Giveaway and new guild website

I joined ArtFire a few months ago - an online artisan marketplace - and more recently I joined one of the guilds on there - the Fun, Cute and Whimsical (FCW) guild.

This week, the great Deb - the leader of the guild - launched our guild website (http://fcwguild.com) and for the launch, I'm doing a giveaway. You have to sign up before July 16th to be eligible - but all you have to do is enter your name and email address. One name will be chosen from all the entries.

The guild has two giveaways each month - the first on the 1st of the month and the second on the 16th - so check back regularly and see what other members of the guild put up to giveaway.


My giveaway is a bookmark with one of my paw prints on it - well - not my paw print, but those of a mountain lion :-D - so it could make a nice gift for man or woman or child or....lioness!


The guild also has a separate blog which will be combined with the website soon. So go take a look at the blog, website and the giveaway to see lots of fun, cute and whimsical things and also to see if you are lucky! Good luck! Hope I know the winner.....

Business Matters - Marketplaces - Review

In my business matters posts over the last couple of months, I've given you my point of view and experience with a variety of artisan marketplaces where you can sell your creations. Each one is different, they have their own rules and their own styles. If you want to look at back at my posts, here are the links:
Boundless Gallery
Smashing Darling
Dawanda
Nest
Etsy
Not on the High Street
Zibbet
ArtFire

I hope what you have garnered from my discussion is that you get different things from different places. And while you may think the only place you want to be is where you get good sales, I encourage you to not let that restrict you. These marketplaces offer many things as well as sales - such as exposure, networking, friends, inspiration, connections, ideas for marketing, publicity, support,......

So if you are just using them for selling, I think you are missing out! Try somewhere new and see what you get and also what you can give to others. It's rewarding - and some of our most precious rewards aren't financial.

Here's some links to other sites I haven't mentioned that may be worth considering and there are plenty of others too:

1. http://www.ecrater.com/
2. http://www.bigcartel.com/
3. http://www.rubylane.com/
4. http://www.silkfair.com/
5. http://www.yessy.com/
6. http://www.supermarkethq.com/
7. http://www.elsewares.com/
8. http://www.indiepublic.com/
9. http://www.shophandmade.com/
10. http://www.1000markets.com/
11. http://www.trunkt.com/
12. http://www.winkelf.com/
13. http://www.folksy.com/
14. http://www.artsefest.com/
15. http://www.madeitmyself.com/
16. http://www.lollishops.com/
17. http://www.icraft.ca/
18. http://www.lov.li/
19. http://www.handmadecatalog.com/
20. http://www.coriandr.com/
21. http://www.youcraft.org/
22. http://www.youcraftylot.com/
23. http://www.fuzzb.com/
24. http://www.pinkdoodle.com
25. http://www.americanhandmadecrafts.com
26. http://crafthaus.ning.com
27. http://www.artfulhome.com
28. http://www.wholesalecrafts.com
29. http://www.craftmall.com

If you sell somewhere else and have a good experience - do please let us know in the comments section.

I'll be starting a new theme of "business matters" next Wednesday. Look forward to seeing you then.

Business Matters - Marketplaces - Art Fire

This week's artisan marketplace for review is Art Fire. Art Fire is a new marketplace and has taken off with great popularity.

There are two sellers accounts you can try - basic and verified. Basic is free - free to list and free to sell. No commission - nothing. No monthly fee. Just a place to sell your items and keep the money for yourself! Surely that is worth a try? And it can be free forever! Maximum 10 items for sale at any one time. Includes google analytics and many other features. It may be called "basic" but it actually does alot.


The second account is a verified account. Here there is a monthly fee of $12 (it was $7 and has just gone up - and will soon go up to $20 - it is their incentive price to get artists to join). Apart from the monthly fee, there is nothing else to pay - no listing charges, no commission - just your monthly. Take a look at what you spend on Etsy a month and see how it compares. For your monthly fee you can list as many items as you want.

They have lots of little extras - for example, if you look at my sidebar on the blog - just scroll down a little way - you can see that they have a Rapidcart that you can add to your blog or facebook. You choose which items you want in it - or let them be random from your store and then people can buy directly from your blog without haven't to go into ArtFire or any other store.


ArtFire automatically submits your items to google base, and has "share this" buttons so you can bookmark a store on your own computer, email it to someone else, or bookmark on Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Twitter and many more.

Another feature is "markethub". This is a place on your store where you can link through to all your other stores and social networks. You can even link through to your Etsy Store. I've linked to Etsy, my own website, my blog, Facebook, Twitter.....etc etc. It's a great hub so someone can see the other places you sell and frequent! Below you can see the buttons to the links (sorry, not active in this snapshot)...


I haven't actually spent much time on Art Fire yet but have started a store there........and I think, like all these marketplaces, you need to put in the time to get noticed initially - so that is on my to do list!! It is very similar to Etsy but with a few added features and not as large (yet!).

If you look at the traffic rankings of marketplaces, ( RANKINGS ) ArtFire is pretty high up considering it only started a few months ago. It's definitely one to watch I think.