Get the Best Rates for Selling Handmade Craft Items

If you're making handmade craft items, it's only natural that you'll want the best price for your unique items - you deserve it!

Handmade craft items take a lot of time to make and it can be tricky getting the balance right between how long it's taken you to make and how much you can sell it for. This is one of the calculations you'll continually have to be aware of if you're going to be making and selling handmade craft items.

So, one of the questions every crafts seller will be asking themselves is where they can make the most money for their goods - and I'm afraid there is no "one size fits all" - it's something you'll literally have to try and test for yourself.

Part of the ability to command high prices for your handmade craft items is to not under-value yourself, your time or your goods. You need to work on writing compelling copy in your adverts, this is known as copywriting and is as much a skill as making the crafts in the first place.

"Buy this, I made it" $100

Would you? No.

"Gorgeous, unique, hand crafted item formed from fresh materials and crafted into this beautiful piece to bring beauty into your life. My inspiration is drawn from the wonderous nature to be found in the foothills of the mountains" $100

Would you? Yes, you probably would buy that.

You have to make your buyers want what you're selling - no matter where you sell your hand made craft items. You have to create a desire... that makes them buy YOUR goods and not keep searching.

How well you photograph your handmade craft goods can seriously impact upon your ability to sell them at all - and for them to achieve their highest price.

You should take the time to work out how best to photograph your items - it's worth taking the time to come up with your own perfect formula that works for you.

Having great photos of your handmade craft items is essential, firstly to draw in potential buyers, then to create the desire in them to want to buy it now.

If you're selling jewelry, say, then using a friend to model the items is probably a big no no... nobody will buy jewelry that somebody has worn. But take a wine glass and dangle/drape them over the edge and you've got yourself the start of a great photo.

If you're selling toys, don't just lie them down on your crumpled duvet and take a photo, find an interesting piece of material and sit them on that in good light would be better.

But it's something you need to work at with your own products. Take a look around the Internet, what photos do you like, can you re-create that pose/style, can you get the same type of effect? Learn from others.

Wherever you're listing your handmade craft items, you should be promoting them. You do need to learn how to drive traffic to your listings - and not rely on the marketplace/website to bring you your sales.

• If you have a blog, you can create a post pointing out what you've just listed.
• If you are a forum member, where you're allowed links in your signature, put a link to your blog, or to your Etsy shop/similar.
• If you've a store on a site, try placing classified ads to drive traffic to your crafts
• Have business cards made and always hand them out to everybody you meet - don't be shy!

Don't leave it to others to promote your craft items for sale, try to do some yourself, even if you just pick the easy ways. There are dozens of ways you can bring traffic to your store or listings - which would be a whole new hub!

However, back to the original question, who has the best rates for selling handmade craft items? eBay or Etsy?

Etsy probably has the edge, in my opinion - and that's it, it's my opinion. I feel that Etsy attracts the sort of buyer who is looking for a unique piece - and is prepared to pay the proper value for it - because they're worth it! People who buy from Etsy appreciate the quality and the care, the uniqueness of the hand made craft items for sale, often not noticing the price.

eBay, on the other hand, has changed over the years. People buying from ebay tend to be more critical over the price, looking to spend a little less perhaps. However, eBay are putting their prices up in some categories now - and in the UK people are being hit in the profit margins with increased postage rates for receiving their raw materials as well as posting off good, narrowing the margins further.

My advice to you is to try them both - and measure your results.

If you're selling any products, or services, it's important that you keep testing the market, to ensure you're getting the best price for your goods. Sometimes this means taking a loss, but that's the learning curve.

My tips to somebody selling hand made craft items would be:

• Work hard on your advertising copy, make sure you've done a good write up of what your product is, are you targetting the right people with your writing style? Learn the art of copywriting.
• Test, test and test again all the places you can sell. Keep records of how well you did so you start to learn where YOUR hand made craft items sell best. A good business person continually tests the market and keeps records of how well they did.
• Take GREAT product photos - wherever you're selling, there's nothing worse than a bunch of fuzzy photos. Nobody buys something from a fuzzy photo. Learn to take good photos, maybe even take a short course in digital photography.
• Drive traffic towards your own listings/shop, don't just "chuck it onto XYZ website and hope it sells". Think about how you can draw attention to your listing/items for sale. Learn about web marketing, there are plenty of hubs about this, or books, or even DVD and online courses. If you want to keep it simple, try the Dummies Guide to Web Marketing.
• Never believe what somebody else tells you "Oh ebay's rubbish" "Oh Etsy's had its day" - test it for yourself. If you've got good advertising copy and good photos and are driving potential sales towards your items you might just find you've got a top seller on your hands.
• Above all, have patience. It'll take time for your work to take off and be recommended, linked to, "liked" and sought after. Work continually on your presentation, your marketing and your product range and this time next year you could be returning here to give others the advice you're now seeking :)

I hope that helps!