So Etsy has made some recent changes to their forums that kind of make it more difficult to promote shops in the social forums. You now need to join a "team". I see a lot of you guys out there in cyberland saying the same thing, "what the heck is a team?" Well, I'm not really sure.
My sales and views have not been as high as last month even though I've created more and listed more and my photos are way better than before. This is my newest type of hair accessory I have available:
So I started looking into teams, admittedly, to boost my ego - hey at least someone's LOOKING at my stuff, if not actually buying it, right? I was surprised at some of the requirements for teams - location (I understand that one - shop local!), treasury curators (requiring a certain number of
Etsy curated lists (treasuries) created and then using team members in your treasuries), product type (I joined
EtsyBows but it's slow moving), people who love their pets (how's that related to handmade items?), ethnicity, gender, people who like computer programs (or who need help with said program), those employed outside the home, those that do this as their main source of income, those who are retired folks, those who are mothers of children aged x-y, single parents, those who are students, those who are students at X school, those who are promoting fundraisers, those who do X as a job/family member outside Etsy, those who are trying to loose weight, and my personal favorite
TEAM BACON. And all of these are disjointed, not organized in any way and have just a few members each. They are also kind of hidden, requiring several click before you get there so Etsy buyers who don't know what teams are aren't going to stumble there uninvited or feel welcome when the teams are directed at sellers. Promo teams will only be as good as their members promote outside of Etsy whereas the promo forum was an on-site one-stop-shop.
I can join as many teams as I can keep up with so I decided on a couple - a local "street team" (which I have no idea what a street team means but they seem fairly social, covers the whole DC metro area and not only promote their Etsy shops but they promote local craft fairs), one for hair bows and an established team that does a weekly promo thread called SNS
The Original Saturday Night Specials. So this is what I'm writing. I'm having my first SNS! A true BOGO - so tonight, February 19th from 5pm until it's no longer night in the US (6am Sunday morning), I'm offering buy one get one free (of equal or lesser value).
So now, after a lot of superfluous banter that I wish I could have crammed into high school and college essays, I leave you with another linked photo (go SEO!):
