Sunday 11 July 2010

Etsy Team Cymru Banner


Hello to all Etsy Team Cymru. I hope you don't mind that I have uploaded a banner. Its from one of my photos of Pembroke Castle and I thought it would be nice to have the Welsh Flag on the banner. The photo above is just a random picture at Cardiff Central, because I don't like blog posts without an image.

I did put an introduction on here about myself but something funny is going on with posts etc. Anyways, I am originally from Ireland but live in Wales. It would be nice to get this blog going again because it seems very quiet at the moment.

One of my suggestions was that each Team Cymru member have turns about being promoted by the other members, e.g. Blogging about them, Twitter, treasuries etc. I took part in something similar for UK Etsy and it worked quite well. So if anyone is around and has any other ideas about kick starting things and promoting not just individuals but Team Cymru also, please post.

4 comments:

  1. Hello Angela,

    Thank you for posting! I admit I've been somewhat preoccupied with some difficult personal circumstances, so I've been unable to keep up recently, but I hope to be around a bit more now.

    I like your idea about promoting each other in turn; it would also be good to hear how everyone is getting on with Etsy - how are your sales, for example? One thing I'd like to know is whether any members have been attending local craft fairs, and whether they've had much success?

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  2. Its very quiet for me at the moment. My views have gone down and not getting a lot of new hearts these days. There is a lot of discussion about this on the Etsy forums so I think a lot of people seem to be affected by this not just me.

    I originally suggested it may be the economic downturn but was very swiftly told it was not on the forums! http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6475536&page=105

    The problem apparently is Etsy's SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and changes in design to the website which makes it more difficult for stuff to be picked up in Google searches. fairycardmaker - gives a very simple explanation of SEO here.
    http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6570897&page=2

    I sell prints so don't really attend craft fairs so am unable to comment about this, but hopefully others will be able to contribute.

    Sorry you are having a hard time, hope it all sorts itself out soon and hope you are OK. I was wondering why it had gone so quiet on here (not just with yourself as the founder of the blog but with others too) and was hoping I was not treading on anyone's toes by doing the banner ;-) Sorry if I've badgered you, that's the last thing you need right now.

    If enough people respond to this post and say they want to be included in the promotion we can get a list of shops together. Then each shop would have a few days each when all the other people would promote that shop. The more people who participate the more promotion the shop would get.

    Examples of promotion are:
    Tweets, blog posts, heart the shop, add an item to favourites, adding an Etsy mini to your blog which will show your favourites, Making a tresury with and item from the featured shop etc. or anything else others can suggest.

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  3. Glad that it is not just my fault that I have had scant sales since the summer.Luckily I have sent some things to a craft fair in Solihull to be sold for me,so hoping for some exposure and some sales.I have had some sales via Facebook but will start doing craft fairs next year.I have also bought a book about how to optimise my Google searches and need to work on my website as well.I would love to get involved if we started a promotion of some sort.Feel free to contact me as something needs to be done.

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  4. Hi, perhaps we need to take it in turns? Have a very clear and simple formula that we all follow and agree to contribute. For example - depending on how many of us we all commit to posting one blog post a fortnight (maybe a roster) and talk about our work or processes maybe even a little 'how-to'. I guess it depends on what you want this blog to be for - if it is just more for team members to network - or if you want to try to grab followers who in turn may buy from us. If we are after followers then we need to give them something interesting - and regularly. If members have their own blog they could simply use a post from there. I have only been selling on Etsy for a few months and have not done anything actively yet to promote my work on etsy as I have been making for galleries. I have been concerned that all efforts to sell on etsy may be in vain as there seems to be so many sellers now and so many fantastic products. But I think trying to promote locally is a really good place to start. So many people outside of the USA are still not aware of etsy as a place to buy handmade. Sorry long post!

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