{Holiday Gift Guide — sponsor edition}

The handmade community is such a gorgeous community,

which makes shopping {for others & ourselves} that much more fun! Many people have made the commitment to buy handmade this holiday season {and throughout the year as well} — this Gift Guide is a great reference for such commitments.

This November 1st – 3rd, the Gussy blog will be hosting a 3-day Gift Guide and will highlight products from multiple handmade shops {details on how to include your shop are below}. I can hardly wait — it’s going to be a magical event.

Inside the 3-day Gift Guide feature you’ll find ideas for guys, gals + kiddies — wonderful, unique, handmade wares that cover all price categories.

Two ways you can participate —

As a Shopper:

• Come on over November 1st – 3rd to see the 3-day Gift Guide. Each day will focus on a different product category
• Add a Gift Guide button to your blog to spread the word {see below for the code}

As a participating Sponsor:

• Your shop will be highlighted from October 15 – December 15 with a large sponsor ad in the right sidebar. This ad surrounds the 3-day Gift Guide feature {scheduled to run Nov. 1-3} and, of course, leads up to Christmas
• Each shop will have 1 item showcased in the Gift Guide. Each item showcased will also be partnered with a photo, description, price, and link back to the featured product
• To submit your shop to the Gift Guide, please click here to complete the sign-up form
• Cost: $150 for a 60-day large ad during a peak traffic season, billed via PayPal
• The deadline to sign up for the Gift Guide is Monday, October 4th
• Add a Gift Guide button to your blog {see below for the code}

As a Gift Guide sponsor…

• You’ll receive all traditional sponsor promotions: frequent links to shop URL, frequent tweets about your shop, and the opportunity to participate in an optional monthly feature/giveaway
• You’ll also receive the following Gift Guide sponsor benefits: a large 60-day ad in the right sidebar; a place in the Gift Guide, along with links to each of the 3 gift guides
• Your shop will benefit from the Gussy blog traffic — we currently receive 51,000+ page views a month with increasing traffic occurring each week
• Your shop will be promoted to our 2,500+ twitter friends

The exposure that I have received from Gussy has helped my business more than double in the last few months. The first day that Gussy tweeted about me, I had over 1,000 views in my shop, the most I had ever had in one day. Gussy’s blog is consistently one of my highest ranked referrals, with about 7% of my traffic coming from her site. I get many customers saying that they heard about me through Gussy’s blog, or one of her tweets, or a reference she made on Facebook. She utilizes every aspect of social media that she can, and is extremely generous in helping to spread the word about her sponsors’ businesses. Finding Gussy was one of the best things that has happened to my business!
~ Emmy, Much Ado About You

Handmade products we’d like to promote in the Gift Guide:

• jewelry
• creative art {paintings, illustrations}
• clothing
• accessories
• home decor: candles, knit items, wall art, etc.
• organizational items

Another handmade business owner’s experience working with Gussy —

I never knew the power of advertising online until I found Gussy Sews. Or until it found me, I suppose. After my sister recommended a pair of earrings to Gussy on Twitter, she promptly ordered them. Once she received her package, she tweeted and blogged about them right away as a product that she recommends to her readers. The positive response to my shop (and in particular, my earrings) was incredible as a result of her recommendation. The day she blogged about the earrings, I receive 15 orders of the exact same earrings, and by the end of the week that had nearly doubled. Not to mention the immediate increase in blog and twitter followers. While I can’t track whether the sales came directly from her, I can track the increased traffic that her link brought me. Gussy’s readers value her opinions and her taste, and the numbers prove it. I can’t say enough about what her promotion of my product has done for my business!
~ Jessica, Allora Handmade

The Gussy blog loves to promote handmade, small business’. Our motto: Let’s share with the world our love for and knowledge of handmade items.

If you’ve got a shop that you’d like to have included, please click over & fill out this form.

The deadline to sign-up is Monday, October 4.