Anyone sell on etsy?

[cloud_weaver]

Hi all!  I have a small (and I mean small) crafting business on the side.  Problem is I can't seem to get good publicity for it.  I sell some on Facebook, but its slow going.  I know selling on etsy can be hard as well, but was wondering if anyone has had good luck selling on etsy without doing a lot of publicity.  Also, I may have to raise the prices slightly on my items to cover the etsy fees.  How are the fees on etsy (compared to eBay)?

Thanks for all your help!

[wlyteth]

I was thinking of starting a thread where we can all favorite each other's etsy shops and maybe cross promote each other on facebook, instagram, twitter and so on. I'm also having a hard time getting views for my shop let alone sales so I'm eager to see what tips everyone else has.

[Ringlets]

I know Rayedelsol has an Etsy shop - I've bought EAH items from her there and she's experienced at selling on Etsy so she'd prolly be able to give some good advice on this.  Also PinkKittyWinks (pkw - nirvana mod) has an Etsy shop so she might have some good advice as well 
 I've only ever bought from Etsy I've never sold there personally  so I'm not sure how the fees compare or how easy it is to promote your shop/stuff

[flying_narwhal]

Each item you list on etsy costs $0.20 and the listing lasts for 4 months. If your items sells, etsy will take 3.5% of the final sale price. Unlike eBay, they do not take a fee out of your shipping costs which is really nice.

[Taxel]

I don't have a shop opened anywhere but I've joined a few Etsy seller groups on FB to research it a bit. From what I can see it takes a lot of time and effort to sell things successfully. You have to learn how to do proper SEO on your listings (or pay someone else to do it) and need to promote yourself somehow. Some people play "games" (swapping likes, favorites, shares, etc) while others prefer to promote themselves on FB, Instagram, Twitter, etc and some people do both.

I've seen people with terrible SEO saying their shops have been pretty much ignored with no sales for a few months to over a year. Some of them just give up but I've seen people give them SEO advice and watched them screenshot view numbers rising really quickly once they get the updated stuff in. If you're not wanting to put in a good bit of effort I don't think Etsy will be much better, based on what I've seen.