Modish Biz Tips

7 Ways to Get Your Shop Noticed by Etsy Admin

{The Watcher, photo by Alice Lily.}

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the three most high profile spots for sellers on Etsy.com are the Featured Seller, Front Page, and Gift Guides. These are high visibility parcels of Etsy real estate where you are guaranteed to get a few hundred views over the course of a very short time (and possibly a few hundred sales if you’re a Featured Seller.)

Though there is no guaranteed method of getting featured in one of these desirable spots, you can take some steps to improve your chances. What do all of these things have in common? They’re all curated by Etsy staff members (with the exception of the Front Page which is sometimes chosen by other Etsy members.)

To get exposure, you need to make your shop known to the taste-makers on the Etsy staff who are in the position to raise you to front page status. A spot in one of these curated sections means more eyes will see your work and potentially make a purchase, heart you or consider adding you to a Treasury. In the Etsy game, it’s all about raising the visibility of your shop, so listen up and I’ll tell you 7 ways to get the Etsy Admins to take note:

The Etsy Way- Etsy Forums: Keep it Clean, Keep it Positive

Today we have a new installment of The Etsy Way, a special guest column by Shannon Riffe offering advice to navigate the vast waters of selling on Etsy- read on!

Thanks Biz Tip readers for your overwhelmingly positive reaction to my first column! I’ve copied and pasted all of your suggestions from the comment section into a Word document and I’m working on columns that will address each and every one of your concerns in the future.

{photo by bookgrl. If you can't say something nice... zip the lip.}

Ah, comments! A wonderful way to interact with people online you would never “meet” otherwise.  As Jena and I both know, a robust and helpful comments section is a key element of establishing a thriving blog. But what happens when comments turn nasty? What about when comments turn nasty and they are directly linked to your business? Think no one would be dumb enough to bad mouth someone else or make offensive statements online, under the real name of their own business? Think again, and then take a look at the Etsy Forums.

The Etsy Forums are an amazing user-generated repository of information regarding all things Etsy. Need to know the best techniques for great photographs or want to get the inside scoop on whether advertising on Facebook is worth it? A quick search of the Forums will turn up answers to these questions and much more. But interspersed among the useful nuggets of information you’ll also discover a darker side of the Etsy experience.

Introducing...The Etsy Way with Shannon Riffe!

I'm excited to introduce a new column and a new contributor to you here today, Shannon Riffe from Make It and Rifferaff! Shannon has been an Etsy member for over 3 years and has a wealth of support and knowledge on what it takes to run a successful shop there. She'll be stopping by once a month with some Etsy specific marketing tips and selling advice, so if there are any particular topics you'd be interested in her covering here in the future, please let us know in the comments below! Now, here's Shannon to say hello!

Hi Modish Biz Tips Readers and thanks to Jena for having me here!

A few words in the way of introduction: My name is Shannon Riffe, I have a little creative business called Rifferaff where I make soap and screenprinted papers and I write about my craft-business adventures at my blog, Make It.

I’ve been an Etsy member since March 3, 2006 and have participated since that time as both a shopper and a buyer. I’m here to write exclusively on the topic of using Etsy for your business. I don’t present myself here as an expert on the topic, just someone who, like you, is currently running an Etsy shop and is interested in making it the best it can be.

Why Etsy? Well, I’m willing to bet at least 80% of the readers of this blog have an Etsy shop. The ease of set-up, and high visibility of the site, coupled with the low costs and low risks associated with trying it out, makes it essentially the go-to site for small home-based creative businesses. Etsy is exploding with so many new members that it’s hard to believe the site has only been around since June 18, 2005.

What’s not hard to believe is that Etsy has, truly, revolutionized the retail landscape. Many of the tried and true rules for starting a brick and mortar store or a wholesale line are completely irrelevant in the face of Etsy.