etsy users/buyers

back alley

back alley

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Jul 30, 2003
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etsy users...i'm thinking of setting up a photo shop on etsy...what do you think? would YOU buy photographs online? have you done so in the past? what was the experience like? at the moment this is just a thought without much research having been done...i'm looking for some personal experiences right now.
 
Yes any outlet that gets attention is good.
Trick is to have your own site along with it and hope that people will end up on your site via the online stores.
I really like www.squarespace.com in order to build your own site as they also recently added an easy shopping cart feature to their services. Its way easier and better looking than any other platform I have used so far.
 
I bought my F2 off etsy. Last thing I ever did buy from there, as it got to the point that most of the camera gear had been "repurposed", and when you tried to search for something, it might return 150 items, of which a third were multiple listings of the same items. Pretty frustrating, so I quit going there.

PF
 
Just musing about it. A friend sent me an email with that link just this afternoon. That sparked the post.
 
My wife buys art on etsy all the time. I have bought her art she wanted as gifts before too using my own account. I found it wonderful. Some of the art has been photographs and found it simple and easy to use (ie login to etsy, cart the item, pay via Paypal.....1,2,3, art in hand in a week or so). Can't think of anything not to like....well I guess one...it would be nice to checkout as a guest and not have to open an account at all.....but I think all sites do this.....but I could be wrong....wish you the best Joe, whichever route you take
 
I've thought about Etsy too, but I don't Paypal. Squarespace looks like it would be easy to operate and inexpensive. I wonder how that would work since my domain names are held through GoDaddy.

A fellow on another forum says he markets heavily at FAA and is doing $5K month gross. He says his success is completely on marketing his prints to local interest in smaller towns. Instead of having a shot of a bald eagle, of which there are thousands, he will concentrate on HDRs taken around Abilene and places similar.
 
jwc57 said:
I've thought about it too Etsy too, but I don't Paypal. Squarespace looks like it would be easy to operate and inexpensive. I wonder how that would work since my domain names are held through GoDaddy.

A fellow on another forum says he markets heavily at FAA and is doing $5K month gross. He says his success is completely on marketing his prints to local interest in smaller towns. Instead of having a shot of a bald eagle, of which there are thousands, he will concentrate on HDRs taken around Abilene.
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Domain name hosting can be with a different company then where the website is hosted.
Once you have the new website ready you can change the DNS records to point to the location of the new site. Squarespace has a howto on their site.


I you want to get out off Godaddy (can't blame you for that.....) you can use the following strategy:
 
Joe, I looked at Etsy a while back. If you look at the kind of photos that sell on there they tend to be very much in a particular style - heavily processed, instagrammy, lots of pastel photos of flowers and skies, pictures with inspirational text over the top etc. - very much at the kitschy, photoshopped end in other words, and there seems to be quite a strong female bias which would guess reflects the buyer base. If you gooogle bestselling photographers on Etsy you should see what I mean. There are contributor forums so you can get a feel from there of how people are doing with their sales but average sale prices for photos are pretty low - $20 for a 10 by 8. You make money by doing big volumes I think.
 
I also have considered this myself. I noticed that the cost per print was really low on some ($20ish) and higher on some that didn't seem to be what I'd consider a print worth the higher dollar amounts.

I mostly just wanted to do it so those who asked me for prints would have a means to buy them without too much hassle.

I've also considered using 500px or something similar that handles all the printing for you and offers more then just prints, but also poster sizes etc.

I am not sure if I personally am ready for the rejection in the form of silence that my work would receive at this point in my life.
 
alienmeatsack said:
I also have considered this myself. I noticed that the cost per print was really low on some ($20ish) and higher on some that didn't seem to be what I'd consider a print worth the higher dollar amounts.

I mostly just wanted to do it so those who asked me for prints would have a means to buy them without too much hassle.

I've also considered using 500px or something similar that handles all the printing for you and offers more then just prints, but also poster sizes etc.

I am not sure if I personally am ready for the rejection in the form of silence that my work would receive at this point in my life.
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or perhaps the unbridled adulation of the masses?
 
Joe,

The thing to realize about Etsy as a seller is that they charge you monthly fees whether you sell anything or not. Nothing wrong with the policy from Etsy's point of view, and wonderful for those who could make it work.

But it does mean that your photos have to find its market pretty quickly.
 
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