Info on Websites

[Dave Monk]

I am interested on any info on websites that you are using........cost?...........ease of use?...........host?............sales? etc.

[Iguanadon]

Hi Dave, my website is thru Shopify.  Cost is $30 a month.  I had never done anything related to creating a website before and Shopify was very easy to setup and configure.  I only needed to have 1 call with them after I'd set everything up to have them review what I'd done to make sure I hadn't missed anything.  They were very helpful.

As far as sales... they are few and far between.  I have folks take dozens of my cards at each event, but there is very little follow-thru.  I have always said my puzzles are an impulse buy type item.  I am constantly asked "Do you have a website? Do you ship?", etc, etc but not much actually comes in.  But that's just me and as you know I'm a one-trick pony doing only puzzles.

Good luck!

Iggy

[amazingkevin]

3 hours ago, Iguanadon said:

Hi Dave, my website is thru Shopify.  Cost is $30 a month.  I had never done anything related to creating a website before and Shopify was very easy to setup and configure.  I only needed to have 1 call with them after I'd set everything up to have them review what I'd done to make sure I hadn't missed anything.  They were very helpful.

As far as sales... they are few and far between.  I have folks take dozens of my cards at each event, but there is very little follow-thru.  I have always said my puzzles are an impulse buy type item.  I am constantly asked "Do you have a website? Do you ship?", etc, etc but not much actually comes in.  But that's just me and as you know I'm a one-trick pony doing only puzzles.

Good luck!

Iggy

as a handyman for over 30 years cards never brought work but when i made flyers i hit it

[orangeman]

12 hours ago, Iguanadon said:

Hi Dave, my website is thru Shopify.  Cost is $30 a month.  I had never done anything related to creating a website before and Shopify was very easy to setup and configure.  I only needed to have 1 call with them after I'd set everything up to have them review what I'd done to make sure I hadn't missed anything.  They were very helpful.

As far as sales... they are few and far between.  I have folks take dozens of my cards at each event, but there is very little follow-thru.  I have always said my puzzles are an impulse buy type item.  I am constantly asked "Do you have a website? Do you ship?", etc, etc but not much actually comes in.  But that's just me and as you know I'm a one-trick pony doing only puzzles.

Good luck!

Iggy

Same drill here although I use Volusion @ $23/mo. Most sales are in Nov and Dec and almost 100% are from folks who bought my puzzles at craft fairs or picked up my business card.

Website sales pay for the cost of maintaining the website with very little profit.

I'm told you have to tinker with your SEO constantly to get more traffic. Professional SEO tinkerers cost big $$. Over half my traffic comes from foreign IP addresses, Russia,

China, France, New Zealand, etc.

bb

 

 

[kmmcrafts]

I've been in on this online selling since 2010.. that said though.. up until just 3 years ago I only tinkered around with selling and never really took it to a business level.. so in the first several years I did maybe 10 orders a year.. when I started trying I did about 50ish orders the first year.. second year was around 170 ish.. last year I had over 300 orders.. and so far this year is doubling + some.. All that said though.. my first year was hardly anything until Mid - Late October before the sales started trickling in. and even last year I think I only had about 40 orders though the year until October hit.. then it was crazy busy.. If this years trend keeps up and the busy holiday season hits harder than last year I'm in trouble.. I turned a lot of work away starting from about mid November on out..

I sell on Artfire Etsy,Zibbet, and a stand alone web site with indiemade.. was just invited to sell on amazon handmade site.. amazon is sort of supposedly Juried.. I applied there when they first opened up.. but they took forever to accept me and when they did I was slammed with work during the holidays.. I lost my pass code to the site.. they kept sending me messages asking why I am not setting up shop I kept telling them but they never sent me another code until a couple days ago..

On Artfire I had a locked in rate of $5.95 a month.. but they done a lot of changes and now it's $20 plus a % of sales.. They have some awesome selling tools but it's like having your own site so you need to bring in your own traffic.. I still have an account but I am not selling there anymore.. due to a lot of issues with the site working correctly etc after they had some employees leave and they just didn't know how to run the site.. (poor management )

Etsy is a listing fee and a % of sale.. get a fair amount of traffic.. but to start over knowing what I know now.. I'd probably have not got so involved with working the shop there.. Lot's of other scroll sawers there and most don't charge a rate to make money.. and the way etsy is set up.. they will show your competitions items on your page etc.. so if I work my butt of to bring in shoppers.. they could leave by seeing a cheaper similar item from another shop.. That said I do get a fair amount of business.. but to do over I would put more focus on my own site..

