Etsy in it's infinity stupidity. . .

Etsy regularly. . .often makes what I think are really bad decisions, they change things for basically no reason and constantly re-format stuff just for fun. . .well fun for the techs who are obviously bored and just screwing around but never fun for sellers who have to deal with the bullshit.  😒 

As you can tell I'm a bit pissed this morning, I have been forcibly switched to the new "etsy ads" which I did NOT want. They in their infinite stupidity have decided to combine promoted listings with google ads so they can overcharge us all.  I never liked the "google ads" I did try them, twice as a matter of fact, and never got a single sale out of all the money spent and boy oh boy they spent some damn money, as there is no control of the cost per click and they bid themselves silly because you cannot set any limits other than the "daily budget" it's a bit like handing a ten year old money and asking them to spend it wisely.  😐 You know you're never getting any thing of value and you'll never see any change back.  

My first clue to this switch over was on my dashboard when I logged in and found a note in the shop advisor section :

Etsy Ads Credits for your Etsy Plus Subscription

You will still receive your $5 monthly advertising credit with Etsy Plus. Any remaining credits will post to your Payment account by Oct 1.

Well it's nice to know that the $5 credit for promoted listings that was a major selling feature for the etsy plus subscription will remain intact, but what good is a $5 credit when google ads wastes whole dollars on single clicks?!? 😕

I tried looking at stats and of course it says "advertising" now instead of promoted listings and which still does not include stats info for the freaking app so is in no way accurate. If you go through marketing and try to look at the advertising stats it gets worse, with limited time frames and no way to see daily clicks and charges. Totally bogus, unhelpful, super shitty, ugly format and I told them so via the survey. 


This sucks, the format is ugly AF and the limited info is annoying and frustrating.  I track my stats vs. PL clicks as "yesterday" time frame every day and now I can't do that.  If you think I'm going to leave this shit on so that you can spend up my budget and charge me a bunch of money for ads on google which I never liked, wanted or had any luck/revenue with you are sorely mistaken.  And furthermore since this change to my advertising choices with it's severally sucky limitations coupled with the screwing up of my featured items section, I will also be discontinuing my etsy plus subscription as it's a waste of money since I can no longer set the format I want in my features and have no need for the advertising credits since I will be turning off all ads.  Congratulations etsy you have fucked up my shop and screwed yourself out of my "seller services upgrades".

I had seen forum complaints about featured items sections not holding format and I'm really unhappy that I pay an extra $10 a month for etsy plus so that I could have the format I want in my featured items section and now they have fucked it all up and I cannot change it, I have tried and what I have set is not what is shown.  😡  I am paying extra for a feature that I no longer have control over!?!?!  WTF?!?!!?  

So congratulations to the etsy execs and techs who have managed to screw up multiple things at once, the results of which are I will be turning off my etsy plus subscription and all advertising since I have no control over these things any more.  I sincerely hope that many sellers turn off both that it costs etsy a bundle in their bottom line because that seems to be the only thing they understand.  😐

Tired of the "know-it-alls". . .

I find it rather rude when trying to have a discussion about different aspects of online selling and someone decides they are the end-all know-it-all.  Seriously, this morning I have been informed that "You must not understand how business works though."  "also you clearly don’t understand SEO."


Well allllright-y then smarty-pants please by all means go on. . . 

First, let me start with this is not my first business, I have had another previously. Second, etsy is not my first attempt at selling online I had a stand alone website for 10 years.  Finally, the concept that every thing you need to know is in the etsy handbook and works perfectly for every shop is asinine or a joke.  😕

If you go to the etsy search and type "chainmaille bracelet" in and hit search you get over 12,000 results, so lets's start with not everyone can be near the front of search when there are that many results, period.  I don't give a shit what you do. 

Now if one looks at those listings on the first page you will find many do not at all follow the guidelines in the handbook. 

