Here's my list, who has others?

Trademe (you can have 2 accounts there, business and personal)
Felt
Etsy
Ebay (US, Australia, Canada?) does anyone have success stories there?
Homegrown Market (haven't sold yet but they have just offered a free business page so we'll see)

Alot of people who sell on Etsy have moved to Artfire. Might be worth a look?

Artfire looks great - I went and had a look. I've had some stuff on Etsy, but to be honest, haven't put a whole lot of effort into my shop there.

I want to get going listing stuff off-shore, so spending time looking around. Lucy mentioned an Australian one at Crafty Business last night, I forget the name of it.

My clothing isn't the easiest to photograph, and cause everything is a one-off, I have to make a new listing for each item. The whole Etsy process seemed kind of klunky, with categories and sub categories etc etc.... or maybe I'm just lazy and need to get going.......

So - is it a matter of just picking a site and committing?

The Australian one is www.madeit.com.au

PS. Their T&Cs say: Selling items on madeit is only available to users residing in Australia.

That sucks about madeit! Seeing as OZ is basically next door.

Artfire charges $12 USD per month it looks like too...
Ebay has always seemed really dodgy too me, and all over the place and hard to use. Maybe that's just an opinion.

(good idea for a topic, yo!)

I just get overwhelmed when I look at Ebay, but there are some great shops there.

Wondering if anyone reading this has a shop there - if so, post a link.

Ditto Artfire...........would love to see what else people are doing online to move their gear.

Briar

I have sold products on Etsy before (just a couple) but have found that people overseas aren't really too keen to wait for their products to fly across the ocean from little old NZ.

I have also listed a few items on Ebay but it cost me a fortune to list (in pounds of course) and no bites at all. There are so many things being listed on Ebay all the time your product ends up lost in cyberspace.

I have sold quite a few things on Felt and its very exciting. I have also sold a lot on Trade Me but at a reduced price as people want as cheap as they can get on TM.

This is a great thread - would love to know what other websites other people are having success with.

Sonia

There's been a lot of discussion on the Etsy forums recently, and I think a lot of people have realised that there is a big wide world of people making great things out there now. I've had a couple of sales, and it only takes a few days to get there usually. I'd done quite a lot of trade parcels with friends on a particular forum, so I was pretty comfortable with putting the 4-10 day NZPost estimate into my profile on there.

I've been meaning to set up here for quite a while, and I've got to say that I'm really impressed with the number of views I've got already in a week. Comparable to what I get on Etsy if I'm not spending a lot of time in their chat rooms (which gets lots of views, but eats up creative time!).

I have been approached by LittleKiwisnest they just sell for 0-5 yr olds and charge a monthly fee - not so keen on that as you pay even if you don't sell - I also haven't seen them advertised anywhere yet.

I've had some great feedback through felt and some enquiries about bigger orders but it means dropping my price and I think my stuff is reasonable now and cheaper than it needs to be!!

great thread, it's really interesting to hear what you guys think about selling online.

I dont think I can be bothered with etsy, so many shops dont sell anything and I like felt and being able to use bank deposit.

hi, I have an etsy shop, but haven't put much effort in I must admit. I did make my first sale on there last week, which was really exciting but actually with the hassel of paypal and the extra fees with that it really drops down the profit, plus I had got the postage amounts wrong and it ended up being more expensive than I had thought.
Im really impressed with felt and its really nice to get to know other crafters in the area too
Plus i have made a few sales on here and its super easy and have got good numbers. Ive decided not to bother with TM anymore, just wasting money listing on there at the moment. I just listed a whole lot and nothing, hardly any views either.

Angelique

Poppetto your items are just gorgeous. Don't even think about selling them any cheaper:) I know exactly how much work goes into making our beloved crafts and there isn't much in it once you take into account the cost of materials etc.

Wildones your products are gorgeous too. I agree with you about TM. I have noticed a real slump in the last month on product sales (I was flat tack with orders before that) so don't know if I will bother too much with TM either. Although the fact that someone has taken some of my hat ideas and put them on themselves for half the price (and not as nice I might add) doesn't help. I know that there is no way to stop it from happening but it just upsets me - never mind:)

This thread is brilliant.

