I haven't been in the forums much since the big change in commissions. Has anyone successfully opted out of the marketplace and kept their shop sales? Or brought them back up to what they were before? If so, how are you directing traffic successfully to your shop?

I spent years building my shops and saw my income all but disappear when the commission structure changed and I've waited it out a few months to see what happens. Nothing good I'm afraid.

I've held steady in terms of ongoing volume.
The loss of the GoogleBase feed was major as my Google hits have been cut in half, but the referrals from my blog and Squidoo pages (both totally free) have resulted in decent keyword-directed sales
FaceBook, on the other hand, hasn't done much.

I'm also considering creating a standalone storefront, and am pricing various options.

I wouldn't want to opt out, I'm not sure what other people's experience with this is but I can't see how it would be beneficial in any way.

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Originally posted by SouthernZombie:
I wouldn't want to opt out, I'm not sure what other people's experience with this is but I can't see how it would be beneficial in any way.

If you have a less saturated niche and you are doing a good job of marketing then opting out avoids you competing against yourself. For people in that situation their sales have increased by opting out. Their marketing causes only their shop to show, rather than the marketplace which may divert visitors to competing products, or divert them but to poor results. That will just tire and frustrate the person who may by nothing when overwhelmed with dreck.

People who are in saturated and fairly common design areas, in contrast, can't hope to compete against CPs marketing efforts in search results. Their successful promotion is going to be driven differently. In that case there may be no direct conflict in marketing and then no benefit in opting out.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm going to try to do a little marketing and social networking to see if it increases my shop sales again before opting out. I'm still getting about the same average of hits to my shop, but no sales at all anymore except from the marketplace. It's really weird.

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People who are in saturated and fairly common design areas, in contrast, can't hope to compete against CPs marketing efforts in search results.

I second that statement, Diane. I used to be first page of google for a few keywords in my niche, but I don't show up at all anymore. I can't blame it all on the changes though. I kinda just coasted for a while, not adding new designs or doing any marketing at all.