My Thoughts on Etsy Teams

If you weren't sure, Etsy Teams are groups of people that have basically banded together based on a commonality. Currently I am a member of the following teams with the following qualifications:

- We All Belong - team of any Etsians to support each other - no qualifications to join.

- Oregon Team - team of Oregonian crafters - just have to live in Oregon.

- West Coast Team - team of West Coasters (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California & Hawaii) - have to live in one of the mentioned states.

- Fire Mountain Gems Co-op - team of people that order from Fire Mountain Gems - we can combine orders together to get the best pricing for FMG

- Etsy Paper Team - team of crafters that have at least 50% of their shop dedicated to paper crafted items.

- Promoting Our Shops Team - team dedicated to help the members promote and drive traffic to their Etsy shops

- Promo Swap Team - I mentioned this team in an earlier blog, but a team that trades promotional items to include in sold items.

So far, I've gotten alot of good advice and hopefully some exposure from the teams that I've joined. Promo is allowed in all the discussions except for the FMG Co-op Team. I try to post my items in the New Listing threads and look at the items for the shops that posted before me. Sometimes the threads are 20 pages long so I at least visit the 5 shops that posted before me.

Teams are a good way to get some exposure if you actively participate. I did see another promo team that was interesting but there were specific qualifications to join that seemed like it required more time than I had, so that one is on the back burner for now. Has it helped to drive traffic to my Etsy shop - yes a little, I haven't yet seen any MAJOR traffic coming in after joining the teams but every little bit helps and the discussion forums do provide support if you have questions as well as helpful advice.

One thing that really annoys me about the teams are the OVER-PROMOTERS. I see their posts every other hour in the "New Items" listing. It's like, jeez, give other people a chance to post their items too or so that their items won't get buried. It causes me to not want to visit their shops because their posting is a little obnoxious.

It has not really been that long since I've joined the teams so as time goes on, we'll see how that goes. One thing I have learned about the team discussions is to promote but don't overdo it or people like me will avoid going to the shops of people like that. Just my spin on it.