I need a site to display and sell my woodturnings. I’m looking for recommendations for a host website and website design software. Simplicity is desirable.
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Website recommendations
- Thread starter John Lowder
- Start date
Well, many use ETSY. For me, I never liked selling on line because the "feel" of the bowl is so important to the sale.
robo hippy
robo hippy
I agree with robo about the feel. It's a necessity since the market is saturated by hobbyist turners. The only thing I was successful with on Etsy was with selling wood at get rid of it pricing. Many people develop a good website and then send the folks to Etsy for the store. Also with more payment apps appearing, you can get by without a store and just make the arrangements over the phone by sending them an invoice for payment.
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I just got signed up on Etsy. It's simple enough, but a bit time consuming if you check all the boxes when you create the listing. My store is live, but I'm not announcing to the public until I add another 6-8 bowls.
I'm reading this as you want to host your own domain, and you'd rather not sell on some established site like Etsy...?
If that's the case, there are a number of folks on here who sell on their own websites. Hopefully a few of them will chime in here for you... Be patient...
If it was me, (and I've been looking into it for my own work) I'd look to farm it out to a professional web design person. I have no computer literacy for the most part (I can buy stuff on amazon and send an e-mail) but a web designer can/will teach you how to edit the site behind the scenes once it is up and ready to go. High School and College kids are the cheapest but an established professional is likely more reliable. A website like fiverr.com can get you in touch with a freelancer.
I'd rather be turning than programming... I have no aptitude, attitude, or desire to learn much computing stuff at my age.
Be careful with all the check boxes. If you allow them to market your work in other places, the sales fee goes up another 15%
One of the deterrents for me is the amount of time you will spend with high quality photography for a professional look on the web site. 3-4 different pictures of each piece.
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Agree. I didn't opt in to any of their paid services other than the listings. I absolutely need to build a photography setup.
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Boy a loaded question there - depends on what sorts of payments you want to accept.. If you want to directly accept credit cards, you won't be doing that on a DIY website without a lot of complicated work, expense and endless regulation and daily maintenance. (SSL certificate you have to buy, there's a whole gamut of web security testing you have to run through every so often to certify for credit card security, as well as written documented procedures and more... Been there, Done That, I DO NOT recommend it unless you have budget to hire a couple full time I.T. People at 6-figure salaries) However if you want to do simple paypal or Venmo (or local pickup even better - With shipping things out, it's ridiculously easy for some scammer types to get the payment processor to refund them so you're out both the money and the item... Though it is a rather small percentage, you have to be ready for that to happen, sometimes it comes in "bunches" and very often turns many shoe-string start-up folks away from E-Commerce)
Then it would depend on your desires for cost /simplicity/features. I did my website on a simple Goole Sites platform (Free, except my annual domain name renewal at the registrar , but then I don't sell on the website- I had enough of shipping problems from years selling on Ebay as a power seller, shipping as many as 100 packages a DAY, and I still don't want to get back into doing any e-commerce shipping... burned out on that..) Then you could do any number of other point and click hosts - Godaddy has such a platform you can bundle in with domain name registration... If you just wanna sell, then perhaps you can do so on Etsy or eBay (Even Amazon has a handmade section, but I think it is a little more involved to qualify) without getting involved in website building...
So I think your first step would be to sit down and determine exactly what you want, because a recommendation on host/software may change drastically depending on your wants/needs - There's no one provider that is the best at everything.
John, if you're looking for something beyond Etsy, a site that will actually have your name/brand on it, I used Squarespace to build mine, you can check it out here:
www.studiocsh.com
They give you a bunch of templates to choose from and from there it's just a matter of uploading photos and writing text, and just like anything else of that nature, say building a PowerPoint presentation or using a Word template, there are plenty of moments of "Friggin, dang it! How do I get that dang box to move over there??!!" (actual more colorful language cleaned up for this heavily moderated forum 🤣) "No, I don't want the text to wrap like THAT!!," but overall it was pretty easy. If you outgrow the template approach or want to hire a web design pro for something better, you can also get to the root HTML/CSS files on Squarespace and plug in some totally custom stuff that someone wrote for you.
