If you're thinking about selling your artwork or crafts online, there are several ways to do it.
You can a) build your own website or hire a web designer to build one for you or b) use an online marketplace like Etsy, Artfire, or Fine Art Studio Online.
Either choice has their own set of pros and cons.
Which method is the best choice? Here are some guidelines to help you decide: Using an Online Marketplace The biggest advantage to using an online marketplace or an online portfolio service is the ease of setting up your own site with little or no technical skill.
Most services allow you to set up an account, create pages, and add products.
Most even take care of sales transactions.
So even if you don't have a shopping cart or merchant account, you'll be able to take payments online.
As long as you know how to click buttons and fill in boxes, you can can easily use these services.
Another advantage of an online marketplace is that there is often visitor traffic already built into the service if it's well advertised.
A service like Etsy has hundreds of thousands of people that visit and use the service.
That's a lot of potential customers available to you if you have a presence on Etsy.
However, there are a couple of disadvantages to using these services as well.
How your store functions and looks is determined by the service.
Essentially your Etsy or ArtFire store will pretty much look similar to the hundreds of other artists using that service.
In addition, you'll also be competing with the other artists using that same service.
While these services may bring in a lot of traffic, you still need to make your store stand out from the hundreds of other artists who also have a presence there.
But perhaps the biggest disadvantage is the fact that your store is under the control of a third party.
If the service shuts down or suddenly goes out of business, then your store is gone and you'll have to start over again.
Plus the terms of use on a particular service may limit what you can sell and what you can do in your store.
Building Your Own Website Creating your own website, with or without the help of a web designer has some pretty great advantages over the use of a service.
First, you can make your website look and function however you like.
You're only limited by your time and budget.
Another advantage is that having your own website with your own domain name makes you look more professional, and that's important if you also sell your work to galleries, wish to take commissioned work, or want to sell your craft wholesale.
Most importantly, building your own website means that you have complete control over your web presence.
If you don't like your web host, or you feel that they charge to much, or they're unreliable, you can leave and go to another host without even changing your website address.
You're not held hostage by someone else's rules, nor do you have to worry about your website suddenly being shut down by a third party.
But, the biggest disadvantage to building your own website is the time and expertise it takes to build it.
Building a quality website does take time, effort, and money whether you build it yourself or hire someone to do it.
Also, if you're planning to sell directly online, you will have to deal with setting up the e commerce aspects of your website such as getting a merchant account, payment processing, security, and a shopping cart.
You're also responsible for your own website maintenance and for getting traffic to your website.
If something goes wrong with your website it's up to you to get it fixed, keep up with upgrades, and so forth.
And while you can tap into the existing traffic at an online marketplace, you're essentially starting at zero with a brand new website.
Putting up a website does not mean that people will that it's there.
You'll be responsible for letting everyone know it exists and encouraging people to visit.
What's the best solution? While some artists go exclusively with an online marketplace or service and some go exclusively with building their own websites, I always advise artists to have both.
Why? Because this method will give you multiple places where people can find you online, and you can take advantage of the best parts of both venues.
Start with an online marketplace, especially if you're new to selling online or don't have a lot of technical skills.
You'll be able to get your presence up quickly and tap into that built in traffic.
Once you build a base of customers on that site, start building your own website.
You'll then have the flexibility and control that you need and you'll already have a customer base to start directing to your website.