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In the current economy condition many people are trying to sell their handmade goods to bring in a little extra cash to help with the bills. At least, that is why I am doing it. Online seems to be the main way to go with marketing your crafts. But there are other ways to market yourself as well, I will go over those in this article too.

1. Etsy.com: This site is dedicated to handmade crafts. Their fees are cheaper than some of the other sites that I have seen. They also provide forums where you can get advice from other Etsians and promote your latest listings. The initial sign up is free you only start paying when you start listing items.

2. ShopHandmade.com: This is a relatively new site, which allows you to sell your items for free. Their fees are covered by sponsor companies. Being only a little over 2 months old at the time this was written, it is hard to know if this website will make it in the sea of thousands of sites on the net. But since they don't charge you anything to list and sell with them, I don't see that it would hurt anything to try it out.

3. Ebay.com, Auctiva.com, etc.: They typical Auction Site giants have always been popular for selling crafts and other goods on. However, you do need to be careful and watch that your listing fees (and other fees) don't add up on you, or you will wind up just adding more bills to the pile.

4. Craigslist.org : this site is a free classified ad area. It isn't guaranteed that you will sell your items that you list on here. But for free why not try it out.

5. Local Craft Malls & Flea Markets: These are great if you can find someone that had a few handmade crafts as well that you could share a booth with and split the rent. If you do this, you should print up some flyers that have your website information on it and put it in every bag that you send along with your customers.

6. As you start to sell items, be sure to include business cards, tags, flyers, etc. with your shipments that advertise your website/s. I would recommend including 2 or more with each shipment, so that if someone has a friend that they think might be interested in your goods they will pass the information along.

7. Get a blog and talk about your craft, what inspires you and what you like. If you include others or mention other blogs, be sure to link back to those people and when word reaches them that you are promoting them, they may return the favor, but do be aware that this technique is not always guaranteed. Include the web address to your blog on your business cards and flyers.

Now, these are not the only ways to market your crafts, but some marketing techniques do vary depending on the type of product that you are trying to sell. Find forums that are related to your craft and get advice from your peers. The more you put your name out there (and link back to your online store) the more exposure your products will have to the public. And the more times an item is seen the better its chances of being sold.

Learn more about this author, Crystal Raen.
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