[PiratePixieCrew]

I know that, in general, getting customers to our shops is our own responsibility, but to grow more of a community spirit here I think it would be a nice idea if we borrow an idea from a lovely lady called Picard over on Artfire and start a Coriandr Promotions Train.

So what is a promotions train?

People sign up to be part of the train and everyone who signs up gets to be a VIP on the train for a set number of days. For those days everyone riding on the train spends a little time each day promoting goods from the VIP's shop by either twittering, blogging, putting Ad's on Project Wonderful, facebook, adding peoples seedlings to your blog... anything you can think of really as long as you get their name out there and noticed.

Basically it will only work if the people that decide to join in do their utmost to join in and promote their little socks off for every VIP on the train. I have been on the train over on Artfire for a while and my VIP days improved my studio views by about 10 fold and I gained 1 direct sale on the days and other commission sales off Artfire.

This will benefit all of us by bringing more people onto the Coriandr site, many of which would be completely new people to the site. We need to get proactive and get this site talked about. The more people we bring to Coriandr the more chances we all have to make sales, so the more of a buzz we create about it the better. Let's get Coriandr stamped firmly on the map of Handmade sell through sites. We have a beautiful looking site here(thank you Mathew!). Lets get other people seeing it.

Do you want to do this? If you do, say so in this thread. I will be willing to do the organisation of running the train if you all are willing to put the effort in to keeping the train steaming ahead.

[digtheearth]

I think that's a great idea. Count me in 

[Jewellerymydesign]

I just joined today and I am up for the train journey!

[juliemillsdesign]

Hey this is a great idea, but I don't have a blog.  Have just about everything else though..  How often would I have to do it as I work full time so don't get too much spare time, but would be happy to try it:)

[Kitty Ballistic]

I'm in!  Can we have a promotion train checklist to follow?

[PiratePixieCrew]

Basically once we get 20 or so people signed up I will write out a list in order of sign up and I will put together a list with the shop name, web address, seedling code, RSS feed etc for each shop involved and I will give dates for when to promote each person.

If each person on the train does a little promotion of some sort each day for the VIP it will work best. If you are a person with little time to spare each day, maybe you could add the VIP to Twitterfeed, so that if they list items in their shop, you're Twitter account tweets about it, or you could add their seedling to a blog, or a networking site you belong to. There are lots of quick and simple solutions now days for those that are very busy.

Just remember that whatever work you put in on other peoples promotion you will get back 20 fold from all the other train riders when it is your time to be the VIP.

[Creativesque]

I'm in too please.  I'm excited at the prospect of added exposure for Coriandr as a place to find quality handmade items and collaborating on a project with everyone.  This should really boost the community spirit here too! Can't wait.

[juliemillsdesign]

ok im sold! maybe i'll learn a few things on the way..!
thanx for organising it all:)

[PiratePixieCrew]

Right, so we have a few takers. We need to get more people on board, so ask around your friends on Coriandr if they'd like to join in. Or if you have friends that hand make that aren't selling on Coriandr yet tell them about this and if they join up and set up a shop we can give them a great boost to their new shop.

Once we have enough people I'll set up the list.

If we end up with a huge number of people joining in I might break it up into smaller trains, just so it doesn't get too confusing for people.

[Tiny Pretty Things]

I'm so up for it - though I'm not free to do anything hugely time consuming for the next month or so D: So put me last!

[PiratePixieCrew]

TPT the place you are put on the list doesn't really matter, because the whole train depends on everyone spending a little bit of time each day promoting whoever is the VIP at the time.

I will try and make this take as little time as possible by furnishing you all with all the shop links, seedling codes and shop details for each passenger on the train and give you the dates these people are to be promoted. This will mean that you can set up the promotion in advance if you wish by using blog scheduling tools, Twitterfeed etc. I will also be asking passengers to write a short bio of how they got into their craft, so that blog writers can post it and then add photos of goods they like from that person. It will be pretty much like an instant blog post for everyone to use, thus cutting down the time it takes to promote.

I will also create spotlights for all the passengers on byhand.me. These can be linked to and posted to blogs and are somewhat like seedlings, but have larger photos and once made will stay on the byhand.me site for all members to see.

I think I need to stress that this will only work if every person on the train promotes each other with as much zeal as they would hope the other passengers will promote him/her self.

Joining in with this will end up with your shop and your goods being promoted in many places at once. It will get your name, brand and goods linked to all over the place, increasing your visibility on line. This will far outlast just the days you are the VIP.

I'll start collecting information from those of you that have already agreed to join in this week and hopefully within a week/fortnight, we will be able to get started.

[nicsknots]

This sounds like a great idea. I am new to Coriandr but sell on other shops (folksy, misi and etsy) and would love to promote my (and everyone elses) coriandr shops. Count me in, please

[PiratePixieCrew]

Welcome aboard!
We still need more people so if you know other sellers that can benefit from joining the Train please let them know to sign up here.

[mrs.toad.designs]

This sounds like a great idea! I'd like to be involved too please

[PiratePixieCrew]

Ok, so I've started to write up the list and draw up a table of info to send out to all the train riders with the details of everyone involved, but I need some info from each of you to put on the table

If you could each email me with these details I would be grateful. If you do not have a facebook, twitter, blog or plurk account just leave it blank.

Shop name:
Shop Url:
Shop RSS Feed:
Facebook Fan page:
Twitter:
Plurk:
Blog URL:
Mini Bio: (please write a short paragraph bio about yourself that people can use on their blog on your days for promotion)

Please email the details to


Once the list is complete I will set dates and send a copy by return email to all of you that join in.

Thank you!