Help please?????

Question

IM trying to find a profitable way to sell my artwork/woodburning .I do some great work I'm have a very tough time figuring out a way to use my talent to make some money.Does anyone have any ideas for me PLEASE HELP ME OUT?? heres my site its under construction but some of my work is on it www.freewebs.com/weeberscrafts

Answer 1

I finally figured out what your link is supposed to be. It should be http://www.freewebs.com/weberscrafts you had too many e's in your name. As a successful e-crafter I will give you some advice, take it for what it's worth.

1.Crafts are a tough sell. It has to be useful. How about clocks, boxes, knife handles? Make it useful. If it's not useful, it has to be super trendy or fill a niche, like fraternal decorations or wedding invitations. Then you will need to write the content of your website so that people searching for that item will find you. I used to get the writing on there 3 months before the product was ready, but I don't think it takes that long nowadays to show up in search engines. I don't know what the lead time is anymore.

2. Keep the Earnhardts off your website. It's copyrighted. Teresa will shut you down in ten seconds if her people see that stuff up there. Keep those for yourself or give as gifts.

3. The detail in your photos is excellent, but you need to show the whole item so people know what they are buying. Describe the hanging system if it's a wall piece.

3. Change your guest book to "testimonials". Moderate it so that nobody's comment gets on there without your permission. Load it with your friends so it won't look sparse. Get rid of the hit counter. You can get the information from site stats if you need to.

4. You know that annoying relative who's always correcting everyone's grammar? Get that person to look at your website whenever you make changes. For instance, Webers should have an apostrophe.

5. Get off of freebwebs unless you are planning to buy a domain name. I'm sure they are a fine host, but if you need to start with a freebie site, use geocities or tripod. Just not something with "free" in the name.

6. Take "crafts" out of your name. Everyone can do crafts. You're doing something nobody else can, right? Then promote yourself to artisan or at least woodworker. Or "Weber the Woodburner", maybe?

7. Use Ebay. Put your website in your Ebay profile. People do check. Make sure you don't break any Ebay rules with it. Take "OBO" off your website. Put it on Ebay with a "buy it now" price of $20.00 so people will know that's how much it's really worth. For that matter, $20.00 is way too low. Respect yourself and your work! Don't dicker on your website unless you are trying to look like the funny flea market guy. If that's the case, re-design your site to look like a Hee-Haw type environment and make that your schtick.

8. Do one from a picture and then post the picture and the finished product to illustrate how great your custom work will look.

9. Use your Ebay earnings to buy a domain name and upgrade to ad-free. Mine costs 10 bucks a year for the name and 3 bucks a month for the hosting.

10. If you can possibly afford $30.00 a month, use Google adwords. I hate them because they won't tell you in advance how much money they will take out of your bank account, but I think you should grit your teeth and use them for a few months til you build up a customer base. Choose words like "wedding gift", "native american" - not woodburning, because the people don't know they want woodburning, til they see yours.

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Answer 2

I'd follow Kacky's advice exept for one thing...don't use Ebay! Seriously. Just starting out most of your money will go to fees, etc. No fun at all.

There is, however, a site similar to ebay but for crafted work only (ie, paintings, carvings, homemade furniture, food, etc). Not only is it a wonderful place, free to join, and a great way to meet other craftsters, but the fees are very low. For instance, you can put up an object for sale for $0.20 for three months. The website is http://etsy.com Check it out at least.