If it were Me

If I was determined to find more buyers for my crafted products, using the internet, what would I do?

Personally, I'd build my own website and have it hosted at a cost of anywhere from $6 to $12 a month. Most of them have their own web page builders and if not, I'd use a free website builder I could find on tucows.com.

Then I'd join every possible community where crafter's gather. Those like the one I happen to have built at Crafter's Corner  and many others where crafter's can talk about themselves and show off their goods.

Then I'd put my products into a selling platform online, places like Etsy, as long as the fee was taken out of the sale. There's also bonanzle.com and of course, ebay.com.

I would add my website address to all my outgoing emails in the signature and everywhere I went online, that would let me put in my web address, I'd add it.

Then I'd join facebook.com and twitter.com and just start posting. You can just do updates on the latest product added, stuff like that.

Since the idea is to attract buyers, I'd also snoop around and find forums and blogs just for people looking for a good time or the best restaurant or better than that, places where shop owners are looking for products.

I'd comment on other people's blogs, leaving behind my website address. Not spamming but actually getting in there and adding quality content.

If I did craft shows, I'd be sure to have business cards that included my website address. If I felt I could afford it for awhile, I'd get a google account and start running google ads for awhile.

Considering that I'd be busy producing my own products, I'd have to find cheap ways of riding someone else's tail, someone who's already out there doing all these things. And by the way, that's exactly what I do with our Crafter's Corner. Why more people have not joined and participated, I'll never know. Is crafting business dead?

The more places you have your name and website address, the more you become 'known' and the easier it is for people to find you through searches. Anybody interested, I can help with things like keywords, to help in search results turning up your site.

Now, this is just what I would do if I really wanted to sell.

How I Spread The Word About Us

I realize there's no way for my readers to know how it is, I bring traffic to our sites. Here's a list of most of the places where I blog, network the sites or write articles with links back to the sites.

On this first one, you can see a list of pages I've built at Squidoo
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/red46

http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Judy_Sims

http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/judy-sims/31717.htm

A whole list of blogs with links back My Blogger Profile

The Home and Family Site
My Trucking Blogs
The Christian Fellowship site

There's my facebook profile where I talk about us all the time.

And my twitter account
My Stumbles
My bookmarks
My Diggs
MySpace
My technorati page

One of my networks on Ning
My profile on Merchant Circle

That, believe me is not all there is but I'm tired. :)

This is what it takes to get known in the search engines. Networking the internet. So either you do it or I do it. If your information is listed on the Crafter's Corner you can take advantage of the traffic I work on. What comes to me, also comes to you.

All you have to do is submit an article with your website address included in it, or click on the link in the first paragraph for the Crafter's Sites and pick out a box and click it. Submit your information and I'll get it in there.

Promote and Sell Your Crafts on the Internet

Don't let the heading fool you, I wrote this for WikiHow

How to Promote and Sell Crafts on the Internet

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Just like any other business online, you have to build your own market.

Steps

1. Once you know what products you want to sell, you first have to make a decision. Your own web site or selling on one of the many sales sites designed for crafter's. Either way, you will need to work on your own traffic.
   
2. Once you're products are up and listed, it's time to spread the word.
   
3. Join social sites like twitter and facebook and talk about yourself. Upload pictures of your products along with links leading back to your sales pages.
   
4. Be sure to include your links in your email signatures. Let your friends know.
   
5. Write articles. Yes, I said write. You can always find something to talk about when it comes to your craft and products. Talk about them. Start your own blogs and submit instructional articles to all those 'free article' sites and include your links and information about yourself and products.
   
6. If you're really feeling daring, open a google account and start using their adwords program. For a few cents a day, you can get your ads in front of buyers eyes. Check it out and learn all you can about the program.
   
7. Join forums on the crafts sites and include your information in your profile. Don't spam the forums, really get in there and become a part of the crowd.
   
8. All these things help to bring traffic to your web pages and the more traffic the better.
   

Tips

• Remember that you care about your products, not the selling sites. They care about more members.
  

Warnings

• What ever you do, open a separate email account just for your business and don't give it out,just anywhere.
  

Sources and Citations

• The Crafter's Corner is loaded with information about marketing and selling your crafts. http://judysbookshop.com/blog and http://judysbookshop.com/nuke
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Promote and Sell Crafts on the Internet. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.