A Quick How-To Guide on Selling Your Crafts on the Internet

If you don't want to invest in starting your own Web site yet, I would recommend starting with Etsy.com, which is a site specifically for selling artwork and crafts. You will receive your own easy-to-use web address: yourstorename.etsy.com and you will not have to sell your product for less than you believe it's worth by auctioning it like you often would with Ebay. Etsy is very popular among people who are just starting out as well as people who have been in the craft business for a very long time. See their site for more details. Don't expect results simply by adding your items, though. You will need to advertise, use very good photos, and tag your work carefully.

eBay can also be a good place, if you can drive traffic to your auctions, if you use the buy-it-now function, and especially if you have a very defined niche of art or crafts. You will need to advertise even more if you sell on eBay because of the huge amount of non-craft items available there. I would recommend using eBay in conjunction with your own site and plenty of advertising.

Many people sell their art and crafts on LiveJournal.com
- You can post pictures of your work to your journal, advertise your wares on various livejournal communities, and then people can pay you through Paypal, money orders, and the like. However, there is no rating system like there is with pro sites such as Etsy or eBay so be careful! It is based solely on trust and you may get burned.

There are actually several communities on LiveJournal for you to advertise your crafts, even if you don't sell them on the LiveJournal site. Etsy has their own community there and there are several for Ebay users. A couple of sites specifically for advertising are:
*http://community.livejournal.com/diyrevolution
*http://community.livejournal.com/buymydiy/

Though there are quite a few more, including ones that are more specifically targeted towards a particular set of buyers.

*Etsy's LiveJournal is located here.

If you decide that you do want to open your own website, there is far too much information you will need than can be addressed in this article. I would suggest going to Craftster.org and reading the "Crafty Business Ventures" part of their forums. There is some incredibly helpful advice there. You will learn what the best webhosts are, how to set up a shopping cart, how to figure out shipping costs, and much much more.