Expanding your shop's reach with Off-Etsy Promotion

Attention Etsy sellers! Chances are, you aren't promoting your shop enough. Promotion leads to more visitors which leads to more sales, and everyone wants that. Now that I've discussed what you can do to improve your shop and promotion within Etsy, it's time to move offsite to other promotion venues.

There are roughly a million sites outside of Etsy where you can potentially promote your Etsy shop. I've signed up for a good number of them, but I'm only active on a few. Google around and you can find huge lists of sites you can use, but I'll only go over the few that I use, and you can take that information and extrapolate it to other sites.

Tweet about your shop on Twitter. There has been a TON of buzz about Twitter recently, and it is getting more and more popular every day. Twitter is a good way to get yourself out there and make new friends. I have a personal Twitter account, so I use it more for keeping up with friends than promoting. However, people have used it with great success to promote their Etsy shops. Follow people who are interested in your product (use the search bar to see what people are tweeting about) and tweet about your new items, shop updates, blog posts, et cetera. If people like your items, they may re-tweet (RT) you, spreading the word about your shop.

Give your shop a Facebook. Having your own Facebook page is a great way to build a fan base. To create a Facebook page for your shop, go to 'advertising' at the bottom of the page and click on 'pages'. A page is like a Facebook profile for your business. People can become your fans and select to receive updates that you post. Fill in your profile with contact information, pictures, and your web addresses. Start some conversations on your very own message board. When someone 'fans' your Facebook page, all their friends will hear about it, thus spreading recognition of your shop.

Get Social on Ning Communities. Ning is like Facebook, except people can create their own tiny sub-Facebooks that specialize on a certain topic. Some Ning communities are large and active, others are less so. I've joined a handful of Ning communities: I put my Etsy Mini and other stuff on my profile, join some groups, and make some friends. The bigger the community, the better promotion it is, but Ning is really useful if you have a specific niche you want to promote to. You can also chat it up with other creators and swap tips. Plumdrop is a similar social web site, for business owners.

Start blogging your craft! If you're reading this article here, that means my blog is working ;) Blogging is my favorite and most "fun" method of Etsy shop promotion. You can put as much or as little effort into your blog as you want. It's great because it helps build a relationship with people, showing the human side of your crafting - after all, isn't that what buying handmade on Etsy is all about? Your blog can also introduce you to new customers when they find you through links or search engines.

Advertising. I put advertising at the bottom because all the other methods in this post are free, but ads can be a powerful tool for promoting your Etsy shop. Scope out communities where your product is popular, and advertise where your buyers will see. Project Wonderful is a popular advertising service for Etsy shop owners and bloggers - search by tag to find some websites that fit your niche. PW is useful because most of the advertising rates can be quite low. You can also send your ad out in targeted campaigns, and choose exactly which websites you want to show your Project Wonderful ad on.
You can also find other sites to advertise with, some more targeted and some less. If your product appeals to a wide audience, general ad networks like Adgitize can be effective for exposing your shop to a large number of diverse people, as opposed to targeted ads to a smaller number of people.

~Joyuna