by Ariana R. Cherry

Created on: February 26, 2007   Last Updated: April 12, 2007

Selling your crafts online gives you millions upon millions of places and opportunities to market your crafts. Amongst those millions, although, will be a line of competition that you will have to wait in. It sure is a jungle out there! Creating and selling handmade crafts can be a rewarding part time, and even full time job, but trying to find that special market to break into, can be a difficult task.

Being a crafter myself, I browse the internet on a weekly basis, trying to find places to sell my crafts. It takes a lot of patience and time to create my jewelry, and then it takes even more time trying to figure out where to sell it at. One of the main goals of an artisan is to have more time to create then to have to deal with the whole selling and marketing process.

For those on a budget, a great place to start out is http://www.etsy.com/. This is somewhat like Ebay, where you have the product listings; the name of the seller, and you can even visit the mini store of the artisan. But that is where the similarities end between the two.
Etsy is an online catalog of nothing but handmade products. From clothing to jewelry, from home decorations, toys, soaps, and woodcrafts, there are all kinds of crafts that you can browse through and purchase. If you were looking for a place to find an original gift or a place to sell your original craft product, Etsy would be the place to list it at. Listings only start out at just10 cents each, and you get to keep all of your earnings. Once your product sells, you collect the money, and ship your item to the customer. It's an easy process and very affordable. You even receive your own link at Etsy so that you can promote your shop and products. If you are new to the internet, then Etsy is a great starter place.

If you don't mind paying a little bit more for your listings, then check out the Artisans Market at http://www.artisansmarket.com/ArtistsWanted.asp. At this website, they give you a free 60 day trial period where you can try out their website to get a chance to see if this particular online market would work for you. The process is fairly simple if you have some internet experience. You upload your photos, type in your product descriptions and set your prices, and then you are ready to go. Once you receive an order,Artisans Market lets you know through email, and then you ship your product. They give you all of the necessary shipping and order information so that you don't have to deal with the hassle. Artisan's Market

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