Web Shop

Good afternoon!

I am pleased to share that my online shop right here on my website is live again! The tab on the top menu bar will take you there whenever you fancy.

It is still a bit echoing at the moment but will be filling up over the next few weeks starting with the half finished ring in the picture which is indeed being pickled clean ready for glass setting. When daylight returns it will be finished and ready for photographing and listing.

For those of you who sell online you might be interested in Blomming; I signed up with them to make my web shop running quicker and easier than fighting with coding!

Handmade in Europe Gift Swap

The Artfire Handmade in Europe Guild decided to do a New Year gift swap rather than a Secret Santa to provide a little lift during January. It worked! I received my parcel last week and had such fun exploring the gifts kindly sent by Marianne creator of Nidlongdir.

Together with a note in a card featuring one of her drawings Marianne sent a whole collection of her ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) and a pair of lovely wire spiral earrings made by her daughter.

Thank you very much!

My pro Artfire account was due to expire this month and I had already decided not to renew it and have now downgraded to a basic account. For me, Artfire was not a successful selling venue; in the year of pro membership I had one sale and that was through my untouched basic account rather than the studio I was paying for!

Since launching my website in June it has been my primary online selling venue and has definitely been the wisest move I have made since starting to sell my work through the internet. I will be maintaining my Folksy shop and, to a lesser extent my free Artfire shop, but lauracameron.co.uk will be my main online focus. Now I just need to update it!

Artfire, Coriandr, Dawanda, Etsy, Folksy, Misi

Last week I spoke about my experiences of Etsy and Folksy and not wanting to bombard you all at once I thought I'd leave the others for another day. Out of Artfire, Coriandr, Dawanda and Misi I have only signed up to Artfire and Misi, however, I have spent some time perusing all of the sites.

I signed up to Artfire with the intention of setting up a 'studio' (I like that they call Artist's spots that!) solely for my paintings and photographic prints and, as yet, my 'studio' is very undeveloped with one lonely painting in it. I've signed up for a basic account and am impressed with the options offered:

"Our Basic account is absolutely free and allows an unlimited number of listings per month with a cap of 10 items in your Studio at a time and all members receive a complete stats package including both Google Analytics and real-time server side stats to maximize your promotion and spend your time where it makes sales. Verified members can list unlimited items with never a listing or final value fee, just like on your own website, but with less hassle, and at a lower price. Full access to a whole host of management features, promotional tools, and enhanced functionality. Plus increased site exposure use of all new features for just US $12.00 per month. "

Neither accounts charge commission on sales so the basic account really is free which might sway this site for people starting out with a small budget. Having noticed a few people selling their work on their own blog through Artfire, I think this is a great feature and would sway me to signing up for a Verified Account. I fully intend to make use of my account over the next few months and will let you know how I get on.

Artfire, like Folksy, is still in its beta phase, and has recently had a front page overhaul. I think the front page is very busy with a huge amount of information, however, information for sellers and buyers is presented directly to you right from the start. The search feature offers comprehensive options and whilst I did come across a few anomalies, this was probably due to sellers tagging their items incorrectly.

Next up is Misi. I have to admit I was put off signing up initially due to the overwhelming girliness of the design. However, the design and navigation is clear and, as R diplomatically pointed out, my jewellery is for women so of course I should sign up! I have spent some time looking around the site since signing up and actually really enjoyed the Style Guides so much so that I even went to read the site's blog: features sellers and has excellent advice for sellers even as far as the basics on being self employed. Very impressed! I like the ease of the shop management and the fact that Misi offers Google stats (as do Etsy and Artfire) and SEO tools.

My next venture is clearly signposted now! I will be listing original paintings on Artfire and my new range of jewellery on Misi whilst keeping my silver and beadwork on Folksy.

As for Coriandr and Dawanda, I have not signed up to them simply because I do not think I can manage any more online shops at the moment. They both appear user friendly, although I prefer Coriandr's clean, tidy appearance as Dawanda seems a bit cluttered at first glance. I do love the Coriandr Seedlings idea which allows you to 'plant' a wee shop in your blog, great! Dawanda is targeted at the European market and is available in various languages and could provide you and your work wider exposure in an established European market.


