AIBU to give up?

[invisiblewho]

I'm currently on long term sick leave with anxiety and depression. I'm also waiting for assessments for autism and ADHD.

It's a pretty miserable time at the moment. Lots of other crap happening too.

Some of you may remember, I posted a little while ago about setting up a shop on Etsy. I was feeling excited and hopeful about it all, like I finally had a purpose, that I could do something I enjoyed and perhaps provide a little for my family.

It's still early days but honestly I'm feeling very deflated. I've had minimal sales and every day, despite posting new items daily, my site traffic is dwindling more and more.

DH said it's too early to abandon it and not to lose hope yet but as someone with very low self esteem, it took a lot for me to set it up in the first place.

It's not even the lack of sales at this stage that is upsetting but rather the lack of site traffic and item views.

Should I keep preserving with it or give it up before I invest too much time and energy into it?

Social media to help promote? Interesting tik toks etc

Hi, thanks.

Yes, I offer packs of the same design and multipacks of several different designs. Also singles.

I mostly have Christmas cards up at the moment but do have Birthday cards too.

I'll look into Instagram - thanks. X

Thanks.

I'm not sure what else I could do tbh. I'm not very talented x

Lots of suggestions for tiktok. I'll have to look into it. No idea how to make the videos or use it so will do some research x

Op is it just greeting cards? You must know that any card is just pennies now. I can get a beautiful pack of Christmas cards at my local charity shop for £2. And it's on my way so £0 delivery costs. And there's the hundreds of other retailers who are selling the same thing.
What other stuff are you selling?

I bought a few things off Etsy but they were so personal and nothing generic- A milestone board, Diwali items, a personalised frame but high quality.

Someone just bought a card! Day made lol x

Currently it's just greetings cards. I was thinking about doing posters too.

I have generic type cards, cat themed cards and Doctor Who ones at the moment.

Perhaps it's a pointless endeavour then. I can't do anything else - no talent lol x

I buy from Etsy quite a bit. I was looking for a bookmark so in the search bar I put in autumn bookmark and narrowed the shop location to UK only and it brings back over 1800 results.

I've just done the same for Christmas cards and it has given back 242, 263 results

The people I buy from on Etsy I've discovered on Instagram or someone else I follow has recommended someone's product

Definitely think about it getting social media, Instagram was initially set up as a marketing tool for a business to use

You are clearly very talented if people are buying your cards you just have a lot of competition to deal with. Why not take it as an excuse to while away some time in those chi chi arts and crafts shops in the name of research?

Would you be willing to share your shop name?

Just to say as someone who would buy cards from Etsy and has done in the past, the Etsy search function is so obstructive and terrible. I never find it works properly (searches by shop name rather than item) and I only ever find the right things by chance from other web searches.

I opened an Etsy shop 4 years ago and it really does take a while to get up and running, with regular views and sales. I would do as much research as you can on photos, titles, tags etc and just keep persevering.
I also sell cards, amongst other things, and people happily pay the £3 I charge, plus £1.20 postage on top of that, so don't worry about people saying they can buy them really cheaply from the supermarket, those people aren't your customer base.
Good luck!

Yes, it's megkingdesigns - any feedback for improvement greatly recieved x

Thank you! X

The trouble with Etsy is a lot of it is cheap knock off crap from china - its worse than Ali Express / Temu etc as they are at least honest about where their stuff comes from

Weirdly I had been looking for Doctor Who birthday cards but the recipient won't understand most of the references on the cards I've found (only watched one old series) so I went with something else but I think there would be some market for those!

Ah! 😁
I've only done Christmas cards so far, but I'm definitely planning some birthday ones, too.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MegKingDesigns is this you?

For me - I don't like the busy background on the cards. It makes them blend into it a bit and the whole thing is just a lot of visual noise.

I also think you would benefit from a stronger shop name. I googled yours first and it was way down the search results.

Could you offer the cat cards on some more muted backgrounds? I like the designs but I'm not a fan of neon colours (and I think a lot of people aren't, these days) so you might be limiting your customers that way. Not meant to be nasty in any way, just my genuine thoughts. ☺️

I bought a pack, hope it helps you out!

Are all the images you are using copyright free or have you paid to use them?

I pay to use the photos via a monthly subscription. (Not including the Doctor Who images, but there are lots of Doctor Who items for sale on Etsy, various greeeting cards, etc. using these types of images, so I assumed that was okay).

That is me, yes. Thank you so much for making a purchase. It's much appreciated - as is the advice. X

What did you say?

Hope it helps!