Mine is in severe need of some updating and rewrites and uploading a lot more work. It does come with e-commerce, and even though I don't have anything for sale out there right now (I agree with others about the feel making the sale and currently do all my selling at art festivals and galleries), when I looked in to it and tried doing a listing, it did not seem any more challenging than Etsy. Upload photos, link bank account, voila. The plan that I'm on runs about $250/yr I think, and then on top of that you need another $20/yr for domain name registration which can be also done through Squarespace, but I use Hover. The domain name registration will cost a bit more if you want a full fledged email (i.e. emails both go to and are sent from yourname@yourwebsite.com). For right now, I went with the cheaper option that is just an email forward- people can send things to a professional-sounding email, myname@mywebsite.com, which then gets forwarded to my personal gmail and then my responses come from that gmail address.
A couple pros of Etsy to consider- shipping labels are seamlessly integrated in to the process, you print them out right from Etsy (at a discount from regular USPS rates) and they reach some people you might not on your own. It's also true that it's very saturated with lots of woodwork (some not very good), but there is still some potential to reach new customers. A lot of people complain about the fees but the last time I added them up, they were a bit over 20% and that's cheaper than a good gallery and about on par with a decent weekend at an art show if you compare sales to booth fees. (Note I didn't say a GREAT weekend which would get the booth fee down to more like 10% or less of sales).
StudioCSH
www.studiocsh.com
They give you a bunch of templates to choose from and from there it's just a matter of uploading photos and writing text, and just like anything else of that nature, say building a PowerPoint presentation or using a Word template, there are plenty of moments of "Friggin, dang it! How do I get that dang box to move over there??!!" (actual more colorful language cleaned up for this heavily moderated forum 🤣) "No, I don't want the text to wrap like THAT!!," but overall it was pretty easy. If you outgrow the template approach or want to hire a web design pro for something better, you can also get to the root HTML/CSS files on Squarespace and plug in some totally custom stuff that someone wrote for you.
Mine is in severe need of some updating and rewrites and uploading a lot more work. It does come with e-commerce, and even though I don't have anything for sale out there right now (I agree with others about the feel making the sale and currently do all my selling at art festivals and galleries), when I looked in to it and tried doing a listing, it did not seem any more challenging than Etsy. Upload photos, link bank account, voila. The plan that I'm on runs about $250/yr I think, and then on top of that you need another $20/yr for domain name registration which can be also done through Squarespace, but I use Hover. The domain name registration will cost a bit more if you want a full fledged email (i.e. emails both go to and are sent from yourname@yourwebsite.com). For right now, I went with the cheaper option that is just an email forward- people can send things to a professional-sounding email, myname@mywebsite.com, which then gets forwarded to my personal gmail and then my responses come from that gmail address.
A couple pros of Etsy to consider- shipping labels are seamlessly integrated in to the process, you print them out right from Etsy (at a discount from regular USPS rates) and they reach some people you might not on your own. It's also true that it's very saturated with lots of woodwork (some not very good), but there is still some potential to reach new customers. A lot of people complain about the fees but the last time I added them up, they were a bit over 20% and that's cheaper than a good gallery and about on par with a decent weekend at an art show if you compare sales to booth fees. (Note I didn't say a GREAT weekend which would get the booth fee down to more like 10% or less of sales).
Dave Landers
Beta Tester
Some thoughts (from someone with a software engineering background but has no desire to sell online)...
I know several club members who got web sites set up by hiring a high school or college kid (or some equivalent). Those kids have moved on and the websites are way out of date and my friends have not the skills to know how to update them. So beware of this approach. It may get you started, and is probably cheap - but may come back and bite you in a few years.
There's a similar issue with hiring a stable professional that won't skip out on you - you are still on the hook for maintenance and updates etc. So may be stuck with that firm for a long time.
Most non-technical people should therefore IMO stick with something that gives you a site you can do yourself. Something like Etsy gives you a place to sell. If you want more individuality and identity (your own domain, etc) you might want something more like squarespace, wix, etc. Whatever it is, check into their features and fees etc and make sure its something you can work with for a while (any of these will pretty much lock you in to their stuff - switching vendors will be mostly like starting over).
