Where To Sell Part One

These next few posts about where to sell are from my own past experiences with these venues. My Plan For Business needs me to re-look over these ways and make a decision that feels right for me today.  My hope is that this information will be helpful to you as well.   

First you need to know that in the past I've been beguiled by the promise of making money.  You know those guys who say "read my ebook for $49.95 and you too can start making big money"? I was one of those who forked over the money, I'm ashamed to say more than once. 

You know that expression Jack of all trades, master of none well that could very easily describe myself. With all the jumping around I never focused on one thing and did what was necessary to make THAT successful.

So now after all the confessions lets first discuss the web. What's interesting and exciting about the web is the amount of potential customers.  A brick and mortar store could never get the amount of traffic that the web gets and to me in a business stand point this is it's best attribute.

1. Etsy  is a great site with very affordable rates filled with creative artistic people selling their wares. Etsy generates a lot of traffic, maybe not as much as Ebay but still a lot. The advantages to this site is the low fees, the traffic, the place to go for handmade and vintage items, and you can price your items higher on Etsy then on Ebay. It's a different customer base on Etsy than on Ebay.     
2. Ebay  you will hear the complaints about the outrageous fees etc but I have to tell you that nowhere are you going to get the potential traffic that Ebay generates. Logically if you had a brick and mortar store what do you think your expenses would be and does the customer traffic match up?
3. Own Web Site  Nothing like having your own web site, and you might be thinking why bother paying those other guys those fees when I can have my own site. Might be a good idea but remember someone has to make the web site, you need a shopping cart and gateway and all that takes knowledge, time and money.
4. Amazon  is also is a great site with lots of traffic. High fees, higher than Ebay.

For all of the above you can't expect to be successful by just listing your items. There's way more to it than that. It's called marketing and each one might need a different approach.

 For me right now the web is not where I will be putting my efforts. First off it takes a lot being successful on-line.  You have to take great pictures, write great copy for your listings, learn how to get your listings noticed but the real big reason I don't want to do the web is because I HATE shipping things.


Remember how I said in my previous post that I want to get up each morning raring to go, loving what I'm doing, well if shipping some sold items was on my list of things to do for the day I'd opt to just stay in bed.


I've learned from the past to never say never but for now it's absolutely been down voted. 


Am I the only one who hates shipping items? 

Tomorrow I'll go over my ideas for Flea Markets, Farmers Market and Craft Shows.