Promoting Tips & Tricks Part III: Directories

Now that you've got your shop set up the way you like it, it's time to let people know about it! There are a number of directories out there providing inexpensive or free listings. Some are specific to Etsy or DaWanda, some are general and will accept a shop regardless of where it's hosted.

The host-specific ones first:



DaWanda Shop Directory Links is a comprehensive listing of DaWanda shops by category. In addition to a place in their listing, by signing up you'll also get featured in a blog post.

Buried Treasury is for all those who feel buried under all the things you find on Etsy -- it's a directory which features your Etsy Mini. Buried Treasury breaks its listings down into categories to make finding things easier as well.

And now the rest:



Shoparama Marketplace is a huge directory of shops all over the web -- again, divided into categories for easier shopping. It also allows users to rank shops, so you get a better idea of what other people liked and didn't.



The Hand Made Product Directory, in addition to the directory itself, also provides lots of advertising opportunities -- but more about the advertising later. :)



For those concerned about the environment, Green Shopping gives a list of green and green-related sites to shop at.



Another Handcrafted Shopping Network here. Again, you can rank the shops.



I'm also in the Naturally Boulder directory -- this only applies to those in my local area but if you check around you may find something similar where you live.

I know there are more out there -- these are only the ones I've found. Simply typing 'craft directory' into Google will get you a lot, though you have to sort through them yourself to find out which are really worth it. Any more you've found useful?

I'll note (to continue the descriptions discussion from my last post) that writing the little blurb to go with the link to your shop is very important. Most directories only allow a line or two (and you don't want it longer than that anyway) so you've got to get a lot of punch into a little space. Again, I can't offer a lot of advice on how to do that -- I'm still working on it myself! So any tips you have on how to do that would be welcome.

Next up, blogs and mailing lists.