Why should you own a website of your own?  After all, you sell your work on a multivendor site such as Etsy, Artfire, HandmadeArtists, Zibbet just to name a few, and they handle all the headaches of design and checkout buttons…so why bother?

Multivendor websites give a feeling of community, residual traffic from other shops, simplicity in listing and no web site upkeep on your part is required.  You can list your items without worrying about server space or server fees and focus your attention on your creative work.  You can be part of a community through the forums and get advice and understanding from those that are as creative as you are.  You definitely don’t feel like you are all alone in the giant world of internet marketing.

That being said, the reality is that even if you feel part of a handmade family on a multivendor website, you do not own the site and the rules you must follow or risk getting shut down are subject to the owners discretion.  There are plenty of horror stories around the web in which successful businesses on multivendor sites are suddenly shut down thanks to changing rules or perceived slights against the site owners.   It is your job to read and follow the rules, but sometimes things are a matter of interpretation and, in the end, the final say is with the site owner.  You are also at the mercy of the website owners ability to maintain their site.  There have been plenty of small start up sites that took payment from artists only to shut down a short time later.  Owning a multivendor selling site is a risk and all of them don’t make it.

So what do you do?  There are simple things that you can do to protect your hard built business and still have all the advantages of a multivendor selling site….While you are still selling on a larger site…

-Buy your domain name.  Places like GoDaddy area great place to start when looking for your domain name.  Plug in the name you want and if it is available you can own it within minutes and never have to worry about someone buying your .com name!

If it is not available, you are given some alternatives such as .org, .co, .net, or .us.  They will also offer to contact the domain name owner for you and try to get them to sell it to you, for a commission fee of course.  Your other option is to slightly change the name or use a variation of the name and grab that domain.

-Set up a gallery site.  There are plenty of easy build website companies as well as blogs, such as WordPress, that make is fairly easy to set up a gallery site of your own.  You don’t need to worry about buy now buttons or anything else as you can point your customers to whatever site you like for purchasing.  Treat it like a blog if you like and show off your latest creations with a link to your sales venue.

-Make a file of all customer testimonials.  If a site is shut down your shop is shut down by the site for any reason, you will most likely be unable to get any of your feedback!  Why try to rebuild what you have already built up over the years?  Every so often, make a copy of all your feedback for yourself and even post it on your own site.  Customer feedback is a valuable tool to building customer confidence, so take advantage of it and don’t lose it.

-Keep copies of your product pictures either on your own computer or on a photo site such as flickr.  Every artist knows the trials and errors that go into great product shots so don’t keep your only copies in the hands of someone else.  Protect your investment and make sure you always will have access to your photos.

I love the ease of a multivendor site and firmly believe that they are a great way to sell your work and connect with other artists; however, I also believe in taking control of your business and being prepared for anything that should come along so that if there is a problem, or you simply outgrow a venue, you will have no break in the action; instead, you are ready to move ahead without a hitch.

So, do you have your own website?  Leave a link in the comments section so we can all go check it out!

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