Anyone(or their significant other) use ETSY?

[StolzerandSons]

My wife is considering setting up an ETSY store to sell some of her hand crafted stuff(mostly knitted goods) and I wanted to see if anyone could tell me about their experience with ETSY.

1. Have you made the goals/profit you wanted from your goods?
2. How much time have you had to spend promoting your ETSY to make it work for you? How much do you have to link to your ETSY Store from forums, boards, blogs and other websites to make it visible to your customer base?
3. I can't find the answer to this in their TOU/TOS, can you put a link back to your business website in your ETSY postings? I've found answers that say yes and some that say no...which is it?
4. Have you had problems with getting paid, either by ETSY or PAYPAL or customer disputes?
5. Tell me about the Positives of your experience?
6. Tell me about the negatives of your experience?
7. Any other comments?

For those who have purchased from an ETSY Store can you tell me how you liked shopping through them?

Thanks for any insights you have to offer.

Colin

P.S. If she sets up a store and it works well I may try to sell some of my Engraving(jewelry, hobo nickels, golf markers, etc.) through ETSY.

[sparky45]

Used it, and I haven't had any exposure to sales info in that I never sold anything there. I think it's a growing site but very niche oriented and I never found my "niche".

[William Yanda]

I enrolled in Etsy seeking a kinder, gentler alternative to Ebay. Sold a few items, but......got turned off when they demanded I enroll in their pay program. I quit and don't miss it.

[Handloader109]

I have a store. Sold just a few things, there are hundreds if not thousands of other folks laser engraving that have their items on the site. Appears that some have been very successful over the past few years, I think it is a good option if she can be competitive with pricing, (no, not lowest, but neither the most expensive) offer something that very few others can or do offer, and there is a market, i.e., someone will buy what she makes, she should do well on Etsy. They are way cheaper that eBay on charges. They hold funds a couple of three days, and will then transfer to your bank account. You can use them to ship items you pay for that separately and monthly. Same discount with USPS as PayPal, and their software is maybe better than Paypal for shipping. They have a good system of email for questions your customers might have. Setup for options isnt as good as it could be, but works. I like them overall.

[Handloader109]

Oh, I've done some special items for a few folks and the customers have paid me directly a couple of times. I dont encourage this, it just happened even after using Etsy as a contact and discussion conduit. Nothing saying you cant link bqck to your website, not that I determined. I put my external email address on site also.

[StolzerandSons]

Thank you all for the helpful information.
If anyone else has any comments please add to this thread.

there are hundreds if not thousands of other folks laser engraving

I don't have a laser engraver, I only do hand cut engraving with an Airgraver and hammer and chisel. I don't know if I will offer my engraving or not I wanted to see how it goes for my wife before I decide to put any effort into an ETSY store. I did spend a bit of time searching for hand engraved item and I only found a handful of ETSY stores that do hand cut engraving.

[Handloader109]

Oh, I know, it's me with the lasers. I could tell from your post that you did hand engraving. I'd bet, if you list That way and make enough differentiation you should be able to sell.

[Spoonerism]

My wife looked at Etsy for a while to run her soap shop with but came to the conclusion that they would pretty well rob her blind. She uses Shopify now and it seams to work well.

[StolzerandSons]

Thanks for the tip I'll check out Shopify.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...

For those who have purchased from an ETSY Store can you tell me how you liked shopping through them?

I have shopped Etsy many times, Mostly I have found prices are higher there than other sources.
I recall buying one or two items off Etsy and had no problems.