leaves beta. On site promotions are available for sellers and there are forums for community discussion. The site is in beta, and will be changing throughout 2009 to accommodate user suggestions.

Probably the most famous online venue is Ebay. However, as an auction site, this tends to not be a good place for selling crafts. It costs approximately a dollar to list on Ebay what it takes twenty cents to list on Etsy and free on Artfire, and you only get a week. A shop on Ebay costs $16 and up a month. Handmade items compete with $0.01 listings of mass produced items and it is difficult to get ahead.Some miniature and high-en artists have found Ebay to work for them though.

There are also completely free sites including Blujay and eCrater. More promotion is needed when selling on these venues due to lack of traffic. There are also non-handmade goods offered on those sites, but they have forum communities for support. A UK based handmade site is Dawanda. Prices are in Euros and sellers outside Europe have to contact support to setup the origin for domestic shipping. Listing on Dawanda is free, but they take a 5% commission on the sale price of each transaction. A juried site that is gaining momentum is 1000Markets, which was started in part by a former Etsy seller. Because it is integrated with Amazon payments, the site is open only to those in the U.S.

There are more venues listed below that are less known and therefore have much less traffic and stores, and some cost a pretty penny.

Regardless of where you sell online you will have to be able to get paid. If you want to accept credit cards Paypal is a trusted processor that does not share the buyers credit information with vendors. You also have the ability to withdraw money from your Paypal account directly with a debit card or to have it transferred into your bank account. You can also use your Paypal balance to shop online! Ebay, Etsy, and Dawanda are already integrated with Paypal, the only requirement is to sign up with them. Transaction fees are as much as 3.5% plus 30 cents. Google Checkout is another processor and costs 2.5% plus 20 cents. Google checkout as well as Paypal are integrated with Blujay and eCrater shops.

More online venues (Information is current as of May 20, 2009):

ArtisansMarket - $10/mo membership plus 10% commission, paid monthly

Bigcartel - build your own shop, different levels of cost, list up to 5 items for free

buysellcommunity - like craigslist, ad placement

craftersbuzz - $10/mo hosting if you don't have a site already, place ads
EW56Bhttp://craftmall.comWH6PD Z6EFP

craftmall - $9.95/mo and up

craigslist - local ads, must post in small biz if advertising a webshop
EW56Bhttp://freecraftfair.comW H6PDZ6EFP

freecraftfair - now a resource site, not a listing site
EW56Bhandmadecatalog.comWH6PDZ 6EFP

handmadecatalog - $4.95/mo and up or $40/yr and up (your choice), plus 5-15% commission on sales
EW56Bhttp://hyenacart.comWH6PD Z6EFP

hyenacart - earth-friendly

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