Hi! Any of you familiar with Etsy? How or where did you promote your shop when you just started out?

[UrbanDecoy.Etsy.com]

UrbanDecoy.Etsy.com

and thanks for any ideas/answers, any suggestions would be great.

[BeeezKneeez]

From personal experience I have found Etsy to be totally useless.
On the other hand, I have found ArtWanted to be most useful and very easy to use. I have bought and sold paintings there with great success.
http://www.artwanted.com/ps/join/

[Cindy]

Try http://www.etsytrends.com

This is a new site targeted at Etsy buyers, and the rate is very affordable.

[tealightshoppe]

There are several places that I've promoted which I find very useful.

1)Social networking sites. Sites like twitter, myspace, facebook (start a fanpage), etc. are FREE and relatively easy to use. Invite as much people on the internet as you can to follow you or fan you and give updates on your shop through there.

2)Forums. Sign up for forums of your target market (could be teens, women, mothers, or whatever market you are trying to sell for) and post as much as you can on there. Leave a link to your shop in your signature, and every time you post a comment, your link will show up.

3)Google Base. This lets you be in the "shopping results" when people search on Google. Here's a tutorial on how to set it up:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6246383

4)Business Cards. Leave them everywhere. At coffee shops, boutiques, etc. Also, give them out to your friends and tell them to tell their friends.

5)Project Wonderful. If you're willing to spend a small amount of money on advertising, I would suggest looking into project wonderful. It lets you choose what sites you want to run your ad in and prices vary depending on who "bids" for the spot. Their site is here: http://www.projectwonderful.com

Hope this helps you! Good luck!

[londonparticulars]

Hi,
I have been selling on Etsy for the last year and a half and its been great.
But your right to be looking to promote as its a crowded marketplace depending in which field your in (I'm a Steampunk Jewelry Maker which is very crowded!).

One great way to get traffic to your shop is to make a YouTube video of your items.
Another is to use Ezine Articles to write short articles about whatever area you specialise in although these would have to link to your Blog rather than shop which brings me too...
Set up a Blog and update regulary. If you don't have one then Blogger is easy to set up, Wordpress is better but more advanced.

Good luck!

Here's a link to Ezine Articles:

http://ezinearticles.com/

Blogger:

https://www.blogger.com/start

Wordpress:

http://wordpress.org/

Here's my Etsy Shop:

http://londonparticulars.etsy.com