Zibbet.. basic accounts are cheap.. but traffic is quite limited so you have to bring in your own.. much like a site of your own... I get enough sales to pay the yearly bill.. however I been thinking of closing up that shop just because I want to put my focus on my own indiemade web site as it is a better system..

Indiemade has different tiered plans.. depending upon how many items you have.. I have the $19.95 one.. I do well on indiemade for only being there a year..

First thing to do if you decide to sell online is to get a domain name and get business cards with that domain on it send a card or two in every package you send out.. Most people start on a venue as I did and then branch off to their own site..    

Keeping up with SEO is a full time job+... LOL There is a lot to know about do's and don'ts of SEO and if you don't have a lot of time to invest.. your best off on etsy, artfire, or zibbet.. in my opinion.. Or.. spend big money advertising... to be found in searches.. Pictures of your products are very important for online selling.. if you have noise (clutter) in the background that distracts from your product or dark photos then it could mean the difference between a sale or a scroll on past.. I spent a lot of time with my camera and built a special photo booth light box to take my photos.. especially if your selling on a site like etsy where they show others items.. if someone lands on a page other than mine and they see my bright eye catching image they may say.. ooh that one looks awesome.. while the other item may be just as good of quality... my picture caught the attention.. 

Online selling can be a full time job if you want to make the effort and put in lots of hours.. I put in more than 40 hours a week between answering emails to tweaking SEO to working in the shop, packing orders, taking photos, working on web sites.. etc etc etc.. and I am only getting part time pay.. BUT.. it's nice to work my own hours.. and I am here at home for my family... I think too many people think they can just throw some pictures up on a site and the customers will just come rolling in.. to buy them.. and that is definitely not the case..  Also I think people think that lower prices will attract people.. It might to some extent.. but the more important thing is SEO and pictures.. because if nobody's finding your low price then nobody's going to buy it.. if pictures are bad many times you can't even give it away.. LOL.. 

That all said.. they say is takes a good 5 years for a business to get to a point of starting to make money.. I am three years in.. it's grown tremendously.. but if in 3-4 more years I'm not doing good I may throw in the towel and get a day job somewhere..  if it wasn't fun.. I'd have done that my first year..  

Sorry, didn't mean to write a book, LOL 

Kevin

 

 

  

 

 

 

[orangeman]

Kevin,

Excellent post!

bb

[hawkeye10]

12 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

I've been in on this online selling since 2010.. that said though.. up until just 3 years ago I only tinkered around with selling and never really took it to a business level.. so in the first several years I did maybe 10 orders a year.. when I started trying I did about 50ish orders the first year.. second year was around 170 ish.. last year I had over 300 orders.. and so far this year is doubling + some.. All that said though.. my first year was hardly anything until Mid - Late October before the sales started trickling in. and even last year I think I only had about 40 orders though the year until October hit.. then it was crazy busy.. If this years trend keeps up and the busy holiday season hits harder than last year I'm in trouble.. I turned a lot of work away starting from about mid November on out..

I sell on Artfire Etsy,Zibbet, and a stand alone web site with indiemade.. was just invited to sell on amazon handmade site.. amazon is sort of supposedly Juried.. I applied there when they first opened up.. but they took forever to accept me and when they did I was slammed with work during the holidays.. I lost my pass code to the site.. they kept sending me messages asking why I am not setting up shop I kept telling them but they never sent me another code until a couple days ago..

On Artfire I had a locked in rate of $5.95 a month.. but they done a lot of changes and now it's $20 plus a % of sales.. They have some awesome selling tools but it's like having your own site so you need to bring in your own traffic.. I still have an account but I am not selling there anymore.. due to a lot of issues with the site working correctly etc after they had some employees leave and they just didn't know how to run the site.. (poor management )

Etsy is a listing fee and a % of sale.. get a fair amount of traffic.. but to start over knowing what I know now.. I'd probably have not got so involved with working the shop there.. Lot's of other scroll sawers there and most don't charge a rate to make money.. and the way etsy is set up.. they will show your competitions items on your page etc.. so if I work my butt of to bring in shoppers.. they could leave by seeing a cheaper similar item from another shop.. That said I do get a fair amount of business.. but to do over I would put more focus on my own site..