The next step is presence / traffic / etc. So you are probably going to want to get good at the social media thing - instagram / facebook - to attract an audience and get them to your site. Unless you already have a big group of folks just waiting for your site so they can buy your stuff...
Then there's the inventory - everything you make (and want to sell) needs accurate and attractive photos and descriptions. And you need a tracking system, so when someone buys that bowl you made sometime last year, you can find it and send them the right piece.
This is the main reason I'm not interested in selling online. The tech is, for me, a no-brainer. But photos, inventory, tracking, logs - uck. I do take photos of a lot of my pieces, and often write up a description - but it doesn't have to be sales/marketing level, and I don't keep a detailed inventory/log tracking. For a craft/art fair, I just get out whatever I have and take it, and if it doesn't come home, I must have sold it
My $0.02, anyway
I know several club members who got web sites set up by hiring a high school or college kid (or some equivalent). Those kids have moved on and the websites are way out of date and my friends have not the skills to know how to update them. So beware of this approach. It may get you started, and is probably cheap - but may come back and bite you in a few years.
There's a similar issue with hiring a stable professional that won't skip out on you - you are still on the hook for maintenance and updates etc. So may be stuck with that firm for a long time.
Most non-technical people should therefore IMO stick with something that gives you a site you can do yourself. Something like Etsy gives you a place to sell. If you want more individuality and identity (your own domain, etc) you might want something more like squarespace, wix, etc. Whatever it is, check into their features and fees etc and make sure its something you can work with for a while (any of these will pretty much lock you in to their stuff - switching vendors will be mostly like starting over).
The next step is presence / traffic / etc. So you are probably going to want to get good at the social media thing - instagram / facebook - to attract an audience and get them to your site. Unless you already have a big group of folks just waiting for your site so they can buy your stuff...
Then there's the inventory - everything you make (and want to sell) needs accurate and attractive photos and descriptions. And you need a tracking system, so when someone buys that bowl you made sometime last year, you can find it and send them the right piece.
This is the main reason I'm not interested in selling online. The tech is, for me, a no-brainer. But photos, inventory, tracking, logs - uck. I do take photos of a lot of my pieces, and often write up a description - but it doesn't have to be sales/marketing level, and I don't keep a detailed inventory/log tracking. For a craft/art fair, I just get out whatever I have and take it, and if it doesn't come home, I must have sold it
My $0.02, anyway
Over the past 25 years or so, I've tried just about every sales venue options possible, with some good experiences and several very bad. Since so many posters have mentioned Etsy, here's my 2 cents worth: Etsy use to be strictly for handmade USA made stuff. Then they went international, stock went public, they dropped the handmade moniker, and now host literally millions of examples of whatever it is you want to sell. And, they gouge their sellers with relatively enormous fees when ever they can. On the other side of online selling, there are dozens of facilitators, some that look and feel just like Etsy, but without the excess costs and baggage. And some of these facilitators only charge a monthly or annual flat fee for your sales venue. The one I've most recently settled in on is https://www.bigcartel.com/ ...no sales commissions, no setup fees, no periodic product renewal fees, just an annual flat rate. And, to try it out, the whole thing is free if you only post five or fewer products for sale. I use the 50 product listing option, at $144 per year...and that's it.
The next question is how do you drive potential buyers to your shopping site? There is an answer (Dave touched on it...social media), but IMHO, it's not Etsy.
The next question is how do you drive potential buyers to your shopping site? There is an answer (Dave touched on it...social media), but IMHO, it's not Etsy.
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A lot of the above comments are very much to the point. My son (who has a demanding eye) convinced me I needed two things - a website and an instagram page. He was right on both, but I use each in a very limited, selective fashion.
I use Squarespace for my website. Even though it is all modular and customizable, it's not as intuitive as one might think. I was very glad for his work in setting it up, and updating it periodically. I don't update it enough, but it's at least a professional looking presentation. I don't try to sell through the website - just show representative work and offer contact info. There's no such thing as a set it and forget it website. Any online presence takes time, energy, and competence.
