I think when it comes to designing your own little creations there comes a point where you might have so many in your home and you've given away to your family and friends and received really good feedback and you might start thinking that you can sell your works of art to everyone else. Why not? Selling your creations either at craft fairs throughout the year or even trying to sell online, then it's available year round. This is where my mind has gone.... I'm creating lots of little trinkets, charms, wall art and characters... why not see if I can sell them and make a little money to keep a bit of a cashflow so I can keep myself well supplied in clay and craft books!
I have been looking at different selling websites and thought I'd share what I've found so far.
Through ArtFire you can create an account and have your own storefront for $9.95/month. They're currently offering Pro accounts for this price and it looks like they have a lot of tools to help sell your products online and you can sell as much as you want for 1 fee. As long as you maintain an active subscription your rate will never increase and you will have access to all of the current and future Pro level account tools and services. They also advise that you can cancel your membership at any time.
I've seen quite a few polymer clay artists selling their products through their ArtFire site which made me aware of ArtFire.
Super easy to sign up for a name and signing up is free. To be come a seller however you would need a credit card for verification purposes...as well it costs 20 cents to list an item for four months. When the item sells, you then pay an aditional 3.5% as a transaction fee. They do make it easy to pay your monthly bill as well, but you will need to do a bit of math to make sure the amount you list your items for... will make you a bit of a profit so it can keep you rolling in clay and clay books :)
Based in the UK, Folksy offers a way to sell your crafts online. It is a site that acts as the go between for sellers and buyers of custom unique creations. You would need to have a PayPal account and set it up to correspond correctly with what you're listing on Folksy. Looks like a really good site to get your creations listed on, and then it's up to you to market your little heart out and sell some great stuff.
It really looks very familiar to Etsy in how they list products on their site. 20p per listing no matter what the quantity, you will need PayPal and when the items are sold there is a low commission on sold items of 3%.
