Give it to me straight, mamas...(Etsy ?)

[dillonandmarasmom]

Is Etsy a waste of my time?? Are you successful? If so, how do you encourage sales?

My background: I knit and sew. I design knitting patterns (though haven't published anything), and am thinking of having a knitter's shop that caters to knitting items (needle rolls, project bags, stitch markers), patterns, and my own knitted items.

Any thoughts?

How do you all markert?

Pardon me if this thread is redundant. I didn't want to hijack anyone else...

[minimunklemama]

for me it's worth it.I am by no means rolling in dough but I have made enough so far to get those extra's that we need.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5679555
I work an hour or two and evening depending if I have had a sale or not.Make your photos appealing.renew items daily.or add new stock.
I have had my store a couple of months and I just got approached for wholesale so I am excited.
set up your shop completely in one go though.I made stock and everything before I opened up as I have come across a cool looking shop only to be disappointed that it was not kept up.It sets a bad tone.There are lots of potential customers that come across etsy everyday.
Go for it.

[ian'smommaya]

Originally Posted by minimunklemama

for me it's worth it.I am by no means rolling in dough but I have made enough so far to get those extra's that we need.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5679555
I work an hour or two and evening depending if I have had a sale or not.Make your photos appealing.renew items daily.or add new stock.
I have had my store a couple of months and I just got approached for wholesale so I am excited.
set up your shop completely in one go though.I made stock and everything before I opened up as I have come across a cool looking shop only to be disappointed that it was not kept up.It sets a bad tone.There are lots of potential customers that come across etsy everyday.
Go for it.

mayamde.etsy. is mine, i try to work on it every other dya or so...those are great ideas, you can use flickr and your blog too. create a mass email to everyone jsut saying your selling stuff describe your products and tell you friends to shop local, make business cards and info sheets, put them up where you can like at the kids' school, temple or wherever.

[BrooklynDoula]

I am a doula and I teach babywearing classes. I found am MDC mama who sells silk ring slings (babypockets.etsy.com) through etsy and I asked her for a sample. I LOVE them and tell my clients about her. I also was asked to write an article about babywearing options and wrote about her. She said these things really increased her business a lot.

Anyhow, I imagine that doing other things to draw people to your sites would help a lot. I found this mama when looking at slings for sale on this site.

Good luck to you!

[2xshy]

I am using etsy too. I haven't had a lot of sales thus far though. I think it takes sales to get sales if that makes sense so it my take some time to get things rolling. You need to promote outside of etsy though, while etsy is great there are hundreds of your competition on the same site and a lot of people under cut their prices to get sales.
While it takes some time to get things set up, the initial cost is really negligible at 20 cents a listing, so i think it is definitely worth test the waters with.