My instagram is super easy to update, and acts as a nice complement to, not a replacement for, the website.
You absolutely need high quality photos, regardless of what direction you go in.
I don't sell online. My sales are almost exclusively at two big, county-wide open studio events, and through word of mouth/contacts. I'm my own best salesman, people get to handle the work, and it's the least amount of hassle imaginable. It's still a fair amount of work. People have found me through my website, though. I don't think Insta has been directly significant in terms of sales, but it has definitely boosted my visibility.
Anything you do will require more work than you think. Be careful what you wish for. If all you want to do is turn, do that. I don't mind doing the other related stuff at this point, but there's definitely a balance to be achieved.
And as noted above, Etsy just looked like a nightmare to me. I hate searching it, and it looked like a race to the bottom as a seller. I'm sure it works for some people, but I'm not churning out enough stuff to bother with it. I'm okay paying my credit card fee because it makes life so much easier, and lots of stuff has sold that wouldn't have sold otherwise, so it more than pays for itself. That's just the cost of doing business. I pay a modest fee for my website annually, Insta is "free" (if you discount the fact that they hoover up info about viewing, etc.). So again, there will always be some baseline of fees, costs, taxes, etc. Just find what works for you.
I use Squarespace for my website. Even though it is all modular and customizable, it's not as intuitive as one might think. I was very glad for his work in setting it up, and updating it periodically. I don't update it enough, but it's at least a professional looking presentation. I don't try to sell through the website - just show representative work and offer contact info. There's no such thing as a set it and forget it website. Any online presence takes time, energy, and competence.
My instagram is super easy to update, and acts as a nice complement to, not a replacement for, the website.
You absolutely need high quality photos, regardless of what direction you go in.
I don't sell online. My sales are almost exclusively at two big, county-wide open studio events, and through word of mouth/contacts. I'm my own best salesman, people get to handle the work, and it's the least amount of hassle imaginable. It's still a fair amount of work. People have found me through my website, though. I don't think Insta has been directly significant in terms of sales, but it has definitely boosted my visibility.
Anything you do will require more work than you think. Be careful what you wish for. If all you want to do is turn, do that. I don't mind doing the other related stuff at this point, but there's definitely a balance to be achieved.
And as noted above, Etsy just looked like a nightmare to me. I hate searching it, and it looked like a race to the bottom as a seller. I'm sure it works for some people, but I'm not churning out enough stuff to bother with it. I'm okay paying my credit card fee because it makes life so much easier, and lots of stuff has sold that wouldn't have sold otherwise, so it more than pays for itself. That's just the cost of doing business. I pay a modest fee for my website annually, Insta is "free" (if you discount the fact that they hoover up info about viewing, etc.). So again, there will always be some baseline of fees, costs, taxes, etc. Just find what works for you.
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John, if you're looking for something beyond Etsy, a site that will actually have your name/brand on it, I used Squarespace to build mine, you can check it out here:
StudioCSH
Chris, that Web site looks awesome. I was prepared to be disappointed but was not!
Chris, I agree with Kent about your site. Your work is also gorgeous!
@Kent Reisdorph @Lou Jacobs Thank you both for the kind words!
You can get your domain name form namecheap.com. They currently have a new account special of $5.98 for the first year. They can host as well. For website design I would go with Word Press which is basically user friendly and supports woo commerce. All kinds of youtube videos on how to use word press. Let me know if you have any questions and I may be able to point you in the right direction. I am currently making a new website for our SWFL Wood Art Expo because the current host has limited usability and any additional plugins like commerce cost extra. I already pay $20.00 for the domain name and will swap it over to namecheap.com when I am done designing the site.
Stripe.com is a good site that integrates well with word press to accept payments and allows purchasers to use credit cards.
Stripe.com is a good site that integrates well with word press to accept payments and allows purchasers to use credit cards.
odie
TOTW Team
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Etsy is a well known platform that many consumers come to for their personal purchases and gifts to friends and family. No social media platform is going to draw the number of potential customers that Etsy has browsing their site daily. Something else to consider, is Etsy is used by art galleries and gift shops to add to their inventories, as well as collective agents who buy and sell to these places. Besides that, I have a couple of customers who have mentioned they are salesmen who use my bowls as gifts to their high-revenue clients.
