Etsy woes and the crappy economy

Well, firstly, let me apologize for ignoring my blog posting for so long. Really, it's inexcusable, given all the support from you who've come by to check on my posts. It's been a busy and hectic summer and I am always running short of time!

My sales at Etsy have taken a severe hit the last 6 weeks or so, and I wonder how much is due to my lack of promotion in the Etsy forums and how much is general economical malaise. I've chatted with a few other sellers, both newbies and established online shops and the consensus is that sales in general are in the crapper (a favorite phrase that can rarely be overused!).

In case you are an Etsy seller, you may be following some of the turmoil that's plaguing Etsy in the search results. I'm not totally in the know, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. Apparently, when items are listed or renewed, they are not always being posted to the search results. Instead, etsy is posting items in batches. In other words, items may not show up in the search for minutes, or hours. If I pay .20 to list an item, I'd like to see it at the top of it's search category, but with a batch post- I may be on page 3 or 4 or 20 right off the bat. Not good.

So, with the renewing/listing problem going on, I wonder if I suffer sales by letting my shop sit without the exposure of renewing (renewing is paying another .20 to have your item at the top of the search results).

Of course it could be the economy, stupid. It almost makes me feel a teensy bit better for having no 401K or stock portfolio. I watch lots of cable news and listen to NPR during my hour long commute to work daily, and the news is not encouraging. I wonder how long it will be before the average Joe and Jill, especially, feel good enough about spending money to want to shop for little luxuries. I think most people are quite scared just now and things will get better the closer we get to the holiday season. Perhaps things will be looking up in a couple of weeks.

Until then, I'll keep creating!