This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up friends, listeners, community? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Today I have an answer question from a listener wondering about a new online marketplace. Now this online marketplace is called Go Imagine.
It's a special kind of marketplace that donates profits to charity. It's kind of meant to be like Etsy, I believe, but with profits going to charity. And of course you can still sell things there. It's just that the platform is donating their profits to charity. Now this listener is getting attention from her Pinterest pins and wants to know where to direct that traffic.
Should she send it to the new marketplace or somewhere classic like Etsy? Now of course, platforms, social networks, marketplaces and so on, they come and go all the time. I always try to make this show in a way that is helpful or at least potentially helpful to people long after the time that it's aired. So you could be listening to this in the future and this marketplace might not exist or some other marketplace or something else has changed. So what is the bigger picture?
How do you decide, not just in a specific example, but how do you decide if you have traffic coming to it, particular source and you want to send it somewhere else where you're selling a product or selling a service, how do you then make that determination? Like if you only have one link, where do you place that link? What is the best possible scenario for you, et cetera? So in this case, the question is where should I direct my Pinterest traffic? We'll talk about that in just a moment.
Stay tuned. [Music]
Hi, Chris, I'm Kim from Pennsylvania. I discovered the podcast a couple months ago and I've spent every morning since with you. I will look forward to the 15 minutes of motivation on my commute and I've learned a lot. So thank you.
I'm hoping you can help me start today with a little insight. My goal for the new year is to increase traffic to my business through social media. I've chosen to start by focusing on Pinterest, but I'm not sure how to best direct my efforts. I have an established Etsy shop that does well. And I also just began listing my items on a new online marketplace, goimagine.com.
I have high hopes for the new site. I love its concept. It's a caring marketplace that donates its profits to charity. I really think it's gonna grow, but it's just not there yet. Since I can only add one URL to each pin, which site would you advise I drive traffic to?
Etsy or Go Imagine? Or should I split my attention to Trina? Thank you. I really value your opinion and I would appreciate your help with this. Thanks.
- Thank you so much, Kim. I'm so glad you're out there. I really value your opinion too. But as for mine, in this case, I think it's all Etsy basically. I think if you want to sell in this situation, make it Etsy because I'm not super familiar with this new platform.
I too hope it grows, but it's definitely not there yet, as you said. And I don't think it's actually gonna grow without a lot of support. Like I was just taking a quick look and like on their Instagram, for example, they have less than a thousand followers at the time I'm making this episode. Maybe in the future, they'll have more, but just by comparison, Etsy has 1.7 million followers. And it all comes down to your goals, of course.
Like if your goal is to support this new platform, you really believe in its vision, then maybe that's one thing. But if you're really wondering what is the best thing for you, like what is most effective, most optimal for you, then to me, it seems pretty clear. You go with the established market leader because that's where the people are. And ultimately, that's what matters most. It's not what is this platform versus that platform.
It's where are my people? Like where are my people hanging out? That's where I need to be if I'm trying to sell something. I do have one other suggestion though, when it comes to placing links or URLs, and you're like, I can only have one link, do I split the difference? What if it changes over time?
Well, I don't think you should split the difference, but one thing that could help is using a custom URL where you can change the destination. So there are lots of services like Bitly, which is a URL shortener. So if you just go to bit.ly, B-I-T dot L-Y, that allows you to put in your webpage. It will give you a custom short link. And then later, if for some reason, you actually want to send the traffic somewhere else, you can just adjust that in Bitly.
You don't actually have to go back to all of your Pinterest pins. They also allow you to personalize it if you want to pay for the service, but I think without paying, you can still use just a basic version of it. There are other services like that as well. It's just a link shortener, as I said. So consider that.
It also gives you some tracking information, which might be helpful over time. So that's my two cents. I do hope the new platform takes off, but since it's not there yet, my suggestion to Kim is, again, go where the market is. All right, listeners, if you've got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. Every single day, new episodes, stories, tips, more questions and answers, ongoing dialogue throughout the year as people launch their projects, grow their projects.
I'm excited to hear what happens, and I hope you'll continue to join me. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
