When you're a Jet!

JET Jewelry On Etsy Team

 

What is Etsy? 

The site was launched on June 18, 2005 by iospace. 

Etsy has grown significantly to tens of thousands of sellers and five times that in buyer accounts.  Etsy passed $1.7M in sales in May 2007.    On July 29, Etsy had its one-millionth sale and anticipated its two-millionth sale would occur mid-December 2007.   In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy.

Reportedly in May 2009, Etsy had approximately 60 employees and sales of $10 to 13 million per month possibly boosted by consumer interest in cheaper and more personalized goods. 

Etsy is popular as a side-business as well as a place to buy goods made from recycled and upcycled materials along with less expensive or more unusual versions of mass-produced items. The unique nature of many of the items for sale is part of their appeal to some shoppers.  ETSY on the web 

What are Etsy Teams?

Etsy Teams are groups of organized Etsy members who network, share skills, and promote their shops and Etsy together. A Team forms around a shared location, crafting medium, or another interest.
Etsy's 450+ Teams make us not just a marketplace of individuals, but an interconnected and diverse artistic community.
Teams are Etsy’s biggest and most creative grassroots engine for support, networking and marketing – for each team member’s shop, for the Teams themselves, and for Etsy as a whole. 

Glitz Glitter Creations joined the JET's  (Jewelry on Etsy team)  last week. 

So, how did our 1st week go?

Great!

What we found was a very generous group of approx. 100 members, (25 or more who are very active) that gather in the virtual world from across the United States to support, promote and lend a hand to each other.  They are very aware of their "newbies", which is how Glitz Glitter's fresh status is described.   

We were thrust into their public eye as each JET member welcomed us into the fold.  They visited our site, left nice feedback, made a special trip to see our treasuries and left wonderful comments there as well.  By the end of the week, we began to wonder, just how had we managed without a team until now?


Everything we had been told about teams made us Leary at first.  There is a lot of work involved in being a good team member.  The list that you are sent when you first apply, is quite overwhelming.  Meetings need to be attended.  Doing the visiting and the commenting for others, can take up a good chunk of your own time when Etsying is a part-time job.  Being aware of who members are and keeping track of their progress, as well as your own can involve hours away from the family.  

Yet, we all want to succeed and that is what the group goal strives to do.


Before the JETs, we belonged to a support group and still do.  We meet regularly with a wonderful group of individuals on twitter.  

How it all came about is actually hard to say.  One person mentioned an item they were selling and then another person commented on that item.  Someone asked a question and another 2 or 3 folks quickly posted an answer or a link to an answer.  Someone shouted out, " I am beat" and someone else consoled them.  Suddenly we were meeting daily.  

We all have shops on Etsy and the shops are as different as the folks in our group.  One person sells their knitted wares, another their pottery and a 3rd, kitty collars.  We have photographers, screen printers, soap makers and card crafters in our group.  Some of us work full time jobs and sell on Etsy, others do it for a living.


If someone lists a new item, the others rush to see it and to view the amazing treasuries we create from items picked from our various shops.  We encourage our few who have not hit the 10 or 25 mark in sales and we congratulate those that have passed 100 sales.  We talk about meeting (in the real world).  We tell each other our secrets, our fantasies and we share our dreams.

Today, someone might be missing, maybe they are too busy to stop by.  Perhaps they have had a rough day and can't find the time to sit down and "tweet" or to tell us "what happened".   As a group we remark on their absence and wonder a bit and maybe even worry too!


Not sure you could actually call us an Etsy team, but don't tell any of us that.  Them's fightin words.  We welcome new folks who just stop by and we say goodbye to those who move on but we have a core as well and we're always open to meetin and greetin new folks.


It would never enter our minds to substitute one group for the other.  We've been through too much together and anticipate moving through the next wave, our virtual arms hugging one another, as we do.


Lonely, felling alienated, unrooted anywhere or nowhere.... just twitter Glitz-Glitter or BeadFrenZ and chime in.... 

You are always welcome.