How to Promote Other Members While Promoting Yourself - "Straight Up Pimpin' Plan" by Ira Mency

I am in the middle of travel and chaos and busy season, but wanted to address a lot of convos and emails asking "How can I promote members?"  The name of this plan may upset some of you but in this case, the Straight Up Pimpin' Plan is just that- all above board 100% legal promotions of another shop besides your own.  

The name is bound to get your attention as it did mine once.  I received an email a year ago  ago (name withheld) that said, "I'm gonna pimp out your shop."  Now you must realize me reading that and being that I live in Baltimore City where "real pimping" is a sad realization of the street corners (sigh) I found it to be a strange choice of words and was almost offended.  

However, this person being in they younger genre did just that, she straight up pimped out my shop--- she blogged, talked about, linked and BOOM, after being on Etsy a year selling maybe 50 items in RetroChalet, the next year and a half I made 580 sales. So now after two and a half yeras I'm at  630.  After she put me in her banner and after a year on Etsy selling my sales increased 200%~!  I was honored to be "pimped out" and I ♥ u!


So to get down for it, here are a few suggestions:

1.) Add a member to your shop announcement.  It's a great way to show some love and help another member.  For the past few months I had promoted www.ChersPassion.etsy.com, www.ReduceReuseRepurpose.etsy.com, and www.42things.etsy.com.  This month I changed it up to www.GreenTrunkClothing.etsy.com.   It's fun to help other members grow their stores!  If you are worried about selling against that member, choose a shop who has different items than you offer. I plan to switch it up every so often.

2)  Use your listings as promotions. If you have bought something on Etsy from a fellow member, use that item as a prop in your listings.  Note this wonderful listing showing an upcycled journal I bought from Sarah @ Relove and mentioning her shop in the actual listing from www.ReLove.etsy.com!   Note: This is a highly classified double "pimpin" maneuver which is promoting her not only in a photo, but in the listing too! 

3.  Keep making treasuries!  These pictures are worth a thousand words. I love when members do this and feature people from our team.  Like this one back in April, featured so many members!

4. Share your favorite listings on Facebook and other social networking sites.  When you have a lot of friends, and you cut and paste a link to something cool on Etsy, this will pop up for all your friends to see.  What a great way to promote your favorite sellers!

5.  Talk about another member's stuff every chance you get in blogs or in online articles.  Use the buddy system, you promote their stuff on your blog and vice versa.