Marketing and sales.

[cstroke]

Hey guys,
I'm sure this topic has been covered before many times but I think it is one that could be repeated.
I'm looking to sell a few items, not large scale but work on a few items sell them and move on.
Where do you guys get the most bang for your buck?
I checked into Ebay but it seems they will be making as much as I will be. Etsy better? or do you guys market yourselves on facebook, instagram and have a store set up??
payment? how do you guys like to work online with payments?
Like I said I just want to sell a few items here and there when I'm motivated to do so.
Thanks in advance..
Chris

[DieselFumes]

I have found that Facebook Marketplace works the best. Generates local sales, cash payments, and eliminates shipping in most cases and no fees. Ebay and Etsy is chock full of folks working for nothing and Chinese crap.

[adbuch]

Hey guys,
I'm sure this topic has been covered before many times but I think it is one that could be repeated.
I'm looking to sell a few items, not large scale but work on a few items sell them and move on.
Where do you guys get the most bang for your buck?
I checked into Ebay but it seems they will be making as much as I will be. Etsy better? or do you guys market yourselves on facebook, instagram and have a store set up??
payment? how do you guys like to work online with payments?
Like I said I just want to sell a few items here and there when I'm motivated to do so.
Thanks in advance..
Chris

I think the key here is to get the exposure for the items you wish to sell. All of the venues you have mentioned (etsy, Ebay, FB, Instagram) can work. The key is to place your items where they will be seen. I personally sell most of my products on Ebay or from my website. The fees on Ebay amount to around 15% (combined Ebay listing/final value fees + transaction fee). I let the buyer pay the shipping cost. so on a a $100 item I net about $85. Depending on my cost of goods/materials my net-net may be around $75 to $80. I get much more traffic to my Ebay store than my wesite, but on the website I have Paypal buy-now buttons and the Paypal transaction fee is around 4%. I am selling machined parts (vs. plasma cut parts) but the concept is the same.
David

Here is my Ebay store.
https://www.ebay.com/str/Desert-Hybrids ... 7675.l2563


Here is my website.
https://www.desert-hybrids.com

[raed]

Sorry for necroing, but it seems like a good topic. Maybe others would want to add something.
Etsy can be a great choice for unique handmade items, as it has a community that appreciates such things. For generic stuff, Facebook Marketplace and Instagram can work well, especially if you have a good network.
As for marketing, social media platforms can be a good starting point, assuming you don't want to spend much. A well-crafted post with appealing images can go a long way.

[Joe Jones]

Get someone to create some small wall plaques with your company name, logo and phone number. Maybe 4" x 6" or so. They can be made out of metal, or laser etched on aluminum anodized metal tags, or wood, or acrylic, or routed, or whatever.

Find local family restaurants, not chains, who have a nice local flavor. Talk to the manager. Show him some of your work. Tell him you want to pound a nail into the empty space on "that wall" and "that wall" and hang pieces of metal art there, with a plaque beneath them ... "Custom Metal Art by ..." Give the manager YOUR PRICE, and tell him he can price it at any reasonable mark up. Provide a nice printed tag where he can write his price, or maybe a wall mounted clear acrylic holder where a price can be displayed, about business card size. When he sells it, he will pay you YOUR price, keep his profit on the item, and let you hang something new there. Change up the designs OFTEN. VARIETY sells.

People do not want to see the same old thing. If something doesn't sell one week, go swap it out for something else. Twice a week is even better, as people tend to return to favorite eateries. Move the deer head from one place to another, or one location to another. Eventually, your art piece will catch someone's eye, and it WILL SELL.

Do not make it too complicated. Tell the manager, "My price for every piece hung on this nail is $nn.nn You can mark it up to whatever price you believe your customers will accept!" Have a $25.00 nail, and a $40.00 nail, and a$90.00 nail if you can!

