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People ask this question all the time…
And the answer is: Yes!
If you’re serious about running a handmade business, you need a dedicated website your customers can visit to browse your products and learn more about you.
Why Is Etsy Not Enough?
Etsy is a great place to sell your handmade goods. People have been making money on the site for years. You can, too! I’m not saying anything bad about Etsy. What I’m saying is that you have more freedom when you have your own website.
Etsy and other selling sites limit your ability to brand your business. With your own website, you can make it look however you want and control how customers interact with your brand. You can change how your emails look, how you display your products, and what you charge your customers.
I’m sure you’ve heard people say, “I got this on Etsy!”
Think about what that means for your business… Etsy is getting the credit for all your hard work. Customers don’t even bother to remember your store’s name.
With your own website, customers will start to remember you! That means more repeat sales will come your way.
You don’t have to close your Etsy shop when you launch your website. That’s something you can work towards as you build your customer base. Your website and Etsy shop can complement each other and increase your sales. You can even drive traffic to your Etsy shop with links from your website and not worry about the stress of installing a shopping cart or keeping track of inventory in two places.
Are the Extra Costs of Running Your Own Website Worth It?
I know what you’re thinking…
You’d love to have a website for your handmade business, but you’re worried about the costs.
I’m not going to lie. There are costs to running your own website, but they’re not nearly as high as you’re imagining. You can get a website up and running for under $10 per month.
All you really need to do is sign up for web hosting that provides a free website builder. There are tons of hosting providers to choose from, but I personally like Bluehost. If you sign up through my affiliate link, you can get web hosting for $2.95 per month.
Bluehost asks you to pay for one year upfront, so don’t be caught off guard when you get to the checkout phase. Also, don’t worry about purchasing any of the upgrades they offer you! Everything can be added later if you decide you need it.
People try to make it seem like creating a website is expensive and difficult when it really is not…
I’m not a computer programmer and I didn’t take any web design classes in college. I was able to create the website you’re reading right now on my own with a free template from the WordPress site builder on Bluehost. You can probably figure it out.
WordPress is user friendly and Bluehost makes it as easy as possible for you to get everything set up. For $6.95 per month, Bluehost will even set up a complete ecommerce site for you on its WordPress platform through Woocommerce. You won’t have to do anything but add a logo and add items to your inventory. That’s still cheaper than using Shopify, and you get more customization options.
After you choose a website template, you can change the colors, add images, and customize it anyway you like. You can then find free plugins on WordPress for practically anything you want your website to do. You don’t need to know anything about website programming.
I could go on and on about how to design a website for your handmade business and what WordPress plugins work the best, but that’s a topic for another post…
You’ll probably want to spend some time in the beginning making your website look perfect. However, there are plenty of off-the-shelf website designs you can use and customize yourself on WordPress for FREE. I’m serious! Bluehost and its WordPress website builder tools are awesome.
If you missed it, here’s the link to sign up for Bluehost for only $3.95 per month. Thanks for using my affiliate link. I earn a small commission that helps me pay my bills.
Good luck! Creating a website for your handmade business is worth the effort.
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