Then consider that the articles that came out last year completely contradicted everything previously touted as being the "right" way.  
The old fashioned keyword stuffed etsy titles, where they encouraged you to use every available space in the title line for keywords and repeating yourself was a good idea, go ahead use the word bracelet 5 times.  A couple of years ago they admitted they were moving towards more of a google standard and google hates repeats and prefers shorter titles. So now keep it short but be descriptive but only the first few words matter.  Okay

Etsy used to encourage sellers to "tell a story" about what makes your item or your process special in the description, basically write a book, the longer the better.  Now my descriptions are "too long"  because they don't fit in the smaller allocated space but they do include full item details of materials, sizes, color options, etc. 

"Attributes" which have changed greatly through the years, many of the things that we are now supposed to set/select either didn't previously exist or were optional and not counted in search.  Now apparently attributes are important and if you don't set them you don't count.  really!?

Use all 13 tags, but single word tags are bad long tail keywords are better. Be specific in your categories. Fill out your about section and policies, blah blah blah. 

So since I have adjusted my listings repeatedly over my years on etsy trying to keep up with what they say "now" I have my about section and policies and I've had sales and gotten nothing but 5 star reviews, never had a case or complaint, I have to ask why the first pages of the "chainmaille bracelet" search are filled with listings that don't use all their tags, that have repetitive repeat words in the titles and tags, that have no attributes set, that are from shops that have no policies, and/or no reviews. ???

Why do I fight to keep trying to comply with these ridiculous and contradictory guidelines when nothing on the first page is in compliance?  Why should I keep trying to dig out of the massive piles when I will likely never be found because I won't offer free shipping and I have a small budget for promoted listings?  Nothing I have ever done to be in compliance with this insanity has ever changed my crappy search placement, brand new shops open and post listings that do not fit any of the guidelines and they get the new bump any way.

But don't mind me I'm just "ignorant" and have no idea what I'm doing.  😶  And this annoyance and incident is brought to you by a "seller support" group with some super "supportive" members. 😒

etsy stats are worthless. . .

Seriously, in the years I've been on Etsy they have "updated" "upgraded" "improved" stats multiple times, however in my opinion none of their changes have actually been improvements or upgrades.  😐  They have changed the display page, they have changed somewhat how they categorize certain views/visits, they have reduced the amount of information they provide, they still run many hours behind most of the time and I seriously question the accuracy.  

I noticed this morning when looking at yesterday's stats it shows 8 visits 8 views (yes single digit sadness, I know) but if I change the time-frame and look at the last 7 days it shows August 6 as having 6 views and 6 visits, however I got 9 favorites yesterday.  😏  I know people can favorite from search pages without actually visiting the listing/page but really?!

When I look at "today" it shows nothing literally zero zero, the graph is blank stats have not updated in 4 hours (well it says 3 on my screen but 6am-10am is 4).  But under the main graph it shows I've been billed for a promoted listing click already this morning.  Also if I go back to the "7 days" time-frame it is showing August 7 with 2 visits and 3 views.  😕

It makes me nutty that etsy's numbers never match, never add up. 😐  Irreconcilable like a checkbook that just won't balance, it's bad math and very frustrating. 

honestly. . .Etsy

I have had my shop on etsy for 4 years, literally I am one month past my 4 year etsy-versary.  I have been tolerant and understanding and patient while etsy has bugs and glitches and enforces weird and sometimes counterproductive initiatives.  

However, if I am honest etsy's support aka customer service is pretty awful.  In years past writing to support took days to get a response, sometimes the person responding would be clueless on the edge of illiterate in their failure to understand what was written in about.  Most times it was just an automated reply with a bunch of links to FAQ and help articles.  (not helpful)

In the last year since starting this stupid ticket system, I think it's zendesk based it's actually gotten worse.  19 days ago I wrote in about incorrect dates on my milestones in my social media page. 

"Under the Marketing menu on the "Social Media" page in my "shop milestones" section the dates showing are incorrect. screen shot attached 

It is showing my 30th 5 star review with a date of Oct. 23, 2017 but I literally just received my 30th review on July 1, 2019. Where did the other crazy date come from what does it mean?

It is similar with my 150 sales graphic which shows a date of Nov. 17, 2016 when my 150th sale was last month. Where did the odd dates come from?"