The chart above gives the basics for each site, but remember these are subject to change, especially with those sites still in beta so be sure to check them out fully before signing up to sell. There are clear pros and cons for each and I hope you find a site which works for you. Those of you who are set up and selling, I'd love to hear your opinions on where you sell.

Thanks!

Artfire, Coriandr, Dawanda, Etsy, Folksy, Misi

That was satisfyingly alphabetical for a moment there! Having signed up to Etsy, then Folksy, Artfire and now Misi with half an eye on Coriandr and Dawanda, this post is a simple overview of what I've found so far, the pros and cons, what has suited me and what hasn't.

Today Etsy and Folksy.

When I first started looking around for an online platform to sell my Art work and jewellery Etsy was the first site I found and very impressed I was too! The site is easy to navigate, well presented and has a wealth of varied and interesting articles available for your perusal. The 'starting up your own business' style articles were particularly helpful for me at the time. Listing costs $0.20 for four months and the site charges a 3.5% commission on sale fee. I immediately signed up full of enthusiasm and ideas only to be stopped dead in my tracks when I found I couldn't sell my work. Why? No great intrigue for you I'm afraid, it's simply that I do not have, nor do I want, a credit card which Etsy require you to have to prove your identity. I'm yet to find a way around this and whilst Etsy now do accept fee payment through paypal there is still the need for a credit card. So Etsy has been a no go for me which is dissappointing. I do keep an eye on the site as the treasuries are great and articles interesting, however, over the last few months it frequently refuses to load for me. Having googled the problem, this seems to happen to many people and there is a wealth of techie help, works, then doesn't work, works, then doesn't work. Would put me off as a buyer.

Next, I discovered Folksy and contacted them to check whether I needed a credit card before signing up and was relieved to hear that I could set up shop without one, hoorah! As I live in the UK, a UK based site was mighty appealing and the 20p listing fee and 5% commission (no commission during the beta test period) is reasonable. It was fairly straightforward, if a little time consuming, to set up shop on Folksy and I was impressed / excited enough to set up two, one for my jewellery and one for my Art work. The site is still in beta, however, I am generally pleased with it:

selling in sterling is much easier for me
international sales are now go
the fees are reasonable
good community vibe

There are several niggling issues which I hope will be changed:

the site navigation could be more intuitive with a few design tweaks and links that work
categories within shops are needed
the purple site category lists could do with being separated in some way as they appear to be the categories in a shop and yet navigate customers away from your shop
more promotion from Folksy themselves
more communication between Folksy and sellers

The first items I listed will expire soon and I am going to re-list them. Folksy has brought me several sales, however, only one customer has actually gone through the process of paying through Folksy. Folksy is the place I've directed my domain name to (www.lauracameron.co.uk) and this is what appears on my packaging and promotional materials. I know many sellers work hard at promoting their Folksy shops and the Folksy site as a whole and am hopeful traffic will increase and visitors will enjoy and become customers!

Next up I'll be looking at Artfire, Misi, Coriandr and Dawanda would be interested to hear your opinions on all five these sites, what suits you? What do you like? What makes you throw things across the room in frustration? If you had to choose just one site, which would it be?

Shops

You can shop directly on my website www.lauracameron.co.uk or the following websites:

Jewellery

• www.lauracameron.folksy.com - my main shop, priced in pounds sterling and ships worldwide
  
• www.lauracameron.artfire.com - smaller selection, priced in US dollars and ships worldwide

Prints and Paintings

• www.redshedart.folksy.com - photographic prints and original paintings, priced in pounds sterling and ships to UK and Ireland
  
• www.lauracameron.artfire.com - photographic prints, priced in US dollars and ships worldwide
• www.lauracameronart.etsy.com - photographic prints, priced in US dollars and ships worldwide
• www.redbubble.com/people/redshedart - prints of photographs and paintings, calendars and t-shirts