Get your Etsy/Storenvy shop noticed!

Hello everyone! It seems like I get people asking me often "How do you get your Etsy shop noticed?" or "I just opened a Storenvy store and I want to become popular like the other stores, how do I do it?"

Although some people can get lucky, you just can't make some listings, wait around, and hope for sales. When you are first starting out you need to take advantage of other websites to get your shop some attention. 

Outside of sponsoring a few bloggers I have never payed for advertisement, and I don't think you need to either. There are so many different websites out there that you can use for free! All you have to do is put the time and dedication in. 

Outside of getting your shop noticed it is important that you keep a good reputation about you and your shop. I think the reputation system works in two ways. You have your feedback/reviews that people give to your shop based on the quality of the items and your service. You also have a reputation based on your behavior online. I am not telling you what to do, but if you put someone/a fashion/ect. down people will notice. What you say online stays there forever (but you should already know that). I am not saying this to tell you 'If you are having a bad day don't ever vent online', but try to keep from attacking people or just generally having a bad attitude. 

This is a long post, so click read more to show the full post!

So today my main goal is to show you my favorite websites to advertise on, and how to use them. There are more out there than what I am showing, but these are ones I have experience in. I am going to rate them on a scale of how often/how familiar I am with each 

★★★ = I am very familiar with this website and use it often. 

★★ = I am somewhat familiar with this website, but don't use it all the time

★ = I am not very familiar with this website because I am either new to it, or don't use it often.

★★★ Facebook 

I suggest that everyone who owns a shop makes a Facebook fanpage. Even if you aren't really into Facebook I still suggest you make one. If you don't know how to make a fanpage click here.  A fanpage is nice for posting new listings and pictures of your products, but try not to spam only that. People will quickly get bored and unlike. Instead try and mix it up. Besides my products I like to post simple craft tutorials and cute videos of animals. Also don't be afraid to talk to people! If they leave a nice comment on one of your photos be sure to thank them. 

On Etsy you can link to your Facebook fanpage by editing your "Info and Appearance". That way people can like your page right from your Etsy shop front. 

Here is my fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/rarasjewels 

★★ Twitter

Twitter is another website I suggest. I personally don't find Twitter to be that appealing, so I don't use it as often as I should. I think Twitter is nice for posting pictures and quick little tid bits about new things coming to your shop. I like to use mine to show WIP type pictures. 

On Etsy you can link to your Twitter account just how you can link your fanpage. 

Here is my Twitter: https://twitter.com/RarasJewels

★★ Etsy 

I don't get as involved with this simply because I don't have time, but it may be helpful for people who are new. On  Etsy you can join teams to help you with making your Etsy better and advertising your items. If you are looking to promote your shop search for promotion teams. In them you can link your items for people to view/favorite, participate in promo games, get your items put in treasuries, and more. 

Personally when I participate in teams I like to play favorite games. The general idea was simple, you posted two of your items and then liked the first 10 items above your post. From my understanding the more likes you have on a listing the more likely it is to show up in a search. These games are nice if you are new and don't have too many likes on your items yet. 

★★★ Tumblr 

Most of you here are probably familiar with Tumblr and have a blog of your own. For me Tumblr is my greatest source of traffic to my shop. Tumblr is a great resource to use if you sell items that interest tumblr groups. That means if you sell hipster/pastel goth/creepy cute/kawaii/fairy kei/decora/lolita/ect items you are most likely going to have luck on Tumblr (or at least I see those types of items the most on tumblr). I suggest making a separate Tumblr blog just for your shop. Make sure to have a nice theme not only fits in with your shop, but also makes it easy to navigate. Two important things on Tumblr; watermark your work and tag your posts several tags that you feel fit. Watermarks are important because so many people on Tumblr remove links you may put on your posts. If you add a watermark someone can still search for your shop because they can see your url on the pictures. Two ways to do watermarks is either typing your shop's url on each image using an image editor or making your own custom water mark picture. Tags are important because it is how people will find your posts. I suggest trying to use around 5 or so tags per post. People usually like to follow blogs that are 'active', so you may want to find something to reblog every once in a while if you don't have something new. I like to keep a theme and reblog pictures of bunnies when I don't have anything else to post. 

Here is my shop's tumblr blog http://rarasjewels.tumblr.com/

★★★ Affiliations 

Affiliating with another shop is sort of like a banner trade. You put their shop's banner on your blog in return for them putting your banner on their blog. It is also a nice little way to mingle with other shop owners. If you see a shop blog that has several other banners on their page besides their own that probably means they do affiliations. Contact them and kindly ask if they are willing to trade banners with you. Remember to say please and thank you~

★★ Sponsorships

This is the only type of advertisement that I mention in here that you 'pay' for. With sponsorships you send a blogger items to review on their blog/youtube to help bring attention to your shop. Often times you give them a coupon code to give to their followers so that it entices more people to come in and shop, and you can keep track of how many sales you are getting from them. Often times after I get several sales from a blog I sponsor I send them another item as a gift. It makes them want to continue to help you out. 

Be weary, though! I get at least 2 or 3 messages a week from people I have never spoken to before wanting free items to do a sponsored review. I honestly only suggest sponsoring bloggers you know, or bloggers that you noticed are sponsored by several shops. The issue with sponsoring a blogger you aren't really sure about is either 1.) They will drop off the face of the earth once they get their items and will never review/help advertise your shop. 2.) They are not 'popular enough' to help bring traffic into your shop. 

I've run into both issues before when I didn't know better and it wasn't fun. If you cannot afford to give away free items for sponsored reviews do not worry! It is not a requirement. In fact many people will post reviews of items they got from your shop for ~~~free~~~ because they want their followers to know about the new items they got!

★ Flickr

I don't really use this website, but it is a nice website to upload your shop's products on. You can upload so many photos/videos for month for free, but if you go over that then you will have to pay if you want to upload more that month. I never went over my upload limit when I was more active, so I don't think it will be an issue. Be sure to tag each image and link to your shop in the description. If you want your work to be noticed even more try submitting them to groups related to your photos. 

Here is a link to my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rarasjewels/

I sometimes post pictures of my Monster High and My Little Pony toys on there too. 

★★ Deviantart 

If you a Storenvy shop looking to resell goodies from sites like Taobao feel free to skip over this part. What I will be talking about in this part is for people who make handmade crafts. Deviantart does allow "artisan crafts" that has a wide range of things like jewelry, woodwork, metal work, pottery + ceramics, plushies, costumes, and more. The biggest thing with dA is it can be hard to gain popularity at first. I suggest joining several groups and submitting each upload to at least 5 groups. Be sure to check the group's rules on submissions and see if they accept crafts before you submit. Always make sure to link to your Etsy shop somewhere in the artist comments so that people who are interested in buying can quickly and easily find your shop!

I am a bit wishy-washy about dA. I often get bored with it and will stop using it for weeks at a time. I suggest, if you can, trying to post something new every couple days or so. 

Here is a link to my dA http://rarasjewels.deviantart.com/

★ Blogspot

I am still a bit of a newbie here in Blogspot! If you are too you can check out this guide on how to set up your own Blogspot. It is a little harder to use than tumblr, in my opinion, but it is a much more organized blogging platform overall. The thing is you need to post often. I suggest posting things like new items coming to your shop, reviews of items you have bought from other shops, cool things going in your life right now, outfit coordinations, craft tutorials, and more.    

These are just websites that I have used and I am familiar with. If you use a different website and would like to share please feel free to comment. Marketing is important, but it doesn't have to be expensive~