After 7 days with no response that ticket was closed. 😐  So I opened another ticket and included the ticket number of the unaddressed previous and wrote in again, again included screen shots and again waited for a reply.  10 days, that's right it took 10 days to even get an auto-reply, the standard canned automated response that starts with "This is an automated message from Etsy Support. We’re seeing a high volume of emails at this time which means it’s taking longer to assist our customers than we’d like."

I call bullshit on that as that exact line has been at the top of every reply I have received in the last year.  If things are that damn bad hire some more people, better yet fire the code monkeys that keep screwing things up and causing all these glitches and errors and you'd have less people writing in with problems.  

I do find it ironic that when I respond to the "how did we do" survey and tell them how badly they suck I suddenly have a response in 10 minutes.  😕

Etsy is not all it promises. . .

I know it's been around a long time now and there are some who are rather loyal to it, but the forums are filled with users who do nothing but complain, about everything, about every change, all the time.  😐  I have been using Etsy for years and the forums have always been a pit of negativity and since etsy outsourced them they are now ugly and not user friendly on top of being full of negative people and bugs.  I still read them but I do not participate, occasionally I see someone that I think I can help/talk to and I will message them but for the most part I just read, sigh, and roll my eyes. 😏

I am not a fan of the current crap etsy has splashed on my dashboard. I do not like the new "activity feed" without the listing photos for favs.  The continuous shove to pay for google ads and have "free" shipping.  The newest re-do of stats which messed it up and gives even less info than before. 😕  Yeah that's not really an improvement. ~sigh~  I am not saying that some of the complaining on etsy's forums is not valid, Etsy often does dumb things, has tons of bugs, and has forced some shitty changes on sellers in the last few years. 

All of which was a factor in my willingness to finally expand to another venue.  The final straw, for me, was something that will take some explaining, etsy lies epic-ly.  I have for years suspected that they do some major number fudging, in their how many shops, how many buyers, overall stats for braggery.  Numbers get thrown around all the time and I have always questioned where they get them. 

You find blurbs like this : "As of 2018, more than 2.1 million sellers sold goods through the Etsy platform, up from 1.9 million active sellers in the previous year. By comparison, there were over 39.4 million active Etsy buyers worldwide."

Now I guess part of it depends on what you define as "active sellers" it used to be the shop had to be open and have at least one active listing for sale, but I'm not sure about that anymore.  See there is this little trick whereby you click into the search box hit the spacebar and click the "find shop names containing" that will show every supposedly active shop, at least it used. I have been doing that at least once a day for nearly a year, tracking the number of supposedly active shops but recently there was a huge overnight change.

The number shops is in constant flux, new shops open, others quit or go into vacation mode, some shops are seasonal, tons get shut for infringement, etc., I understand flux, however, things do not magically double overnight. 😐  I find that highly suspicious. 
Seriously, highly suspicious
1,445,671 shops found for 7/08/2019  pm
1,447,305 shops found for 7/09/2019  am
1,448,089 shops found for 7/09/2019  pm
2,845,072 shops found for 7/10/2019  am
2,846,158 shops found for 7/11/2019  am
2,848,795 shops found for 7/13/2019  pm

Add that to the new forums info which shows 7.3 million sellers. . .?  Do they mean users? is that buyers and sellers? the forums where always for all etsy "members" not just shop owners/sellers. Are they counting every shop that ever existed?

Again I say things don't magically double overnight, so how did it go from 1.4 mil to 2.8 mil overnight? Are they counting every shop that ever existed instead of just active shops?  I have tried going to the last page to see who's listed last out of curiosity and the page errors, I have tried changing the page number and cannot get anything past page 1000 to show anything, and it says there are 1250 pages, so. . . I think the "active" definition may have changed or the way they count has changed or they are just inflating the numbers for some reason.

Any way I look at it or think about it what is published does not match what I see on the site and even if it is a labeling error on the forums and it should say 7.3 mil "Users" instead of sellers then that under cuts the 39+million shoppers/buyers they claim. 😕  Nothing adds up or matches, there is some super shady math somewhere.

