The Commonplace Spring Showcase is now gracing our home page. It has a sampling of new Places that contain unique Items from around the country. Take a look and see how people are using Commonplace as their shop’s online display window.

The Etsy community is an early adopter of Commonplace. Etsy shop owners are embracing Places as smart way to engage shoppers and bring them back to their shops on Etsy.com.

You’ll also find Items from eBay, Cafepress, 1stdibs and other nooks and crannies of the Internet brought to you by people from other marketplaces.

The Spring Showcase highlights:

• Fab 4 All things Fab 4
• Vested Gentress The Collected Conversational Prints
• Furry Relatives Collector of all things simian
• Lisa Witmer Collection Vintage Jewlery and Accessories
• A Place for Spirituality Yoga, spirituality and self-help

Clickthrough and check out all the new Places on Commonplace.

We’re happy to say that Commonplace is open to the public. We’ve dropped the invitation only stuff and are now focused on listening to and growing the community. It’s a big milestone for us and we want to mark the occasion.

We’re celebrating our launch with the first ever Commonplace Showcase. It’s our way of saying thanks to our earliest Place curators. The Showcase will be part of Commonplace’s Home page so it’ll raise your visibility and visitors.

The rules are simple. All Places launched by March 1, 2011 will be considered for the premiere Commonplace Showcase. 5 Places will be chosen based on the quality of the items, the presentation and cover. We’re looking for the most intriguing Places. If selected, your Place thumbnail will be on our Home page for the month of March. Since the thumbnail links to your Place, you’ll get more visibility and visitors.

So, spruce up your current Place or launch something new. This is a great opportunity to hype your Place. Show off your best stuff and may the best Places win.

Most of the first wave of commonplace members comes from the Etsy community. They were the first to learn about making Places to show off their wares. We’d like to give all of them a tip of the hat and highlight a few Items from our newest members. Check it out.

Click Enter Now to go inside the Place below. If you see something interesting, click the Item and then click the Info link. You’ll see a description of the Item and a link to where you can find it online.

Browse the Place to see one of a kind items from:

Clippididoodah Hairclips
2K Studio
Kit ‘n Kaboodle
Barbara Giles Jewelry
aroluna artisan jewelry
Soulo Decor
Aire Trashion
YokaiJohn
retrohome
CPLIGHTING
Vintage Script Press
Kitty in Pinx
Calaveras Apparel
Erin Kane Homemade Necklaces
Gioielli Designs
vividcolors

Visit the full-sized Member Showcase on commonplace.com to see how birds of a feather flock together over the things they love. A big thanks to all of our early adopters!

We joined Etsy’s developer community a while ago because we love Etsy and saw a real opportunity to help Etsy shop owners build communities around their shops. By creating visually rich Places with real time chat and messaging, shop owners use commonplace to acquire prospects, nurture customers and build repeat business. And since Places can be embedded in websites or on blogs cool Etsy shops can pop up almost anywhere, extending their reach and growing their fans.

Here a few of the first Places from Etsy shop owners.

Tootlewear

Knit and Kaboodle

Earth’s Song Jewlery

We’re a community of collectors, curators, designers and culture mavens — who love to show off our favorite products, collections or brands. We’re looking for individual and business enthusiasts to participate in our closed beta. If you’re interested in joining our community then request an invitation today.