A lot of talented people are making money through the sale of their handmade crafts and you can do the same if you have some creativity in you. To be successful, it is imperative that you learn where the best markets are and how to prepare your products so they can prove commercially viable.
The aim of any commercial enterprise is to make a good return or profit. When you decide to make extra money selling your handmade crafts, ideally you must be looking for a market that can keep you sufficiently busy as you continue getting viable profits for your work.
1How to Get Started and What to Sell
To get started with a ‘selling your handmade crafts’ business, you basically make a product of your own – the scope of handcrafts that you can make is limited to your individual talents. Most handcraft marketplaces welcome three main categories of products: handmade items, handmade and commercial crafting supplies, and vintage products, i.e., items that are 20 years old or more. You may not be able to sell items that was handmade by someone else or items that are prohibited or illegal by law.
2Where Do You Sell Your Handmade Crafts?
Online marketplaces have gained much popularity in as far as being the most preferred locations for the sale of handmade crafts. One of the foremost of these sites is www.etsy.com, whose main business is to connect independent crafts makers and shop owners with buyers in a bid to find only the best vintage, handmade and supplies items. As soon as you sign up as a seller you are provided with your online shop, which you can then customize, profile and structure as you wish. As a seller you can also take advantage of the Alchemy feature through which buyers post requests for handmade items and in turn sellers post bids on the same.
Etsy.com works in a basic three-step process: you first list the item on the website for a specified fee; next, shoppers locate your item(s) and make direct payments to you; finally, you ship the item to the buyer.
3How to Make the Most of the Etsy Opportunity
As you ponder how you are going to earn extra money selling your handmade crafts via your etsy.com online shop you should first of all select an appropriate name for your business. Basically, potential and return clients should find this name easy to spell and recall. You can limit the chosen name to a single word but if you must use two, make sure they are easy-flowing. Choosing a name for your business may require you to seek inspiration from what others have come up with previously. As you do this, you must consider the legal aspects that come with using trademarked identities – let whatever name you come up with be original, period.
Additionally, if you intend to use a double-word name it is wise to have the first letter of each word begin with a capital letter to create visual separation because most of these names do not have a space between the two words. Your name of choice should as much as possible reflect that which you intend to offer. It works positively to use a specific name for a specific product, a stylish name for stylish products, and a clever name for products that will require buyers to think quite a bit about them.
4How Fees Work on the Etsy System
To sell your handmade crafts profitably via www.etsy.com, you need to make prior calculations that take into account the expenses you will incur for using this sales platform, in addition to those you have already incurred in the production and/or sourcing of your items.
There are two types of fees that you must pay - the listing and sales fees. The listing fee for each item is 20 cents. It is worth noting that this figure is only enough for one item and that a set of similar items, say a dozen ashtrays, will all be individually listed; the fee would be $2.40 for this example. This fee is valid for four months after which the item is unlisted. Re-listing is possible upon payment of a similar fee. The sales fee is set at 3.5% of an item’s total sales price, a figure that excludes the shipping price.
The preferred currency on etsy.com is the US Dollar and all currency conversions are automatically performed. All fees due to etsy.com are payable via credit card or PayPal.
Learn more about why this online website might just work the trick for your handmade crafts business via http://www.etsy.com/how_selling_works.php.
