Shop Talk Friday: Project Wonderful

Kristen, from FirebirdHouse.etsy.com, has some tips and tricks for getting your advertising feet wet.

I want to Advertise. Now what?

When it comes to deciding where and how you promote/market your shop, do you find yourself lost in a maze of blogs, sites, and complicated information?

If so, take heart. Deciding where to put your promotional efforts, ads, and budget really only requires some good information, a little common sense, and occasional trial and error.

Decisions, Decisions

The Internet can be a lot like a circus, where there is something going on anywhere you look, and all the activities look equally promising and fun. If you have ever been to a three-ring circus, however, and had so much trouble deciding which ring to watch that you ended up only getting bits and pieces of all three, you know that trying to do it all just means you end up scattered.

So let’s start with a good place to begin advertising on the Internet:


Project Wonderful (PW) is an unusual and inventive way of providing ad space to people for what the demand cost actually is, by setting up an auction. If there is no demand or it is small, your cost is equally small, while ads on pages with much larger page views and visitors will cost you more, but only up to what you are willing to spend. This is a great way to spend what you can AND maximize the effectiveness of a smaller budget. They provide excellent stats that are easy to understand, will walk you through the process, and have a lot of help available. It’s a great way to get your feet wet.

Here’s how it works:

You, as the advertiser, bid on advertising slots on websites, which you can choose and target to your needs and to your customer base. If you’re the highest bidder, your ad will appear until someone outbids you. It’s that simple. Your ads can appear immediately, or you can schedule them to appear on a specific date. You set the amount by telling PW how much you want to pay per day to appear on that site.

For example, if you say you want to pay a $1.00 a day for a week, your total cost will be $7.00 max. If someone bids higher, you have the option to raise your amount per day and bid again. It’s all within your control. Since you pay by the day and not per click, you don’t have to worry about fake clicks and fraud.

PW’s powerful search engine can help you find the perfect match for reaching your customers, and you can also set up Ad Alerts, which can tell you immediately if a space you want to advertise on becomes available. They provide extensive data, allow you to compare, see bidding trends for sites, and more. All you need to make really good decisions is right there and easy to read.

You can also set up Google Analytics to track your PW ads by configuring a correct URL that Analytics will read.

Remember: You maximize your advertising dollars by placing ads on sites which reach the maximum number of potential customers for your shop for the least amount of money.

Other good sources of information include:

• Project Wonderful’s blog.
• handmade-business.blogspot.com: ETT team member Sheryl Westleigh’s (noadi.etsy.com) excellent blog on the handmade business.
• etsymarketing.org for great marketing tips, articles, and practical suggestions.

So go over to the Project Wonderful website, read through the ins and outs, then dive in. Got questions? Let us know here on the blog and we’ll be glad to help!