It Takes Teamwork

As you all know, Sellers Assisting Sellers (Team SASsy) is a team of volunteer advisors dedicated to
helping Etsy sellers who are struggling or have questions. I have been a member for over a year now and know that the team works hard to help when it is needed.

I also belong to two other teams; Eastern Washington Etsy Street Team (EWAET) and the TAG Treasury Team, which was started by a group from the EWAET team specifically to do treasuries. Both teams are the friendliest and most supportive groups I have ever belonged to. They daily work to support and promote each other by using Etsy’s treasuries.

Each week, one shop from the EWAET team is chosen as the Featured Shop. The team members rally around that shop and create as many treasuries as possible for an entire week. The average number of treasuries created for each shop has been around 35. This project has proven to be a wonderful thing for several shops which came into the project with few or no sales and now have hundreds.

The EWAET team has done many experiments to find how to best use the treasury. Since Etsy does not publish rules for moving up in the treasury pages, it took quite a bit of detective work to find the best method for rising to the first page. They know that while getting on the Front Page is a real feather in your cap, but the exposure only lasts for a 30 minute period. It was determined that the best exposure comes from reaching the first page of the treasury where you may stay for 12 hours or more. Having many hours of being viewed results in a better chance of sales for each featured shop.

The experiments took place over many weeks and with many treasuries. What the group found was if the team all supported the treasuries, along with the featured sellers, they could affect the movement of the treasury. The first thing a curator does is inform all of the shops that have been featured, including a link to the treasury and a request that they visit, click and comment. Next, they send an email message to the team so other members can visit the treasury, click on favorite items and leave a comment. This will normally get the treasury within the first 10 pages. The curator monitors the treasury and if it does not continue to move up they let the team know so that those that are available can revisit the treasury a second time leaving another comment. Additional activities used to help are teaching all of the members how to make attractive treasuries, and encouraging those members who use social networking such as Twitter and Facebook to post the treasuries. One of the key elements to the success of the system is being a member of a group emailing system. The treasuries could never be as successful as they are without that. This concerted team effort has resulted in first sales for some shops. When one of my shops is featured my views go way up and generally there are sales to go with that. It sometimes seems like a lot of work but there is no denying that the efforts have given new life to some shops that were struggling, not to mention bringing new hope to some shop owners who thought they could never succeed in the Etsy marketplace.

Teamwork is the key ingredient. Truly caring about how the other shops are doing and supporting each other means we all win.

Article written by www.digitalexpressions.etsy.com