CMA Admin Admin
Join date : 2020-07-26 Posts : 724 Location : The TARDIS
| Subject: About this Section Sat 05 Nov 2022, 4:14 pm | |
| What is Let's Talk Shops all about? Recently I had several subscribers contact me about other places to sell digital items, especially Not Etsy. The fact is, Etsy is one of the worst places for a new seller or entrepreneur to start. Even seasoned sellers have a hard time on Etsy, unless you already have 10,000 folks on your email list that will follow you anywhere. Yeah, that's what I thought lol, but even then you are not guarenteed success there.There are many more reasons to seek out alternatives to Etsy, the fees are outragous, they charge you 20 cents for each product (every 4 months) which may not seem like a lot to you, but if you are not making money back there, that is $60 a year for 100 products. My hosting for the Color My Agenda store and online directory cost me less, plus I can still create another separate website on it, if I choose.I am positive many of you have inboxes full of the next Etsy course, please for the sake of your wallet and sanity, don't buy into any of it. There is no "Look how much money so and so is making on Etsy" because whatever the person who curated the small list of shops there shows you on the sales page, Etsy is a HUGE ocean of little fish in comparison to the few that do well there, and many of those that do, have either had their shops there from the start, have that 10,000 people mailing list, or simply as I said recently somewhere, have the Luck of Leprechans. The majority are like you and me, spending more than we make.So recently, like today, I made the final decision to once again, close the 3rd and 4th shops there, I had 2 others over the 17ish year time since Etsy started, both failing miserably, just like these. Upon doing so, my revenue for the CMA shop for 3 years there was $326, I have way more than 100 products, so let's round it off at about $75 a year to keep them up (even 60 is too much) minus THEIR FEES, to give you an idea of my fees, last week I sold a $10 item, and yesterday they sent me a grand total of $4.68 ....... well, I don't have to give you a math lesson to tell you how much in the red that makes me, because quite frankly, it doesn't matter. What matters is I paid Etsy a lot of money over 3 years, just to have the pleasure of saying "Check out my Etsy store"! I have news for you lovelies, that may have given you some kind of clout way back when, but now, well, no clout by having a store that takes your money and steals your traffic. If you want to know more about the dirty truth, (and if you are a fully verified and activated member) go here to READ MORE! Read the whole thread, then visit the links at post 10 or so, to get even more dirt on why sellers are leaving the platform.BUT, this forum section is really not about Etsy, it's about avoiding and staying away, and being introduced to selling your goods on other platforms, basically for free. The only thing you should even consider paying for when you send traffic, and boost a platforms rankings, is paying a reasonable fee, IF and When you actually make a sale!With that said, I am going to start this series, for lack of a better name to call it, with some of the best stores, shops and platforms, which I have used or still use in my 27 years working online.I will also give you some tips in this forum on blog and writing platforms, POD platforms, free website platforms and more, but the main topics will be selling platforms you can start, and run your digital (or tangible) business for free.Watch this forum for new Resources, I will for the most part, create one topic for each platform, so you all can ask questions and make comments on just one platform topic at a time. | |
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