With the success of places like Etsy, it seems like more and more online marketplaces are starting for those who are interested in art and handcrafted items. One of the places I have recently come across is a site called ArtFire. It’s still currently on beta, but there are already items for sale.

One of the biggest perks for sellers is that they have a FREE Basic account available. This means that you don’t have to pay them for opening a store, listing your items, and not even if someone buys your goods. Yes, no commissions! This is great if you simply want to test the waters of selling your products, or you have a low-volume sales expectation.

For those who wish to expand their online store for handcrafted goods, you can upgrade to the Premium Account for $15.95/month (limited time, as they plan on increasing this to $20/month, according to the site at the time of this writing). With a premium account, you get more selling features such as the ability to offer coupons, participate in seller councils, etc.

Art Fire also offers avenues for community on their site. They also have some very useful resources for buyers and sellers. One interesting resource that you might want to check out is the Business Tips section from Handmade News.

If you’re an Art Fire seller, or if you’ve ever bought anything from ArtFire, do give us some feedback. We’d love to hear about your experiences.

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Art Fire: Artisan Marketplace

If you love to design and/or to create slogans and sayings and/or to make and sell products, then check out Zazzle. It’s pretty much similar to CafePress, where you can put designs or slogans on to various products such as T-shirts, mugs, and cards, then set-up an online store to sell them. You can then get a percentage of that sale. And, even if you’re not in to creating your own original designs and sayings, you can still set up your own online stores or just sell specific products, showcasing other people’s products. You will receive 15% of every sale, according to their site.

Although I have had some experience using Cafepress for this type of online business, I must admit that I have very little experience with Zazzle. In fact, I just signed up for an account there, to test it out. I’m not sure yet what the experience will be like, so I’ll report back here when I get the chance. However, I have heard some good feedback from Zazzle users. So, hopefully, it’s a good place to check out.

In any case, one of the things that I like about it is the different types of products that they have featured. For example, you can get Keds shoes, skateboards, photo sculptures, and postage stamps – and even add your own designs to them. I definitely would like to give them a try.

Oh, and yes, they are based in the USA. However, they have localised versions in different countries too, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.

If you have been a Zazzle user – either as a seller, designer, or buyer – do let us know what you think of it. Your feedback is always welcome!

Here’s a sample Zazzle panel that you can create to sell products -

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

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Zazzle: Create, Sell, and Make Money

I first heard of Oronjo a few months ago. However, I didn’t get the chance to check it out until recently.

So, what is it? Oronjo is a site that offers to help you to make money online by selling articles and other premium content on your blog or site. And, here’s a quick overview of its pros and cons:

The Good Stuff

• It’s free. Yes, there’s no cost to signing up and hosting your premium content for sale at the moment. They did say that they might offer some services for a fee one day. But, for now, it’s all free. The only fee you’ll incur will be those that are charged by Paypal/Google checkout.
• You can sell different types of files. And, you can sell articles for a fee. Files accepted include: PDF, DOC, EXE, MP3, JPG, etc. So yes, you can sell just about anything – from ebooks and audio files to software and photos.
• They offer 2 payments systems: Paypal and Google Checkout. Although you can get paid by buyers using either one of these systems, you can only really receive your payment via Paypal.
• It offers some selling tools – from shop buttons to graphical banners. You can add them to your web pages or blog posts.
• It integrates with WordPress blogs. Yes, there’s an Oronjo WordPress Plugin that you can use to integrate your shop with your blog.
• It offers a way to sell for charity. If money making for a good cause is something you’d like to do, you can easily integrate your choice of charity as a place to send your payments.
• There’s a Feed Available. So, people who want to watch your items via a feedreader can do so.

The Not-So-Nice Bits

• No shop front. I would’ve really preferred if there was a place to highlight all items that are available for sale from a single seller. I didn’t see this.
• No auto preview. People like to have an idea of what they’re buying. So, a preview of a photo or a file would’ve been nice. In any case, you can still offer a preview on your blog or site.
• Only 2 currencies available so far. Trading is only available using US$ and EUR.

As you can see, I don’t see of a lot of negatives of Oronjo so far. But admittedly, these three bits of negatives are of high importance to me. So, personally, I’m not sure if Oronjo will be the best selling solution for me if I decide to go this route of selling premium content. Also, I still have yet to see this system in full action. It will be interesting to see what it’s like from a buyer’s point of view. And, how quickly sellers get their payments.

If you have any experience with Oronjo, I’d love to hear from you.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Oronjo: Premium Content Marketplace

If you’ve ever considered selling premium content on your blogs or sites, then Klatcher might be a third party service that you might like to look in to. It’s free to use – and you can upload any type of files – text, photos, videos, podcasts, and other documents. But, the only guideline is for publishers to offer at least 10% of their uploaded content for sale.

They offer 65% revenue share (based on content sale price) with publishers. And, it’s all payable via Paypal.

Also, they have offered 10 cents per 99 views to all publishers with a US bank account. But, I’m not certain how long this offer will last.

