Etsy Teams

Etsy is a fantastic online marketplace for handmade crafts, but it turns out to be way more than that. It's a thriving community of people who do craftwork. Many of them are hobbyists who want a little side income from their work, and many are professional artists and craftsmen who are making a real living at it.

There are many features of Etsy that encourage community to develop. Adding other artists' work to your favorites sends them traffic while showing some of your personality to your shop's visitors. Treasuries are a more structured way to show off your personality and other people's work by grouping items together in a beautiful way. Circles act like the friend networks on social services like Facebook and Twitter. And then there are Teams.

Teams are groups of people working together. There are many reasons why people form teams - to support common causes, because they are near each other, because they engage in the same craft, and much more.

I've joined four teams so far. At this point, I don't want to overextend myself. What's the point of being on a team if I can't contribute meaningfully to the work that team is doing?

Here are the teams that I'm on:

Etsy Weavers - This team is quite active, discussing all kinds of things relevant to creating and selling handwoven items on Etsy. If you're a weaver who sells on Etsy, I'd recommend joining this team. There are a lot of great folks on it.

SASsy Critiques - Members of the Sellers Assisting Sellers Team (Mentors) answer specific questions to help you hone your shop. This seems like a great resource. I'm spending time reading their archives before I ask for help myself.

Etsy Weave Team - This team isn't very active right now, but I'll stick around a while and see what happens.

Rogue Valley, Oregon - This team is made up of people from the area where I live.