A place to sell

I came across a web site that bills itself as "Your place to buy & sell all things handmade." I spent 3-4 hours looking at the site and it is really interesting... There are a couple broad categories for woodworking and furniture and many subcategories. I thought there may be opportunity for folks here on the rec so I figured I'd post this information.

In fact, it left such an impression on me that I woke up about 3 AM this morning with an idea for a unique woodworking item I might try marketing... dragging my butt now as I didn't fall asleep until about 5 AM. LOL

John

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Stowe has work there (FWW, Woodworking, Taunton DVDs and books, etc.)

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Reply to
John Grossbohlin
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"John Grossbohlin" wrote

Interesting ... I read the $42,000 kitchen blurb, but I also apparently got up too early and didn't understand a bit of it.

Good link though ... thanks!

Reply to
Swingman

I've had a shop on Etsy for almost a year now, and it's definitely a good site. My shop is

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's the bad stuff: Etsy really seems to focus on the hip, trendy twenty-somethings, and the site is dominated more by "craft" type of stuff than really skilled work. They have an interesting definition of "handmade", if you alter a mass-produced item, that's considered handmade by them. So it's frustrating for woodworkers to see say a made in china wood box with a picture on it, and you have to compete with that. And they don't have to disclose the part about not having made the box either. The average sold price on Etsy during November was $15.

I have gotten some good extra exposure from it though, and the fees are great. 20 cents to list for 4 months and 3.5% when you sell. You can also renew for 20 cents at any time, and a lot of people spend a lot of money doing that to be at the top of the search results. They are supposed to be launching a new improved search early this year that will change that, but we don't have any details about it. Anyway I haven't found much of a need to do the renewing in the woodworking category, it is much smaller and less competitive than say the jewelry category which is a zoo.

If your hope is to just list the items on Etsy and be successful with it, you will be disappointed. You can get some extra exposure from it, but you get what you put in as far as marketing. From that perspective you are better off having your own website if you are going to be serious about it, but for a minimum of fuss you can get something up on Etsy. Just don't expect something for nothing. Having excellent photography is critical to getting any exposure within Etsy. I've been on the front page several times and in the gift guides.

Reply to
LEGEND65

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