Sixth & Elm Now Available at ShopGirls Gallery Boutique

After about 5 minutes in the store, I had my shopping list picked out. ShopGirls is my new favorite obsession, a classy boutique on Queen Street West in Toronto’s Parkdale district that features fine art and fashion from an all Canadian Artist base, with an emphasis on local work. Shop Girls is now carrying many Sixth & Elm pieces in their beautiful shop, and my work is in very good company there.

I fell in love with many items including some beautiful and unique jewellery, scarves and some very amazing mixed media pieces. Okay, fine, I actually did buy a necklace and pair of earrings and I had to keep reminding myself I was there to sell, not to buy in order to stop myself buying more. I have a feeling any money I make there will not last long and will quickly be used right back up buying goodies there for myself. Oh well, groceries are over-rated anyways.

Sixth & Elm on Moue Magazine

http://www.mouemagazine.com/blog/2008/11/indie-retailer-of-the-day-sixth-elm/

Moue Magazine »Indie Retailer of the Day: Sixth & Elm

Sixth & Elm was Moue Magazine’s Indie Retailer of the Day this past week. Check us out. We’re so cool.

How to Get Attention While Wasting Time Online

Yeah, yeah, you’re supposed to be posting items in the shop or making a new ad banner for Project Wonderful, but you know you’re gonna spend almost the whole time looking at cute pictures of your friend’s new cat on Flickr or looking up old boyfriends on Facebook. While you’re there, you might as well get a little marketing done. Here are some ways to drum up some interest for your shop while wasting time on the internet.

Upload all your item photos. *Given*
Search the Flickr groups for keywords related to Etsy or your craft and join the groups.
Upload a few photos to each group whenever you are on Flickr. Etsy sellers, buyers and bloggers all frequent the groups as well as more popular design bloggers.
Make sure you have a link to your website in your profile. As per Flickr rules you are not supposed to use Flickr for marketing so you are not supposed to add your Etsy site address, just your blog address, but I haven’t been caught yet. Please don’t rat on me.
Search for users with tags related to Etsy or your craft and add these artists as a contact. Chances are they will add you too and see the your new items when you upload them to Flicker.
Comment on other artist’s photos - a lot. People follow the link back to your profile if you do, I promise.
Add me as a contact

Search Etsy forums for “Twitter” to find other Etsy buyers and sellers to follow. They will probably follow you too.
Go to TwitterFeed.com and set up your Etsy shop RSS so you will generate an automatic Tweet whenever you post an item to your Etsy shop. While you’re there set up a tweet for your blog too. Contact me if you need help with RSS or finding your Etsy RSS URL.
Fill out your profile and make sure there are links to your Etsy shop, blog and/or Flickr account.
Go to your favorite design blogs and look for a “follow me on Twitter” link to follow them. Even if they don’t follow you, they will probably still at least check out your webpage.
Of course, follow me on Twitter!

Add the My Etsy Application to your Facebook Profile - Go to the App page and enter your ID. While on that page (after hitting submit) go to the very top of facebook and go to Settings>My Etsy Settings (the settings menu beside your name) and chose the “Profile” tab, then click “add” beside the Box selection. You can try the Etsy Shop App too, but I just got an error when I tried to add it.
Join the Etsy Sellers Facebook Group, upload some pictures, explore the group page and write on the wall or participate in the discussions. Sellers can be buyers too, and I have referred more than one buyer I could not help to Etsy Sellers I talk to on facebook, Flickr or forums.
Add photos of your shop items into albums in your Photos section.
Add other Etsyians as friends by searching for “facebook” in Etsy forum posts (like this thread, or this one) to find people who want to add other Etsy sellers or buyers to their friend lists.
If you want to get REALLY into it, you can make a Facebook page for your store, and encourage other Etsyians to become your fans if you become theirs. I have not done this yet since I don’t have time to maintain a store on Facebook too, and this list is mostly for quick ideas you can do while puttering online.
Add me as a friend: (make sure you let me know you’re an Etsyian, or I’ll think you were a random serial-friender).

Add shops and items to your favorites, especially new shops. They shops with 1000+ hearts don’t always have time to visit each shop when someone favorites them, but the newer sellers will without fail.
Choose an interesting shop item of yours for your avatar. When people see your avatar in convos or forum posts they will be curious and click through to your shop.
Participate in lots of forum threads. Lots. Talk it up, baby.
Join street teams.
Create treasuries, or make friend with people who do!
Pitch story ideas for the Storque to the editors. If accepted, you will get a lot of exposure for authoring an article.
If you have nothing new to list, renew items on a regular basis to keep your page appearing in the recently listed sections.
As always, check out my shop.

Other Online Distractions:

Check out your Etsy stats at Majaba.org
Comment regularly on the Indie and design blogs you read
Add your name to the Etsy Sellers Blog List
Check out my blog! Oh, wait, you’re there now…

Yay for justifiable online puttering!

Sixth & Elm on Scribbit

Sixth & Elm is on Scribbit this week, with a glowing review by the magnificent Michelle. If you aren’t a regular subscriber, consider adding Scribbit to your feed reader. It’s a fun read and Michelle is possibly the nicest person in the blogosphere.

Sixth & Elm on the Indie Fixx Galleria

Check out the Sixth & Elm feature on the IndieFixx galleria. The Galleria is a juried marketplace of indie shops curated by IndieFixx’s own Jen Wallace and is a good place to look for some new way to spend all the money you are supposed to be saving for things like food and car payments.

Sixth & Elm on Roadside Scholar

Check out the Roadside Scholar blog for the Sixth & Elm interview by Gigi Leonard, and the feature she did a few weeks earlier on Sixth & Elm as well. Gigi, the author of Roadside Scholar, is quite an extraordinarily nice person and it was fun to work with her.