Do You Use the Forums on Etsy?
Lately I've been seeing several posts from people about how they aren't sure Etsy is for them, they aren't getting any sales, should they close their store and on and on. Immediately I go look at their store to take a look around. :-) Some of these stores are great, others aren't, but that's for another topic!
One of the first questions I ask when I see these posts are "do you post in the forums much, especially the promo section?" If they say no, then I respond back!!
Etsy has created these forums for a reason...for us to use them to help make our stores great! I will admit when I first got started on Etsy I wasn't too familiar with this area, but once I found it, I found a world of information and help from some great stores. And I also discovered that once I started posting in the forums fairly regular, I also got some increased traffic to my store. I have met some great people, made some great friends and have found some amazing crafters, designers and artisans!
All the forum sections are interesting and can help your shop. Especially the promo section. Here you will find a lot of "lurkers" or "shoppers" who are looking for deals, new items and more. You don't have to be offering a sale or some give-away in order to post in the promo section. Go take a look around and see some of the things that are being posted. Familiarize yourself with this section and use it daily if you can. I can personally say that posting to this section has helped my sales. Posting every time in this section doesn't guarantee a sale, but it does keep your business name out there, it gets your store looked at and the best part--its free advertising!
The success of your store is entirely up to you. Etsy is giving you a chance to promote and advertise your store for FREE in these forum sections...use it!!! You can't just open the store and expect the sales to come rolling in, it does take a little work!!! ;-)
This article was written by Dawn Rhodes.
Dawn is the owner and designer of Shades Jewelry, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southeastern Ohio. She has been designing and creating jewelry for over 5 years and has worked in business management/marketing for over 15. Dawn enjoys teaching and helping other small business owners with their marketing and advertising and has created her blog to share ideas and mentor others who create handmade items grow their business. She is available for one on one mentoring and to also teach classes.
You can visit Dawn's shop at Shades Jewelry on Etsy.
3 comments:
Good article ... thanks for the push. I need to post on the forums more and you make that point very clear.
I've had more sales since I stopped using Etsy forums! I found far too much nastiness there and started a thread called Collaborators, for people who wanted to escape that unpleasantness and work together to promote shops.
We are now a small Etsy team, and we promote in multiple ways. We use Twitter, Mixxmade, Facebook, LinkReferral, blogs,MySpace and use various tips and wrinkles about getting people to our shops and then encouraging them to stay there. We discuss price anchoring, SEO issues, Google Page Rank, and anything which will enable us to go far wider than Etsy forums.
Etsy is like a huge warehouse, and we each get a small dark patch, and we have to turn the light onto our little shop, and maybe a few others. And there are multiple ways to do this.
Linda, it sounds like you have a great little team there!
Anytime you have forums, nasty things are bound to come up. I just avoid them.
I have actually gotten a number of sales from being nice and posting helpful information, as well as helping people out who are asking for help in the forums.
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