The only way to make Etsy successful is to offer something that stands out from all the power-sanded bowls/turnings that all look alike. If you can compete well with 100,000 other turnings, then Etsy is a good platform.
One big mistake Etsy has made, IMHO, is to go public on the stock market. They have set the stage for allowing mass-produced, and other lower quality products on their site. Still......those customers who know how to find what they are looking for still use Etsy, because the high-quality hand made products they're looking for are still there.
For a few years there, my sales on Etsy was about 100/year, but since the downturn of our economy creates the conditions where there is less disposable money, my sales for the past two years is closer to 50/year. This year looks to be about the same.
-o-
The only way to make Etsy successful is to offer something that stands out from all the power-sanded bowls/turnings that all look alike. If you can compete well with 100,000 other turnings, then Etsy is a good platform.
One big mistake Etsy has made, IMHO, is to go public on the stock market. They have set the stage for allowing mass-produced, and other lower quality products on their site. Still......those customers who know how to find what they are looking for still use Etsy, because the high-quality hand made products they're looking for are still there.
For a few years there, my sales on Etsy was about 100/year, but since the downturn of our economy creates the conditions where there is less disposable money, my sales for the past two years is closer to 50/year. This year looks to be about the same.
-o-
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Careful Odie. Getting close to the edge of a political comment here, which I hope we can avoid in this section of the site.
odie
TOTW Team
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I participate (minimally since I’ve been turning more seriously) in the WoodenBoat Magazine online forum. They have a section of the site they call “The Bilge” for generally off (boatbuilding) topic discussions. It gets pretty political, and folks keep those kinds of topics there. I wonder if our moderators would allow political discussion in the “Off Topic Discussions” portion of this site, or if it’s better to avoid altogether.
odie
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Personally, I'd like to talk politics with a few others here......but, I don't think it will happen. Unfortunately, I think it would probably become toxic to a few of the friendships we've enjoyed having on these AAW forums.
-o-
Unfortunately I agree. These days even among families, things can get pretty heated. I know people who aren’t able to talk with their siblings anymore. Hopefully that will calm down with time.
I would prefer to keep politics out of turning. Too easy to offend someone or have toxic comments.
Nothing wrong with a dedicated pollical forum as long as the discourse is civil. It is an import part of the fabric of this nation that affects everything.
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Unfortunately, one person's idea of civil discourse may not be the same as another person's .. We're all human, and even moderators trying to be fair and impartial can be influenced by their own beliefs and opinions, and "tone of voice" is very difficult thing to impart in written text forums, so things like Sarcasm and "trying to be funny" can be seen as something entirely different, depending on who's reading the post.. So, I'd vote a very strong NO to even a dedicated political forum on the AAW forums... Too easy for something that is said to be misconstrued as something else, and then seeing otherwise solid relationships being blown to smithereens. I got nothing against having a forum or website set up separately for the purpose (there's plenty enough out there for those interested anyway) but not a sub forum on a place like this.
Me on politics:
Wife and I agreed years ago that since we would cancel each other’s vote, there was no need to discuss politics. Guess it works/ed since we made it 50 years on 7/20.
There are many (too many?) web sites already that discuss politics. Don’t need it here.
Supposedly from Ben Franklin, "Politics and sausage, you don't want to know the truth about either one." Well, I do like sausage!
robo hippy
robo hippy
Congratulations!
No Politics at all.....Please!!
Back to website stuff....
I'm supposed ot be the webmaster guy for our club site. I've made some improvements to it, but I feel like it could be much better. It was set up thru GoDaddy. It works and is sort of user-friendly for sitebuilder novices like myself, but it seems pricey. I realize this was more about personal websites for selling stuff, but I'd appreciate any input on club site hosting as well.
I'm supposed ot be the webmaster guy for our club site. I've made some improvements to it, but I feel like it could be much better. It was set up thru GoDaddy. It works and is sort of user-friendly for sitebuilder novices like myself, but it seems pricey. I realize this was more about personal websites for selling stuff, but I'd appreciate any input on club site hosting as well.
