Sites you use to sell your crafts.

[cinimod]

I know there is etsy, but what other sites are out there that you sell on?  How has your experience been with those sites?  Do you have your own site as well through wix for instance?

[DonR]

 

[kmmcrafts]

I sell on Etsy and Zibbet right now.. I have a web site through indiemade.. but it's offline right now as I need to do a lot of work on it that I won't have the time for until the kids get back in school.. So the links in my signature goes to Etsy or Zibbets site.. Zibbet is a handmade market place that also included in the price gives you a personal web site as well.. but.. what you can do with it is limited.. probably great deal for many that don't have much time for a REAL stand alone site.. 

Doing a search for these type topics might get you some good reading.. Here is a topic that is just a few weeks old.. Lots of good info here.. Also note the link to the original topic at the top of the page.. 

Selling Online

[JOE_M]

I just looked at Zibbet. Are there any sites like Etsy/Zibbet that only sell truly handmade goods? The whole "vintage" thing seems like it's just a way to try and be the 2nd ebay, and the definition of "handmade" has apparently been stretched so far that it now includes CNC mass-produced items from the far east, and the same assortment of personalizable (I just made that word up) items you'd find at any trophy/engraving place.

 

Edited August 15, 2017 by JOE_M
Added a word so the sentence makes sense.

[kmmcrafts]

9 minutes ago, JOE_M said:

I just looked at Zibbet. Are there any sites like Etsy/Zibbet that only sell truly handmade goods? The whole "vintage" thing seems like it's just a way to try and be the 2nd ebay, and the definition of "handmade" has apparently been stretched so far that it now includes CNC mass-produced items from the far east, and the same assortment of personalizable (I just made that word up) items you'd find at any trophy/engraving place.

 

Good question.... I think a bigger part of defining handmade needs to be taught to these people that create these sites.. I'm not sure any of the staff / moderators on these sites even know what hand made is... let alone how to tell the difference... For instance.. Amazon has a handmade section that started about 3 years ago.. It is juried  and they are only letting x amount of sellers within the same category. I signed up and have been accepted however I haven't set up shop yet.. While browsing the site.. I find all sorts of items I am quite certain is not handmade.. and not to mention.. a lot of copyright and trademarked stuff.. Many crafters in the handmade message boards say that even though it's Amazon.. traffic is pretty limited... I may give it a try... but once that free trial is over it's more than double the cost of most any other site to sell on.. as I believe the start of 2018 the price jumps to $40 a month plus a 9% FVF.. I'm not certain of all the details of the site.. but will say.. it's no different than the others with the mass produced stuff.. even though it's juried. LOL

Etsy, and Zibbet have their share of mass produced items.. Artfire was good to me for a few years but they had some site issues and I left.. but things seem to be running smooth there now..  There are actually several others.. but I have no experience with them and many others say it's very slow.. 

[JOE_M]

2 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Amazon has a handmade section that started about 3 years ago.

Is Amazon the one where you have to sign in just to be a customer? I ran across one of those a couple of years ago and just "noped" away to another site.

I don't understand how the webmasters can't figure out what is/isn't handmade. I see things that are so obvious, then I go to google images and search for copies of the item picture and see how many different sites it shows up on, and how many different sellers are claiming to have made it. I guess they're getting their profits so they just look the other way.

[kmmcrafts]

5 minutes ago, JOE_M said:

Is Amazon the one where you have to sign in just to be a customer? I ran across one of those a couple of years ago and just "noped" away to another site.

I don't understand how the webmasters can't figure out what is/isn't handmade. I see things that are so obvious, then I go to google images and search for copies of the item picture and see how many different sites it shows up on, and how many different sellers are claiming to have made it. I guess they're getting their profits so they just look the other way.

I think you can shop the Amazon handmade just the same as you do amazon web site.. 

Etsy you had to be a member to buy or sell.. but that was recently changed about a month or two ago.. which is why I used to like artfire better.. 

[JOE_M]

Yea, I came across a site a while back where you couldn't even look at what was for sale unless you signed up as a member. Wish I remembered what it was, although I doubt with that business model that it is still in business.

[amazingkevin]

9 hours ago, cinimod said:

I know there is etsy, but what other sites are out there that you sell on?  How has your experience been with those sites?  Do you have your own site as well through wix for instance?

seems like every time time i post on "Offer Up " i get a call in minutes but after 170 texts back and forth to get them to them tell me exactly what they want i back out.

[ekud1946]

23 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

I sell on Etsy and Zibbet right now.. I have a web site through indiemade.. but it's offline right now as I need to do a lot of work on it that I won't have the time for until the kids get back in school.. So the links in my signature goes to Etsy or Zibbets site.. Zibbet is a handmade market place that also included in the price gives you a personal web site as well.. but.. what you can do with it is limited.. probably great deal for many that don't have much time for a REAL stand alone site.. 

Doing a search for these type topics might get you some good reading.. Here is a topic that is just a few weeks old.. Lots of good info here.. Also note the link to the original topic at the top of the page.. 

Selling Online

Have you tried https://www.artyah.com/ . Only .10 per listing. I open a shop  May 25th.

and have had good sales. Very prompt answering your questions.

[rjweb]

Your site looks good, but your prices seem inexpensive for the quality of your work, I feel you can get more for them, RJ

[kmmcrafts]

4 hours ago, ekud1946 said:

Have you tried https://www.artyah.com/ . Only .10 per listing. I open a shop  May 25th.

and have had good sales. Very prompt answering your questions.

