I spoke to a couple of people at the Etsy / Make Event tonight and found out what it takes to do well on Etsy.com. Well, the main part of ranking well on Etsy.com is posting work often and taking part in Etsy's community.
Etsy.com has about 250,000 members, but not everyone sells, some register to buy things that others make, but don't sell anything themselves. I think Vanessa Bertozzi said there's 40,000 stores, but I'm not sure I got the number right.
Most of the sales on Etsy.com are to other member of Etsy.com, it's actually functioning as a community and it's own economy. Members who live in New York City can pay 20 dollars a month for usage of space at Etsy's offices to create things on location - there's room to make devices, paintings, pretty much you name it. It's a wonderful space with great vibes. I think Etsy.com has been located on Gold Street since last October and many of the members who now work for the company, started as community members of Etsy.com.
I had actually thought that Etsy.com was located in Union Square - but that's just the location of one of their investors. Until last October, Matthew Stinchcomb and his wife operated the business out of their apartment in Brooklyn. Matt and his wife are really nice, sweet and smart people - and everything about etsy.com feels right.
In fact, the weird thing was the Etsy / Make space in Gold Street feels as if it's in the Bay Area to me - but in reality, many people feel the real creative center is back in New York City, and very strong, particularly in Brooklyn. Ha! So, all of a sudden, New York is where it's at (where it was always at, as far as I'm concerned) and the Bay Area is not seen as a particularly good place for the Arts.
But getting back to Etsy.com ranking algorithms:
1. frequent posting of work (your position gets degraded the less you put new work up)
2. frequent community posting, Forum posting, overall community participation makes a big, big difference on how well your work is seen.
3. Properly tagging your content helps a lot too, but it won't mean squat without the other two points (1 and 2).
I think, Vanessa mentioned that relationships between other members of the Etsy.com community helps a great deal - I felt a lot of the ranking really is how much you put into Etsy.com network.
Here's a list of upcoming classes you can take at Etsy's Gold Street location.
You must promote your Etsy store all over in order to sell. Etsy does not advertise itself, but relies on its members to do it for them. Once you set up a shop there, you must invest money in business cards, flyers, and paid advertisements. The listing fee is only 20 cents, and the selling commission is 3.5%. But, there are many more costs that go along with opening an Etsy shop. If you are not willing to make an investment in both time and money, you will find it very difficult to sell on Etsy.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 24, 2007 8:58 AM | Permalink to Comment