Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Renewing Dilemma


Today felt like Fall here in Arkansas, so I couldn't resist posting this pumpkin picture that was taken last year. It's way off topic, but who doesn't love a little visual treat while reading?

Hola, little buddies of 'ze blog! It's Kateri at the Wii remote tonight.

First of all, before I even get started tonight, I must say that the Wii internet browser is fantastic. End compliment now.

Anywho, back to the topic I planned to discuss: Renewing your items on Etsy! Within the past few months, Etsiers have been questioning the profitability of renewing an item after it has gone unsold. The topic has strong arguments on both sides. Some say that renewing is worth the 20 cents, as it is a reliable source of advertisement that brings more traffic and sales to their shop. Others who argue that opposition say that it's a waste of money that burns through your potential profit.

As newbies to the Etsy scene, Jonathan and I really didn't know where to stand on this issue. But, a certain article has proven to provide an intriguing insight into the more positive side of renewing.

Angela Schade of Something Blue presented a blogpost titled "The Etsy Experiment Revealed" on her blog, http://shopsomethingblue.blogspot.com . After a LONG and highly-observed 25 weeks of experimenting with renewing, Angela found renewing to be highly beneficial. She found herself not only making more sales in a month (from nine sales a month to 42), but she also managed to land more front page spots. She also became a treasury regular. So, yay, we have a final answer on the matter, right!?

Maybe. I still would love to hear everyone's opinions on the matter. Are you a chronic renewer? Do you see benefits? Or, do you think it's worthless to pay 20 cents for a brief front page spot and a momentary higher rank in search results?

What has experience taught you?
Until carnivorous seahorses exist,
- Kateri Joe


P.s. Angela of Something Blue's Etsy page is http://shopsomethingblue.etsy.com :-)

P.s.s. I had a ditzy moment and got the terms "renew" and "relist" confused. I made the appropriate edits, so oopsie daisy on my part! Sorry for the confusion! :-P

6 comments:

Kate8085 said...

Its still up in the air to me..we had a great month in July when we started relisting items everyday, but have done the same this month, and our sales have been down.
I will say that I think it is beneficial..but if you are adding new items to your shop daily, relisting isn't necessary.
Great post, thanks!

SomethingBlue said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SomethingBlue said...

(sorry about the previous post...typos!)

Wonderful blog...and wow, thanks for the great mention! As you already know, my opinion is: renewing works. For me. (and many others) But, indeed it is not for everyone.
I know many sellers such as Kate will say, "It worked last month and didn't another." But, that's not truly an indication that it's not working! For example how would a seller know that if they hadn't been renewing they would have made any sales at all?
Of course, re-listing is really the way to go. And once I start selling 5-10 items per day that will be my new strategy :) Until then it's renewing for me!

Kateri Joe and Jonathan said...

Kate, that's an interesting note considering that August is the close of Summer. It would be natural to think that July would have lower sales than August because of July's mid-summer standing. That's intriguing! And thanks for the reminder about new listings: All it takes is one key item in a shop to draw in a whole new demographic! Thanks for putting in your two cents! :-D

And Angela, I'm extremely flattered to have your opinion personally represented with a comment! Your experiment taught me more about Etsy business than any Storque article because it was riddled with personal experience. So, thank you! I HAD to share it after stumbling on your forum post! :-D

-Kateri Joe

GalleryJuana said...

I try to add new art works rather than renew, but if I have nothing to add then I renew whatever is about to expire.

Each brings views either from new buyers or return buyers.

Thanks for linking to somethingblue's experiment. I might try that experiment one of these days.

Kateri Joe and Jonathan said...

You're welcome! It is too interesting to NOT share. If you do the experiment, I know I'd LOVE to compare results! That would be awesome! :-D
-Kateri Joe