Cash in on Your Crafts

Your hobbies and interests are important to you. Crafts are enjoyable and fun to do. They are also good therapy for a restless mind or hands. Ah! But how can you turn crafts into a profit?

You've looked on Ebay but handmade things don't seem to sell there very well in some cases. It's not specifically for crafted items you pour your heart and energy into and time well spent. So if Ebay is too general a place to sell your special talents and works of art, where do you go? Etsy of course! At www.etsy.com you find a diverse grouping of different crafts from knitting and needlework to beading and jewelry making to candle making. It's a place crafters of all kinds can find their own niche and home on the web to store their items online for sale.

When you get on the website you will see a menu across the top for "Buy", "sell", "alchemy", "Forums", "Your Etsy", and help above a large rectangular search box. I was curious what "Alchemy" was under that title so I clicked the box and it said, "Alchemy is being refurbished. You will be able to request and bid on custom listings as soon as we finish writing it," written over a graphic pic of what looks like a chemist in a laboratory. Forums need no introduction to those who have used them. They are just places for people online to gather and share ideas with each other. And "Your Etsy," is where members log in.

Vertically on the left side there is another menu on the home page with ways to shop like "by colors" or by "time machine." Out of curiosity I clicked "time machine" and it opened to an interesting page. There was a clock at the top with the second hand running in a graphic and small postage size pics spiraling out from the middle of things that had recently been listed. This is a very creative website and visually appealing. There are other listings on the left side to click and explore further.

On down the page on the left side are links for groupings of the different craft types available for homemade items. There's listings for accessories, art, bags and purses, bath and beauty, books and zines, candles, ceramics and pottery, children, clothing, crochet, furniture, "geekery", glass, jewelry, music, needlework, and many other categories.

To the middle and right side of the home page are pictures of featured items for sale. Beneath that is a feature on a current seller with pictures of some of their wares along with a link to an interview with the current feature seller.

Beneath that on the home page is a selection of pics of recently listed items.

I hope that if you have a hobby you enjoy, you can take the time to check out www.etsy.com and turn your crafting into cash.