After much consideration and contemplation I have decided to close my ArtFire Studio shop. My Etsy Shop is doing very well. I am getting a lot of traffic and I am making sales. I find myself spending more time promoting the Etsy shop than I ever did on ArtFire.
Don't get me wrong, ArtFire has a great thing going for them. They are easy to use, easy to promote and have a lot of things I wish Etsy would adopt. The problem is that ArtFire does not get the traffic that Etsy does. A portion of my sales are from other Etsy shop owners. I never had that on ArtFire. If I spend a day in the studio working on jewelry I still get a couple hundred views on Etsy, whereas, during the same time on ArtFire I may get a dozen views.
I am in it for the money. I mean, if I don't make money then I have to go back to work for someone else. I enjoy setting my hours and doing what I want with my time. Being self employed means that you rely on every penny that you make. Not only do you have to pay the bills you have to be able to restock supplies. For me it came down to dollar amounts. Artfire just wasn't producing like Etsy does.
Dropping the ArtFire shop will give me more time to spend in my Etsy shop and here, blogging ways to help you make money too! What kind of experience have you had running multiple shops? For those that say build it and forget it, I am sorry to say, no matter what kind of shop you have, you have to work on it and promote it or nothing will ever come of it. Or if something does come of it, it won't be much. If you've had a different experience I would like to hear it.
I hate to admit I'm of the build it and forget it school. I know I need to promote, but I'm terrible at social interacting.
ReplyDeleteI have used many of your suggestions, and that has helped!
I hear you!
ReplyDeleteI closed my ArtFire shop, too. The time I spent on it wasn't worth the tiny bit of traffic. That time is much better spent in my studio - and as a result my sales on etsy and elsewhere are increasing!
I am closing mine too for similar reasons.I think many are.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honest approach to it all.
Tanya
Jumped ship here, too. It should have worked but I could never figure out why it didn't. My Etsy shop seems stronger for doing it. There are some that do very well on AF, but they seem to be a very narrow nitch that is able to come up easily on Google. Not many of us can do that.
ReplyDeleteDo you feel the same way about having 2 Etsy shops? I just opened another shop and moved all my vintage things over to it. I am not sure if it was a good move or not.
ReplyDeleteI knew it was time to close my ArtFire shop when we were featured in one of their daily emails and it got us maybe five extra views. It would be great if I could get my Etsy numbers over there because I'd be making a killing without the fees, but when it takes the $10 every month whether I sell $78 (my best month) or $0 (happened far too often) and can't get the traffic, it's not worth it.
ReplyDelete