Sooooo.... promoting your shop seems to be an very active topic of discussion in the etsy.com forums. How? Where? When? WHY Lord WHY? Are you at a loss as to how to promote and get people looking at you? Let me give you the short version of this so you can sift through all the el crappo and get to the meat and potatoes of this promoting thing.Twitter (www.twitter.com): This is my go-to site for promoting. It is free, fast, user-friendly and it works...but only if you have followers. How do you get them? Well, luckily there are many twitter hack sites out there that can help you find people to follow without harassing them in the etsy forums or bribing them with free stuff and your first born.
Try these links:
Good post in etsy forums that can help: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6127828
Facebook (www.facebook.com): I have a facebook page. I don't use it because the interface is ridiculous and you have to beg and plead your way to fans and followers. My advice, use twitter over facebook all day long!
Craftgawker (www.craftgawker.com): I highly recommend using this service. It is free!!! Check it out if you have not. Register and submit to this site. They change their front page listing every 2 days or so and people DO look at this site. The trick with craftgawker is that you need GREAT submission pictures to get accepted. Trust me that it is worth it to spend some time making your pics great. People will dismiss your shop immediately if they enter and see sub-standard photos.
Craftcult (www.craftcult.com) - This is an etsy support site. Etsy shop owners use it to check their shop and items hearts as well as any featured exposure they may have had recently. The advertising on craftcult is not free, but it is reasonable. You can get a week long sidebar ad for $15.00. You do have to design your own ad and submit it, but it is worth the exposure every now and again. I have run two craftcult ads recently, and they do increase views substantially.
Craftopolis (www.craftopolis.com) - This is also an etsy support site. The best feature of craftopolis is the Treasury Clock which counts down the approximate time until the main Treasury and Treasury West opens up for submission. Very handy!! This site also has affordable weekly sidebar advertising. I would recommend craftcult over craftopolis though, simply because craftcult gets way more traffic.
Project Wonderful (www.projectwonderful.com) - This is a unique advertising tool that is not free, but can be very cheap. Basically, you deposit money from your Paypal account to your Project Wonderful account. You create an ad and then bid to place your ad on various blogs and websites based on criteria you choose. The concept is a bit abstract, but you can often advertise on some smaller blogs and sites for very little. Worth checking out.
These are just a few of my favs, but if you want to see much, much more...take a look at this list of 50 FREE sites to promote your shop: http://www.createapendant.com/sitepromote.htm
Peace!
Wendy
Project Wonderful (www.projectwonderful.com) - This is a unique advertising tool that is not free, but can be very cheap. Basically, you deposit money from your Paypal account to your Project Wonderful account. You create an ad and then bid to place your ad on various blogs and websites based on criteria you choose. The concept is a bit abstract, but you can often advertise on some smaller blogs and sites for very little. Worth checking out.
These are just a few of my favs, but if you want to see much, much more...take a look at this list of 50 FREE sites to promote your shop: http://www.createapendant.com/sitepromote.htm
Peace!
Wendy
I like Twitter a lot too! It can be very addicting.
ReplyDeleteI'm just considering Twitter as of this morning when I read one of the etsy forum threads about promoting, like you mentioned at the start of your post. It scares me though because I'm so NOT a "connected" person and don't want to get addicted or even feel tied to it. I'll have to check yours out so that I can get a better feel for it. Thanks for the great post!
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried twitter yet. I've been debating it, and for now - I just have my blog. Thanks for the great advice! I'm gonna go check out some of those sites now. =)
ReplyDeleteGreat helpful post..thanks! (Love your kitty magnets!)
ReplyDelete