Ok, slightly diff topic but thought you guys may be able to help.
Does anyone know where I can get some woven labels/tags from, just little ones I can fold in half and sew in to my dolls with my name on??
I have googled but to no avail.
Thanks

creativaertz - that is the pits!!

and poppetto - not sure where you are but Im in chirstchurch and I got some made form foilprint, they very reasonable, i paid 120 for 400 labels plus a 35 set up fee (one off)
but the guy said it was only an extra 20 to get 1000 made! so ill know for next time

Poppetto, I make my own. I invested in a printer that prints on fabric. If you want to send me a private message, maybe I can do a custom listing for you. I'm totally happy to do small runs

<3

Elisabeth

hey there lovely felt people
i had a stall at etsy for 1 yr and nearly sold one thing - but she couldn't wait for postage - i did so much work trying to get noticed, my man started referring to himself as the internet widow!!!
so flagged that, and went to artfire, but only lasted 6mths, before i realised that for me i only get 2 days a week to devote to my business, and using up lots of hours on artfire was not great - so i just stuck to concentrating on felt, getting my stock numbers up, and getting myself 'out there' locally (b4 i take on the world!)
the other place that rocks big time for me is facebook - i have some really loyal fans, who are now repeat customers - some i have even persuaded to register with felt so i get some more feedback on my felt site....so i would recommend setting up a fan page on felt - if you dont no where to start head to facebook.com/redflax, and look at the bottom left hand corner, it will say CREATE YOUR OWN PAGE click that and off you go!!! and then tell me coz i will come and be a loyal fan!!!!
have a great day everyone, sorry about the big waffle!
justine balcar
redflax

Hi there -

What an interesting thread this is turning out to be!

I have moved the recent label posts onto a thread all it's own, so if you have something to add, check out the new thread.

As for the online thing, what is emerging is the idea that it is easy to get lost among the crowds on the bigger overseas sites, such as Ebay, and success online generally follows the amount of effort put in to selling online. I am certainly finding that - I have right now an avid customer just waiting for me to have the time to take and load photos of my newer stuff on felt.

I too have had some palaver with my first Etsy sale, but put it down to learning. I'm certain that if I was to persevere I would start to see benefits.

The hint on participating on forums = sales was a great one too - thanks for that!

Onward and upward!

Briar

Redflax, I just became your facebook fan!

I don't have enough fans of my own yet to get one of the custom URLs, but if anywant wants to see my page (still in it's infant stages), you can just type "the sewphist" into the find box in the top right hand corner of the facebook site! I'd love some fan-interaction

Oh, and I've now decided that felt gets way more views than etsy, and I've done very little to promote my shop here yet (got to take more photos, why can't I convince my hub that he should help me out with that???)

Is anyone twittering about their business? I've only started getting active with that recently. Followers are building!

I've got a shop on etsy and on artfire, Both have been slow. I think it's that people aren't familiar with NZ and are reluctant to take the risk of buying from someone so far away and somewhere that is seen as a boondocks place.
I sell a bit on Trademe, but like has already been said at reduced prices. I use it mostly to clear old stock and so people can found out about me.
What TM has done has generated quite a few custom orders and spread my profile, which has been great. I have a few regular customers that found me there first. I find it frustrating that I cant post my website details on my listings.
Felt was slow for me at first but in the last few months has picked up. I think it's starting to get known by buyers now. I suspect that Artfire may be the same. I'm kinda over etsy, it's just so bloody huge I don't know how anyone can find anything.
As for ebay, those fees, ouch!

such an interesting thread.
I have to say, I am the opposite to most of you, and have had (IMHO) great success on esty. Far more than I expected.
I certainly do get more sales when I promote more, but 2-3 a week makes me a happy girl. I have only been selling since feb and have racked up 70 sales, and I have several custom orders on the go too (which are repeat esty customers)
Shipping hasn't been an issue, and often feedback is that it got there quickly.

Artfire was a complete flop for me. I only did the free account where you can have 12 listings, my views were nonexistant. Apparently you get bumped to the top of searches if you have one of the paid accounts.

I do have a few things here, but must admit I haven't kept track. I am hoping to do a bit more closer to xmas.

I refuse to sell my craft on TM until they have a specific section dedicated to handmade goods.

Promoting on Twitter is great if you want the views, but it rarely, in my experience, translates to sales, But it is still good to know some one is looking.

Well I have two bags to finish...

Pomarie

Why don't we all hammer trademe for a handmade section. They need it(or is it us that needs it) God they irritateme! I recently tried to set up a business account under beautifulchaos but because I don't have a credit card in my business name they said no way. They also wont allow me to close my old account so that I can set up under my business name, nor will they let me change my username. So very frustrating. Combine this with not being able to put my website,contact or links on there! Argh! But the truth is they have been pretty successful for me in clearing old stock and finding customers.

So lets get our own category Handmade*NEW*

The most success I have had online is trademe with lots of repeat customers

I also list in NZ on Zillion
Webuy
Sella
Felt
After trademe, sella has been the most successful, impressed with the amount of views on felt so far.

Overseas I list on Oztion, ebid and artfire, artfire has 12 free listings, and I have had a couple of sales thru that.

I also do myspace, facebook, twitter, and webphotos, had a few sales via webphotos, not sure where they come from but it gets up to 500 views per week!

Starting a website next week with shopping cart so that should be interesting, finding it very hard to break into the overseas market so far.

I am so excited - just made a sale to Australia over the weekend. First I take on New Zealand then I take on the World!!!

Thanks FELT for your wonderful wonderful website.

Sonia:-)