I had been struggling for a while with not putting items up on Etsy. Well, I cannot afford the time and money to keep re-listing my items since I only really get an order every once in a while. You may think that this is a chicken and egg problem, where it is necessary to spend on promoting before you will get traffic and sales. Honestly, who don't wish for more sales but realistically I may not be able to keep up with the cost. I have been on ArtFire, which is very much like Etsy, just without the fees, for a while (2 years) now. I have not yet paid a single cent to ArtFire but have used it successfully to display my inventory and made a little sales. Other tools I have used are website, Facebook page, eCrater and this blog of course.
I did a little experiment last week by making a Treasury collection on Etsy and Curated collection on ArtFire using the same theme: Clowns that make you smile. Before I move on to the results of the experiment, I just wanted to thank the artists whom I have used in the collection. Clowns used to give me creeps but after I explored Grandma Phyllis' cupboard of clown collection, it opened up a whole new perspective for clowns for me. Their job is really to make their audience smile. They do it regardless of how they are really feeling. The professionalism of clowns are worth applauding and saluting, because they are artists in their own right. We have a musical clown, Happy, who sits on our TV and sings "It's a small world afterall" while rotating her head. She never fails to make me smile and I will always turn to her when I am feeling a little blue.
Back to the results of my little experiment, the collection was up on 1st June 2011. It has been 5 days and the number of views of the collection for Etsy and Artfire were 26 and 58 respectively. The number of comments I got were 2 and 7. Only 1 guest comment was recorded in the ArtFire collection. Apparently, I got a lot more traffic on ArtFire than on Etsy although most people swear by Etsy?! Maybe it is not a very popular theme but a direct comparison gave me the confidence that I can stick with ArtFire. Have you been struggling with the same issue as me? Share your experience with us!
While on the topic of being featured, I got curated again! : ) This is the second time Shower of Blessings got selected in a collection. Enjoy this Soft Summer's Day collection:
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