Blogger, and Twitter, and Facebook Oh my!

Does anyone else get overwhelmed by all the different methods of promotion and on-line communication? I remember a time when we didn't even have personal computers and I'm not that old. Now my husband and I have at any given time between 3-5 computers of some kind in the house. Only one of them is mine but he has a personal laptop, a work laptop, a personal computer, and a Mac in the basement of a band mate that they use for recording. (The above card is from Simply Sentimental on Etsy).

I have been slowly incorporating different sites into my daily life and I'm beginning to feel overload. I don't want my promotion and networking to take over my life so that I end up spending less time knitting and have nothing to promote. Initially when I started my shop I would spend some time each day promoting on the etsy forums. This seems to be where most people start and it can be a useful tool to get hearts and meet people in the community. I am pretty over it to be honest and I go there less and less as time goes by. I poke in for a few minutes here and there and post a few thoughts, do a little promotion if I have an item that isn't getting much love.

My next venture was Flickr which is just for downloading pictures. It is free but you pay to set up a premium account and get more room and categories. I posted a ton of product pictures and a few personal and band pictures. I joined some crafting and etsy related groups and posted pictures to their pages. I still go in periodically but I don't think I've ever gotten a sale from it and I don't find it too satisfying at this point.

I started my blog around 6 months ago. I started out with low expectations but it has been a very fulfilling adventure so far. I'm approaching my 100th post and I average between 150-200 hits a day according to google stats. I know a lot of them are entrecard drops but I try to keep up with a lot of crafting and creative blogs on there and I feel that is generally reciprocated. I really don't know how that compares with other blogs but I honestly don't care. I like the connection I feel to other bloggers. I'm an introvert by nature and I think that blogging has been good for me. I've also gotten several custom orders and sales from readers so it has been the most productive on-line promotional tool for me so far.

Joining Entrecard has brought a lot of new bloggers into my sphere and I like the dropping process. It is a soothing and meditative activity for me usually. I can do it on my lunch hour and since my work computer is so fast I can get most of my daily 300 in during that time. I can usually find a few minutes here and there when I'm not with students to write a post and leave comments on other blogs during the work week also. I've decided that since my home computer takes so much longer to bring up pages and do my drops I'm going to keep it to a minimum on the weekends and focus on knitting time. This will hurt my entrecard rating but that is not as important as having the inventory I need for my business.

I recently added Facebook and Twitter to my daily doings. I really like that Facebook has reconnected me with people from my past that I've lost track of through the years. I started a shop business page to let people that already know me know what I'm doing with my knitting. Many of them had no idea about my business and I've gotten a lot of hits and compliments on my work. I see facebook as more about connecting and less about promotion, although a little promotion is definitely involved.

Twitter is much more of a promotional thing for me. To be honest I feel a bit like I'm yelling into the wind with Twitter. I have over a hundred followers after only a week of active tweeting but I don't think any of them are really listening. I decided I needed to give it a chance before I decided whether I wanted to really do it. People are always saying how many sales they have gotten from it and how wonderful it is so I'm trying to keep an open mind. I sometimes feel silly saying what I'm doing in 140 words or less. I feel with my blog I am actually reaching and expressing at least part of the real me. Tweeting seems more superficial and fake somehow to me. I have gotten a number of views when I've posted my new listings and what not so I think I'm going to keep it up for awhile and see if it grows on me.

I have a page on Etsy love, Myspace, and a few other networking sites but I've not added any content or spent much of any time there. What promotional tools have you found to be the best use of your valuable time?

Forum Fundamentals

Before I discovered Etsy I had never really been a part of an on-line community. I may of had a myspace page but I abandoned it after a few days. I never really understood the whole making friends with people you would never really know in the real world. I guess I'm showing my age with this one since all the college kids have grown up with whole communities at their finger tips.

I think you can a lot about an Etsian (the common term for an etsy fanatic whether they are a buyer only or seller), by how they feel about the Forums. When I first joined I quickly got sucked into the entire world of etsy. I read the forums obsessively but didn't really start responding until I started selling. Then for the next 6 months or so I was on the forum whenever I had a free minute at work and for about an hour every night. The luster has definitely faded for me now but I do still find them to be a useful tool and they are an amazing resource to a newbie looking for support and answers to specific questions.

