# Selling your projects



## Cathy8 (Nov 21, 2006)

Anyone sell their crafts? How do you do it? Online? Craft shows? Word of mouth? What have you found successful as far as promoting your items? Right now my crafts are all hobbies, but I wouldn't mind making a little money at it at some point.


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## stephie (Nov 21, 2006)

Ebay, personal website, craft shows or farmers market.


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## CraftyKate (Nov 22, 2006)

I've sold on ebay in the past, but don't really like it. I feel like everyone is just looking for a bargain and quality means nothing. There are so many people selling crappy product for cheaper than I can, so I didn't really feel it was worth my time.


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## Cathy8 (Dec 6, 2006)

Stephie, do you have your own website? Was it hard to set up? Did you have to hire someone to do it for you?


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## jellyfish (Dec 11, 2006)

Use www.etsy.com


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2006)

I sell my stuff mostly through word of mouth. I've hosted a few soap parties too.


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## Tabitha (Feb 5, 2007)

I have a website, an ebay store & a physical shop. I get 10x more traffic on ebay than through my website because ebay searches always come out on top. Even if people are not *buying* through ebay, it's a cheap for of EXCELLENT advertisement. Generally people will make their 1st purchase w/ me through ebay & then return purchases through my website or email/phone.

My physical shop does 10x better than my ebay shop because people can actuality smell & feel the items before they buy them.

I would under no circumstance place my items in a consignment situation again. I have a few times & found my items were damaged each of those time. Owners of the consignment store are not responsible for damage. I have found most to be neglectful. 

Craft malls have their ups & downs too. It is hard to sell your merchandise when you are not there & the staff at craft malls are not there to sell, they are there to collect rent on your booth space. They do not need to sell anything because they get their money through booth rental. I was in a Coomers Craft Mall & the manager made  a couple book keeping errors & decided I had not paid my rent in 2 months therefore she confiscated all of my items. After I proved I was current on rent she was unable to find my items. It took them 6 months to reimbursed & then they only gave me 50% of what was stolen.

I find craft shows are fun & profitable if you can find the right ones.  No  can sell ya handmade item like the maker.  In my opinion, bath & body sells way better in person (than they do in a catalog or online) where items can be sniffed or sampled. I  only do shows that are specifically for art & crafts & exclude resell or imported items. No one makeing handmade items can compete w/ prices offered on imported, cheaply made items. I have found if the  festival or show has lots of kid/family activitie, I don't sell much cause mom can't look while chasing kids & needs to spend her money on the pony rides & cotton candy rather than body butter.

Farmers markets can be  fun & profitable again w/ the face to face sales.  you customers can find you again & again as they run out & need to stock up.

I find home shows do well, if you have a friend that can round up about a dozen guests you can do games & such & people will buy what they see each other buying.

Sometimes you can find little boutiques that would like to carry your products, especially if you put their shop name on the label & offer them a custom scent.

The above are just my6 personal experiences... BTW-my shop is a craft mall/consignment art gallery... we opened last May on the old town square of a TX town w/ a 25,000 population.


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## Tabitha (Feb 5, 2007)

www.internetbasedfamily.com is a SUPER easy click & build website host. You can build a website in a couple hours w/ NO experience. I think it's about 20-25 dollars a month. They have the whole nine yards with the shopping cart, newsletter, photo gallery  etc


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## copper (Feb 5, 2007)

Tabitha, what is your website url?

I'm thinking about setting up a website right now. My brother is pretty good at computers and he says he will help me get it set up.


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## Tabitha (Feb 6, 2007)

I pm'ed you.


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## pepperi27 (Feb 12, 2007)

I have my own website for about a year now and it does okay but not selling much. I get more requests for my tarot reading than my bath and body stuff. How long (for those of you with a website) did it take for you to sell and see some actual profit? I know it varies but generally some say two-four years?? Is this true or does it depend on how and where you sell??


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## Tabitha (Feb 12, 2007)

Hey pepper, pm me your website please.


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## pepperi27 (Feb 13, 2007)

I pm'd you!


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## tknoppe (Jun 11, 2007)

I don't sell my stuff to the general public, just family and friends; but I'm a professional web designer and should I decide to sell my soaps, I'd do a personal web site (of course!    ) and perhaps also do some local craft shows and possibly some on ebay to get my name out there while my search engine ranking took hold.  It takes a lot of work and time to optimize a site for search engines and then move up the ranks.


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## dragonfly princess (Aug 1, 2007)

My site is hosted for free on www.freewebs.com/eclecticdragonfly.  I made it myself


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