Why Etsy?

[SunRiseArts]

I get that is a site for hand crafters, but I find etsy fees kind of expensive, plus the competition is so much.

Plus once I sold a bar of soap (like a year ago), and the buyer gave me 4 stars because she loved it, and I did not have the lotion to go with it. Kind of upset me, because I do not sell any lotion at all.

I have had an etsy account for year, and never use it ...

I have some of my soaps for sell on eBay.

So why pick etsy over ebay? Should I list on both? Would I get more sells?

 

[osso]

Not sure vs eBay, but eBay just doesn't shout handmade to me and I don't shop there for those types of things. With Etsy you don't necessarily have to drive your own traffic like with a standalone site. Minimal startup.

 

[shunt2011]

I've avoided Etsy as it's so over populated with handmade soaps etc. I don't have time to maintain my website like I should little lone work with an Etsy site.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I find etsy fees expensive. I had a couple of things there, and sold them, and they took nearly half of the sale. So it was not worth it.

I get what you are saying kittish. I do not really sell a lot or anything, but sometimes I have too much, and want to make more! lol

 

[toxikon]

It seems like a lot of soapers use Instagram and social media to gather followers then do their main shop on their website. I like Wordpress for making sites, and there are lots of plug-ins you can use to handle the shop/money part of it.

I had an Etsy selling necklaces about 10 years ago, and I liked it fine. But it seems completely overrun with soapers, I think it'd be really hard to sell there now without undercutting yourself.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I give away during thanksgiving and Christmas.

But sometimes you want to, because is like ratification in what you do?

I have a website, plugged to eBay. I have sold some. Don't make money really, but at the very least I break even with supplies. I don't have a lot of money, so it helps.

I mainly sell MP, so is kind of made to order, so I do not lose or have overstock. But lately I have been crazy trying different recipes and techniques.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Kenna over at Modern Soapmaking recently did a workshop on Instagram to promote your business. Might be worth a look???

http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/?s=instagram

 

[SunRiseArts]

Thanks Zanny. In a way I think I am my own worst enemy! Because I really hate facebook, and instagram is a byproduct of it (I think).

I basically do no social media. But my son offered to put it on his page. I have fall and hallloween soap curing that I wanted to sell a few bars, but they are not ready in term of curing time.

And now I may have issues with my Halloween soap. I posted in another thread, but 10 days after curing, still feels kind of soft .... :-?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

And now I may have issues with my Halloween soap. I posted in another thread, but 10 days after curing, still feels kind of soft .... :-?

Um, Halloween is 9 weeks and 3 days away! Plenty of time to cure. I saw your Halloween soap... pretty cool. You can always change the name to something seasonal if you need to.

 

[Paintguru]

I found Etsy to be too large and it was difficult to stand out. I'd like to do my own website, but Shopify and other hosted e-commerce solutions are pretty expensive. I may have to check out Wordpress and the add-ons to see if it makes sense financially.

 

[jcandleattic]

I found Etsy to be too large and it was difficult to stand out. I'd like to do my own website, but Shopify and other hosted e-commerce solutions are pretty expensive. I may have to check out Wordpress and the add-ons to see if it makes sense financially.

I use weebly for my website (love it, and it's customizable and has an e-commerce solution built-in if you don't already have one, but can use your own) and it's free (the one I have is, there are other more customizable types of sites from them for a small fee - I don't find I need this, as one of the templates they had fit my aesthetic perfectly!)

My domain is from godaddy for like $4 a year or something like that. Very inexpensive and very affordable. And I don't have to pay Etsy their ridiculous fees.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I have a go daddy domain. but weebly wanted to charge me for a transfer. Did that happen to you?

 

[jcandleattic]

I have a go daddy domain. but weebly wanted to charge me for a transfer. Did that happen to you?

No, not at all. I didn't transfer my domain to weebly though. I still have my domain through godaddy, and it was just a matter of me telling godaddy what weebly's DNS was, and plug that into the appropriate area on godaddy.

If I remember right after I put in the DNS it took about 5-10 minutes for it to update and take effect.
You should be able to call godaddy and talk to them and have them help walk you through it. It's been so long now since I did it, I can't remember exactly what steps I took, but I do know it was free because I'm cheap and if I had to pay to do it, I wouldn't have done it. LOL

 

[Paintguru]

I use weebly for my website (love it, and it's customizable and has an e-commerce solution built-in if you don't already have one, but can use your own) and it's free (the one I have is, there are other more customizable types of sites from them for a small fee - I don't find I need this, as one of the templates they had fit my aesthetic perfectly!)

My domain is from godaddy for like $4 a year or something like that. Very inexpensive and very affordable. And I don't have to pay Etsy their ridiculous fees.

Awesome, I'll check Weebly out. I just grabbed my domain through Google domains, so I'm sure (like you said in the following post) I'll just have that point to the Weebly page.

 

[penelopejane]

Wix is another website builder with free accounts. If you do ecommerce you pay a bit but it's cheaper than weebly. Each have their advantages but it's another option for you.

 

[jcandleattic]

Wix is another website builder with free accounts. If you do ecommerce you pay a bit but it's cheaper than weebly. Each have their advantages but it's another option for you.

I must have gotten grandfathered in. I have weebly, an ecommerce, and use the free account, - don't pay a dime.

 

[Kamahido]

My brother used to sell on eBay. The reason he left was because every time there was an issue which required eBay mediation they would always default to the buyer.

 

[Paintguru]

Wix is another website builder with free accounts. If you do ecommerce you pay a bit but it's cheaper than weebly. Each have their advantages but it's another option for you.

Yeah I saw them too. Very small scale now, so trying to keep costs low!

 

[Paintguru]

I must have gotten grandfathered in. I have weebly, an ecommerce, and use the free account, - don't pay a dime.

Yeah, I think you got a killer deal! Looks like now it is a minimum of $8/month and they take a 3% chunk even before the payment provider takes their chunk.

 

[jcandleattic]

Yeah, I think you got a killer deal! Looks like now it is a minimum of $8/month and they take a 3% chunk even before the payment provider takes their chunk.

Wow - I mean, I should have said, that yes, the ecommerce I use does take their 2.45% of every transaction, but I do not pay weebly a dime to have my ecommerce integrated into the site. Never have.

I've had weebly going on 7 or 8 years now though, so maybe that's why? I really don't know, but I'm not going to ask too many questions. LOL