I've noticed a much more negative vibe in the forums of late and a general lack of respect at times which can be annoying. I personally avoid the Etc. section entirely since I don't find it all that useful or interesting. If you are really looking to form some close connections it is probably the best place but I really don't feel the need to mix my personal life with my shop. Things tend to get out of hand and pretty unprofessional down in the Etc. section and if you have thin skin or virgin ears I would definitely stay far away.

The help section is the place to go if you are having trouble with some aspect of Etsy or running your shop. Be aware that it is against the rules to discuss a specific transaction on Etsy so you may have to speak in very general terms if asking a question. I use the forums primarily to network and to promote my shop and I've found that you can get more attention by giving a well thought out answer to a newbie then rambling on in other sections.

The business section is the meat and potatoes of the forums and I spend the bulk of my networking time in this area. If you have a question on how to promote or market or other general questions this is a good place to get a serious answer. I may go into the critique section occasionally and look for people who appear to actually want a critique of their shop but most of the requests there are very thinly disguised promotions.

Which brings me to the much maligned promotions section. I actually have spent a great deal of time here. I don't know of any sales that have directly come from the promotions section but I know that others speak of great success with well placed promotions threads. I have gotten most of my trades through the promotions section and have gotten many views as well. Since just listing or renewing an item does not guarantee 15 or so views like it did when I first joined I have found that I need to "pimp" my items more to see the views going up. I don't know why but it drives me crazy to have the view total of an item too low. I know that it only takes 1 view to sell an item, if it the right person but if I'm not seeing those totals rising I get a little down. You can get several views by listing your item on other people's threads by looking for appropriate places to post them. For example people will start "post your blue" or "newest listing" type threads all the time. It is considered polite to look at several other people's items in the thread and to not just "post and run".

It is tacky to go through and post random things in random threads and you will do more harm than good if you start spamming other sections in the forums. You will get even more views by starting your own thread in promotions, but be prepared to babysit it. You will have to go in and comment on other people's items in order to keep the thread from dying a quick death. The promotions section has been overrun with BNR (Buy and replace) games and other contests as of late. I have never done a BNR except for a treasury once. They can be ok for a newbie who wants to see how the buying process works and to get some feedback going but otherwise I think they are kind of a waste of time. Don't get me wrong I love to buy on Etsy but I don't want to be limited to a specific group of people, and I want to do it on my terms.

Since starting my blog I've spent much more time exploring other people's blogs then I have on the forums. I haven't been getting as many hearts, but honestly I prefer reading blogs at this point than the craziness of the forums right now. I still spend a few minutes here and there to catch up on anything important and to promote new listings but I don't see it as the all important social network that it once was to me. I know that I no longer see most of the people that were constantly there when I started and it is a whole new set of avatars so I'm clearly not alone.

So I recently joined a free blog networking service called entrecard. You may have seen the Blog of the Day button to the side. I'm not a fan of cluttered and ad ridden blogs but something about this service appealed to me. For one thing it's free and no money ever needs to be expended for you to drive traffic to your blog and promote other like minded blogs.

Basically the way it works is you place the widget on your blog and then visit other blogs just like you normally would do, and while there you "drop" your card. It is as simple as clicking on their drop box. Then they come visit you and hopefully check out your blog and maybe even visit your shop.

Since joining I haven't really spent any more time on-line then usual and my traffic has definitely taken off. Some people complain that it is not "real" traffic and that people are just dropping in and then dropping right back out. I'm sure that there is some of that but I can speak for myself in that I do honestly look at the blogs I drop in on and really only look at blogs I would enjoy. I sometimes leave comments and sometimes don't, just like when I am browsing blogs any other way.

I'm also a sucker for any system that involves collecting points. I've discussed shopping with MyPoints.com, I'm an off again on again Weight Watchers user, and now Entrecard. For every blog you drop in on you get a point, whenever someone chooses to advertise on your blog you get points, and whenever you add content to your blog you get points. You use those points to buy time on other bloggers widgets. I really enjoy shopping for blogs to advertise with. I look for new users of entrecard whose price isn't too high and who have a regular readership shown through comments on their blogs. If they are Etsy sellers that is a plus since their readers are probably already going to be familiar with Etsy and hopefully registered shoppers.

I don't know if it will result in any sales but it's fun to know more people are looking at my blog and hopefully getting some enjoyment out of it.