Etsy's Handmade Blog
I Heart Marketing My Etsy Shop and You Will, Too! Part 2
Story by tinaseamonster
Published on September 13, 2007 in How-To 		Photo by

graham meyer

I have recently fallen in love with a new craft (of sorts). I think of it when I am not doing it, I do it when I am not thinking about it. It is loads of fun and super rad and makes me think in new ways every day. What is it?

Marketing my Etsy shop.

Yep, it has become my new passion. Talking to my fellow shop owners and reading the forums, I know that not everyone has embraced this part of the indie craft experience like I have. So, I am going to share what I have learned.

What follows here is the second piece of a series. Read the first if you haven't already. Let’s go!


Inside sales

Earlier this year, I did an experiment. I set a crazy goal. I wanted to double my monthly sales. I decided to treat my Etsy shop like a garden, something I work on everyday. I started with 30 minutes a day. (Don’t tell me you don’t have thirty minutes a day. I have two-year-old twins and a job and I can find thirty minutes a day.) Skip the phone call with mom, don’t watch "Scrubs," wake up early. You can find thirty minutes.

I decided to start by marketing within Etsy. Here are some things that you can do in those thirty minutes each day to grow your shop:

1. List a new item each day. If you don’t have a new item to list, relist an old item. When you list an item, it has a chance of cycling through on the homepage and in the “Time Machine." New items also show up closer to the top of chronologically ordered search results. For example, I make a shirt about zombies. If I list a zombie shirt every day, when someone searches for the word, “zombie,” I have a chance of being on the first page of results. Sweet! Listing a new item only costs 20 cents. You can’t go wrong with spending 20 or 40 cents a day. [Note: Admin edited this post to reflect the growth of the marketplace. Relisting or renewing does not guarantee your item will show up on at the very top of the heap, since there are so many items being listed at once! See this post for more info.]

2. Check out the Etsy community. There are forums and a chat room and The Storque. If you feel comfortable, participate. Remember that other sellers often make up a large percentage of buyers as well. A few forum posts a day will get your avatar and shop out there into the community.

3. Buy a Showcase spot on Etsy. They can be hard to get, but if you are at your computer when they go on sale, you will snag one. For $7, your item will be featured in the Showcase for a whole day, which is linked to from the homepage. This can be invaluable. When you have a Showcase spot, rotate which item is displayed.

4. Have a contest. I have an ongoing contest in my shop where people have to guess the landmark that is behind me in my avatar. If you guess correctly, I send you a free refrigerator magnet. These magnets don’t cost me much to make, so they are a good marketing tool, as well as a nice present for someone. I have found that two out of five people who participate in the contest actually place an order at that time or later on. So, try hiding something in your avatar to get people looking at your shop!

This said, don’t be a car salesman. Practice organic marketing tactics. Seriously, no one is interested in someone who only wants to talk about his or her products. By all means, if someone is talking about gnomes and you make a rad gnome pin, tell them. But I find that in general, no one is interested in the hard sell. When selling your own work like this, it just makes sense to be kind and calm and don’t push your stuff on people. Most people that I know like to find new things on their own, not have them marketed to them. If you are chill and make great stuff, it will be seen and purchased and all will be right with the world.

My experiment worked, by the way. I doubled my Etsy sales in one month. Stay tuned for the next installment, in which I discuss marketing your shop off of Etsy.

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at www.ilikeseamonsters.com. She is a guest blogger at The Crafty Bastards Blog, where portions of this article originally appeared.

Tags business, buying, DIY, HOW-TO, marketing, sales, Seller Handbook, selling, tinaseamonster, tips
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53 comments     Login to add your own!

Sept. 13, 2007 at 11:36 a.m. calobee

Give up Scrubs? You crazy!?! ;)

Nice article - some good tips here.

Sept. 13, 2007 at 6:56 p.m. ErinHaldrup

Excellent tips...!! I LOVE your "find 30 minutes a day, no scrubs picture".. I just made it my screen saver, and I hope you don't mind!

Sept. 13, 2007 at 7:50 p.m. abitabite

Good Job Tina!

I could find 30 minutes by umm, not not spending so much time in etc... yeh, but then who would write Etsians Say!

