Sometimes it makes more sense to use a pre-made sales site rather than set up your own website if you’re just getting started in sales.  Sometimes you’ve got a website, but you want to handle sales separately.  And sometimes a selling site makes sense because of the extra traffic it can help generate.

Please don’t think that using a selling site is a free ride though.  They are not going to automatically bring the buyers to you…you will have to dedicate time and energy into promoting your online shop, or nothing will happen.  Count on it!

Setting Up Shop: Handmade Marketplace Comparisons

Online Venues for Selling Crafts and Handmade Goods

Starting an Etsy Business

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Now honestly, I haven’t used any of these listed below except for StyleHive, Kaboodle, and ThisNext.  I really spend most of my time in forums devoted to beading and jewelry education, and I haven’t even used my Facebook account for business…just to keep track of all the teens in my life!  But I thought that those of you who are on more on the path of marketing yourselves and selling your wares might find this list handy.  It’s in alphabetical order, with no attempt to recommend one over the other.  Anyone with experience with any of these is welcome to chime in below 

burdastyle
displaymode
fashhh
IQONS
kaboodle
modelxpress
modelmayhem
sneakerplay
stylehive.com
sunsilk gang of girls
thisnext
threadless
trendmill
youstyleme

You can find a few more listed at this post I wrote last fall where I talked about using social sites for trend research.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Let’s not forget that there are some wonderful sources online with instructions to learn specific skills or make specific projects. Not all of them are free, but if you’d like to get the very best instruction and can’t go somewhere to take a class, these might be just the ticket!

On the other side, these are also sites that you might be able to tap into for selling your own projects if you are interested in pursuing that line of business this year.  I just heard from Eni Oken yesterday, and she says that although her site is best known for wire projects, she is very interested and open to having lots of other techniques taught there too!  Think about it 

JewelryLessons
Featuring tutorials by Eni Oken and friends

Beading Daily
Online store of projects

Bead Patterns
Especially helpful for seed bead patterns

Ganoksin
An unbelievable database of jewelry making tutorials

Beaducation
Online classes by nationally known teachers

Polymer Clay Tutor
Videos and much more by Cindy Lietz

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

I wrote about a new sales venture called America Creates about a month ago.  Recently, Sharon Sinclair, Co-founder and Creative Director, contacted me to let me know what’s new!  For one thing, the new home page design is much easier to navigate…not that I thought the beta design was bad, but it sure is easier to find jewelry now 

Sharon writes:

Thank you for your blog entry about America Creates. We’ve been building the web site for over 3 years, but have just recently “re-launched” with many more features, including artist videos. Our goal is to help promote America’s best artisans. We are a juried site and are looking for serious, professional artists. We’re not an etsy or eBay.

We have listings for Artists with ready made works for sale and we have a Commissioned Artists section. We charge no fees for listings, we make a 25% commission on items sold through our site.

Artists and organizations may also list classes and workshops for free. Please take some time and look around the site again. We love feedback.

Again, thank you and tell your friends!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

As part of our on-going emphasis on education this year, I want to share some previous posts that may help you fill in some gaps! From creativity to color, from design elements to jewelry school, these resources can point you in the right direction.

Do you want to design for yourself?
This is the conclusion of my series of articles, with links to all the previous articles

Beadwork basics online

Dictionaries, glossaries, and encyclopedias of jewelry making info online

Creativity online

Color training and tools online

Jewelry design tools and articles online

Jewelry class listings by geography

Beading shows with classes

Design school directory

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to go somewhere to take a class. There’s so much to be said for classes…being able to see the technique demonstrated, being able to ask questions, mixing and mingling and meeting new people. It’s all good. But it just doesn’t work out for everyone.

Fortunately, there is the internet!

There are three categories of posts on this very blog that will lead you to lots of techniques, tips, tutorials, and fun new projects to try. There are also lots of new sources that I’ll be adding to these categories pretty regularly.

The Basics – Getting Started – online instruction to help take the place of basic classes

Tutorials & Techniques – all kinds of beading and jewelry how-tos

Technique Tuesday – my own step by step projects

Online classes

There will be some overlap on these lists. Sorry, but it’s unavoidable If you’d like to share a source that you think I’ve missed, please do! I’d love to be able to have the most complete list of resource links for online learning anywhere!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

If you’d like to get a better price for your work than Etsy sometimes is able to command, and you live in the USA, you might want to check out America Creates. I don’t really know anything about how the sales are going there, as I haven’t been selling via any site other than my own websites since my old eBay days. However, I can say that the site looks beautiful and very polished.

The Jewelry category is hiding under Fine Craft, not under Wearables, so don’t let that throw you!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Thanks so much, Yolanda!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Mary Harrington, one of the founders, sent me this information, and I thought it looked like an excellent potential opportunity for those of you who would like to teach, or who feel there’s more to learn

School of Everything is a site where teachers in any subject, anywhere in the world, can advertise for free and find new students. Anyone can sign up, browse for teachers, contact teachers in their area and meet up to learn. We launched in September 2008 and already have teachers offering classes in thousands of subjects.

We’ve been described as ‘MySpace for teachers’ and ‘eBay for knowledge’ (Boing Boing) but the way I like to explain it is that if Etsy is a space where people can sell their creations, School of Everything is all about learning – or teaching – the skills you need to create.

Beading is one of the top searches on School of Everything – there are so many people out there who want to learn to make beautiful things but are looking for a teacher to support them. So I wondered: as Jewelry and Beading is read by so many people who make things, many of which I’m sure already teach or have thought of teaching, perhaps School of Everything might be interesting to the teachers among your readers?

Post from: Jewelry and Beading