Non-traditional advertising ideas

[Pam Hawk]

My local small business adviser suggested I hand out a number of my plates to get them circulating - and the plates will advertise themselves. This works for me, but you wouldn't really do that with a painting, handbag, clothing/accessories, or jewelry, would you?

At first I thought about paid advertising on her site, which has a lot of traffic.
Here's a link to her advertising rates:
http://blog.modishhandmade.com/advertising/
If you click here you'll see some interesting info about her blog traffic. She has over 53,000 unique visitors to her blog every month, and thousands of subscribers. Getting even a mention on her site is a big shot in the arm.

Hmm... Just a mention on her site would be some good advertising. With this thought and a desire to get a few more plates circulating, I've decided to send one to Modish Handmade for one of her monthly giveaways, which are hugely popular. Crafters and independent artists send her items that she blogs about, includes links, etc, then she has a drawing for the whole package of goodies. If you're not familiar with her giveaways, check out the latest:
http://blog.modishhandmade.com/modish/giveaway/index.html

Yep, I'm gonna do it. This would be a huge bang for my buck.
My cost? One item that retails at or above $15 plus shipping to get it to her.

So, aside from buying an ad somewhere, and other than our own cross-marketing efforts here, what kinds of non-traditional advertising has either worked for you or are you planning to try?

[Spincus]

I have not really started the research on fair value on add rates yet so it is hard for me to do any details. On first blush the add rate of .001 per expected unique view seems like a very reasonable deal. Etsy is costing me about .01 per click. If you say that 100 people view per click, then the comparison argues well for this add rate. Also you get the bonus of repeat views.

I would see if there is a way for you to track this. Track your views before, during and after. Do not do anything new during the initial part of the test. Attribute all the clicks (use heart o tron) that are above your baseline to the test. Divide the number of new views by the circulation. See if the add rate is better than .01 per click that Etsy gets us. If it is not stick with Etsy and renew and relist, and get on the forums.

Start a thread on the Etsy forum, I have a new product idea and need some suggestions. write up what you are doing. Talk about education verses supply (in english, not my short cut version). Track this. This is free marketing and will help on the education side yours and your customers. Etsy folks can eaisly be your right demographics. you need to test and be patient.

Do this first for like 2 months, keep asking questions about what or how to market your product on Etsy, before you even think about external dollars spent on an addvertising. However do think about sending out promotional samples to key blogs...