Monday, October 11, 2010

New Promotional Frenzy Thread - Huge Opportunity

Do you want more exposure to your etsy shop?  Do you need more views, sales, and improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

A team on Etsy is starting to help you:  "Promotional Frenzy"

We are a group/team of people wanting to combine our efforts to gain more than we could on our own.  The heart of this group is for promotions.  We are a very nice group, and supportive and will help each other as much as we can, but the idea is to gain more momentum to the shops who participate.

Each day I will post in the thread what to expect for that day, and you can find posts here in this blog that will describe in detail how to participate.  So don't get overwhelmed.  If this seems like a lot, just join in with the thread for that day and go one day at a time.  This information is here to help answer all the questions that have come up but if it seems like too much it is ok... just join the thread and read about that days events.  Take it one day at a time.

The ONLY requirement for this thread is that you are willing to promote others and can participate in at least ONE activity per week (approximately 30 minutes).  Promoting can mean many things, you can help promote within etsy by creating treasuries of other shops, you can post within other etsy threads to help, or you can use social networks like twitter, stumbleupon, or a blog.  It is NOT required that you do them all.  But please understand that you get what you give.  If only 4-5 of us within the thread do these things then none of us will see a noticeable impact on our shops.  If you want to see a noticeable difference then each of these activites are highly recommened.  And we wouldn't expect you to figure them all out and do them all in a few days either.  It is ok if you don't have any set up to join us and get help with getting started.

There will be a variety of events to help everyone.  The key is the more you give the more you will get.  These events work best if done with consistency/regularly.  So the more active you are the more you will see a difference.  We will help walk you through how to read your google analytics and use sites like http://www.craftcult.com/ to see changes with your shop.  If you already do some of these things on your own, we encourage you to join forces and do them with this thread.  There IS power in numbers.

We encourage everyone to give 30 minutes a day to these activities.  We will emphasize activites that will benefit YOU and your shop.  As a way to help encourage and motivate people there will be opportunities each day to do something productive for your shop.  Again these are NOT required, but highly encourage. And you do not have to participate every single day, just ONE EVENT PER WEEK.  Most of us are online much longer than 30 minutes a day, so it is just a matter of setting 30 minutes towards the promotion of your shop.

In between these small events you are free to promote each other on your own, and chat and have fun. 

This following is a list of goals we would like to strive for. Use this as motivation, and see the opportunity that these things could bring to you. 
 Again this is not required and can be done on different days but the more people who do these things each week the more impact we will all see in our shops.  Don't freak out that you won't have time for this.  It is only 10-30 minutes to do most of these.  You do not have to do all of these all at once.  Come in and try one or two and see how it goes and slowly work into other events as you go.

Monday:   Promo Frenzy - Each shop will post 1 link to an item they want to get more exposure to, using the Monday Thread in our discussions. Just add the link to the bottom of the list that is started that day. PLEASE READ THE TOP POST OF EACH THREAD to learn the details.  You must call out that you want to add to the list before changing the list.  Make sure no one else is editing at the same time.  Then we will each go through and promote that one item from each shop. By promoting it can be blogging, tweeting, facebook, stumbleupon, kaboodle, tumblr, ANY social nework or in etsy threads etc.

Tuesday: BNR Treasury Day.  We have several people helping to run these.  Right now the BNR is from 5pm - 9pm Est/Etsy time.  We have 80-100 sales in these few hours, it is really hot.  In our team, find the discussion for TUESDAY BNR thread and you will find all the details for each BNR.  The rules may vary so you have to read that first post in the thread to learn what we are doing.  This is a great opportunity to gain exposure within the Etsy Community
Wednesday: Blog Post day. This is a great opportunity to help spread the word about our BNR,  thread frenzy etc.  Write a blog post. The blog post can be about anything but try to mix it up and include the thread or shops from our thread when you can, since the point is to gain more visibility. If you don't have a blog yet this is a good opportunity to consider one, and to ask for help if you need it.  We will have special blog posts from time to time so again, please READ THE 1ST post of each thread to learn what we are doing that week.  You can find ideas for your blog here:

Thursday:  List at least one item that day, relisting/renewing can count.  But keep in mind that the more items in your shop the more visible you become on Etsy.   Find the thread for Thursday in our discussions, and post your new item to the list.  Again please make sure no one else is editing the list when you add your item, so that no one is dropped off the list by accident.  THEN go through the list and promote each new item through social networks.

FridayWorkshop Day!   Each  Friday will be a different topic.  Find the thread for FRIDAY Workshop and read the very 1st post to find out what we are doing.  The goal is to cover topics that will help us all improve our shops and take them to the next level.  We will cover topics on improving our pictures, to tagging help, help writing descriptions, to how to read google analytics. 
Saturday 9pm Etsy time (est):   OFF, just chat, post links, relax and recoup.


