Sayonara Etsy!

Its been a long time coming. I told my husband tonight, "I think I'm going to leave Etsy", his reply, "You've been saying that for 6 months". Actually for a bit longer, but I won't split hairs.

Why leave this venue? I'll tell you. Its not like I've been known for holding back.

When I was initially searching for online venues, I came across Etsy.com. I perused the site, but was concerned about the saturation of artisan jewelry and that I would get lost in crowd. So I chose Ebay instead. However, the cost of fees very quickly ate into any profit I was making; therefore, I abandoned it. I took another look at Etsy. The fee structure was affordable, much more cost effective than Ebay. In addition, I could customize my store with a banner, avatar, etc. I signed on and opened up in February 2008. I loved Etsy!

I quickly found out that navigating Etsy was very cumbersome. If I needed information it was difficult to find, so I would go into the Forums where people were pretty helpful. I read up on how to get my name out there by joining teams, chats, checking out the Labs, and participating in Forum threads. So I dove right in and started swimming. Wow, Etsy was so cool!

After a few months I noticed the front page a little more and was wondering how one would get the exposure. After tons of research, thousands of photos, time sunk into editing, my pictures had improved immensely. I asked for store critiques, photo critiques, item critiques, price critiques, pretty much anything that would help me get a leg up and get noticed. It did work a little more. I noticed my views climbing and I had more sales.

During the Fall of 2008 I noticed that there were many sellers who were getting repeated exposure on the Front Page. That is prime real estate at Etsy and I began to question "Who did these people know?". It just seemed a very odd coincidence that the same people kept getting featured. So I delved a little more into the Forums and started reading about this phenomenon. I was not the only one who had this thought. There were long dragged out threads where people dissected, discussed, and developed theories of the "Whys and Wherefores". At times, it became insulting to read. Some people denied repeats at all, even though the Etsy Front Pagers Flickr Group very clearly showed skewing towards certain sellers. Many times I read, "Well the photos must not be good enough to be on the Front Page" or "Those people worked very hard". So did I! I worked harder, and put more time and effort into improving my shots. During this time, I noticed the underbelly of Etsy...there was a pervasive nastiness from some people on the forums and Admin was not visible at appropriate times and did not always respond when people asked pertinent questions.

Eventually I got featured on the Front Page and got more exposure. I want to thank those of you who featured me in your treasuries, especially Winklepots, who curated my "debut" front page. I would also like to dispell the myth that sales follow front page exposure. From my experience that wasn't true at all. I was featured on the front page 18 times. Out of those times I only made sales twice. That is about 11% according to my calculations. The rest of my sales came from my own hard work at marketing myself.

Another issue that began to irk me was the "Relist! Renew!" battle cry of Etsy when people had concerns about limited visibility. Pay that .20 cents listing fee! Keep renewing or relisting your items so that when people search, your items may be found at the top! There were proponents and opponents of this theory. I quickly became an opponent, as I am in the already saturated jewelry section. I could relist something, but it would be buried within minutes. I tested the battlecry theory several times, and quite frankly, it didn't work for me. When I attended an Etsy run critique, admin was very complimentary about my shop, photos, profile, policies, etc, but in the end the bottom line was "Relist! Renew!". How much relisting and renewing was I reasonably supposed to build into my fee structure? I could see it eating into my profits so I declined this option. It just wasn't a reasonable alternative. Since then, many people have discussed how Etsy makes their money, with an unscientific consensus being: pushing their sellers to relist and renew.

So what did I get for listing 80 items on Etsy for .20 cents a pop? A place that I could list my items and keep them up for 4 months. That's it. Many would and have said, "Etsy has no obligation other than to provide a spot for a seller to vend". I agree with that very basic statement, but what about the others who for some reason got "Twittered", featured in Etsy Finds, or more Front Page exposure? I paid the same amount as they did. My pictures were very obviously not horrid since I had made the Front Page. Admin was also complimentary when I was in their Labs. So that statement really doesn't fly with me. Some people got more for their .20 cents than I, or many other deserving sellers, ever did.

While all this is happening, resellers kept popping up. There were also sellers who were off loading last year's shoes, trying to get rid of earrings they didn't like (actually stated "new" in their listings), and selling licensed character items, without having a license to do so. That bugged me...so the flagging began. One isn't supposed to "call out" or name names in the Forums (or Fora, as the purists call it), so I was a good Etsian and started flagging. To no avail. I would go back and check: the resellers would pop up like an infected zit the following weekend, the shoes and earrings would not be removed and the licensed character items, well, they would still be there. I highly recommend the blog Callin' Out on Etsy. Its worth the read.

The above really made me think about the lack of quality control on Etsy, and whether or not they really cared about the people who got their hands dirty with clay, pricked their fingers with needles, or had to put down the pliers if they had an arthritis spasm. It just seems to have spiraled out of control. Does Etsy really care? In my humble opinion, no. They are more concerned about the dollar signs. So what if the reseller lists 100 items at .20 cents, gets shut down, to reopen the following weekend? Did Etsy refund their money? It actually behooves them to not care.

I quit reading and posting in the Forum. It wasn't worth the aggravation. There were so many glitches with the site. Changes would be rolled out that didn't seem to really benefit anyone. The SEO search was the last straw for me. My views tanked and haven't recovered. I did what I thought I was supposed to do: checked my tags, titles, descriptions, and revamped photos.

So Etsy collects money, promotes who they want, makes trends out of things that don't fit many demographics, and markets...where and to whom? Not many places that I can tell. There were mentions on TV shows, Good Morning America, and Martha Stewart, but some of it quite frankly was just embarrassing. Do I really want to be associated with an under fed hipster in Brooklyn who makes underwear and rude comments about the US? No.

My last issue is this: cheap. I am so sick of it. I take time, care, and love to make my jewelry. I try to be reasonable with amount I charge for each piece. I want to make a profit, donate to a charity, and be fair to buyers. When did handmade equal cheap? It doesn't in my opinion, but Etsy appears to promote that concept. Handmade does not equal cheap. Handmade is handmade. You are paying for time, talent, materials, and the ability to own something that an individual made with their own two hands at home or in a workshop. Many times these pieces are one of a kind.

So all this has culminated into me questioning Etsy, its function, and whether I want to be part of a site that has no quality control, promotes particular sellers over others, and sells the "Quit your Day Job" myth to people. I feel that Etsy has done a backhand deal to artisans, myself included. I answered my question months ago...and now I'm ready to leave. I'm going to do craft shows and work face to face with people. I like that. People have asked me if I will still have an online presence. Yes. I am here on 1000Markets and am so much happier.

In conclusion, I have met some absolutely wonderful people on Etsy that I am happy to call friends. I've learned loads from them and will probably be featuring them on this blog as time goes on. I belong (ed) to two great teams: Alamo City Etsy and Fabulous Artistic Moms. I will continue to stay on Etsy to make treasuries and as a buyer, unless they shut down my account with no warning.

Recommended Reading:
http://www.etsybitch.blogspot.com/
http://www.closedthreads.blogspot.com/

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