Sept. 13, 2007 at 8:11 p.m. SecretLentil

How dare you insinuate that I'm watching Scrubs instead of doing my work. Everyone knows I'm really playing Halo.

Great article. thanks!

Sept. 13, 2007 at 8:35 p.m. tinaseamonster

hehe ErinHaldrup! that is too funny. i was making it yesterday instead of maketing my shop. :)

SecretLentil! you make ma laugh and laugh.

Sept. 14, 2007 at 12:51 a.m. stasiland

I totally have to second all the points in this article. I was away from Etsy for about a week, and then I needed a gift for a friend. I made one post in the forums looking for something to buy and ended up with two sales from my own shop, which I think is a direct result of my forum post. I love Etsy, and I really believe that you get what you give in this community. Thanks for the great info!

Sept. 14, 2007 at 2:20 a.m. risamay

That was good, helpful advice. I'm going to put it to use. ASAP!! Mahalo :^)

Sept. 14, 2007 at 6:59 a.m. aliwali

Hi - I am new to Etsy but I have been eBaying forever! I found my hand crafted items just get swamped so I thought I would give a specialist website a try ..... thanks for all your advice and I would love it if anyone would like to give me some tips on my shop!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?...

Sept. 14, 2007 at 7:12 a.m. pawandclawdesigns

wait, scrubs is ONLY on 10 times per day!

how will i know when i can watch it again?

oh no!

anyhow, my favorite marketing tool; google base.

takes about 30 minutes to set up, and a minute or to to update when you list a new item or sell something, but well worth the time.

Sept. 14, 2007 at 10:17 a.m. tinaseamonster

thank yoU! google base, will check it out! my next installment will be about marketing outside of etsy. google adwords, here we come!

Sept. 14, 2007 at 2:27 p.m. iragrant

Great advice Tina!

Thank you for sharing with us:)

Sept. 15, 2007 at 9:54 a.m. smashing

"If you are chill and make great stuff, it will be seen and purchased and all will be right with the world."

i love this advice Tina! can't wait for part three.
thanks :)

Sept. 15, 2007 at 10:42 a.m. tinaseamonster

smashing, the colors in your avatar are lovely.

Sept. 16, 2007 at 12:29 a.m. smashing

why thank you! yours too :) is it cool that i stole your contest idea? but with favorite color instead of landmarks?

Sept. 16, 2007 at 12:30 a.m. smashing

((((nervously chews nails)))))

Sept. 16, 2007 at 7:43 a.m. tinaseamonster

smashing! that is the point of sharing tips! you are rad for using the idea. i hope it helps!!! i might have to have one of your bracelets... :)

Sept. 16, 2007 at 11:14 a.m. smashing

that's what i thought at first then i freeeeekd out! don't want to offend a sea monster ya know! :) :) i'm really close to lake erie sooo...potential sea monster haven :)

Sept. 17, 2007 at 2:01 p.m. DesignsByLiLi

I have left a message on your contact info for etsy....I'm not stocking you ,I am just new at all of this and I would like to contact you and get some opinions from you!!!!

Sept. 17, 2007 at 2:05 p.m. alternatebliss

love the tipsters here! Google Base, I will be visiting. Thanks for the advice, can't wait for the next article.

Sept. 17, 2007 at 11:50 p.m. kason

Hey thanks. Your article was very insightful, especially to this newjack to etsy. Real cool.

Sept. 18, 2007 at 11:30 a.m. beadbooty

Thanks for the advice tinaseamonster!

March 4, 2008 at 4:25 p.m. stacykathryn

Awesome advice, glad I found this article.

April 9, 2008 at 10:53 a.m. islandsilks

Thanks again for the adivce, I'm just alittle over 2 months old to Etsy. Not a very good blogger but maybe you could help?
If you think you're seeing double your not, I sent this to the wrong place.
hehe
talk soon

April 23, 2008 at 10:50 p.m. Moonegirl

Thank you! So glad I found this article, just learned about some of these things-and being pregnant I need some traffic to my shop without having to waddle over and make something every 5 minutes.

