If you read my last post about the clutter in my life, this one is related. If you are an Etsy seller, then you probably know about the Etsy teams, and have an opinion on their usefulness. I wondered about their usefulness when I was a new seller, and as my shop(s) have evolved, have developed a more experience-based opinion.
First, my official team history: I joined the Boomers and Beyond initially, because I fit the demographic. Somehow, though, I never felt that I fit the team, and was not active, so I dropped that one pretty quickly. The second team I joined was the Georgia Street Team because I fit the geographical region. Up until yesterday, I still received the email digest from their yahoo group, but I have not been active, do not use their tag for my items, and don't make any treasuries from the group (nor am I in any).
The next 2 teams I joined (and this is not necessarily in chronological order, but more of an importance order) were the Etsy Bloggers, and Quiltsy. I was active in both to some degree. Quiltsy is a great team, and I think if you make quilts, I would highly recommend them. They are a wonderful group, and I even met a few of the ladies in October at the Quilt Show in Houston. They are also very chatty, and I found it hard to keep up on their thread, but I still have quilts in my Down the Street shop, and would still like to promote them. The quilts are just not my main focus at the moment, however, and my mom hasn't made any lately either. She tells me she'll have some "fresh" ones after Christmas. I haven't officially dropped out of Quiltsy, though I don't believe I've met their requirements recently, either, and I suspect they have dropped me.
That brings us to the Etsy Bloggers team. This is also a wonderful group, and they are very active. I long ago gave up on participating in their very chatty thread, but as the requirements are very specific, and blog related, I managed to (mostly) meet those, and did tag some items with the Etsy blogger tag. I only make treasuries periodically, but would often look through the Etsy blogger group for inspiration. Of their requirements, I almost always did the featured artist feature, and had the button on my blog. I also participated in most of the blog carnivals, or at least the one a month required, though one recent month all 4 possible topics left me quite uninspired. I've decided now, at this stage in my life, I surely can come up with topics to write about, and can feature artists that really touch me personally, so I'm ending my relationship with the Etsy Bloggers.
I have one more group that I am extremely active in, though it is an unofficial team. We've talked about becoming official, but we really like it the way we are now. We are positive and supportive, buy from each other and make treasuries for each other, and this holiday season even organized a sort of "secret Santa swap". If you're looking through the team threads, you can find this group with the search of "bittersweeets" (yes, with 3 e's).
This is the one I'm sticking with for the time being, in the reducing clutter in my life phase. I won't rule out other teams in the future, but I will definitely think long and hard about the fit before committing. If you have an opinion or experience on teams (and you've actually read this far), I'd love to hear about it.
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