This sponsored post is written by:
…the founders of CraftLaunch.
Austin, Texas is mainly known for three things: live music, barbecue, and the thousands of bats that fly out from under the Congress Street bridge every night. What people may not know is that it also boasts a vibrant crafting community.
While many of the artists in town sell their creations on Etsy, they each also have their own brand and story to tell. That’s why we created CraftLaunch–to help Etsy sellers express themselves online by creating beautiful websites that complement their stores.
WHAT DOES CRAFTLAUNCH DO?
CraftLaunch lets sellers create their own unique websites, which then automatically pull in their Etsy listings so that they don’t have to manage their inventory in two places. It’s a way to take advantage of Etsy’s great technology and marketplace while still maintaining your own individual style and brand!
WHY IS CRAFTLAUNCH A GOOD IDEA FOR ETSY SELLERS?
We think that Etsy is the best platform for selling your handmade goods. There are lots of ways to sell online, but none of them approach Etsy in terms of their community and their reach (1.53 billion page views in December!). It’s also pretty inexpensive to get started. So you have lots of potential traffic, and access to advice and resources from the Etsy teams and the community at large. Those low barriers to entry can also make it hard for an individual shop to get noticed, so having your own website (like www.myawesomecraftshop.com) to compliment your Etsy.com shop makes a lot of sense–especially if you’re going to be doing any sort of marketing or if you want to differentiate yourself from other Etsy sellers.
CraftLaunch helps you build a stronger relationship with your customers, so that they can say they bought something from you, instead of just saying “I bought it on Etsy.” We focus exclusively on Etsy sellers and work really hard to make sure that their standalone websites integrate seamlessly with their Etsy shops.
SO, HOW DOES CRAFTLAUNCH WORK?
Etsy sellers who want their own websites can go to CraftLaunch.com and sign up for an account. It only takes a minute, and by the time they’re done, they will already have a great-looking home page and a “shop” page with all of their Etsy items on it. From there they can take advantage of their easy-to-use Control Panel to customize their site and make it their own–choosing their color palette, adding photos, and creating new pages for their bio, retail locations, custom orders, and more!
Customers add items to their cart on the new website, and when they’re ready to check out, they are taken back to Etsy.com to finish their purchase. We never charge listing or transaction fees, and buyers don’t need a CraftLaunch account to shop. What’s great is that any changes that happen in your Etsy shop–like when an item is sold, added or changed–will be auto-magically reflected in your new site, so you don’t have to update it manually.
We also make it easy to link up to social media like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest so that shoppers can learn more about you and spread the word about the products they find. We have great tools to help our sellers build their sites, and we’re always adding more.
HOW TO ENTER:
CraftLaunch is giving one lucky reader a free custom site (including expert setup and hosting) for one year—a $200 value!
To enter, just sign up for a free 15-day trial (no credit card required) by going to http://www.craftlaunch.com/ohmyhandmade3.
The giveaway closes Tuesday, September 17th at midnight CST with the winner announced below this post the following day.
In addition to giving one of the Oh My! readers a free custom website, CraftLaunch is also offering one month free if you decide to sign up after your trial is over. Just enter coupon code OHMYHANDMADE3 during checkout to get your first month free!
Looking for inspiration? Want to stay in touch? Check out our blog, follow us on twitter and like us on facebook!