Zibbet.. basic accounts are cheap.. but traffic is quite limited so you have to bring in your own.. much like a site of your own... I get enough sales to pay the yearly bill.. however I been thinking of closing up that shop just because I want to put my focus on my own indiemade web site as it is a better system..

Indiemade has different tiered plans.. depending upon how many items you have.. I have the $19.95 one.. I do well on indiemade for only being there a year..

First thing to do if you decide to sell online is to get a domain name and get business cards with that domain on it send a card or two in every package you send out.. Most people start on a venue as I did and then branch off to their own site..    

Keeping up with SEO is a full time job+... LOL There is a lot to know about do's and don'ts of SEO and if you don't have a lot of time to invest.. your best off on etsy, artfire, or zibbet.. in my opinion.. Or.. spend big money advertising... to be found in searches.. Pictures of your products are very important for online selling.. if you have noise (clutter) in the background that distracts from your product or dark photos then it could mean the difference between a sale or a scroll on past.. I spent a lot of time with my camera and built a special photo booth light box to take my photos.. especially if your selling on a site like etsy where they show others items.. if someone lands on a page other than mine and they see my bright eye catching image they may say.. ooh that one looks awesome.. while the other item may be just as good of quality... my picture caught the attention.. 

Online selling can be a full time job if you want to make the effort and put in lots of hours.. I put in more than 40 hours a week between answering emails to tweaking SEO to working in the shop, packing orders, taking photos, working on web sites.. etc etc etc.. and I am only getting part time pay.. BUT.. it's nice to work my own hours.. and I am here at home for my family... I think too many people think they can just throw some pictures up on a site and the customers will just come rolling in.. to buy them.. and that is definitely not the case..  Also I think people think that lower prices will attract people.. It might to some extent.. but the more important thing is SEO and pictures.. because if nobody's finding your low price then nobody's going to buy it.. if pictures are bad many times you can't even give it away.. LOL.. 

That all said.. they say is takes a good 5 years for a business to get to a point of starting to make money.. I am three years in.. it's grown tremendously.. but if in 3-4 more years I'm not doing good I may throw in the towel and get a day job somewhere..  if it wasn't fun.. I'd have done that my first year..  

Sorry, didn't mean to write a book, LOL 

Kevin

 

 

  

 

 

 

Kevin you have one of the best educational post on selling on line I have ever seen. You tell it like it is and don't pull any punches. The bottom line is that if you want to be a success you have to work at it. I do have a question. What does "SEO" mean?

[kmmcrafts]

22 minutes ago, hawkeye10 said:

Kevin you have one of the best educational post on selling on line I have ever seen. You tell it like it is and don't pull any punches. The bottom line is that if you want to be a success you have to work at it. I do have a question. What does "SEO" mean?

Search Engine Optimization... meaning you have to have words that people would use to search your items online to find you or your web site.. Shop names, and item tags ( Ie if you are selling a duck clock.. what would you call it so.. many people that don't know SEO might just call it a wood clock or duck clock.. but to put in more descriptive words one might call it a Handmade wood duck desk / shelf clock made from oak wood.. this way search engines would pick up on these words Handmade, Desk, Clock, Duck, Shelf, Oak, Wood.. out of all those words some will rank higher in search because they are a more common searched word.. All the words you use in a title should also be found in the description and preferably in the first thirty words or so.. multipal times in the descriptions are even better..long descriptions are also important.. maybe not for the shopper.. but for search engines long descriptions are key to being found.

[Pancho]

Kevin, thanks for all the information.  Think I will keep my amateur status.

[Travis]

18 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

I've been in on this online selling since 2010.. that said though.. up until just 3 years ago I only tinkered around with selling and never really took it to a business level.. so in the first several years I did maybe 10 orders a year.. when I started trying I did about 50ish orders the first year.. second year was around 170 ish.. last year I had over 300 orders.. and so far this year is doubling + some.. All that said though.. my first year was hardly anything until Mid - Late October before the sales started trickling in. and even last year I think I only had about 40 orders though the year until October hit.. then it was crazy busy.. If this years trend keeps up and the busy holiday season hits harder than last year I'm in trouble.. I turned a lot of work away starting from about mid November on out..

