About Me

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I'm an artist who can't choose a medium. My current weapon of choice is a black fine line art marker, which I use to doodle pretty little illustrations. I turn them into clip art that you can purchase in my Etsy shop for use in projects like web design and scrapbooking. I live with my husband and evil black cat in Chicago.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Selling your handmade goods on the internet - a review of sites

I've been selling on Etsy since last August, but I wanted to branch out a little and get some more exposure for my handbags.  So I set up shops and listings at Artfire.com, Bonanza.com, Ebay.com, and Dawanda.com.


Here's my review of each after using them for a week:


Artfire.com
Total Number of item views after 7 days: 4
Total Number of Shop views: 3

Favorites: None
Sales: None


Pros:
Has the best looking shop of these four.
Most customizable shop options with separate pages for a shop blog, biography, policies, gallery. 


Cons:
It took forever to sign up.
Cost for having a shop is $12.95 a month - but has a 2 week free trial.
Stats are very basic, but you can use Google Analytics for more in depth statistics.

Result: I will not be keeping this shop once my two weeks are up.  It's just not worth the time.


Bonanza.com
Total Number of item views after 7 days: 25
Total Number of Shop views: 2

Favorites: None
Sales: None


Pros:
Seems to have a thriving community of sellers.

No listing fees!
Commission charge is 3.5%.

Cons:
Seems more like a place to sell your last season designer clothing/accessories.
No search term tags - I have no idea how people are finding my stuff.
Charges monthly for pro shop, but a basic shop is free.
Importing items from eBay or Etsy takes for-ev-er.


Result: I'm undecided about Bonanza.  Let's give it another week.


eBay.com
Total Number of item views after 7 days: 42 - and some of those were me.
Total Number of auction watchers: 2
Sales: None


Pros:
More mainstream customers.


Cons:
Hideous user interface.  Dislike how search results appear.
Listing fees are expensive, and only last a week.

eBay charges a commission fee from 9-13% on sales.  Greedy.
Has a $500/10 item monthly selling limit.
Customers are looking for a bargain.


Result: I renewed my listing, but unless I get a sale this will be the last time I do.



Dawanda.com
Total Number of item views after 7 days: 22
Total Number of Shop views: 12

Favorites: None
Sales: None


Pros:
It's like EuroEtsy!
The user interface is more like Etsy than any of the others, so there's hardly any learning curve.

Free listings!

Cons:
Fewer products for sale in their marketplace than I expected... this could mean fewer sellers and fewer customers.

Charges a 5% commission for every sale - that seems a little high to me, but whatever.


Result: I'll probably keep this one up just because it's access to European customers that I might not see otherwise.

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