Buy Handmade. Sell for Free. This is the mantra of the newest online marketplace!
Do we really need another place to sell/buy from? In the current economy there are people who would say no – however, if you are an artist, jeweler, crafter – you know WE DO!!!
Ebay ( http://ebay.com ) sales are flat and, in my opinion, it has never really been profitable for “handmade goods” – now don’t jump on me, I still go to Ebay for brand names and collectibles!
Etsy ( http://etsy.com ) has “outgrown” the “handmade” market and is allowing more and more commercial product to be sold on their site – again, just my opinion, there are LOADS of fantastic artisans producing great art on Etsy.
Ruby Lane ( http://rubylane.com )has always been known more for the antiques and collectibles market – although they did just recently add a new “lane” for Artisan Jewelry.
From their site:
Why Buy Handmade?
Nothing is more uniquely designed, and has more expression and care put into the quality of the craftsmanship, than the handmade crafts and jewelry found on Artfire.com. Our free interactive community provides the perfect marketplace featuring the handmade products of artisans and crafters of all types.
Nothing is more uniquely designed, and has more expression and care put into the quality of the craftsmanship, than the handmade crafts and jewelry found on Artfire.com. Our free interactive community provides the perfect marketplace featuring the handmade products of artisans and crafters of all types.
Find items such as:
* Unique, elegantly designed handmade jewelry
* Master fired handmade pottery from different countries and cultures
* Comforting handmade quilts
* Specialty handmade collectible art dolls
Handmade Arts & Crafts Marketplace
Becoming a member of the Artfire community of artisans is more than just selling your handmade products; your membership helps our artisan community support other organizations that help us all. The Artfire community provides a way that artisans can grow their business and connoisseurs of handmade craftsmanship can enrich their collections.
Becoming a member of the Artfire community of artisans is more than just selling your handmade products; your membership helps our artisan community support other organizations that help us all. The Artfire community provides a way that artisans can grow their business and connoisseurs of handmade craftsmanship can enrich their collections.
Artisan Membership
Our handmade artisan marketplace provides a platform for artisans to prosper and grow their business with other like minded members. Becoming a member of our artisan community offers more than just a place to sell your handmade products. As an Artfire member, you are making an positive impact on our planet by supporting organizations that aim to help us all. The Artfire community represents you as an artisan and makes donations on your behalf to global causes. Become an Artfire.com member today.
Our handmade artisan marketplace provides a platform for artisans to prosper and grow their business with other like minded members. Becoming a member of our artisan community offers more than just a place to sell your handmade products. As an Artfire member, you are making an positive impact on our planet by supporting organizations that aim to help us all. The Artfire community represents you as an artisan and makes donations on your behalf to global causes. Become an Artfire.com member today.
Today in a conversation on Twitter – @ArtFire replied to questions about site sales info and for current stats on the site with the following info:
“…we don’t have any sale statistics for the site as a whole, but you can see how many sales a seller has had (cont’d)
…based on the number beside the shopping bag icon in their profile. I can also tell you that last month we had 246 (cont’d)
…sales in November alone. But we expect this number to climb as we do more advertising and push our buyer campaign this month. 🙂
We had 66,000 + visits to Artfire last month alone–that’s a high climb from 10,000 in October! add that to 10,000 items total (cont’d)
…listed for sale on the site and 4887 total members and things are looking quite promising!
we were in a closed beta (no advertising for or marketing at all, not for buyers or sellers) in September, October and (cont’d)
…November we finally started to push to make ourselves known on the internet. So far things are going quite well!”
These are very promising figures for a site that has only been actively advertising for a month!!!
This is how it works – as a buyer – “It is always free for buyers of handmade products to search through our listed artisans, buy, or request for items to be specially made.”
As a seller – “Verified Members Get Unlimited Listings with Zero Fees” – “We want to help artists. That means putting our money where our mouth is and stepping up in these tough economic times.
For the next 5,000 verified artists who sign up as verified artisans on artfire.com we’ll lock in your membership at just $7/month for life.
Our verified status is a great deal at the normal price of $20/month. You’ll get all of the functionality of a website with great features like stats, your own sub-domain name, currency conversions and much more. “
Take a few minutes – step over to ArtFire and check out all the support opportunities they currently offer! http://ArtFire.com
Robyn Hawk
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I was also thinking of doing the switch or actually having both Artfire and Etsy as both venue to sell my stuffs. I was weighing the option of my listing frequency rates to that of paying $7 dollars a month. Nonetheless, I think it 7 bucks is acceptable to someone who lists a lot and sells a lot.
I just signed up for ArtFire (http://artsafire.artfire.com–how cool is that url? :)), but I’m also on Etsy already. I’m waiting to stock up ArtFire until I have extra items (crossing my fingers for Monday!) so I don’t have to worry about selling the same item twice. Thanks for this article/blog!