Hope you enjoyed this video! Do you think that Etsy is pivoting and is their new brand positioning affecting handmade sellers?

I was confused when I went to Etsy lately and saw a bunch of identical "made in china" products that just had a keychain or a necklace added to it, as if that made it "handmade". I was always under the impression that was against the rules on Etsy, but I guess they've completely shifted their platform. Rather disappointing.

This is a great video in that, as you said, it's not about bashing Etsy, it's about giving the full picture of Etsy. There are plenty of "sunshine and rainbow" videos about Etsy but very few honest videos about Etsy. I started in mid-April hoping to sell my handmade woodcrafts. The first 5-6 listings I posted were the things I really wanted to sell but they never have. I added some bird feeders and squirrel feeders a few weeks later and it wasn't long before those caught on. I added some jack o' lanterns in mid-July, for Halloween, and those have been successful as well. I'd like to think that the success of the feeders gave the jack o' lanterns a leg up as Etsy promoted my products a little more. I had 23 sales through the end of July. Not too bad for starting out. Things went crazy in August with 33 sales and then September was even better with 45 sales. 27 of those were for my most popular bird feeder. I don't know if I got lucky in finding a prolific niche or if my products and SEO were the real magic. I don't drive any external traffic, it's all organic on Etsy. At this point, I need to tap the brakes, as it were, as 45 sales in a month was a challenge, given that I have a full-time job (that I have no intention of leaving). I'm very happy with my success so far, but you know, sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. Lol

I am glad you wrote this, and now would like some advice on "next steps" to take to improve success for the truly handmade items. Leave Etsy? Unlikely. But how do handmade makers get noticed on the greater internet any more than on Etsy? Seems very difficult but surely there are some tips.

I watched some of your videos but I don’t understand why you don’t have an Etsy shop 🙃 I have a new Etsy shop and get many scam messages but no sales. Let me know and let see if you can answer me. Thanks 🙏🏼

OMG where did you get your sweater that you're wearing in this video? Love it!

I agree with you 😊

Thank you

Has anyone signed up for the paid courses and found that it helped tremendously with their shop sales?

Great insights into Etsy's challenges! How do you adapt your strategies to overcome these hurdles and ensure success for handmade sellers on the platform?