Selling your crafts online gives you millions upon millions of places and opportunities to market your crafts. Amongst those millions, although, will be a
line of competition that you will have to wait in. Creating and selling handmade crafts can be a rewarding part time, and even full time job, but trying to find that special market to break into, can be a difficult task.
Being a crafter myself, I browse the internet on a weekly basis, trying to find places to sell my crafts. It takes a lot of patience and time to create my jewelry, and
then it takes even more time trying to figure out where to sell it at. Once a crafter/artisan has established him/herself somewhere, then the whole art of creating crafts becomes more enjoyable. One of the main goals of an artisan is to have more time to create then to have to deal with the whole selling and marketing process.
For those on a budget, a great place to start out is www.etsy.com. This is somewhat like Ebay, where you have the product listings; the name of the seller, and you can even visit the mini store of the artisan. But that is where the similarities end between the two. Etsy is an online catalog of nothing but handmade products. From clothing to jewelry, from home decorations, toys, soaps, and woodcrafts, there are all kinds of crafts that you can browse through and purchase. If you were looking for a place to find an original gift or a place to sell your original craft product, Etsy would be the place to list it at. Listings only start out at just
10 cents each, and you get to keep all of your earnings. Once your product sells, you collect the money, and ship your item to the customer. It’s an easy process and very affordable. You even receive your own link at Etsy so that you can promote your shop and products. If you are new to the internet, then Etsy is a great starter place.
If you don’t mind paying a little bit more for your listings, then check out theArtisans Market at http://www.artisansmarket.com/ArtistsWanted.asp.
At this website, they give you a free 60 day trial period where you can try out their website to get a chance to see if this particular online market would work for you. The process is fairly simple if you have some internet experience. You upload your photos, type in your product descriptions and set your prices, and then you are ready to go. Once you receive an order,Artisans Market lets you know through email, and then you ship your product. They give you all of the necessary shipping and order information so that you don’t have to deal with the hassle. Artisan’s Market pays you 80% of your gross total sales at the end of each month.
I would recommend somebody who has a little more experience, and perhaps a little more extra money for their business to list here. For those starting out, unless you have money put back, it’s possible that you might lose out on money at the beginning if you have to pay to ship your items to your customers and wait until the end of the month to be paid back. So if you don’t mind paying, and you don’t mind waiting till the end of the month to receive your compensation, then this would also be a good place to list your crafts as well.
One online market that is one of the original online craft catalogs is the Handmade Catalog: http://www.handmadecatalog.com/. They began in 2002 and has been going strong ever since. They have a selection of packages that you can choose from depending on your budget and business type. The most affordable package that they offer is one that costs only $4.95/month or $40/year. Y ou get to list up to 50 of your products and Handmade Catalog takes up to 15% commission on what you sell.
The benefits at Handmade Catalog, is that once a product sells, they compensate you, and then you ship your item to the customer. That way you won’t lose out on money to pay for the shipping of your items and there is no waiting game to receive compensation. If you want to take their standard package and pay $7.95/month or $60/year,they only take 10% commission. They also offer a professional package for a little more cost, but again, if you were a beginner, the basis and standard packages would be wonderful starter packages for you and your new craft business.They take care of all of your orders, and all you do is upload your pictures, type the descriptions, set your sale price and shipping price, and everything is set to go. Handmade Catalog has made it’s presence on the web by being listed in all of the top search engines as well asmaking all of the products on their website available at froogle.com as well. This would be definitely a place to look into if you are looking for a “home” for your products.
Ebay.com is also a good place to sell your crafts and products. Ebay is full of buyers and sellers looking to get their hands on a good deal or an original gift. The only downfall here is you may pay a little more for listing fees, and there is fierce competition! While Ebay has millions of visitors daily, you still must market yourself and your auctions. Start a newsletter or even a blog tolist all of your auctions. Ebay also gives you the opportunity to open your own sale for a monthly price as well. It depends on the type of package and how many products you plan on selling. The basic store price begins at about $15.95/month. Ebay works wonders for some, while others,it may take some time to become an established seller. It’s all about customer service and the kinds of products you sell.
If it’s something different and completely original, and you have developed a good customer base, then your business could build at Ebay.
If you still aren’t sold on the whole idea of listing your crafts on somebody else’s website and letting them take care of the selling process or if you’d rather do your own personal marketing, then building your own website or blog would be the next step.There are so many web- hosting and domain companies out there, that it is easy to be “taken” by these large companies wanting your business. Personally, for my jewelry company, I like to use www.godaddy.com. Most of their domains only start out at just $8/year, and I have never had any problems with any of their services. They are low cost, andthe customer service is just wonderful. Also, as a beginner, I like to find free web hosting wherever I can find it as long as there aren’t a lot of pop ups or banners within my website.
One great place that offers free hosting is www.netfirms.com. They offer a free web-hosting package that has 25MB of free space, a free email account, customer service through email,Front Page and Pearl, 24/7 FTP access, and 1 GB of monthly transfer. They only display one banner at the top of your website. If you’d rather not have a banner on your website,then they also have affordable web hosting packages as well. For almost the past 2 years, both of these services have been easy to use and affordable for my budget.
Once you have found your “home” on the internet for your crafts-whether it be your own personal website, or selling somewhere else, it’s always a good thing to
have a business card! This is wonderful self promotion-and easy too! Hand them out to your friends, co-workers, people you meet at parties, in the store, etc. As this article suggests-websites that have affordable prices is the key-so an affordable place to order your business cards is VistaPrint.com. They have free offers all the time for free business cards, address labels, postcards, and all types of their services. You can check them out at: www.vistaprint.com or google them for VistaPrint: 250 Free Business Cards. Quite often, they have several specials going on. I have always ordered my business cards from them, and once in a great while,they have sent me free products such as magnets just for being a great customer! This is a company that you just can’t lose with and it’s wonderful for those on a shoestring budget with their beginning businesses.
As said in the beginning, there is a world of opportunities on the internet to sell your crafts and begin your business, but an individual just needs a helping hand and an idea of where to begin his/her search. It may be a difficult task and the beginning, and take some time to become established, but in the end, it will all pay off.