So I have taken the odd step for me to be an 'early adopter' by setting up on the A.C. Moore marketplace before it even goes live. I got the preview available yesterday and while it's not perfect I currently own several categories of search. 😀 When setting up I was thrilled with the fact that their category selections actually included "chainmaille" even spelled correctly and under bracelets >chainmaille all the listings are mine. 😛  I am apparently they only chainmailler over there at the moment. ~yay~  Also of the 116 paintings listed 54 of them are mine!! ~woo-hoo~  I also have 33 of the 58 "wall hanging" listings.  Any traffic should have no problem finding me as I am whole pages in search results, instead of being buried under 12,000+ other listings for chainmaille bracelet, 559,000+ listings for wall hanging, 2+ million listings for painting.

I'm not wild about the paypal connection but part of me is happy it is separate from my bank that my etsy is tied to, bookkeeping and knowing what comes from where $ will be easy. I am not setting up stripe as I already have Square and like them better but the A.C.Moore set up is currently the way Etsy used to be and allows paypal only and has paypal and stripe as separated options.  

limited free shipping. . .

Not "free shipping" for a limited time but limited free shipping, that's what I'm moving my shop towards. 

I have in the past done free shipping for holidays, as in I actually just put up a limited time sale and pay the shipping out of my profit.  

I have for the last year had conditional free shipping, as in you had to meet a minimum purchase requirement to qualify, I even changed the minimum twice.

So it's not as if I have not tested the notion of "Free shipping" in my shop, however, I will not do it Etsy's way, the concept of rolling the whole cost of shipping into every individual item's price strikes me as wrong and really unfair for people who might want to order multiple items.  😕  I keep using the "  " around free shipping because in most cases it's not really free shipping, it's shipping included. I know I know semantics but I think it's important to be honest.

So I have started changing over certain things to not have shipping charges listed. Necklaces are higher priced items and have room to cover shipping, so I just changed the shipping to a new free shipping profile.  Earrings are really small and lightweight so I adjusted the price a little ($1-2 not the whole cost of shipping) and changed them to First Class mail instead of Priority so I lose less money when I pay the shipping.  

I highly doubt I will ever change everything to free shipping, especially the art as the larger paintings that go in larger boxes really do cost $$ to ship. 😏  I might try to find other boxes and check out sending them first class and maybe cheaper. I might consider offering first class on more of the jewelry but I need to check on the insurance included as priority covers most things and I'm not sure first class package would be equal. 

free shipping will be the end of the world. . .

Sometimes the Etsy forums can get a bit overly dramatic.  😏  

Etsy has been pushing shop owners to offer free shipping in various ways for a while now.  I am regularly resistant to such things but I have done sales for free shipping on larger purchases, I offered free shipping with lower minimum thresholds around the holidays.  

However, I have not done free shipping the way Etsy wants or recommended because I have not added the full cost of shipping into the price of every single item. 😕  I don't like the notion of putting the full cost of shipping into every item price because if someone happens to order more than 1 item them they are actually overpaying for multiple shipping charges.  I know it's all profit for me but it has always struck me as dishonest and a bit unfair so I won't do it. 

Etsy's latest announcement that priority search placement would be given to listings with the new "free shipping guarantee" set-up have set the forums ablaze with threads shouting of unfairness, manipulation, blackmail, the death knell of small business, blaming amazon, hating etsy execs, defiant refusals, etc.,

I personally am a bit torn on the subject because from my reading and interpretation it does not have to be straight free shipping on every item/listing, there seems to be an option to have the "free shipping guarantee" set to give free shipping on orders over $35. 

I do not know or understand why they are using the word guarantee in this context other than it's a comforting and reassuring word for consumers.  😉  I think I can set it up to give free shipping with a minimum purchase which would be no different than the sales I've ran in the past, the only difference is Etsy wants us to use the new "tool" and set it up through shipping settings instead of using the sales&coupons tool under marketing. 😐  Other than which tool we use and the method Etsy displays it I really think there is no difference, at least not that I have found yet.  

I have not set up my "free shipping guarantee" yet, although the new tool did finally appear in my shop dashboard, I have seen threads where people are having some glitches and issues so I think I'll way a bit. 😁  The priority search placement doesn't kick in until the end of the month anyway and I already use "promoted listings" ads to get to the front of search.