I sell on Artfire Etsy,Zibbet, and a stand alone web site with indiemade.. was just invited to sell on amazon handmade site.. amazon is sort of supposedly Juried.. I applied there when they first opened up.. but they took forever to accept me and when they did I was slammed with work during the holidays.. I lost my pass code to the site.. they kept sending me messages asking why I am not setting up shop I kept telling them but they never sent me another code until a couple days ago..

On Artfire I had a locked in rate of $5.95 a month.. but they done a lot of changes and now it's $20 plus a % of sales.. They have some awesome selling tools but it's like having your own site so you need to bring in your own traffic.. I still have an account but I am not selling there anymore.. due to a lot of issues with the site working correctly etc after they had some employees leave and they just didn't know how to run the site.. (poor management )

Etsy is a listing fee and a % of sale.. get a fair amount of traffic.. but to start over knowing what I know now.. I'd probably have not got so involved with working the shop there.. Lot's of other scroll sawers there and most don't charge a rate to make money.. and the way etsy is set up.. they will show your competitions items on your page etc.. so if I work my butt of to bring in shoppers.. they could leave by seeing a cheaper similar item from another shop.. That said I do get a fair amount of business.. but to do over I would put more focus on my own site..

Zibbet.. basic accounts are cheap.. but traffic is quite limited so you have to bring in your own.. much like a site of your own... I get enough sales to pay the yearly bill.. however I been thinking of closing up that shop just because I want to put my focus on my own indiemade web site as it is a better system..

Indiemade has different tiered plans.. depending upon how many items you have.. I have the $19.95 one.. I do well on indiemade for only being there a year..

First thing to do if you decide to sell online is to get a domain name and get business cards with that domain on it send a card or two in every package you send out.. Most people start on a venue as I did and then branch off to their own site..    

Keeping up with SEO is a full time job+... LOL There is a lot to know about do's and don'ts of SEO and if you don't have a lot of time to invest.. your best off on etsy, artfire, or zibbet.. in my opinion.. Or.. spend big money advertising... to be found in searches.. Pictures of your products are very important for online selling.. if you have noise (clutter) in the background that distracts from your product or dark photos then it could mean the difference between a sale or a scroll on past.. I spent a lot of time with my camera and built a special photo booth light box to take my photos.. especially if your selling on a site like etsy where they show others items.. if someone lands on a page other than mine and they see my bright eye catching image they may say.. ooh that one looks awesome.. while the other item may be just as good of quality... my picture caught the attention.. 

Online selling can be a full time job if you want to make the effort and put in lots of hours.. I put in more than 40 hours a week between answering emails to tweaking SEO to working in the shop, packing orders, taking photos, working on web sites.. etc etc etc.. and I am only getting part time pay.. BUT.. it's nice to work my own hours.. and I am here at home for my family... I think too many people think they can just throw some pictures up on a site and the customers will just come rolling in.. to buy them.. and that is definitely not the case..  Also I think people think that lower prices will attract people.. It might to some extent.. but the more important thing is SEO and pictures.. because if nobody's finding your low price then nobody's going to buy it.. if pictures are bad many times you can't even give it away.. LOL.. 

That all said.. they say is takes a good 5 years for a business to get to a point of starting to make money.. I am three years in.. it's grown tremendously.. but if in 3-4 more years I'm not doing good I may throw in the towel and get a day job somewhere..  if it wasn't fun.. I'd have done that my first year..  

Sorry, didn't mean to write a book, LOL 

Kevin

 

 

  

 

 

 

This is great, Kevin!  I hope you don't mind, but I posted this in our Articles in the Business Side section.  You can find that here:  

 

[kmmcrafts]

13 minutes ago, Travis said:

This is great, Kevin!  I hope you don't mind, but I posted this in our Articles in the Business Side section.  You can find that here:  

 

That is perfectly fine Travis.. Hope it helps some folks in some way or another.. Just a side note.. I've been selling online for about 20 years or better.. ( Just not crafts ) I used to sell used car parts and lawn and garden tractor parts etc.. mostly on eBay.. let me just say.. eBay is not a site to try selling crafts on.. at least not scroll work.. eBay shoppers are the same as flea market shoppers.. they go to eBay to find a bargain rather than looking for quality..