A few weeks ago I wrote about ways to sell your crafts in stores and by word of mouth. Today we will talk about how to do it on line. I saw an ad in Paper Crafts Magazine today for a new site for crafters to sell there wares. It’s called shophandmade.com. It’s like etsy but they do not charge listing fees or commission, you get to keep 100% of what you make! How cool is that? I decided to play around and start my own store and you can check it out here. I’ve only got one thing up so far so don’t get too excited. I’ve been thinking of opening up an Etsy store for a while but hadn’t bothered because I figured it would be hard to make my work stand out among the thousands of other items there. That an the fact that I didn’t want to pay to list stuff that may not sell. The reason that the Shop Handmade store is free is because they will put an ad from Addicted to rubber stamps on your listing. I shop there and have has great experience with them so I don’t mind being associated with them.
Another way to market your art on line is through Cafe Press. They sell t-shirts, mugs, bags, books and CD’s with you artwork or content on them. This is ideal for me since I am a painter and getting prints made of my work is an investment which most artists do not recoup, let alone make a profit. With Cafe Press you put your images on t-shirts, mouse pads, calendars etc and if an item sells they pay you whatever markup you put on the item. A basic shop is free but you can upgrade to premium for $5 a month. Here is my little shop.
If you build it they will come…well not exactly.
You need to promote your shops, here are some ways to do it!
- Place a link to your shop in the signature of your emails, and in the signature of any message boards/forums/communities you are a part off.
- Direct e-mail: send out an email to friends and family when you are having a sale.
- Start a blog and promote your crafts there, just don’t forget to promote your blog too!
The bottom line is that you can start selling your crafts on line without spending a dime. Weather your goal is to earn enough to support your hobby or bring in an income, selling on line can help you make it happen!
Until next time Happy Crafting!
Lindsay
The Frugal Crafter Blog 