If you've been reading this blog for more the 5 seconds, you can see I have an Etsy shop, which has been around for nearly a year. Sales have been slow. I joined teams, I posted in the forums, did as much promotion as I could. People heart my shop, but not so much with the sales. Paying for posting fees and then re-posting and possibly re-shooting photos every 4 months is kind of a bummer.Don't get me wrong. I love Etsy. I shop at Etsy and have a new source of hand dyed fiber (Knox Fiber Farms), Etsy is just so mindbogglingly huge, with thousands of stores and so many choices. It can be tough to find what you're looking for. Even spending time in the forums is a multi-hour affair. When does it turn from business promotion to another time waster?
The majority of my sales have been 'off-line' at craft fairs and orders directly from folks. I enjoyed last years' craft fair and fully plan to participate in more fairs and generally do more Tenuki promotion. I've been trying to get my friend John to get his Etsy store up and running. Things kept coming up and then, about a month ago, while brainstorming shop promotion ideas with John, my partner Bill, sent me this link: http://www.techflash.com/venture/1000_Markets_is_an_Etsy_rival_with_backing_from_PayPal_founders_44758652.html
I read the article and was intrigued. Like most of these on-line shops, one has to create a login in order to shop. Setting up a store is free, but the catch is you set up shop and then submit it for approval. Fifty percent of shops are rejected. Hmmm, kinda scary. Is my stuff good enough for approval?
There is an in-site blog and it is recommended that shop owners post blog entries. I'm still looking into whether or not there is a way to imbed these posts in that blog. Until I figure it out, though, I'm going to post project details on the items for sale in my shop. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
There are no posting fees. Commission is taken at the time of sale (5% to 1000 Markets and 5% to Amazon Payments). With payment through Amazon, the buyer is not giving banking info directly to the seller, making it secure, for folks who are iffy about buying from random unknown artists.
Best of all, though, individual 1000 Market shop owners can create a "Market" where a group of owners join forces for promotion. It was the market that sold John on opening his shop and in a flurry of email conversation, we made a 5 year plan, to have our crafts be our sole income and, maybe even open a bricks n' morter shop. Should we decide to set up an actual store, the Market would start the branding process. We could invite our crafting friends to join us. We would offer to assist anyone in our market with setting up their shops.
Well, the whole concept is so exciting that both John and I submitted our shops for approval over this past weekend and were approved yesterday.
Please follow the link at the left and check out my new shop. I've got a smattering of jewelry and fiber goods, with a plan to post new items as often as possible. A set of Asian-themed blank greeting cards is the next post. I goal is to offer a variety of price points and goods so there is something for everyone.
Next time: Lorre's Decadent Yarn