July 7, 2008 at 2:13 p.m. gallerySABINA

I'm so grateful for you tinaseamonster. Will start my 30 mins today! And check out google base. What is it? Have a great day! Love, Bean

July 26, 2008 at 2:25 a.m. alankarshilpa

I'll try it.Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing-Dita

July 28, 2008 at 1:57 p.m. muselady

Great article - thanks.
I love the idea of setting aside 30 minutes a day - seems so doable!

Aug. 7, 2008 at 8:14 a.m. thewishingwell

Thanks so much! I need all the help I can get!!

Oct. 5, 2008 at 12:48 a.m. MonasMane

Thanks, it's because of people like you that us newbies can have some sort of hope! (-:

Oct. 6, 2008 at 3:16 p.m. risingphoenixtoys

Thanks for the article tinaseamonster! I'm new to marketing and I needed some ideas to get me going!

Oct. 22, 2008 at 7:54 a.m. Buttonear

Great article - relatively new to Etsy and feeling a little low that I haven't sold anything online yet but you have inspired me to get active and get blogging. Thxs!!

Dec. 3, 2008 at 1:23 a.m. dropyourdrawers

very informative, thanks!

Jan. 4, 2009 at 4:29 p.m. SaidosDaConcha

Thanks so much for the tips! I really must "cultivate my garden"... that's a great new year's resolution!

Jan. 5, 2009 at 3:37 p.m. chadi

very nice tips.Thank you.

Jan. 8, 2009 at 9:46 p.m. elevenish

great! Thanks for sharing!

Jan. 25, 2009 at 1:33 p.m. nahteshop

Thanks for all of your help. I have 30 minutes a day.

Jan. 26, 2009 at 9:59 p.m. dlsarmywife

Wonderful tips Tina. I will definitely start looking for my "30 minutes a day"!

Jan. 27, 2009 at 2:16 p.m. Timeless

This thread is worth looking into:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php...

Jan. 27, 2009 at 5:53 p.m. sloeginfizz

I love the contest idea!

Feb. 16, 2009 at 3:50 a.m. LushPunk

No Scrubs???!! aww!

March 5, 2009 at 10:25 p.m. myrtleandlloyd

Thank you sooo much. This is some of the better advice I've been able to find. Yay you!

March 9, 2009 at 11:17 p.m. KimFelsen

Good ideas! I am going to try them.

April 1, 2009 at 7:29 p.m. sewcutebykatie

I like the contest idea but how do I do it, I'm new and I don't know what the avatar is or how to use it for a contest. Can you tell me how to do it?

April 7, 2009 at 5:27 p.m. luisekeller

Many thanks for this useful article!

April 24, 2009 at 11:06 p.m. TIPS4TOTS

Terrific Article! Thanks Tina for all the time and hard work you put into this series.

God Bless,
Cathy/Tips4tots

April 30, 2009 at 4:02 p.m. SuaVoce

Thanks for the tips (in this article, and the other two!)

I'm new to selling on Etsy so it was great to get some insight.

SuaVoce

June 13, 2009 at 2:31 p.m. lucyleonard

Thank you very much for this article! I love the idea of marketing being like working in a garden and watching your store grow. :)

June 24, 2009 at 9:37 p.m. auti

Thanks for the tips, problem is to make time and if you can do it, so can I or I must to make a go of the wonderful stuff I love to do.
Now to part 3

Sept. 1, 2009 at 5:57 p.m. sarahndipities

Such good ideas...I can do this kind of marketing! Nice job!

Sept. 17, 2009 at 2:58 p.m. SepiaSmiles

Good info, I really need to try listing once a day, it doesn't take long and if it helps -all the better!
Thanks!

Oct. 21, 2009 at 11:20 a.m. BlueOpalJewelry

Great tips!! I have found that when I list a new item I am getting more views. No new listings = your stuff just sitting, you paying for nothing, and nothing getting paid for. Also, love the contest idea. Thanks!!

Oct. 23, 2009 at 10:57 a.m. herbolution

Thank you, tinaseamonster! So much helpful tips! Will definitely try some soon :)

Oct. 23, 2009 at 10:53 p.m. Lotusgill

Thank you for such good information. Will try it.

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