I have wanted to sell some of my work for ages. I have a few problems with it but the main problem is, where do I sell? I don't want this to be a full-fledged business, just a side thing. It really comes down to having some skills that often require financial investment and I simply don't have that. I'm a homemaker and my hubby and I are having to learn budgeting the hard way as we were never taught as kiddos. Add that my mother, our roommate, is having surgery this Friday, so she will be off work for a bit.
So yeah, not a whole lot of money running around in this household. And yet here I sit, wondering how I'm going to afford a new graphics tablet. Oh Wacom Bamboo Create, why are you so out of my reach?
But it doesn't have to be so out of my reach. And that's where Esty may come in. I would really like to sell some of my work to fund this. I was originally going to go through Kickstarter but I'd rather not ask people to fund that part of my materials. Plus...I could use it sooner rather than later. I've been so very behind on my art, it's driving me bonkers.
Esty seems like a possible solution for this predicament but I'm not so sure about it at the same time. One, I don't know what of my many things I do I should try to sell. Two, would Etsy be the right place for me considering I have to pay to post my work. Yet it isn't that much and in the end I would make more. Then again, I'd have to sell my work first.
I know I should definitely look around Etsy to see if anything I do make shows up among the many things offered there. I have art I can sell as prints, stuffed animals, and knitted items I could do. I'm also working on my sewing so something could be made of perfected projects. But I just don't know.
Maybe this is more a confidence issue than anything else but how has it worked for people out there in the wild yonder of the internet?
Picture of the Day:
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| How I hope my Etsy Adventures go... |
Etsy is a very useful tool when it comes to displaying, selling, shipping and dealing with the whole website side of selling things online.
ReplyDeleteThe hard part is getting people to *find* your things. Should you open an Etsy store, I would say it's imperative to put it EVERYWHERE you can (especially if it's related to where you post things).
Great places to put links are in footers on Forums (like in convention forums), Your emails, your away messages, and make a post on things like DA, Tumblr, FB, Twitter, wherever you can think of. Heck, if you want to have an Etsy store, you can even make a companion FB page that people can "like" and you can post when you have new products.
The hardest part about selling online is getting customers to the page.
Also, make sure to have good images (well lit, not fuzzy, show all angles of whatever your selling) coupled with a detailed description letting the customers know exactly what's there.
And don't forget to add shipping costs. Envelopes are 'spensive!
As long as you're timely with shipping and delivery, and you've got yourself a well-made product, customers will stay pretty happy.
Woah. sorry for the long text!
Never apologize for your advice. I appreciate it so very much! I will definitely be keeping what you said in mind as I ponder this.
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