I haven’t given it a full go just yet, so I’m not sure how the service works. And since I’m based in Australia, their offer of pay-per-view isn’t something I can check.

In any case, if you try it out, I’d be interested to hear from you.

Anyway, for more ideas, here’s a video on Klatcher:

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Klatcher: Sell Premium Online Content

If you’re looking for another place to sell products online, you might want to have a look at Big Cartel. It has a few interesting features – including customisation, stats tracking, and inventory management. There are 3 levels to this service: Gold (Free), Platinum (US$9.99/month), and Diamond (US$19.99/month). The Free version, of course, has a lot of limitations, but it might be a good way to test it out.

Anyway, here’s the comparison of the plans/services:

To see samples, check out their featured stores. Many of their shop owners seem to be record label holders, artists, designers and the like. But, you can sell just about anything.

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BigCartel : Online Store

Today, I learned about Photrade, a new photography marketplace that’s still in beta. The basic idea is that you upload your photos in the service, then you can sell products based on your photos. These products include: photo prints, apparel, and gift items, as well as digital downloads (stock photo). You can set your own price and they’ll take care of delivering the products to the customer. It also seems like they plan to offer an affiliate programme in the future.

In any case, payments may be: 1) collected in the system and used to buy stuff from the site; 2) donated to your chosen charity; and/or b) sent to you via Paypal (with US$15 minimum payment threshold).

Since it’s still in beta, there are a couple of issues: a) You can only try out the service if you get an invitation; and b) There’s still a few kinks in the system. Plus, I’m not sure yet of its track record when it comes to quality of products, payment systems to photographers, etc.

In any case, I still think it’s a service worth watching. And right now, I have 3 invites available to give away. If you’re interested, leave a comment here answering the question: What kind of camera do you own?

If there are more than 3 folks interested, I’ll raffle off the invites.

NOTE: Thanks to Janette Toral for sending me an invite and telling me about Photrade.

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Photrade: Make Money Online with Your Photos

There are many ways you can make money by selling downloadable files online. One option available is selling through Tradebit.

The Good Parts:

• It’s almost free to use. It doesn’t charge a monthly fee or listing fees. It just gets a percentage (commission) of your sale price.
• It supports several types of downloadable files – software, photos, music, documents, etc.
• There’s an available support forum and a blog, where the owner seems to be quite responsive to site users’ queries.
• Several available payment systems available – including Paypal and Google Checkout.
• You set your own price to your downloads.
• A few good features – including integration with your affiliate programmes, sales reports, etc.

The Bad Parts:

• It’s a bit difficult to navigate. While testing the service, I got lost so many times. And, it can get really confusing/frustrating.
• There’s limited customisation options.
• Site presentation isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing. Would’ve preferred a better way to present products through the shop front.
• Some features tend to go wonky at times.

Payment is done on a weekly basis, sent to your Paypal account. They also run an affiliate programme, where you make money by promoting other people’s downloadable files for sale.

If you’ve used the service (or still using it), let me know what you think of it. If you know of other similar services, I’d love to hear from you too.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Tradebit : Selling Downloads

I love eBay. After over 5 years of using it both as a buyer and a seller, I’ve hardly ever had bad experiences. The extent of my bad experiences before was just one non-paying bidder (who left a negative!) and buyers/sellers who withhold positive feedback.

But, lately, my bad experiences seem to be increasing. So, I decided that I’ll start taking more notes here. As a reminder to me of bad selling and buying experiences, as well as to serve as case studies/learning experiences. And also, as a warning to other folks.

Bad Buying Experiences:

• mycameras2006 – Bought a camera remote from this seller. I paid as soon as the transaction closed. The item took a long time to get shipped. I had to file a Paypal/eBay dispute to get the seller to take action. After a few weeks, the item finally arrived. I left a neutral feedback due to shipping slowness and the seller’s poor communication. The seller retaliated with a neutral feedback and accused me of being personally abusive. Seller also receives negative and neutral feedback regularly plus receives similar complaints of being slow in shipping. So, I know it’s not just me.

  LESSON/TIP: Make sure to check not just the seller’s feedback. Also check seller’s habits of leaving feedback. What kind of things do they say to other folks? It says something about the seller.

• jupiter-fam – Also known as Virginia’s Collectibles. I bought a bunch of craft-related items from this person that never arrived. I was told that it was shipped. And, I was even promised that a second batch was sent. No tracking numbers were ever sent both times. Resorted to Paypal/eBay dispute. Paypal/eBay ended up refunding me for my payment (thank goodness!). When I left negative, the seller continued to lie in her replies to my feedback. This one’s a Power Seller who receives negative feedback on a regular basis. Yet, her average is still at 99%. Similar complaints. Shows that the ‘Power Sellers’ symbol doesn’t always protect you.

  LESSON/TIP: Make sure you check seller’s feedback before buying. Don’t rely on the Power Sellers symbol or the overall feedback score.

What about you? What have been your bad experiences with eBay? Any sellers you’ll never buy from – and why? And, if you were to have an eBay wish list to protect you from such bad experiences, what will be included in your list?

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Bad eBay Experiences