If you have read my post on Etsy or ArtFire?, I am back with the struggle a month later now. ArtFire has recently announced a change in suspending all Basic account and charge all sellers $9.95 a month. I have stopped using the word Pro seller, since you can only be a seller if you pay that fee. Not cool at all...
I have reopened my Etsy shop but since the listing expires once every four months, I am on the hunt for free sites to sell. Instead of trying to promote my Etsy store here, I am going to try to list some of these sites that I have found and hopefully explore them. If you have a site to recommend to those of us who cannot afford to run our own server, do leave a comment!
webs.com - Create your own free website and be able to sell up to 5 items at a time. This is what I use as my own website since the free URL is short enough and just right for the entourage of angels. No fees except Paypal and Google checkout fees as applicable. Good for the speciality of your shop that you would not want to incur listing fee with.
eCrater - Free to list and sell and you are only responsible for the fees to Paypal and/or Google checkout when you make a sale. Low traffic but I have managed to make a sale before. Low maintenance since the listing does not expire.
Handmade Craft Show - Pay to advertise for a minimum of $9 with 5 weeks exposure in the "aisle" with least traffic. It looks like you can use your Etsy mini in the craft show directly.
Zibbet - Free account with 50 items limit. Etsy and ArtFire importer included in the free account. I decided to set one up right away! The importers made migrating a breeze. It is awesome even just using it as an additional store. I will be able to use it to display items that I sold without worrying about the listing fees. Each listing is active for 180 days. Premium account ($9.95/mth or $69/yr) required to make coupons and use some other features. Very much like ArtFire Basic but I simply love the user interface.
madeitmyself - Feels like a pretty quiet market but it is free to list and sell. I don't like the idea of having to say how much it cost in retail and how much my listing cost though, because the item I made myself are not available in retail... Anyway, it cost $0.49 to feature the item, which I have not yet figure out what that means. My new listing was put on the front page and I was on the most active shop list. Anyway, you can definitely get away with selling without paying fees at all.
Three Sisters Marketplace - Free to list and free to sell, but you need to be juried and approved to sell. Sellers apparently have high quality items. Worth trying if you are confident of your products.
Storenvy - Compulsory use of Paypal for payment method, not a bad idea I guess. Much as we believe most people have Paypal account nowadays, we may potentially lose customers who don't. You are allowed to make coupon codes and each store comes with a Facebook app store. This is probably my favorite thing about the shop.
Silkfair - Different price tier to meet different selling needs. You can get the free account but there is still a transaction fee of 3% no matter which account you choose. Coupon function not available yet. I did not bother to set up an account.
ShopHandmade - You can choose to list for free with ad sponsorship or pay the 25 cents yourself. You can also choose how much commission to shophandmade.com. Therefore, you can totally get away with paying nothing to sell. I tried one product but I felt the user interface can be improved.
Concluding my online shop shopping experience, I liked Zibbet the best as it was totally painless to do migration, from both Etsy and ArtFire at that! You have the option to upgrade too, if 50 items limit or ability to create coupon is important to you. I would definitely take some time to set up my Three Sisters Marketplace as it seems to be a market of a different level. Storenvy might the only other shop I would maintain, based on its traffic and tools available. With all these options out there, I really do not think I would want to continue selling with ArtFire... If you have other great shop sites to recommend to those of us who are not able to run our own shopping sever, please throw your suggestions this way!
