4.14.2009

Soliciting for Advice

I've got this Etsy Store. I've sold a few things and gotten a few looks but it's not exactly bringing in the dough in these economic times. I would like it to do better which brings me to the point of this post. Wait, don't stop reading yet, I'm not asking you to buy anything!!

The other day I got this email from some random blogger via my Etsy Store saying she was a blogger blahblahblah, she wants to promote things that she thinks are cute on her blog blahblahblah, if I want to give her one of my horses for free then she'll play with it (or maybe her kids will) and then write a review of it and then maybe I'd also want to participate in a giveaway to one of her readers.

So basically she wants me to give away 2 of my horses plus eat the shipping on them (which is seriously $10 without them going to Canada, which, bytheway, is where she's from). I've seen giveaways on blogs before and even when I've thought stuff was cute it didn't make me want to buy it if I didn't win it. So already I'm not knocked out with the awesomeness of this opportunity. Should I be?

Then I thought, well, maybe she has this huge reader base. But how do you figure that out? I checked her profile views - I don't know if that's the best way or not. She had 500 hits less than I have, and I'm not even close to being on anybody's favorites list (uh, present company excluded, I hope). And her comments on the few posts I scrolled through were like 5 max.

Am I being stupid and passing up a golden opportunity? I'm just not feeling the love. Honestly, if I wanted to giveaway a horse I could do it on my own blog and not have to do it twice and eat the shipping twice.

So tell me what you think, please. Should I take up her up on her offer? Should I actually do a giveaway here? Should I just continue to stick my head in the sand and hope that something cosmic happens to make them all hot commodities? I just don't know anymore.

9 comments:

Sheena said...

If you wanted to do a giveaway, I would recommend doing it on a site that you already know has a large readership, like Mormon Mommy Blogs. It seems like a safer, better way to go. It seems to me like this blogger blahblahblah is soliciting for free stuff. Really, not a bad idea when you think about it. But probably not a great deal for you.

Melanie said...

No....don't do it!

Carleen said...

If she wanted to showcase something she thought was great (and your stuff is great)she could just include a link to your esty site on her blog. I think you should go with your gut feeling and pass on this one but let her know that she can pass your esty site info around all she likes!

Carleen said...

Sorry, Etsy (I do know what I'm talking about just not how to spell)

Holly said...

Why don't you contact TAMN and see if she can use one of your horses? I think you could guarantee yourself some additional hits.

Rae said...

I agree with Sheena. Solicit on a site you all ready know has a large amount of hits. You can approach that blogger with the opportunity and maybe give her a discount or a free product of her choosing if one or more (I would say more)buys from you due to her promoting it.

Jessica said...

I'd skip this one. A giveaway, on the right site, is a good way to get your product known. But, I don't think that one has enough of a readership plus I don't know how many Canadian readers would want to pay the shipping. If you do a giveaway on your blog it can spread more if people get an extra entry if they blog about it on their blog or put a link on facebook. Good Luck.

Jessica said...

Here's a good site for posting a giveaway.

www.tipjunkie.com/giveaways/

MaryRuth said...

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo dooooooooooooooooooooooon't dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!

:)