5 Etsy Features You Should Be Using!

Are you familiar with this page? Read on to find out why you should be!

1. Shop Local - I like Shop Local for two reasons. One: everyone hates shipping fees and hopefully, by purchasing locally, you can cut down or eliminate those shipping fees entirely. Two: this is great promotion and networking for your own shop. The more local artisans you know of, the wider your circle when it comes to sharing craft fair booths, sharing advertising space or just sharing a cup of coffee. How many times have you wished your blog friends lived nearby so you could hang out? Well, this is a way to actually do that with your etsy friends!

2. Treasury East - Treasuries are such fun! If you're creating one, you get to pile through your favorites (or maybe find some new ones) and curate your very own collection of etsy beauties. If you're in one, you are a part of a wonderful tool for marketing your shop to etsy users who may otherwise never stumble into your category. For example, I can tell you that I never click on the soap link on the front page; I'm never in the market for soap. However, I have made numerous soap purchases because the items were listed in treasuries I found interesting and the photography caught my eye.

3. Pounce - Pounce has 2 sections: Undiscovered and Just Sold. Undiscovered displays shops that have newly listed items that have never made a sale. It's a great feeling to be someone's first sale and if you like being "ahead of the curve", it's an optimal place to start shopping. Just Sold is a section that displays still available items from shops that just made a sale. If you're interested in seeing what items are selling or finding out what others are buying, Just Sold is the place for you.

Are you familiar with this page? Here's what you should be getting out of it!

4. Promotions Forum - The Promotions Forum is the first place I go on Etsy. I advertise my giveaways, new listings, and blog posts there. The threads are so variant - sales, threadkillers, giveaways, gifts with purchase - it is a great place to promote (duh!) anything you like. If you want to add blogs to your reader, readers to your blog, enter giveaways or find people to enter your giveaway, it's the perfect spot. The best thing (for me) is that most of the threads are "post and run" - it's not necessary to stick around and follow-up on your post. The majority of the Etsy seller blogs I read have been found in the Promotions Forum.

5. Five Minute Featured Seller Chat Room - This chat room is almost always available and usually has a title like "5 Min FS." I stumbled upon Etsy chat almost a year after joining the site and I realized that I'd been missing out on a lot of fun. The chat rooms are a fabulous place to get to know your fellow etsy sellers, who are also your prospective buyers!

In this particular chat room, one person is chosen as the Featured Seller. They then have 5 minutes to promote their shop. Everyone else in the room promotes them as well, talking about what they like and posting their favorite items in the picture sidebar. The Featured Seller may advertise promotions during this time or offer gifts with purchase. At the end of the 5 minute period, the Featured Seller checks their orders and confirms how many sales were made in those 5 minutes. The first person who purchased from them (no matter the amount) is the next Featured Seller and the cycle starts all over again. If there are no sales, the 2nd purchaser from a previous round is chosen and if that doesn't work, the FS chooses randomly from the sellers in the room.

I've met a lot of fun people in this chat room and try to stop in once every few weeks to participate. It's a great way to make 10 sales in 5 minutes and at the same time, I found 15 new shops that I liked.

Whether you're a seller or a buyer, knowing the features available to you can maximize your experience on Etsy!