Feb 27th Blog Carnival About Etsy

The topic this time is: What made you open a shop on Etsy? What do you like about being a seller on Etsy? What don't you like?


The idea of selling my work online really appealed to me. However, I didn't want to sell my handmade creations on ebay. The fees are too high there and the not handmade things I did try to sell didn't get any bids. I don't even remember how I first heard of Etsy, but as soon as I did, I wanted to open a shop. I imagined myself making beautiful handknits and handspun yarn and selling it at a price that I could actually live on. The being able to live off it part hasn't happened yet, but my shop is gradually growing and having more regular sales.

Etsy has lots of great features. In addition to being a good venue for my shop, Etsy has a great community. I am a member of several teams, and there are people who work on their own to make the site better like etsyhacks.

I don't like the attitude of many of the adim on Etsy. Sellers have voiced valid concerns over and over again and they are ignored. I think its interesting that now Artfire is around and Etsy is now doing some of the things that sellers like from Artfire- like the announcements section in the forums. I wish they would make the categories make more sense. They've changed them around before but take a knitted hat for example. Is the hat supposed to go in clothing, accessories, or knitting? Does handspun yarn go in knitting, or handmade supplies>yarn?
They need to fix the search, this has been a big issue from the beginning, but with more and more listings on etsy it gets harder to find what you're looking for especially with people mistagging things.
They need to stop Non Paying Buyers. People who click "buy" but don't pay for the item. It's only happened a few times to me, but I get all excited when I have a sale and then to find out that it isn't is a real disappointment. If someone selects paypal to pay for their purchase, the items should not count as sold until its paid for.
On top of that, paypal should not be the only online payment method available. There is the "other" option, but Etsy has yet to make it clear what other is. They could easily make it a text box for the seller to say what other is, say Google Checkout, but because of Etsy's preference for a payment option owned by a competitor (Ebay) we are stuck with paypal. On Etsy, we pretty much have to use paypal to get sales. I wish they would integrate Google Checkout, but they've already said no to that one.

I know it sounds like I am complaining a lot here. I just see how much potential Etsy has, and wish they would live up to some of it instead of promoting their friends on the front page and gift guides.

I like how my shop looks, I like the forums and community, the prices of listings are ok (better than ebay, more expensive than Artfire), I like the Etsymini, and that we can now use Google Analytics on our shops.