Goodbye Etsy, Hello Ko-Fi?

Etsy is an absolute s**t show at the moment. It would take me ages to detail all the problems that have plagued the platform over the last few years, but suffice to say if you do a search on YouTube for “Etsy problems” you will find all kinds of info. This should be a big red flag if you are considering opening up a new Etsy shop. This link gives you an idea of just how serious it is – and this is coming from the mouth of a VERY successful Etsy shop owner who had his account suspended over the ’23 Christmas season – https://youtu.be/ZALweojoSNc?si=8zC6Eqz3c7XbSy8J
But there are many other problems besides random (for no reason) account suspensions and outright closures. Essentially, Etsy has said f**k you to sellers and is licking the boots of the shareholders, and in the process is mashing the platform into a wannabe Amazon, Temu, Shein clone. Copyright and trademark infringers are welcomed with open arms (do a search for Disney or Marvel on the site), but on the other hand you can get suspended for using the words “Pink Panther” in your listing description because that is literally the name of the paint you use in your creations.

Given all that and more I will be exploring the option of selling on the Ko-Fi platform, which at this point seems promising. I know it won’t have the huge audience pull that Etsy does, but there are limited choices out there. Even though my website is something like 10 years old now it still gets relatively little traffic – if you’re reading this you are likely one of a handful every month – and I get few direct sales.

I actually opened an account on Ko-Fi a number of years ago but never did much with it… The one BIG drawback to Ko-Fi is the lack of search capability for PRODUCTS. The only search possible is to find Creators. For example, if I’m looking for someone who sells polymer clay products a search for that will simply bring up all creators that have the word Clay in their name. That is extremely limiting. Unless there’s something I’m missing this may be a deal-breaker, I’m afraid. If anyone has a solution let me know. 

Not much to see, but the link is here: – https://ko-fi.com/glennslingsby

[EDIT: Not quite ready to switch just yet. I confirmed with Ko-Fi that searching is limited to creator names right now, however they are working on improving that. I figure once a much improved search capability happens then Etsy shop owners will be jumping on board pretty quick.]