Teach Soap

Just curious if anyone has an opinion on setting up your own website versus using ebay/etsy... for selling your soaps. What's more successful, more cost effective...

_________________
My Soap Box, LLC
Dawn Dering

_________________
Online Shop
Facebook Page

My web site is first and foremost. Etsy is secondary. I stopped selling on ebay due to all their crazy fees.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Does soap sell very well on Ebay? I have "watched" some, just to see and get the impression that they don't. Am I wrong?

_________________
Barbara at Oasis Soap Co.
http://www.oasissoap.com

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I bought a 7 ounce tray of beautifully packaged pebbles, all individually hand wrapped, for 99 cents. I wouldn't wrap them for that, and the soaps were lovely! I suppose if you have a lot of other products so several things could be bought together it might work, but still for not much profit.

_________________
Barbara at Oasis Soap Co.
http://www.oasissoap.com

Speaking as a new seller on etsy, it's not for the faint of heart. There's a -lot- of stiff competition, and takes a lot of marketing work. I don't have my own website, though I've been considering it. It's likely more cost effective in the long run, but one thing you'll probably want to consider is the cost of marketing between the two. In both time and cash.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I built a site on weebly.com as someone who is not a web designer (i am excited if i can get my phone to work somedays) i found this site very easy to use and manipulate. You will even have the option to set up a shopping cart using google which will put some consumers at ease when using their credit cards online.

I have not sold anything yet but played around with a lot of the features and really had a good time with it, i find it exceptionally easy to make changes and updates as well. I do eventually want to post and sell my soaps through my site, right now though i am in my learning phase both in the making soaps side and making web sites side.

Feel free to check out my site and if you have questions i will try to help you out. I did buy the domain name through go daddy but everything else i have done there has been completely free which is awesome.

http://www.myserendipityquest.com


good luck
~Erin

Hi City Mouse,
Thanks so much for sharing. So I see you haven't set up a shopping cart just yet. I'm going to check this company out. I'm using etsy and between that and PayPal all of my profits are up in bubbles. Ha. I too am just starting out but loving every minute of it. There is soooo much to learn. My sister just created a logo for me. I'm still learning about websites myself. I'm hoping she will be able to help with the site too but I'll check out your company for now.

Thanks.

_________________
My Soap Box, LLC
Dawn Dering

Hi City Mouse,
Thanks so much for sharing. So I see you haven't set up a shopping cart just yet. I'm going to check this company out. I'm using etsy and between that and PayPal all of my profits are up in bubbles. Ha. I too am just starting out but loving every minute of it. There is soooo much to learn. My sister just created a logo for me. I'm still learning about websites myself. I'm hoping she will be able to help with the site too but I'll check out your company for now.

Thanks.



Good luck! I am having a ball making soaps and thinking up marketing, packaging and promotional ideas. I dream about being able to quit my office monkey job and focus on this endeavor. I made some new items today and was able to take pics of them as well as a few i made before (i keep running out of supplies, lol) so i will have my cart and hand made items up which you can check out. It's new to me too so we shall see how this all goes.

take care
~CM

First I started off with webs.com then I had a website but was paying a lot per month with my provider. I still kept my webs.com website but didn't update it. When I cancelled my regular website I went back and updated my webs.com site and now that is the one I primarily use as it's free but you still pay the Paypal fees per transaction. The only downside it they advertise on your site but you can pay to get a pro account to eliminate that. I've just recently put up only two items on Etsy and am still learning the ropes there.

I've never tried ebay but have heard of others who want to try it out. Good to know soapbuddy that customers expect cheap prices for good quality as it's not something I'd be interested in.

My service provider just told me about a cheaper way to host my own site through a plan they offer so will probably go back to my regular website soon.

citymouse,

Thanks for the mentioning weebly.com I just checked it out and it looks great and they don't advertise on your site which I like. It's nice to know there is an alternative.

I use webs.com but I pay $4.95 a month so I don't have ads. It seems they find the "sponsers" that are most closely related to your site and advertise them when you have the free site. So I kept getting other soap companies advertisements at the top of my site. I got fed up with that and decided to pay for it. I am now thinking of upgrading again to the next level so I get my own domain name. That is the only downside. I use Mals-E Com for my shopping cart. It is a free one but works great for me. Then I just pay the paypal fees. It is pretty simple. Good luck to you.

_________________
Haven