How to Sell Homemade Arts and Crafts Online

Etsy Website: Make Money Selling Craft Items on the Internet

Mar 14, 2008

The Martha Stewart Show features Etsy online mall's lovely handcrafted arts and crafts. Make money from home selling handicrafts or buy from fine crafters & artists.

Etsy is a huge arts and crafts mall online, featuring over 1000 skilled craftspeople and artists from around the world. Artists and crafters alike can buy and sell their products on this interesting and unique website often featured on the Martha TV show.

Etsy Is a Martha Stewart Favorite Crafts Website

Martha Stewart raves on her television show about the lovely, skilled, and clever handicrafts sold online on a fantastic site called Etsy. She has, on occasion, featured skilled craftspeople from Etsy on her show to demonstrate their unique artistic items to her audience.

What Is Etsy Craft Mall?

Etsy is an Internet marketplace where artists and crafters can sell their fine wares to the public. Well worth the visit, anyone can find a truly unique gift or piece of artwork for home or office. This unusual and well-organized site is a treasure of special products, many of which cannot be found anywhere else.

Opening an Free Account to Sell

Getting ready to sell on Etsy requires only a very short registration process, including giving an active credit card number, email address and home or business address. The hardest part, besides actually creating the art or craft to sell, is coming up with a company name. If a company already has a name, there is a search to see if the name is already taken. If not, one chooses a name and a store is born.

Once an account is set up, all that is needed is a handcrafted item to sell, pictures of the item, and a little time to describe, price, and list the artwork for sale. Etsy is a giant mall, of sorts, and each individual has their own store (click to see an Etsy store) within the larger mall. Unlike eBay, Etsy does not take bids or hold auctions. Items are sold outright, straight from the artist to the customer. There is also a very good search engine for the site, where potential customers can browse to their heart’s content.

Getting Started Selling on Esty.com

Listing an item on Esty is simple and very inexpensive. To put an item up for sale costs just 20 cents. This covers an amazing four months of listing time and up to five photographs. If an item sells, the artist pays Etsy 3.5 percent of the selling price. That’s it.

For accepting money from customers (directly), using a Paypal payment account is recommended, but not necessary (one can accept any type of payment one chooses). Etsy is not the middleman for dealing with customers or sales. It simply provides a storefront.

Through Etsy, an artist or craftsperson has the advantage of instant exposure to customers looking for truly unique arts, homemade creations of all types, and fine handicrafts.

Shopping for Artistic Handicrafts Online

Just a few of the beautiful items that may be found on Etsy (which would make great Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts, by the way) are:

Shopping at Etsy is a delight. Every page brings a new creation and a new appreciation for the artistic folk in the world.

This reviewer gives Etsy and its artists a 10 out of 10 rating for quality, value, and ease of use.

The copyright of the article How to Sell Homemade Arts and Crafts Online in Small/Home Business is owned by Janienne Jennrich. Permission to republish How to Sell Homemade Arts and Crafts Online in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.