Handcrafted & Profitable
If your passion is crafts, from woven baskets to woodturning, you can turn that hobby into some spare change. Not long ago, a crafter’s sales opportunities were limited to local and regional shows and markets Not any more! Now you can show the world what you have created, and expand your potential marketplace to the entire globe.
The best place to sell your crafts –
The best place in the internet world to sell those crafty items is at Etsy.com. Sure, there are a lot of online stores and places to list for free the things you are trying to sell but where Esty beats all of them – and this is the part you need to really pay attention to – is that Esty is an online marketplace that focuses entirely on arts and crafts made by people just like you. That’s right, Esty is where you’ll find art, crafts, jewelry, handmade and vintage items for sale by other artsy folk.
If you have a bit of talent, the rewards can be substantial. Here are just a few examples of Etsian profits:
1. Christy makes rustic handbags that sell for an average of $40. She sells about 200 every month. You do the math.
2. Collage-O-Rama sells pictures printed on book pages for around $8 each. Average sales per month….1,050.
3. Festive Home Decor sells decorative pillows that cost $30, with 300 sales per month.
4. Zen Threads sells t-shirts with animals printed on them for an average price of $20. An average month brings $15,750 in sales.
Even if you are just building those wooden toys for fun and have been giving them away as gifts, you can keep the fun part of the hobby intact, but wouldn’t it be great to sell some of them to at least cover a portion of the cost of materials? That being said, since Esty has been attracting crafters like a magnet, you may want to spend some time on the site to get a feel for what kinds of handmade items are already saturating the market and since you’re already creative, it should inspire you to design something so off-the-wall unique that you could start a craze.
How to get started
Once you decide what you intend to produce in your garage or workshop, it’s a good time to get started on Esty. You’ll have to sign up or register to become part of the site and you’ll be given a web address that will be uniquely yours to use to promote so others can find your wares. The web address will be simple in that it will include your user name and will look something like http://petrock.etsy.com and then you can actually set up your Esty store. They have a template you can customize and once you’ve done that you can start loading it with inventory.
There are some fees attached to Esty, but not the kind that will hamper you from making a few bucks. For example, there is a small fee for each item you load into your Esty store and that gives you a four month sale period. When you make a sale, Esty takes a 3.5% transaction fee.
Here are some tips to help you make that sale on Esty.
- First off, and I know, I’ve already mentioned it but it is important, try to provide a very unique product. If you plan to sell wood salt and pepper shakers don’t be surprised if you are competing against a few thousand others.
- Secondly, the best way to sell anything on any website online is to have good quality photos posted of the item for sale. Post more than one photo showing different angles or certain detailing in a close-up if that applies.
- The third tip is to provide an accurate description of the product you are selling. There is nothing wrong with being funny or cute, but when it comes down to attracting a sale, be sure to tell the buyer exactly what they are getting in the product description.
- The final tip to push the buyer from a tire kicker to an actual customer is pricing. Don’t be so cheap it produces suspicion about the actual quality of the item and don’t over price just to make up for lagging sales. Be affordable and if your item is as unique and unusual as your product description states, make the price show that without being too high.
The most important thing to remember is to have fun. You could end up pleasantly surprised by how much you make selling your creations at Etsy.com.