On artfire.com there are two methods of selling. One is totally free, but with limits such as shop size and site accessibility. The other method, is $20/month which seems to provide an unlimited amount of listings and accessibility to some additional forum areas and deals for visibility of your shop. See my shop below. I choose to go with the free method until I see that sales are being made. Although if I take into account the price I pay for listing and final value fees it might be worth paying for a verified account on artfire.com.
The second venue I found while reading the Business Week article that I found through a Google Alert for the term Etsy. This article talked about different venues to sell online for the small business person. Bonanzle.com was not mentioned in the article, but the second commenter to the article mentioned that Bonanzle.com was where she was buying stuff this year. So of course I had to check it out!
What I have found here is no listing fees, unlimited items, importing items from ebay, and some neat add-ons that I haven't seen before. These include notification that you are online, a chat function in each shop, an interesting sale function, local shopping and pick-up options, etc. I have decided to try this venue also.
While I am not going to leave etsy for any length of time, I really think that it is all about building your web-presence. The more places you can be on and have your name and product visible, the higher chance of your items being seen and then purchased.
If you are going to sign-up with bonanzle.com, please feel free to click here to sign up.
I don't get any compensation, but I do get Karma points. And personally I need all the good Karma I can get!!