I've heard others say they are doing pretty well on there as well.. I might give it a try..

[JOE_M]

Those of you listing sites - could you throw in a few notes about fees, time limits and payment services, standard SEO etc? As a buyer I like the sites with a built-in checkout, not one that sends me to an individuals paypal page. If I was selling again I'd prefer that over dealing with paypal - let the customer pay the website, then the website can take their cut and send me what's left.

And for fees - do they charge to list, charge for sales, charge for both? Do listings expire?

Do they advertise for you or are you expected to go spam all your facebook "friends" yourself?

Are they formatting their web pages so you show up on google? On google shopping?

When someone  searches for "scrollsaw blurfl puzzle" and clicks on one you made, does the page just show that puzzle or does it show other things you made down at the bottom? Does it show other blurrfl pages made by other people on the website?

And how is their site's search engine? If I land on the front page while searching for that one special gift for my mom, knowing she likes to quilt, tat, and do puzzles, how hard is it for me to find something handmade along those lines, without wading through a bunch of generic mass-produced fake-handmade stuff, or 1990's "vintage" garage sale stuff? Can I narrow my search to "handmade"? And further - to wood, or metal, or "things for mom" or ????

thanks

Joe.

 

Edited August 17, 2017 by JOE_M
changed a "d" to a "t", I feel it really improves the feng shui of the room.

[kmmcrafts]

2 hours ago, JOE_M said:

Those of you listing sites - could you throw in a few notes about fees, time limits and payment services, standard SEO etc? As a buyer I like the sites with a built-in checkout, not one that sends me to an individuals paypal page. If I was selling again I'd prefer that over dealing with paypal - let the customer pay the website, then the website can take their cut and send me what's left.

And for fees - do they charge to list, charge for sales, charge for both? Do listings expire?

Do they advertise for you or are you expected to go spam all your facebook "friends" yourself?

Are they formatting their web pages so you show up on google? On google shopping?

When someone  searches for "scrollsaw blurfl puzzle" and clicks on one you made, does the page just show that puzzle or does it show other things you made down at the bottom? Does it show other blurrfl pages made by other people on the website?

And how is their site's search engine? If I land on the front page while searching for that one special gift for my mom, knowing she likes to quilt, tat, and do puzzles, how hard is it for me to find something handmade along those lines, without wading through a bunch of generic mass-produced fake-handmade stuff, or 1990's "vintage" garage sale stuff? Can I narrow my search to "handmade"? And further - to wood, or metal, or "things for mom" or ????

thanks

Joe.

 

Copied from the topic linked in the first couple replies at the top.. I added info you asked for below each paragraph in parentheses.. 

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 )

(Additional Info: Artfire pays out a portion to post your items on google shopping.. You can opt. to pay more if you choose to via a feature called "google boost" They also recently started a new thing you can pay extra to show select items you choose which will bring your items to the front most pages is a in site search... ( in other words you pay them to show your select items more often within their web site search )   .. They do not.. take payment.. but they are currently working on a upgrade for other types of payment processing where a shopper doesn't need to use PayPal.. Not sure if they have made a decision of what / who the payment processor will be.. Also has a bulk editing tool... which allows to change most anything within all or a portion of your listing all at once.. for instance if you need to change all your prices in a certain category you don't have to do it one at a time etc.. ) 

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..

(Additional Info: Etsy has options to push more items to google shopping ( similar to artfires system ) You can choose a select daily amount and select which items to push to google shopping.. Etsy also has a thing called "promoted listings" which is also chosen by a daily amount and what items to promote.. kind of the same thing as google shopping but it is within etsys search.. Etsy takes payment and direct deposits to your bank. )

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..

(Additional  Info: I don't think zibbet pushes items to google shopping. No way to advertise that I am aware of within the site. They recently set up another payment option besides Paypal.. Not sure which it is.. but shoppers can checkout with a shopping cart option... provided sellers offer this payment option.. ( I haven't done it yet so just PayPal for me right now ).. Search within site works but it's nothing to write home about LOL )

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

(Additional Info: Indiemade pushes products to google shopping.. It also has shopping cart options but not quite sure how it works as I have not set it up yet.. This site isn't a venue.. so search only is within your store.. Works great though. Site has some nice built in features such as Blog, Gallery, etc etc.. quite customizable  site.. Also has a bulk editing tool... which allows to change most anything within all or a portion of your listing all at once.. for instance if you need to change all your prices in a certain category you don't have to do it one at a time etc..)

All sites above can or does show at the top or bottom other items your shoppers might be interested in on your listing pages.. Etsy and Artfire both show other sellers items at the bottom of the listing page under " similar items " ...

Without Good SEO non of these sites will put you into google shopping... as well as search results within the site will be poor.. such as maybe the last page of the searched items, LOL

I probably missed some info that you asked for.. my suggestion is to go to these sites and other sites and do some research.. all the info is there if you take the time to look... 

Edited August 17, 2017 by kmmcrafts

[alexfox]

I use Wix - it is site constructor. It is very comfortabe. A lot of functions and possibilities, even for free using.

http://alexscrollsaw.wixsite.com/scrollsawpatterns

[edward]

Your site is really nice, but your prices are a little cheap, for the amount of work that goes into it.  edward

[Rockytime]

Very nice website. Your cuttings are beautiful. Your hourly wage must be very low. So many of your items appear to take a lot of time. For instance your Harley clock for under $60. I'd think lots of bikers would salivate over that piece at that price. Most of my biker friends don't have two dimes to rub together.