set up the best website for my crafts?

[clare]

Hi All,I am a bit of a technophobe and really want to set up a website to sell my crafts which I already sell at fayres.I often get asked do you have a website? so feel I should set one up and get new business cards so when people take one they might actually shop online and buy stuff at a later date.I need one that I can have a shop,cart and paypal and also one that is low cost to run.I also want a site that is google compatable if I enough hits!Don't want much do I?but is that all possible?Has anyone got what I need and can advise me on how to do it with a good webhost?I don't do facebook I am afarid I hate the idea so I will only be promoting my site through my business cards at carft fayres and friends.Can anyone help please?
Thanks
Clare

[boboff]

Have you thought of using a shop on ebay?

Seems to me they take all the hassle out of it.

[GeorgeSalt]

Ebay, Etsy/Folksy or Amazon Marketplace would be the least hassle for the most exposure. Create a Facebook page and drive traffic to an Ebay shop. Social search makes Facebook very Google friendly.

And read guide to the Distance Selling Regulations before you start.. so you know why you need to make your address visible and you can build in consumer rights to your pricing strategy - dealing with returns, etc.

[thethriftysquirrels]

I can thouroughly recommend a company called Unlimited Web Hosting - http://www.unlimitedwebhosting.co.uk/

I have recently signed up with them to host my new blog. They are a UK based company and they really offer a completely unlimited service...web traffic, web space, domain names, and on top of that they give you 1 free .uk domain name for life when you sign up(they will register a new one or transfer one you already own and you never have to pay for it while you are hosting with them), there are no contracts or set up fees so you're not tied in for any length of time and all this for a fixed price of just £2:75 per month (cheaper still if you opt for the yearly rate).

Sorry if I sound like an advert but I am just a satisfied customer!!

What would also be of interest to you is that they make it so easy to install applications like shopping carts. There is a long list of applications (such as Wordpress and Oscommerce, which is a free shopping cart program) that are already there to just press a button and it will install for you. I've not used any of the shopping carts so I don't know how they work, I assume you could have payments go to a Paypal account.

Hope this is of some help!

Donna

[clare]

Thanks all, I have tried etsy and folksy got no sales at all.I use ebay to sell used items so want to keep it seperate and as you still pay per item to list in an ebay shop it is an expensive way to sell as I have maybe 300 items in stock at a time that is alot of money to list them especially if they don't all sell.
Donna that sounds just what I want,it's affordable and as long as the cart bit if free it sounds perfect ,I will look into it.
Thanks.

[GeorgeSalt]

Clare, how have you been marketing the etsy/folksy listings? - I'm afraid there's no "build it and they will come" solution. An active and interesting Facebook profile can be very effective in driving sales towards your marketplace.

[becks77]

Dont forget to add your selling site / website to your signature too

[Zech]

Not sure whether this needs pointing out or not, but getting a nice website and making Google notice it are two separate tasks (this is prompted by a conversation with my neighbour, who commissioned a new website for his business, then got cross with the web programmer because it didn't immediately show up on Google listings).

If you just put up a website (or Etsy/Folksy shop) but no-one knows it's there, then it won't be surprising if you get no sales. Did you give out business cards with the address of your Etsy/Folksy shop last time you tried them? If you have people at fayres asking for your website, that might be enough for you and it would be worth trying this kind of shop again, plus promotion with business cards at fayres.

I have recently written a website (http://www.wildwestwales.com) and learnt a bit about how to push it up the Google listings, which includes having links to it from other places such as, um, forum discussions There are also bits of code that you can insert into the website to tell Google what it's about (semantic tags) but this kind of thing isn't going to be very appealing if you're a technophobe.

What I'm really trying to say is, don't blame Etsy/Folksy for your shop getting any visitors. They provide a nice easy way to put a shop online, but they don't promote it for you. Business cards is one way of doing that, as is a link in your signature here, also facebook (which you don't want to do) and links from anywhere else online you can find that would be happy to have them (e.g. comments on other people's blogs, but if promoting your shop is your only reason for commenting, that can be annoying).

[GeorgeSalt]

Oh.. I missed the bit about not wanting to do the Facebook thing. If you hand out cards at craft fairs they will only be seen by people that already go to craft fairs - you're very unlikely to generate new customers that way.

Facebook and social media are quickly ceasing to be optional for online trading. Google's search criteria are now beginning to place more emphasis on "social search" than on any of the conventional SEO techniques to boost you up the Google rankings.

Facebook doesn't have to be the bare your soul or cute cats extremes.. just a weekly update on new products, or promotions, or seasonal ideas, or serving suggestions, anything that's interesting and engages an audience of interested custpmers. It also allows for direct feedback from existing and prospective customers - what they like, and what they'd like to change, about your products. You don't even have to be online to make your posts.. you could sit down once a week, write a couple of posts to keep your customers amused, and use free online tools that schedule your posts for a day and time later in the week.

[clare]

Now I am technoed out!!!

[yvette]

Stick with it Clare - if you are selling at craft fayres and getting enquiries about a website then you clearly do have a market for your things.

[clare]

Well i've given up on the website ,I just couldn't build one that suited my wares in my pricerange so I have gone back down the folksy route as they now do a yearly unlimited listing, so much better than when I first registered.and separate from ebay.just listed a few things and got my new cards printed ready for my next fayre.

Folksy.co.UK-shops- search Sweetheart.

[clare]

Oops should read folks.com/shops/sweetheart

[GeorgeSalt]

Well done, that gives you your shop front.

You're next step is marketing it and directing people to the folksy page. Adding a link in your signature on every forum you're on is a start. But I really can't recommend Facebook highly enough for this type of thing. People buy their relationship with you more than they buy the product.

And you link should be Sweetheart on Folksy

(url=http://folksy.com/shops/sweetheart)Sweetheart on Folksy(/ur)

Replace ) with ] (there are two of them)
Replace ( with [ (there are two of them)

[clare]

Sweetheart on folksy does not take you to my shop .but folksy.com/shops/sweetheart does it takes you straight to my shop.