Mike Davis said:Also remember you are now selling nation wide not just to the paperboy and the neighbors. Buyers will pick up the premium.
Mike-------check out ebay for handcrafted items. That is world wide as far as the market goes. Last time I listed any handcrafted items I did not get a bid to reach the minimum level. You will be competing with mass produced imports-----impossible to do.
I also had a web site for about 3 years----------I sold a box of checkers to a guy in London and a chair to a lady in Charlotte. Not much as far as sales go, huh? Being on line is like being a minnow in the ocean.
Most of my sales success has been doing craft shows and that can be a gruesome avenue. The overhead for doing craft shows is usually a lot more than 20% of the sales. At show sales is not the end of it-------you will get orders from people that came to the show and were able to put their hands on the work. They can not do that on line.
The online gallery is good in theory but I believe difficult to make profitable. I am sure there are exceptions to this. There is no easy way to market handcrafted items. If everyone had the advantage of belong to the Southern Highlands Guild and its reputation it would be a plus. Hey-it took them decades to get where they are today.
From my experience, everyone is ready to jump on a ready-made-market bandwagon. Very few are willing to roll up their sleves and help make it happen. Come up with a plan--------or a planning group and see what develops.
Jerry