Tuesday Tips: Street Teams!

Sorry this post is a day late going up! It's been a wild week. ☺

A lot of etsians offer great products, yet their shops go unnoticed. This is the fifth entry in a six-week series of tuesday tips about ways to improve your etsy karma... These are ways I have found to get people into my shop. And the more people go through my shop, the more likely I am to make a sale!

What is a street team? Oh I'm so glad you asked!!
A street team is a group of etsians who have something in common--location, type of craft (eg: jewelers or web designers), lifestyle (eg: religious groups or parents), business practices (eco-friendly), or shared market (eg: baby items or knitting supplies).
Different teams do different things and require different levels of involvment. Some teams will add you to their link list and that's all there is to it...other teams require regular participation in blog carnivals or posting to team threads. So be sure to read the team profile before joining, and make sure that 1--you are qualified to join, and 2--that you are willing to do whatever is required for that team.
Why be on a team? Well, one person can only advertise so many places, and can only make so many contacts...but twenty people can reach twenty times as many people and places, and eighty people can reach...well, you get the idea!
Additionally, many team members prefer to buy from their fellow team members if they can; they often will feature each other in treasuries and blogs; and, oh yeah, they just get to know each other, and give each other ♥s!!!

I am on several teams, so I thought I'd share a little about each one (see my sidebar for links!)

• Etsy Cloth Diaper team (for etsians who sell cloth diapers). It's pretty self explanatory really! We all sell cloth diapers! We have a team blog and along with featuring our products, many of us are contributing to an ongoing series of posts with a wealth of cloth diapering information. We also have a separate website with and a team forum for members.
  
• Mothering team (for members of mothering.com forums). Mothering.com is a natural parenting forum, so many of us have products that pertain to that group, however some of us carry mainstream items too. We have a blog and a yahoo group, and are currently working on doing a team banner ad on the mothering forums--expensive for one person, but affordable when shared by a whole team!
  
• Team Eco Etsy (for etsians who are green in their business practices). I just joined this team this month, so I haven't had a chance to do much with them yet. I like that they have a lot of great ideas on the blog for how to run a greener business through things like recycled packaging and minimal paper usage.
• EtsyBloggers (for etsians who blog). This team requires regular participation--at least two posts per month have to relate back to the team, and there are regular team threads, blog carnivals, featured members, and team-wide sales.There is a team message board and flickr group, as well as groups on facebook, twitter, ning, and a public blog.
  
• the Alaskan Team (for any etsian in Alaska) goes in together to buy tables at craft fairs, but since I'm rural I have not been able to participate with them in any of that yet. So I'm listed as a team member (so other Alaskans can find a more 'local' seller and save on shipping), but otherwise it's a very laid back team.