New site to increase the traffic to your site

Hi,
As you guys know I do have a small online store in zibbet.com .That is a very lovely community .
It was here that I was suggested or should I say suggested to share and display my items in bizspeaking.com .
When I logged on here I found that this  another useful site that can increase our exposure and presence .

Hence sharing this information with you all. Hope you can also benefit just like me

All the best!!!

Sell Handmade items online – 25 online sites

Online selling : List of 25 websites

In one of my previous blogs ,I had mentioned a few sites where one can sell handmade crafts and items .THis time , I am extending the list of sites which will help all of us to sell our products

1. http://www.ebay.com(or ebay.com.au for Australian artisians )
2. http://www.etsy.com
3. http://www.artfire.com
4. http://www.zibbet.com
5. http://www.ebid.com
6. http://www.quicksales.com.au
7. http://www.madeit.com.au
8. http://www.momswhomake.com.au
9. http://www.madeitmyself.com
10. http://www.gumtree.com.au
11. http://www.myowncreation.co.uk
12. http://www.misi.co.uk
13. http://www.craftisart.com
14. http://www.handmadecatalog.com
15. http://www.folksy.com/
16. http://www.dawanda.com/
17. http://www.icraft.ca/
18. http://www.shophandmade.com/
19. http://www.winkelf.com/
20. http://www.1000markets.com/
21. http://www.artflock.com/
22. http://www.silkfair.com/
23. http://supermarkethq.com/
24. http://www.crobbies.com
25. http://www.momsmarketonline.com

Please note that every single site mentioned above have their own terms and conditions and criteria for supporting handmade.Please ensure to read them carefully before you proceed .
All the best !

Marketting tip #2 : Craft stalls

I recently put up a craft stall in one of the local community areas .I initially was very sceptical about how my sales will go as I have never tried that before .I was wrong. Happy I was wrong!!.I did make decent money out of the stall – good for a first timer though.

In my opinion any business should be started small to establish confidence in oneself. I paid only $10 for the stall which when compared to Big craft market that are held, is very little amount.

I had put up this stall in one of the churches. I happened to browse through the one of local classified websites and stumbled on this ad.
Lucky me that I did get a place too!!Usually in renowned craft exclusive fairs, it’s really hard to get a stall.

I have been trying to register for specific markets from a long time ,50% of the times; they charge a very high amount for setting up a stall and have to book months in advance.

This trial of mine to sell in one of local small communities taught me some basic stuff about sell handmade items . I learnt that

– If you are trying for the first time , go small scale ( safer)

– Try community fetes /school fetes – no need to pay heavy amounts /no long waits yet profits are good enough to cover the least stall expenses and get some in hand. I did make about $80 within 4hrs which is not bad for first timer !!

My hubby actually encourages me in so many ways ! He is a great support!

He gave me some really valuable ideas that I could do while being in the stall

1. For Jewellery – to have some pliers and beads handy, make and sell then and there
—this idea was good , as I did make and sell quite a few that very moment 🙂
2. If the customer likes some earrings say ,but wants in a different colour ,make it then and there – Customisation !!
— This idea was awesome one ! Truly fruitful!

3. Deals – be flexible on prices
– Some of the customers did actually buy more when I was able to offer them a deal.
4. Higher the price of the item- fewer number of people buy – Hence make more number of items that you can sell for lower price , and make fewer items that can be sold of higher price .
– This was absolutely true ! More customers do not think twice to buy something that is cheaper ,but are quite choosy when it comes to buying high priced ones .

Hence I made a large number of earrings ( which is my main area) in $2-3 range , which actually maximised my earnings . Also made some few high priced ones which I could not sell much as much as the other.

I do understand the pricing technique /method etc.I do know some artists may feel this is not right.I do understand the concept.

In today’s market ,customers /people are very reluctant to spend money. Usually people have an impression that handmade items are expensive because of their exclusiveness .Hence keeping our profits a bit low will actually attract them .I am not saying to cut costs or use cheap materials ,but suggesting to make handmade market more appealing and affordable .

And for the struggling artists , giving a tip to try even the most simplest market event rather than waiting for big exclusive craft fair .Smaller markets have – low competition , easy availability of stall space + low or no stall fees when compared to the big craft events .

I am sure I will setting up more stalls in future 🙂

Online Marketing tip #1 – Tags and keywords

Hi All ,

Thanks for supporting my article ” selling online ” that i had posted previously .I did see that some of you guys even posted the link in your blogs. Thanks a lot for liking.

In continuation to “Selling Online” this time , i have created another category in my blog where I have decided to post a few tips for marketing and the following  is my first tip

Online selling is more of marketing and attracting traffic into our sites /shops etc.The logic here is more the traffic i,e more users see your site more are the chances for your items to sell

The next question is how to generate more traffic ?

There are quite a few ways
1. Tags and keywords
2. Advertise in other sites /blogs
3. Post links in Social media like twitter ,facebook ,you tube etc
4. Blogging
5. Feeds
6. Posting in sites like stumbleupon,digg, reddit,votehandmade etc

The main focus of this blog is about tags and key words Also known as SEO -Search engine optimisation

In layman’s words , SEO means to write the item description using words that have a high probabilty to entered by users while they search for things in google

The tags also enable to the search engine to crawl to your site .

In most of the online shops provided by sites like etsy ,Artfire ,zibbet etc have a field provided to enter the keyword tags .These tags are those phrases that are likely to be entered while searching in google .

Try this out:

For example try entering ” handmade ” in the google search bar and see what other words are suggested to you  by the engine

Enter these phrases into your tag section and you can notice that your site recieves a better traffic than before

The most common tags I use for handmade jewelry are:
-handmade jewelry
-jewelry makingjewelry making ideas
-beading
-beading patterns
-sell online
-buy handmade online

Tags for handmade greeting cards  –

-handmade greeting cards
-card making
-card making ideas
-card making designs

The tags given above are only a few basic ones , you can add more to this ..

Hope this information helps – happy marketing!!

-Chinniabhi

Wired winged gold toned green glass pearl earrings

These earrings are made using wiring technique. The wire is twisted to make it look like wired wings .Then glass pearls are made to dangle from the wings