Online art

killa · Won't Shut Up Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Karma :

I have a couple of friends who are in the art/craft scene.
One of the girls can paint, draw, design, her portraits are superb and other random paintings I’ve seen are well worth a look.
She currently does the odd piece for friends and family, ranging from £50-£400 I think.
My other friend can make jewellery out of many things, latest ones I’ve seen are some funky earrings made from accessories from Barbie, she can also paint (non portrait) well.

How easy would it be for me to set up an Ebay shop for them and to advertise their work to potential customers?

Thanks

Killa
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Rookie · World Chat Champion Joined: 09 Feb 2005 Karma :

Very easy. Owning a shop costs from £6 a month, and adding items to it costs virtually nothing. If you want you items and the shop to look good, you're looking at about 10 hours work. I spent about 4 hours designing auction layout in Dreamweaver, but I had a website design to work from.

The expensive bit is getting exposure for the shop. You need to perioidically list samples of their work, to get people into the shop.

Misc · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Karma :

Exposure on ebay then try adwords, you can make a little ad for less then £0.01 a click & this will drive traffic to you're listing, works with anything to car, bike etc.

I'm not to sure if those things would sell well on ebay as theres loads of fakes & if you do a search for 'art' then see how many ebay shops are doing the same thing it might put you off.

I had around 1000 brand new American comics & i made a shop, then i notice how many comic shops there where so i sold them all in 1 go. Lots of competition.

izzi81 · Could Be A Chat Bot Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Karma :

ebay isn't the best place to sell art or jewellery. There is *so* much competition, and ebay is basically a buyers market, everyone is looking for the cheapest price. I make earrings and necklaces and I find they sell better on a website than on ebay. Jewellery will always sell better in a shop where people can see and touch what they're going to buy, and I get the feeling that applies even more to paintings....
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Irezumi aka Reuben · Carrot Top Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Karma :

killa · Won't Shut Up Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Karma :

Thanks for the info guys, I guess a website would a better idea, I did have a look on Ebay and yeah I can see your point.
So where do I start with the web site idea, how do I structure the site to be able to sell?
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Suzuki · Roger Joined: 03 May 2005 Karma :

Pay somebody to build and host it for you.
A shopping website is quite a technical thing.

There are however, free scripts written for shopping websites, so you don't have to pay somebody to build you one.

Have a look at www.oscommerce.com

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killa · Won't Shut Up Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Karma :

The next question then is, can you do one of them Jon?

I saw a basic site the other day that had a basket type layout where you can shop, when you paid it went to another site that dealt with it all. Any ideas?
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Suzuki · Roger Joined: 03 May 2005 Karma :

Yeah, I could do it.

For payment you've got a number of options. You could use PayPal to get them to pay you, or something like WorldPay. There are a few companies out there who will handle the cash/credit cards/etc for you for a small fee. You just give them a small percentage of the cost that your customers pay you.

I assume you've used PayPal before: www.paypal.com

Here's a link to WorldPay --> www.worldpay.com

There are a few others out there, but they're all much of a muchness.
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killa · Won't Shut Up Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Karma :

Well if you could possibly email me some info for prices and layouts etc for the intended site, I will have word with the ladies and see if I can get together possibly a small group of artist types to help out.

Killa
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Suzuki · Roger Joined: 03 May 2005 Karma :