Advertising My Etsy Shop on A Blog

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As I mentioned before, I decided to finally buy some ad space on a blog for my Etsy shop.  I had a few criteria.  The blog needed to be:

• one I read already so I’m familiar with the content
• about design somehow, since my products are all about strong patterns and vibrant color
• supportive of handmade
• not a how-to craft blog (not because I don’t love them – I read a ton – but I don’t think that’s what my target market reads)

So after digging through my Google Reader a little I decided on one of my fave blogs, In Honor of Design.  Anna’s a graphic designer and a jewelry artist and is super supportive of handmade businesses.  Make sure you check out both her blog and her gorgeous jewelry, mmmkay?



The ad went up on February 9th, so it’s been up for two weeks now and I feel like I can give you a feel on how it’s going for me.  I did a little digging on Google Analytics to check my numbers and see if the ad is helping drive some traffic to the shop.

Of all the traffic to my shop, IHOD is the #4 source of traffic to my shop with 8.31%.  In fact, it’s only behind direct traffic, Google searches, and my Facebook page.  It’s even ahead of my blog!  That means it’s my #2 referring site, sending just a few less visitors to my blog than my Facebook page.




It’s great traffic too. The bounce rate for traffic from IHOD is about 48%, which means most of the people who visit are hanging around for a bit.  Visitors average 2.5 pageviews and stick around the shop for a few minutes.

I’ve had a noticeable rise in shop hearts and traffic over the past few weeks.  The ad is not the only contributing factor – I’ve been renewing twice a day thanks to the Statsy Clockbot – but it’s certainly helping things along.  Although I wouldn’t say I’ve been overwhelmed with sales by any means, I am starting to see the results of my efforts.



So is it worth it?  In my opinion, absolutely!  Lots of great bloggers offer super-reasonable rates that make it easy to get into advertising.  Don’t hesitate to contact your favorite blogger for advertising information because you may be surprised at how well it fits into your business budget.  Also, you’re supporting another small business owner, so it’s a win-win!

I know we’ve chatted about advertising before, but I’d love to hear more from you guys!  Let me know if you have an ad somewhere and how it’s working out for you, good or bad.  And if you don’t advertise now, are you considering it?