An Etsy Saga: Death To Fine Artists
We went from killing it on Etsy to Etsy killing us…
A six year ride, it was promising at first glance… Etsy wasn’t even roller coaster for us. It was totally a crash and burn. This is our tale.
Truthfully, I dragged my heals for long time… Thinking, I’d revamp and get our shop rolling again. But after 3 years of no sales at all, I was just wasting money on keeping my listings alive.
Before Etsy went public our Etsy gallery did really well on their platform.
My husband, was already an established artist but never sold online. I was trying to gain exposure and I thought we could make some extra income online. The first year we did about $12k the second year around $16k. We sold about 4 pieces each year. We sold a few prints but not really noteworthy for income.
We would get messages weekly, sometimes daily, from people interested in our work. We even got a couple of shows from gallery owners that saw our work. (I didn’t include those sales in our income above.) This was a great moral boost for me. However, it was a lot of work. I would spend 15–20 hours a week plugging the forms and making new connections. It was enjoyable while there was interest. We had all 5 star reviews and it seemed like we were going to take off…
Then practically overnight, it all changed. Etsy had already made changes. Changes I didn’t think would effect us. 2013 They introduced a policy that said seller could out source manufacturing, meaning they could mass produce or buy/sell non handmade stuff. Or something a long those lines. this seemed like it was geared for sellers that sold supplies more then crafted goods, or fine art. I wasn’t really sure what meant but I knew it wouldn’t change our shop. We are artist, painter, photographers. Nothing to mass produce, since our prints run in a limited series only. I just sort of waved this Intel off like it wouldn’t matter to us.
Wrong…
Well, that’s when we noticed “the shift”. People were in rage over this move. A lot of people stop buying and selling on Etsy because of this. Our weekly contacts of praise or interested from buyers turned into monthly averages… so I re-Strategized. But nothing seemed to work. 3rd year one painting sale for $2,600 and that was it… That was the last sale we ever had.
Shortly after Etsy pulled this manufacturing maneuver, they went public. Adding even more frustration and rage to all the old timers on the platform. We lost, it was game over for us. I never really knew how to “play” on the original platform, I was just in a tight-nit community that had a cult following and real collectors comfortable in buying art online. I suspect it was more luck then us doing anything right or wrong. It just seemed as if the community was stronger back then.
Three years would pass. I would occasionally let all our listed expire during this period, I would say, “it’s not worth it, I’m finished with Etsy”. Then I would change my mind, re-list everything and try like hell to make some cash. Where did all the art buyers go?
Also, during this time, Etsy introduces ads, spend more money and make more sales…. I tried, got a few likes no messages though. The community was dead. Etsy had become a grab bag for the investors. It became soulless and I stuck around hoping for a rebound that would never come.
I also tried many other online artists platforms, thinking it would be the new Etsy for us. I try to promote on instagram and facebook. Nothing seems to work these days. I imagine it’s just my marketing skill sucks.
But we had also started a business and running a crew. This takes a lot of time and it’s a demanding and creative business. I just haven’t gotten into really pushing our personal work in a long time. We have our own online gallery hudsonstreetart.com It doesn’t have much reach but it’s great for local sales and interest.
To hell with Etsy. in the beginning, it was nice to have such a great Etsy community, with all the forms and the connections you could make. I’m not sure how to get our art site or work in a community like that.
Anyways, after about a year of letting all our listings expire (for the last time), I rebuilt our gallery site but I lost all my descriptions, so I tired to log into Etsy so that I could copy and paste my listing info. Only, Etsy wouldn’t let me see my listings unless I paid to republish them… we have over 100 art pieces together that we’re listed, so I figured Etsy would get more money outta me. I paid the fee to make my life slightly easier. And wouldn’t you know, not a single person across the Etsy platform ever liked a single listing. I even changed the titles and tags to gain a wider audience. Slowly I build up our site… slowly…
Farewell Esty.
I would love to know what other artists on Etsy had experienced if they were part of all these changes. If they had similar experiences. If they stuck with it and are making money or not?
