the beta thing to be an issue personally, my sales were still good until the summer.
and i did let my plus account lapse because i’m not able to work much at the moment… although that lasted about a week because i realised i couldn’t be without it so i renewed 
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Does it matter if plus sellers list their items daily. The one’s saying its the same old stuff relisted assumes that it’s the same potential buyers looking at the recently listed. We hope there are lots of potential buyers looking at Folksy, but will the same potential buyers look at it every day, I doubt it with other sites available, maybe a search of each site once a week, or when they need something. The recently listed section changed so regularly that it would be near impossible to view exactly the same items even if you did look on there every day.
I have stated before that there are only a few items promoted by Folksy every day, so who decides what’s going to be promoted, some one just sitting behind a desk. I often wonder what the staff at Folksy do all day. They don’t seem to bother looking at these posts, or someone would answer our concerns. Marg.
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I totally agree . All these comments are being ignored by the Foksy team.
If so many sellers are not renewing the plus account then what will happen to their jobs when the money just isn’t coming in. Less sales means less commission for Folksy
Valerie x
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Is it just mine or are everyone’s views still dire.
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Yep mine are dire as well. I was initially only on Ey but didn’t get any sales so joined Folksy and received quite a few sales. Decided to give Ey a try again and most of my sales now come from there. I fully understand that we all need to promote ourselves via Pinterest, Twitter and FB etc and I’ve nothing against hard work, however when you work full time I really don’t feel like spending my evenings promoting if it isn’t actually leading to more sales.
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I had a touch of insomnia this morning so decided to do some research on Google. I selected 6 of the items shown on the front page and the most unusual to limit the number of items that should come up. 1 item came up on the second page and the others hadn’t come up by the time I got to page 5. On Google you also get the box which says images from shops on Google and none of the products were shown there or should I say I had hit the more button 4 times and they hadn’t appeared !!! The sites that appear the most were ebay, Etsy, Amazon and Not on the High Street with Pinterest and Tumblr showing a few times and lots of sites/companies that I hadn’t even heard of. In fact, if you had never heard of Folksy it unlikely you will ever visit the site because I only saw the word twice on Google so is in essence invisible !!! This is a real shame as there is some amazing items on here which are definitely worth seeing
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Looking at Folksy on alexa.com provides some interesting data:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/folksy.com
Interesting and somewhat disheartening … especially the huge drop in global ranking/popularity over the last 3 months (it would be interesting to know how that number compares to 12 or 18 months ago).
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