Selling Crafts Online

I would also encourage you to place your items on Etsy. I do not have the talent to do crafts or draw or put colors and designs together, I wish I could but sadly I am not creative in any fashion. I belong to a facebook group that is for woman looking to make money with their crafts, one lady knited a teddy bear for Valentines day, displayed to the group asked for suggestions on the price and received about $50 orders just from the group. I liked the bear but did not order one, thought about it but decided not to spend the money. Based on that experience yes set up your crafts on Etsy even give Ebay a try and another place is Bonazona sorry about the spelling.

 

I would like to be able to make things that I could sell at a local craft market. I would not want to bother with working out postal costs and purchasing packing materials etc.

I did sell at craft fairs some years ago. Every weekend I would set up a table at a craft fair where I sold scented oils, pot pourri and natural skincare products, all of which I mixed myself.

 

There are lots of ways I make a bit of extra money, but crafts wouldn't be one of them... Unless there's a market for badly made junk that would fall apart in days... Yep, I'll leave craft making and selling to people who have skills...

 

My experience has been that it's just not worth it. I tried to sell at craft fairs years ago, but nobody appreciates the amount of work that goes into a hand crafted item. I used to do cross stitch and would do these beautiful, intricate designs on high quality linen. I would have literally 100-200 hours in a design, and people would comment that they'd be willing to pay $50-60 for the piece. It just was never worth it to me.

I have been thinking of getting on Etsy, but again, the prices don't really seem realistic for the types of crafts I do. I love to quilt and would love to be able to sell some of them, but I'll have $50-75 just in fabric, and 20-40 hours of work, and the quilts seem to sell for maybe $100-150.

 

Yes, the local rule for pricing craft items does seem to be just to double the cost of supplies and forget about payment for the time...

 

I think Etsy is a definitely interesting website. I don't want to show it to my wife because I know that she'll go on a spending spree as she's crazy for handmade stuff.

 

How about offering your crafts on fiverr? You would have to sell them 5$ each, but it's always a good start to make some money.

 

I agree, Mal. Unless you have a very unique item, and even then, it's difficult to get the traffic, even on Etsy. The problem is, you're up against people who will sell their items at a loss, just to make sales. I don't know if they're bored and get the supplies free or what, but it's very disheartening to spend money on supplies and hours on crafting products, only to be offered pennies on the dollar, or be bypassed for someone who will undercut your prices.

I haven't tried creating my own site, but it's a consideration for the future. The market seems depressed right now, I guess because of the economy. Most people I know who sell online are experiencing a downturn in sales, even the ones who were doing well a few years ago.

 

I do think that your own website is the way to go. I knit things, because I am near an alpaca farm I am able to get really great yarn that makes wonderful warm pieces, but the yarn is pricey so the end product has a cost. I think that if you have a website you have a better chance to make a few dollars back. Etsy and some of the other places where you could maybe list your products have it in the contract where they get something. Be it a charge for the listing or a percentage of the sale. I always figured that what I would do would be to make a series of my own websites and run my own ad server over these sites with items I could sell, So far the thought is good but the person is weak.

I think it is sad in a way that quality hand pieces have to be almost given away because crafters can not compete with major companies that can mass produce these products. There was a time when certain skills like quality hand work, would be enough to support a person, maybe meagerly compared to today, but at the least keep a person gainfully employed until they could no longer produce. This is what made me decided to make my own socks, I got so tired of the cheaper ones ripping thru or just not being warm enough. Wool socks can be a godsend in the cold winter days,

 

I think many of the people buying products these days have grown up with the habit of buying cheap mass-produced items that are in fashion, using them a time or two, then discarding them, all while claiming to care about the planet, environment, and recycling. It boggles me mind to hear about my nieces needing expensive products, then tossing them aside, or not caring for them properly. The appreciation for handcrafted goods doesn't seem to have been passed down to younger generations. Many don't seem to value something that has been carefully and lovingly created one at a time, over something created by a machine, or a person working in a sweat shop. On top of the actual time and work involved, they don't take into account the quality of materials. I've priced alpaca yarn, and it can be very costly. There's no way I could use it in products I make to sell, because I'd be losing money. I use good quality materials, but still, people don't value the work that has gone into creating a piece, and want to pay flea market prices.

At some point, if I'm ever able to build up a following, I might consider creating my own site, because even with traffic from social media, it's difficult to stand out on Etsy. For now, creating has fallen onto the back burner, since the bills have to be paid, but hopefully business will pick up.

 

Hi Pat, I'm new to the group and love crafts. Was wondering if you still belong to the Facebook group that is for woman looking to make money with their crafts. Would love to have a look!

 

Welcome to the forum @Anne Daft , that's an older post and I haven't seen Pat Baker online at all but maybe she'll see your post.

 

Yes, I agree with the consensus. I think your own website is probably the way to go. From what I can see or know there is quite a bit of competition on Etsy. It might be better to do your own thing. An alternative, I think might be to sell on Facebook. I have seen locally produced goods on our local Facebook yard sale site. In fact one woman I know from seeing her at local craft shows puts herself on there. You could also do some local craft sales until you find out what is sellling. There are some crafts I have in mind to do..but I never seem to want to work on them...hint they involvs making things out of wine corks..but sometimes they have to be cut...and they are very hard to cut...They have to be soaked first.