Dave Landers
Beta Tester
Our club site was on godaddy, and was a tangled mess of hand-edited html. We used godaddy because one of our members let us piggy-back own his hosting account (but we still reimbursed him for it). He did all the edits (I could have stepped in an emergency...)
Earlier this year, we moved our club to ClubExpress. Unfortunately, it was just in time, as our previous sole maintainer (and owner of the godaddy account) passed away a few months later.
It costs more (but we figure only about $5/member per year). We got lots of new features - like membership management and renewals, member-only pages, credit card processing, event registrations, etc. The best thing (in my view) for the club is we now have the entire board plus a couple others able to update their sections of the site (vs just one guy). So the load on everyone is spread out. Also there's tech support, so they don't have to always call me.... and it all doesn't depend on me or any other single individual being around...
We also have our symposium site hosted on that same godaddy account - the service expires in Oct. As the club doesn't own the account, and the account owner has passed, we have no way to extend it. I was already planning to move it anyway, and will do that after our symposium later this month. FWIW, I'm planning on moving the hosting to DreamHost, who provide one free site for 501(c)3 nonprofits. We'll still have to pay for DNS, and any other extra services, but way cheaper than godaddy (and better service in my experience - I've used them for my personal sites for years). That site is wordpress and I can do all the tech to get it moved, and we have at least one other person on our symposium committee that can help with management. I need to look for another tech person to help with the rare infrastructure needs.
I'm not trying to promote any one company, but just add our experiences - and make a couple points:
Club assets should be owned by the club, not an individual. Not just paid for (reimbursed) by the club. If that individual moves, dies, etc that puts the club in a bind.
Similarly, important services like web site, email, video, etc should be managed by a "team" rather than a single individual. Team could be 2 people - or 1 with an assistant, whatever.
I am in the process of updating our Meals on Wheels web site from hand-coded HTML to WordPress. At the suggestion of a supporter's son who works for Google, we prepared a project proposal detailing what we wanted and posted it on UpWork, a site that connects freelancers of all sorts with clients. We connected with a very experienced and personable web developer who will produce a fully functional new web site for us for about $1600. While it isn't e-commerce, the site will allow us to receive donations, recruit volunteers, post newsletters and blogs, and so forth.
We chose WordPress over SquareSpace since there are some very competent design tools available for WP like Elementor which allow you to build or modify a WP web site using a drag and drop interface. So we expect that after the contractor has done the initial work, we will be able to easily modify the site to add new features or move things around.
Most commercial hosting services, like GoDaddy, DreamHost, Hostinger, etc. support WP site hosting. We chose Hostinger for our MOW site. Google for WordPress hosting and you'll see a list that they recommend.
We chose WordPress over SquareSpace since there are some very competent design tools available for WP like Elementor which allow you to build or modify a WP web site using a drag and drop interface. So we expect that after the contractor has done the initial work, we will be able to easily modify the site to add new features or move things around.
Most commercial hosting services, like GoDaddy, DreamHost, Hostinger, etc. support WP site hosting. We chose Hostinger for our MOW site. Google for WordPress hosting and you'll see a list that they recommend.
Echoing Dave Lander's comments--Our club had a terrific webmaster, who got an aggressive form of cancer and soon passed away. He was the listed owner of the site. He had paid the bills with his own credit card and gotten periodically reimbursed by our treasurer. After he passed away, it was a 2 year nightmare to finally get to a functional and brand new web site. We lost the old web address/site name, the officer email accounts, and a whole lot of archival club materials in the process. Along the way, our web site could not be updated and was basically useless. I suspect this was one factor, along with covid, contributing to our club shrinking 30% over that time.
We have been on Club Express now for about 7 years and it is so much better than the two previous host. As Dave said it has a lot to offer and as we are a small club we will never take full advantage of the site. For me the ease of adding photos is a big plus. Emailing has ability to track openings and templates to be used or make your own for newsletters and such. Using the calendar we can preregister for events. Also dues can be paid online. All this takes a load off me and the treasurer.