Maybe you already know about my gripes with the Etsy showcase system? or maybe you don't but here is not where you are going to find out about all that jazz!
Showcase 101
For $7 USD sellers on Etsy can buy one day of advertising on the front page in which to 'showcase' their products. The link banner sits imediately under the masthead on the frontpage .... and this is the only link to it.
NB: There is no external advertising, although initially this was not the case and it linked thru from some reputable (crafting) and some dubious (male-oriented) external sites.
Now for $7 USD you can list or renew 35 items in your shop, spacing them out could give you daily exposure for a whole month and keep your shop to the top of the main category listings. So this is what I decided to do for May and here is what I found!
ebb and flo shop activity stats for May 2007
33 items listed or renewed
32 new hearts
3 custom orders placed (one of which was declined by me due to time constraints but it translated into a sale for a smaller number of items)
4 sales (plus one more as a custom item was picked up June 1st, possibly one more sale on June 1st)
I made 3 purchases of supplies for a wholesale order and posted in 149 forum threads (however I didn't get banned, muted or warned during this time either!)
Was it worth it?
yes, my sales rate and shop exposure (hearts) both increased, and I didn't have to hang around on the forums ad nauseam
Compared with other (unplanned) "promotional stunt" it was less stressful and more productive (and would have earned Etsy a lot more revenue if autobilling was working)
Think about how stupid the average person is; now realise half of them are dumber than that. - George Carlin
4 comments:
Amanda I just discovered your blog via you sisters today!! Hope you are well. Yep I too am done with the showcase. Waste of time for me. Glad your relisting was beneficial to your shop - you have so many beautiful items.
I am off to Scotland in a few weeks - yipee (after a 'proper' holiday to cornwall) hopefully the weather will be good!
Howdy and welcome! and thank you for the compliments (btw for those of you who read the comments, visit http://gilfling.etsy.com for some truly beautiful art and a link to her accessories shop).
I was pleased with my "not showcase" promotion results and I'll try keep up the listing and other networking as much as possible in the coming year.
Wow I'm even more over the showcase after reading this (I didn't think that was possible).
Maybe the showcase is the most overdone thing on Etsy. ;p
OK latest posting - who is hiding behind the Etsy blogger profile?
on another tack completely, unfortunately i picked the wrong month to try my listing frequently experiment. no sooner than i finish my listing every day and making good progress than the listing process on Etsy crashes for a few days (or maybe longer as I can't get to the bottom of all the forum threads on this one)
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