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It seems like there's been an explosion of things for me to keep up with nowadays. There's a TON of different shops to sell your wares on - enough to make your head spin!
I've only dabbled with ecrater. Ruby Lane is expensive, and I've heard enough bad customer service stories to keep me away from them. Etsy is just THE popular one right now - but for the seller with only a few sales, it's hard to keep up with the favorites we keep seeing featured.
I signed up for Artfire. It was a deal I couldn't refuse...$7 a month for life to host a shop with all my items, including relisting whenever I feel like it. Maybe you've seen some people blogging about artfire, or maybe (like me) you saw a full page ad in a magazine. If you have been thinking about signing up, now is the time. After the first 5000 people sign up, the monthly rate goes up (to $20 I do believe).
They have a deal for referrals, too. Refer 10 people and your shop is free for life! That's just a jaw dropping deal, so I'm offering some incentive to sign up with uniqueyou as your referrer.
If I manage to refer 10 people, then I will give each of the ten people a 10% off for life discount. That’s right, for life. Anytime you want anything in my shop, you get 10% off. Not bad, eh?
This is open to those who sign up for the $7/month deal, free accounts do not count towards the referal.
Just comment here to let me know you have signed up, and make sure you put uniqueyou in the referal box!
This deal is only good until December 31st, so 10 people will need to sign up before then to get the discount.
Exposure of course is a good thing, but it comes at a price. I am seriously debating letting most of my items on etsy expire, I just can't pour money into relisting everyday.
I'd love to hear from any shops out there that have been pondering the pros and cons of etsy and artfire.
It's a hot topic right now - to Artfire or to Etsy?
7 comments:
I have really been thinking about opening another shop lately and all of a sudden artfire seems to be everywhere. They appear to be the only one that is really wanting to take on the Etsy dominance in the market. I am seriously considering signing up while they have the $7 deal going on. I'll be interested in hearing about your experiences with them.
to Silkfair (www.silkfair.com)
Free shop, free listings, 3% sales fee. Plus instore chat, bulk uploads, Google base submission, etc.
I love the idea of Artfire, but I hate to get my hopes up. I've seen enough alternatives to ebay come and go, and the problem they all seem to have is not being able to generate enough revenue to make improvements. With Artfire's fee structure as it is, I have doubts that they'll be able to hang on for the long haul. Doesn't mean I'm not planning to jump on the Artfire bandwagon, just that I don't want to put too many eggs in that basket.
I think AF is going to be the site that gives Etsy a run for it's money. (Though DaWanda does a great job of that if you want foreign customers.) They have sponsors already lined up & money already going into the site. They are running ads (online & offline), giving sellers the tools that are needed to sell & building the site based on what Etsy ISN'T doing to hold onto it's customer base.
I am crossing my fingers & getting my shop over there now, before the rates go up & it gets super busy. It's always good to get in on the ground floor & I think AF is in it for the long haul. (The ads they bought in Craft Magazine are running for at least two years so I think they will be around awhile.)
Anyhoo, I'd really like to see feedback from people as they set up. :)
I just signed up for Artfire. I only have a few things listed so far. Haven't sold anything at AF yet.
I'm going to try to keep both shops on Etsy and Artfire, but focus my handmade stuff on Artfire and post things there as they expire from Etsy. I'll save Etsy for craft supplies. It's tough when all my business cards point to Etsy and I'm still having sales there, but none on Artfire yet (then again, I have 147 listings on Etsy and 6 on Artfire). My focus right now is actually ebay, but that's because people are shopping and things are selling that wouldn't sell during the rest of the year.
First, thankX for your super Comment on my own blog's beadwoven pieces!! Appreciate bunches. So, then I went to your own "newsy" blogsite: and I was really glad to read all this info RE: ArtFire as I just joined this week myself. In the process of setting up shop. Will be interesting to see what happens with this group over time. Your own beaded pieces (I went to your Etsy shop) are yummy!! Love them!
Dini
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