An Etsy Afternoon

Lunch today consisted of lots of chicken since lots of people were coming by.  A sister or two, grandchildren, children, daughters-in-law, and maybe even a few I missed.  At some point Audrey, one of my great-nieces, counted 17, which is so many after all.  Eventually they all left and I grabbed a nap, then I managed to find a few minutes to work in my Etsy shop.


I've been reading quite a few blogs and Etsy newsletters in an attempt to figure out how to make the shop more visible.  Write a blog and get lots of followers, promote the shop constantly, write the titles and descriptions in a certain way--it's a non-stop job of promoting and writing and keeping current with the newest trends.  I wonder when the successful Etsians manage to create and make anything to put in the shop.


I thought that if I worked really hard through the summer, I'd manage two goals: to attract more followers to the blog who would eventually find their way to the shop and to organize the shop and descriptions so that people could find what they were looking for in my shop.

Apparently I missed the mark by a long shot.  Well, one at least.  With 100 followers, I'm satisfied that there are a few people out there who are reading my blog occasionally (THANK YOU, FOLLOWERS) and have discovered the beauty of giveaways.  (Yes, we'll have to do that again soon. It was fun!)


But then the Etsy traffic isn't so great.  Some days I've had over 100 pageviews but no sales.  I think I'm in a catch-22: people won't purchase because there aren't enough sales to convince them it's a good shop, there aren't enough sales because people aren't making purchases.  Hmm, now what to do about that?

Here's what I'm going to do: not stress.  School begins again tomorrow, and I'm lucky enough to have a job I love.  If it happens, it happens.  If not, well, I tried.  Maybe there's someone selling on Etsy who doesn't have a job and that person is getting my would-be customers.  I'd hate to be taking those customers from someone who really needs them.  Besides, I think sometimes the sales are just an ego thing for me: a compliment on my work, so to speak.




I guess I could just let people say they like my work here.  You know, compliment me in comments and not worry about sales.  Then I won't need the sales to believe the work is good, the comments would do that.  So, yeah, let's go that route for a while.....leave a comment and I'll not stress over Etsy sales.  Do feel free, however, to jog over to Fleur de Lis Quilts and make a purchase....I will be okay with that!


Happy Quilting,
Mary