I don't have an Etsy store but if I did, I wouldn't depend on their incidental traffic for buyers because many people still have never heard of it. If you have a good plan for advertising I can see how Etsy would be a helpful vehicle for actually closing the sale and handling logistics, but attracting buyers is something I would treat as a separate endeavor.

I've made several Etsy purchases but only one or two were items I actually found there; all the others were items I saw or read about somewhere else, and just went to Etsy to buy.

Does that make sense?

I have an Etsy shop that I've had for over a year; I haven't sold alot, but for some reason I can't give it up.
I saw a lady who took porcelain dolls, broke and smashed their faces, put in vampire teeth, or had fake blood running out of their mouths or eyes and on their clothes- made them extremely goulish, and she had over 500 sales. go figure.

Things that make you go hmmmmm! people are weird these days!

I bet she had a plug-in somewhere else - some message board or other community that knew about her apart from Etsy.

or the European lady who made the felt mice dressed in different characters..about 4" tall and sold for hundreds of dollars..go figure...

your common every stuff, is probably not going to see on Etsy..it is after all and Artisan/Craftsman site so the ones that go there the most are the ones looking for ideas for their next great project!

I sold a really-bright scrappy kid's quilt and 3 black and white scrappy pillows that I found tucked away. It was a good experience but I'm not breaking my neck to make things to sell. The bigger etsy gets, the harder it is to sell things, especially quilts. There are two camps: really cheap, and really expensive. Lots of rag quilts. And it depends on the exact search words the potential buyer enters as to whether or not you will be found. They are shown in order of the day listed, so you'll be long down the list in just a few days. They have "tags" which help the search be more specific to you - read their tips carefully.