Giveaway Tips!

Here are some thoughts and tips that I wrote up after completing my first MIVEST giveaway, and of course, check out the "how-to" blog post on our members-only blog written by Linda: http://mivestmembers.blogspot.com/2010/05/step-by-step-how-to-do-giveaway.html

Pick an item to give away that is representative of your shop.  (If 90% of what you sell is widgets, and 10% is whoozits, then definitely give away a widget!)  Also, I recommend picking an item that worth a medium amount, so that people feel like they're winning something significant.  Don't give away that $80 retail bracelet, but don't giveaway a $5 pair of earrings either.  (For example, I gave away a bobby pin trio that I would sell for $16 in my shop, but only cost me about $4 or so to make.)

Think about what you want to get out of the giveaway.  Maybe you want more blog, Twitter, or Facebook followers, or simply more views and hearts, to help get your shop noticed.  For me, I wanted more Facebook fans, and I wanted to encourage those Facebook fans to share my shop with their friends.  So two of the ways you could enter my giveaway were to become a fan of my Facebook page and then leave a comment that they did so, and to post my Facebook page on their Facebook page for their friends to see, and then leave a comment that they did so.

The third way you could enter my giveaway was to go to my Etsy shop, pick your favorite item, and post a comment telling me what your favorite item was.  The benefit to having them do this is (a) you get people to look through your shop, and therefore possibly come back and buy something in the future, and (b) it is interesting to hear what people like best, from a "market research" point of view.

You can keep it simple in terms of how people can enter (that might be good for your first giveaway), or you can get really fancy, like Kelly did in her giveaway here: http://vermontetsystreetteam.blogspot.com/2010/05/giveaway-5-organic-exfoliating-soap.html  She got 111 comments/entries, so it definitely worked!

If you don't promote your giveaway, no one will enter.  So get out there and let it be known that you are hosting a giveaway!  When I did mine, I was pretty busy for the first week of it and therefore did very little promoting (just on my own Facebook page), and I only got about five or six entries.  Then I got a little panicked and entered it with two of the websites that Linda recommended in her blog post - the Etsy Giveaway Blog and By Hand Giveaways.  Once the giveaway was posted on those websites, the entries started rolling in.  I also did a little bit of promoting in the Etsy forums, and got a few entries from that.  And of course, we will all post your giveaways on our Facebook pages, or twitter about it, etc.  In all, I got 67 entries.

To pick a winner, I suggest googling "random number generator" and use that widget to pick what comment is the winner.  The winner of my giveaway was so excited, she said that I made her day!  So...it's a win-win situation all around, and it was a fun thing to do.

Good luck with your giveaways!

Featuring Etsy Shops On The MIVEST Blog

How Featuring Etsy Shops On The MIVEST Blog Works
 If your shop is the last one to be featured, it is your turn to feature a shop.  Please do this within one to two weeks of when your shop was featured.  This will create a continuous circle of "Features."

How To Become A Blog Author If You Aren't Already
 Before you can write a post on the  MIVEST blog,  you have to be listed as an author of the blog.  If you know you are not listed as an author, or you don't know if you are or not, write an email into the group asking if you are listed as an author.  If you aren't, you will soon receive an email from Google that will explain what to do.

How To Select A Shop To Feature
On the sidebar of the MIVEST blog is a list of members' shops you can choose from, and/or you can browse through the Etsy Minis list to pick out a shop you would like to feature. Pick a shop that hasn't been featured within the last six months or so, so that all members will eventually get featured and will have written a feature. You can find out which shops have been featured, by going to our MIVEST blog and finding the list of Featured Etsy Shops on the sidebar. 

Contact Person Whose Shop You Would Like To Feature
Once you have selected the shop you would like to feature, contact the shop owner to let that person know that you would like to feature their shop on the MIVEST blog. In the same email ask them if they would be willing to feature a shop within a week or two.  If that person does not reply within a day or two, or replies and says they can not feature a shop within a couple of weeks, please select another shop to feature.

If You Are Featured, And Have Agreed To Write The Next Feature, But For Unforeseen Reasons Can't
Sometimes life throws road blocks in the way of doing what we intend to do.  If this happens, write into the group, stating something like, "do to unforeseen circumstances, I will be unable to do the next feature.  Would someone else be willing to take my place?"

What To Do After You've Written Your Feature Of Another Shop
After you've written your feature, write into the group at MadeinVermontEtsyteam@yahoogroups.com stating you've done so, so that everyone can go read your feature :-)

Questions Or Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns, write an email in to the group at MadeinVermontEtsyteam@yahoogroups.com.