A new place to sell handmade goods

[candlebean]

I just came across ArtFire, and it's so cool! I have a regular website and an Etsy shop, but I couldn't resist ArtFire.

For those of you who don't know about it, ArtFire is an online marketplace to sell handmade or vintage items as well as supplies. It's similar to Etsy, but there are no transaction fees when you sell something and there are no listing fees when you want to list an item.

ArtFire is new and growing everyday, but to get more shops to sign up they are offering a lifetime membership deal for only $7/month (you can cancel at any time, there is no obligation, but your rate will never go up). This is only for the first 5,000 shops. After 5,000 shops have signed up, the normal monthly fee is going to be $20.

Another thing I like about ArtFire is that when you get a hit on an item in your shop, there is a section that you can go to that will tell you where that hit came from (the URL) so you know where your marketing is working - it's so cool.

Come and check it out - there's really nothing to lose! If you're not ready to commit to $7/month you can open your shop for absolutely nothing by only listing 10 items at a time. (if you become a verified member for the $7, you can list as much as you like) I started off as a free shop, but quickly became a verified member because there are so many great benefits - come and check it out

Let me know what you think!

http://www.artfire.com

[Lyndsay]

awesome, thanks!

[hisbeloved]

Has anyone tried this site? If so, what were/are your sales like?

[Vicky_CO]

That site bugs are a nightmare right now. I have had a ton of problems listing stuff it runs slower than turtle crossing the road. So far I am not impressed.

The flip side, it is pretty new so we need to give them a chance to work out all the bugs

[candlebean]

I'm surprised to hear that you've had problems listing things and that it moves so slow for you. I haven't had any trouble so far with the exception of loading one pix, but that's just because it was too large. Once I resized it, it too was fine...

[Vicky_CO]

I am not the only one with problem a ton of people are. Everything from list problem to shipping and invoicing error. They have a lot of bugs to work out.

I had no problems listing my first 2 product but after that it became a nightmare and I have tried everything and can not list any more and I am not alone with that same error.

Their helpful hint is do not copy and paste. Like I am going to take a chance of all my hard work getting trashed because of browsers freezing or getting knock offline or any of the other problems that happen that cause lost information online.

They also have some serious login problems me and a lot of other people are having problems stay login.

I would think the problems where just me and my server issues except for the fact that here at home I have cable and at my shop DSL two different servers and three different computers.

These people have a lot of things to work out I just hope they are able to work them out before I waste to much money on them.

[candlebean]

I hope they're able to get everything resolved quickly for you and the others too. I've been reading their behind the beta blog updates to see what they are working on and what has been resolved.

Like you said, it is a newer site so there are bound to be bugs and kinks along the way, and how they deal with them will pretty much determine how successful the site will be at this point.

To anyone considering trying them out, you can always sign up for a free account that will let you list 10 products at a time to at least get your shop a little more exposure. Then, once things are worked out you can decide whether or not you want to invest more time into it or upgrade your account to be able to list and sell more.

Personally, I started out as a free account but since I didn't have any problems, I upgraded to the verified account. I feel bad that others are having problems I haven't experienced