Sunday:  OFF, just chat, post links, relax and recoup

We do have one other activity that runs every single day.  TEAM TREASURIES!  We have a separate thread in our discussions for TREASURIES.  This thread will be restarted each week, so find the most recent date on the thread.  This is a place to make and promote treasuries that are for our teammates.  The rules to participate are on the very 1st post of the thread.  It doesn't take but 5 minutes if that to help with these so please take the time each day to try to help.
Find tons of info. on creating treasuries here:
http://galla15.blogspot.com/2010/10/monday-treasury-challenge.html

Things you can expect from our thread:

1.  Promotional Frenzy Hours (Mondays)- We will use these Social Networking sites to promote items in each others shops.  We will most likely add others as we go.                                         
       http://www.facebook.com/  
                                       http://www.kaboodle.com/                                            
                                                               http://www.tumblr.com/

2.  Blogging:  We have set up a blogging network, where everyone has a blog list.  The list is is a collection our team shops who have a list on their blog, we put their shop name in, and it is clickable to the etsy shop.  This creates backlinks to all of the shops.  The more backlinks you have to your shop the more search engines can find your shop and will help your SEO.  You are not required to blog, but with this type of network you will see a huge difference from doing this.  You are also NOT required to blog about the thread only.  Although it is helpful if we do use our blogs to promote the thread and the shops within the thread since that will ultimately bring traffic to our shops it is NOT the only thing you can or should blog about.  If you have never blogged before it is ok, again we are here to help you get started.  Our list of shops is updated each Sunday, and only shops who have a blog and have the blog list of our shops will get onto our lists.  This is about reciprocation.

How to add the Shop List to Your Blog:
http://artlifenewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-add-list-of­-participating-etsy.html

3.  Buy and Replace (BNR) Treasuries:  The shops that participate in our events will be chosen for these treasuries.  We will be holding a BNR often to help with sales and exposure.  You are encouraged to help spread the links to these around the internet, click, and comment on these.  Anyone can create a treasury and we encourage you to start one for the thread at any time.   If you don't know what a BNR is.... basically we feature 16 of our team shops in it and they get to stay in the treasury until someone buys from them.  Whoever buys from a shop will now replace that shop in the treasury and they will stay until they are bought from.  It is a lot of fun, huge buzz, good exposure and we have 80-100 sales during these.
4.  Treasury Frenzies: Even without front page hits, we will gain a lot of traffic from a treasury at the top of the "hot list".  We have a wonderful system going on, where most of our treasuries are receiving 1000's of views!  Find the Treasury thread under our discussions to participate.
Great info. on how to do this can be found here:
http://galla15.blogspot.com/2010/10/monday-treasury-challenge.html


***Feel free to share your social networking links, blog links, flickr links etc. And when someone posts a new item you can help promote that item then, you don't have to wait for an event to promote.  The key is to stay for awhile and network and participate in all the events you can.****

Final note: if only a handful of us participate in these events there will not be a payoff.  So nothing is required but if you want to see success it would be highly benefical to get involved and do what you can.  The list of events is only a guide.  You can still list any day you want, blog anytime you want etc.  And please feel free to chat and have fun anytime.

18 comments:

  1. Sounds wonderful! And I could sure use some help with finding ways of promoting my art.

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  2. I really enjoy being with you guys online. I'm slowly adding your shops to my blog.

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  3. GREAT! Thanks Laura for commenting and joining.
    Thanks Linda :) We enjoy you too, and hope this will help all of us!!

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  4. Glad to see you guys moving out on your own ... you did so much work on the 'other' thread, and I have no doubt that this will be a good move for you. And I love the name :D

    Good luck with everything!
    ~Jill Q

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  5. THANKS jQ!!!! We are glad you are moving with us :))

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  6. Very clear and explanatory information! I think there is great potential with all these different promotional outlets!

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  7. Great info on this blog. I will be marking it and adding a link to my blog (as soon as I figure it out) So people can come straigt to the heart of the idea.

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  8. I can see that you've put a lot of thought & effort into this revised edition - great job, Janet!

    ~Jill Q

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  9. Excited to get to know you all!

    Bianca
    www.championofthesun.blogspot.com

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  10. This is a great idea. I may have questions...

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  11. I just discovered the promotional frenzy thread today and I can't wait to get involved with you all! This sounds like a great opportunity for me :3

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  12. So excited that I have rejoined some friends. Can't wait to start getting involved again. Great great idea.

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  13. This is already getting exciting. I appreciate the support as far as 'how to' that comes with all of this.

    You gals are super!

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  14. I'm excited to join, but a little overwhelmed. I'm going to take your advice, though and take it a day at a time. Thanks for putting this together. I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new etsy friends and promoting and selling.

    Debbie
    Sew Me a Memory

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  15. I'm excited to try this but really new at it, so I'm also going for the one day at a time

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  16. Um, I'm brand new and trying to figure all of this out so I can get the most out of it and do my part. What is BNR?

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