Decision Made

I mentioned recently that I was trying to decide what to do with my Artfire account, should I stay pro or go basic? I may have only mentioned this only recently, but it's honestly been something that I've been struggling to decide for awhile now. I don't have stellar sales in either my etsy or artfire shops, but etsy is costing me less, and it only costs me if I make a sale or I chose to list. I like that.

I've also discovered that splitting my focus really doesn't work. I mean, I'd like to be able to equally promote both shops, but it usually ends up I'm focusing on one or the other. Which sometimes works, and other times just drives me nuts as I wish for more hours in the day where I can promote, create, and take care of the rest of life!

There are many things I dislike about Etsy, many things I like about Artfire, but it comes down to money in the end. And, to be honest, connections. I've made a lot more friends on Etsy, and if I'm going to focus on one shop, I'd rather focus on the one where I've made those friendships.

So I'm taking my Artfire account basic. I am going to keep it, and I'll work on it occasionally when I'm happy with where I'm on Etsy, but I honestly have a LOT of things I want to work on with my Etsy shop and the decision to just focus on that is a major relief! Especially when you consider I also have one consignment shop, would still like to find more of those, and I'm going to be doing the Saturday Markets this summer...

Pro and Cons

Whenever you have a big decision to make it's a good idea to look at the Pro's vs the Con's. Right now, my big decision is what I'm going to do with my Artfire account. Will I keep my pro account? Or will I go basic?

The reason I'm even asking this question is that I haven't made very many sales on Artfire. It's been great when I have a commission from a friend, but other than that, there have been very few sales. Here are my thoughts...

Pros: (for staying Pro)

- No additional costs for listing or check out fees

- I'm locked in at a certain monthly fee. That won't change as long as I'm pro.

- I can issue gift certs and coupons

- I have studio categories

- My work is in more than one on-line venue

- Teams (I'll write more about that later)

- No extraneous advertising

Cons: (for staying Pro)

- A monthly fee that I'm often not earning enough to cover (from this site at least) IE - the site isn't really paying for itself as of right now.

Pros: (for going Basic)

- I'll still have no additional costs for listing or check out fees

- No monthly fee to worry about paying

- I'll still have my work in more than one online venue

Cons: (for going Basic)

- If I ever want to go Pro again I'll have to pay more per month

- No gift certs or coupons available

- No studio categories

- No teams (negligible)

- Advertising in my shop that I didn't place there.

Can you see why I'm having a hard time deciding what I want to do? There are some pretty important factors on each Pros list and each Cons list! My biggest concern is the monthly fee. Since I've signed up there have been some months I've more than covered the monthly fee with my sales, but there have been many more where the monthly fee is coming out of my sales from other locations.

However - I'm headed into the busy season with a full summer of Saturday Markets (I'm signed up for 12 weeks), so I can probably afford to keep paying the fee for awhile to give me more time to work on the shop.

I'm also concerned about losing the studio categories if I go basic. I know as a shopper I like being able to click on a category to narrow my search and I'd hate to take that away from my shop. I also don't know how I feel about them placing advertising in my shop if it's a basic account. If you have a basic Artfire account I'd love to know how that part of it is working out for you!

Teams...I listed it on the pros and cons but it's not a very big factor. I really don't like the way Artfire has the communication set up for teams and there's only one team I'd really miss....and I think I'd manage to still be a part of them any way if I wanted to :P

Right now I'm leaning towards staying Pro - but if sales don't pick up in that store soon (by the end of summer maybe?) I'll go Basic.

Thoughts?