Promoting

My Etsy shop has been open for almost a month now. I have 19 items listed and only 2 sales (to a friend, but a sale is a sale!). I know it will take some time to get "out there" and I still have plenty more journal ideas brewing in my head. But I'm still working on promoting my items.

FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/journalsbyk
I started with Facebook on my personal page and then made a Page for my Etsy shop. So far I only have a handful of friends who have "Liked" the page.

INSTAGRAM @journalsbyk
I have had slightly more success with Instagram, more people see my posts thanks to #hashtags but that doesn't necessarily translate to traffic on my Etsy site. Followers are great and all but not going to do much help in sales if they only like my Instagram posts and never make it to my Etsy shop. I still use it to promote my items every time I post something new or I post announcements to let people know something new is coming soon. People seem to like that. I also ALWAYS use #journalsbyk in ALL my posts because it will allow the public to see what else I've posted without going directly to my profile.

PINTEREST www.pinterest.com/journalsbyk
I have mixed feelings about whether or not it's actually worth using. I never got into the whole Pinterest craze and have had no repins, and only 1 Follower. I don't know if I should spend time keeping it up to date like I do with Instagram. Any advice on how to use Pinterest for promoting items?

TWITTER @journalsbyk or www.twitter.com/journalsbyk
I have been using Twitter off and on. Just switched my username to reflect my journal making and updated the profile. I feel like this could be just as useful as Instagram. I haven't been using it because it was not reflective of my shop until now, so I should start seeing some results (fingers crossed) soon.

BLOGGER you're already here!
I have started probably like 10 different blogs in my lifetime (I'm only 24 mind you) and NONE ever gained a following. I'm hoping this one does, because I like looking at other blogs and seeing tutorials, reviews, updates, ideas, and just random crafty or book-related posts and I want to create something like that. It's a work in progress, and I have lots of ideas, but not enough time in the day to post everything at once

ETSY www.etsy.com/shop/journalsbyk
As far as Etsy goes, I've done the most promoting recently in the Team discussions. I have found some teams that are just soooo populated I feel like your stuff will never really get seen, and I have found a handful of others that are active and have fun games to help get each other promoted. Buy From Women is a team I think that's my favorite. They offer Treasury games, Shop Favoriting games, and Item Favoriting games which make it fair for everyone. Plus they are super friendly!

I have seen a huge boost in Favorites (shop and items) today and I know it was all thanks to the Teams. When I was reviewing who favorited my shop/items a majority were in a Team that I was part of, so I know that's where they saw my promoting. Some others though today were not part of any team I was part of so that's good because it means I'm reaching others outside of the teams! Just gotta keep at and hopefully get some sales.

What's your favorite way to promote your items for free? How long did it take for your shop to really get going? How much time a day/week do you spend promoting? How do you gather a following? Comment below!