Ok I’ve been at this for 2 years,
I’m really struggling to find how to get shown, featured or honestly even who or how to contact people.
I mean in blogs, gift guides etc and not necessarily just on folksy but in general.
Am I being dense or is it actually this difficult?
Have you ever done the monthly challenge here, do you post in the forums?
Do you interact with promotion groups on Instagram? These are ways of getting seen and finding out about events that will be happening up to Christmas
Hope this helps if you aren’t already do them
The gift guides are chosen by Folksy staff - I have never had anything in those either!!! As a Folksy plus member you could tag items for the Christmas Craft Drop which would then get a turn on the front page. But as has already been said, the Daily Challenge thread is a good way to get known and to get to know other sellers. It takes commitment and a bit of time each day.
Can I make a suggestion.
Take a look at your SM links on your shop front.
Instagram. Goes nowhere.
Facebook. Goes nowhere
blog. Goes to your own very much a shop site and you need to remove it.
Xx
I’ve done a few, I’ve done the collage share things etc. I find instagram confusing honestly.
I’ve swapped them out now thank you for that, I’d didn’t realise I’d added the short form links and they don’t work
Great ty 
il get on that
Folksy favourites etc are exactly that - chosen by Folksy staffers. I know there’s only a few of them, but I expect each of them approach it in their own unique way, and choose what appeals to them at that particular moment. I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. The trick is to be noticed. How that happens is again, a bit of a mystery but I expect participating on the site through the challenges and promotions etc, and via the forum, would be a good start.
Excellent photographs and keeping up to date with what they’re currently featuring is a good move. For example, at one point the best way to show your items and be featured was on a clean, white (aka stark) background, and that was almost universal. We’ve now moved to “lifestyle” type shots with props, which 6 or 7 years ago wouldn’t have stood a chance. How do your photos and listings compare to what’s being featured now? We’re a visual site (although you absolutely need the listing information to be detailed and factual too), so the presentation of both your shop front and individual listings is essential.
You need to remove your Blog link.
It is against Folksy rules to link to your shop
A very good question, something I’ve been pondering about myself? Can I ask is the daily challenge difficult? I started to read about it but got the impression that you need a lot of stock to participate 
Yes I’ve just reread the rules to participate, so as a daily challenge does that mean I’d need at least 30 items in my shop?
It certainly isn’t difficult. It takes a bit of time each day, but as I dip in and out of the forum several times a day anyway, I just catch up each time. Even months when I am not participating in the Daily challenge I always read that thread anyway! It can be good fun, and everyone is very friendly and also very supportive when life has its difficulties. It is a great way to get to know fellow sellers, and the lovely things they make, and hopefully for them to get to know yours.
As for number of items - ideally for a whole month you would need 30 or so, you have more than that in your shop so could easily list something new every day for a month. You can join part way through a month if you have less. I really struggle to produce new things quick enough as it takes me several weeks to make something, so I only join in the challenge occassionally, and then I worry that I bore people with repeats too often! But no one seems to mind. I recommend you give it a go!
Instagram is easy once you get used to it.. I thought it was scary at first but now it’s ok and good for interacting with other crafters and people browsing
Maybe it’s to help us get listings up, like if you need a new one each day.. maybe it counts for re listed items also. I’m not sure
Thank you Liz @samazama , you know as I’m partially incapacitated right now I think I might just give it a try 
thank you also for your encouragement 
There’s a whole lot of useful info on the Folksy blog - but this piece (below) is all about how to get onto the Folksy favourites, gift guides and featured maker.
Thank you Alison, a very informative blog… a question regarding folksy Friday? After you’ve posted your collage how do you notify sellers that you have mentioned them? Do you just send a message through the contact info at their shop? A silly question but do you include an item from your own shop too?
What a learning curve folksy is and has been, up until I opened my shop a couple of months ago I hadn’t even used social media 
.. I’m still getting lost but I’m taking it one step at a time… I have to say that I feel quite proud of myself as I’m a hands on kinda person not a tech savvy person 
but I’m getting there with everyone’s help on folksy…thank you all
It’s probably easiest to tag them in the social media post that you’ve made so that they know they’ve been included. Also if your putting it in the forum, you can tag the forum post with their usernames. Oh and generally, yes - include one of your own items too. X
I know I don’t interact with people that much as I find it difficult to know what to say, and the same goes for putting myself out there. I feel I need quite a bit of hand holding - I don’t like to say that but it’s true. I feel I have to try one thing at a time and even that is hard to know if you are going in the right direction and doing the right thing. I really don’t mean to be a burden on people like always asking for advice, so I try to work in out and then get overwhelmed and put off doing the task. I really hate this side of me and I want to be able to do each task well without going wrong and there’s the problem, I wish I could just relax a little about it all, but whatever I do, it means so much! Errrr rant over sorry 
I suffer with overwhelm too, it’s a horrible thing and it’s so easy to just give up, but, I’ve found that if I break things down into tiny steps and literally do just one step, if that goes ok then into the next etc etc, if things go wrong then I say to myself ‘what’s the worse that can happen’ answer nothing bad, not really, so I’ll go back and try again. I also find tech stuff horrible and confusing, I don’t want to spend all my time bent over a laptop or iPad but if you want to get anywhere these days it’s a necessary evil, there are some really lovely folk on Instagram who can give helpful info on how it all works, not sure I can say who here? But happy to pm you with info if you’d like it, saying all that my Instagram is sadly lacking on all fronts, but, my artwork is mainly my sanctuary if you like so if other people don’t like it I’m really not too worried. I don’t know anything about Fb except I don’t like it so don’t really use it.
Sorry I’ve properly waffled on.
I always think your instagram posts are great Lynn, I have yet to start on videos, i either click new post or reel and just add photos to them, I don’t like the idea of being in a video but keep thinking I should take some of my hands whilst working but I get too busy and think about it afterwards as I just don’t have time to spend on it.
My most commented on post was the one with the photos of my new craft room.
I get very behind on Facebook, I only remember to pop across once or twice a week. Nowadays socials are taken up with AI reels, its changed such a lot since I joined.
I only know the basics on IG and don’t even know how people add different text to each photo in a reel, might have to look that one up