Put up seasonal art, sports at sports bars, animal art at animal hospital waiting rooms, and pet grooming center waiting rooms, and other places where people tend to sit and wait ... Doctor's waiting rooms work too. The art piece of someone standing on crutches with a cast on a leg, or seated in a wheelchair with a "this sucks!" facial expression ... think OUTSIDE of the box!

Hospital gift shops are a good outlet for metal art. Approach other small independent retail places like Mailbox Rental places, and don't forget that big blank wall at your local lumber and home improvement center. Not Home Depot or Lowes. Stay away from the corporate chains, but "Barney's Lumber World" or "Jim's Building Supplies" etc. are good places to display your work. Make metal art of log cabins, and guys fishing off of wooden docks, etc. Find a BLANK WALL, and show the manager how it can be used to display your work. Price it so YOU make a profit, and they can mark it up from there and sell it.

Lobbies of self-storage centers work. Walls in independent gas stations are good places for automobile themed metal art.

If you see a BLANK WALL, ask yourself, "What would look GOOD hanging there as an art piece to sell?"

KEEP A RECORD of what you left where, and follow up so your art doesn't just walk away.

Create beautiful metal art flower designs, and approach funeral homes. People walk in to buy caskets, and urns, and memorial stuff. That is a good place to sell things like the Amazing Grace Cross, and art depicting salvation, and praising God and Jesus, etc. you are NOT "using" Jesus." you are appealing to the people who love and worship him.

Use your imagination!

Joe

[cncrob]

I've had good success with both Etsy and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, depending on what I'm selling. For handmade or unique items, Etsy tends to work great. Social media, on the other hand, can be an excellent tool for reaching a broader audience quickly, especially if you master targeted ads. To refine my ads, I use Facebook adspy tool, which helps me get insights into what's working for others in similar businesses.

As for payments, PayPal or Square are quick and efficient options. Just remember to factor transaction fees into your pricing.

[Joe Jones]

It only takes a little out-of-the-box thinking. Any place where you have a captive audience, and SOME control over theft. Art that hangs on restaurant walls, or a nice piece hanging on the wall behind the cash register with a clear tag indicating the price would SELL metal art. Do the steaming coffee cup "Relax , Sip, Enjoy!" or something like that.

Once your art is known, people will spot it wherever it hangs. "Look! ... There's another piece by that metal art guy!"

Do some larger pieces with a movie theme, and talk to your local movie theater owners about displaying and selling your art there. You could do a tub of popcorn, popular candy bars, etc. You could create original art for current movies that are playing too, as long as you do not violate any Copyrights. Old nostalgia ... Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Lucy, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Jackie Chan, Superman and the other action heroes, all of the Star Wars characters, Harry Potter, etc. etc. Make them in different sizes, and make SURE you drew them yourself (read: NOT TRACING someone else's work)

I am drifting into lasers now, so my plasma table is feeling neglected However, I will become more active soon, when my friend arrives from Illinois. Hopefully, we can work together to make this happen.

Joe

[djreiswig]

Wouldn't the candy bar brands and the movie/Star wars characters need to be licensed?

[Joe Jones]

Wouldn't the candy bar brands and the movie/Star wars characters need to be licensed?

There is no law against DRAWING an image of a Hershey Bar, or a movie star, or a Marvel Comics character. You cannot COPY an image that has a Copyright, but you can DRAW one.

Joe

[djreiswig]

I was not aware of that. So if I draw a Hershey's chocolate bar with the Hershey's brand logo on it, they wouldn't have a problem with me selling it without their permission? Same with Superman with his signature "S"? I find that hard to believe, but I'm not versed in copyright law.

[Joe Jones]

I was not aware of that. So if I draw a Hershey's chocolate bar with the Hershey's brand logo on it, they wouldn't have a problem with me selling it without their permission? Same with Superman with his signature "S"? I find that hard to believe, but I'm not versed in copyright law.

You cannot copy their artwork, but you CAN draw your own.

Joe