Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Trying out Etsy

You might have noticed that the sidebars of my blog changed this past week when I added a "Buy Online" section linking to my new Etsy page. I know there has been a lot of debate about whether to create an Etsy page in order to sell online.
I made several observations. Etsy can be hit and miss for the quality of work and there is quite an ocean of quantity there. However, there are potters whose work is well developed and whose work I admire, such as Joy Tanner, and are listed on Etsy. I figure as a new potter to the market, I do not have ten, twenty, or more years worth of devoted followers and buyers as some. I certainly don't have a name people associate with generations worth of potters or even big-named people I have worked and trained with ( that is not to say that Walter Hyleck, Philip Wiggs, and Tina Gebhart are not big names and amazing potters, but you get the gist!). I also figure that Etsy takes care of the billing and payments for minimal fees, and it allows me to reach out to a community of buyers and artists who are already on the site looking. Because I have a limited following right now on my blog, I figured having sales on my page would not sell that well.
I've had a lot of good reception. Two listings I made were sold within one day! This piece below was my first listing and my first sale:
I'm going to keep plugging along and see where it leads!

2 comments:

Dennis Allen said...

Best of luck. I haven't taken the plunge yet but a friend has developed her ETSY market enough that after a year and a half it's covering her rent on a regular basis.

Unknown said...

Keep plugging away. I have enjoyed my ETSY experience.