So, I've been selling on Etsy for 15 years. That's a really long time. It's changed a lot over that period of time. Some say for the worse, well, most people say for the worse. I admit, there are a lot of things I miss. Namely, the sense of community that was there. And yet, I am still there, and there are a few reasons why.
First, I don't have a huge online/social media following. I think right now I have 2,280 Instagram followers, 1500 Twitter followers and that's really the extent of my following. If I look at my Etsy stats, I really don't bring any traffic to my site. That's kind of a HUGE problem for me. Etsy makes up almost half of my income, and saying goodbye to that would not be financially smart.
Second, Etsy is a business. Yes, it really sucks that their fees go up. Yes, it really sucks that it seems like they are leaving the small business behind and not considering them at all with a lot of their choices. I get it. At the end of the day, they're more concerned with their bottom line and shareholders than say, me, some small time artist from Portland, Oregon. Maybe someday there will be a better way of making profits, but for right now this is what I have to work with.
They're still a viable source of income for a lot of people, myself included. Out of all the companies that I do business with, they are still the one that I feel really great about supporting. They're not fucking, Jeff Bezos. Fuck that guy and fuck Amazon. Seriously.
Third, Etsy's interface is so unbelievably easy for me to navigate and incorporate. This morning I was trying to link my Shopify site with my bookkeeping software and it wasn't recognised. Just the other day I tried posting a link to this site, on Twitter, and used the wrong link. Etsy also sorts out things like sales tax I've collected, which makes taxes so much easier. So, I do feel like those fees do go to things that make my life easier.
Yes, there have been a lot of changes to Etsy, but it had it's issues way back in the day too. Things like a 10 page listing system, favouritism and resellers have been a problem there since the beginning. So there have been lots of changes that have been really great since I started selling there in 2007.
I know the more I use this site, the easier it will get for me. And I do want to have my own site. It would be great to break away from the fees and get away from my Etsy dependancy. Right now though, it's not the smartest choice for me.
So here I am. With my own site and with an Etsy site. I feel good about them both so that's what I'm going with for the time being.