Artists Start Here

Thank you for joining Craftsu. Below you will find some helpful content to check out when first exploring the Craftsu network.

Getting Started

Network Guidelines Here are the ground rules for keeping Craftsu safe and enjoyable for all members.

Tell Us Your Story Introduce yourself here and learn about other members.

Grow Your Network on Craftsu

Many of us support buying handmade in addition to making wonderful things to sell. If you want more customers, Craftsu is a great place to find them. One way to build your prospect list is to jump in and greet new members as they join Craftsu with a brief comment. Start a light conversation, comment on their photos, create some dialog and rapport. It might very well lead to new business for you or you might find some treasure you can't live without. Studies have shown that people like to buy from people they like.

Create Your Presence

Fill in Your Profile and Add Photos of Your Pieces Your profile page and photos are important tools to increase your presence on Craftsu and the rest of the Internet. They also provide multiple opportunities to show up in search engine results to shoppers looking for items like yours. Any of your photos can have a Buy button by following the steps here.

Your Profile Image: On Craftsu's main page, we will only feature profile photos of members who have actually uploaded a profile photo. If you don't upload a personal photo, you receive a Craftsu default image which shows up on your other posts, but default images will not show up in the front page Member's gallery.

Capitalize on the trend to buy handmade goods: in your profile description and in your photo descriptions, include popular search terms like 'buy handmade' or 'handmade jewelry' (substitute jewelry for your craft items).

Upload a good quality photo of yourself for your profile page. If you don't choose to share an image of you, at least upload an image of your art or craftwork so shoppers will be more inclined to click your image and learn about you.

If you need help uploading images, click here.

Be sure to include a link to your website or storefront. If you have more than one website, use the other boxes to include text links.

Craftsu is here for you to promote yourself. The following should help you place your content in ways that search engines will pick it up and index it to show up in search engine query results.

Post in the Open Forum and add Blogs Tell us about your latest pieces. Add photos and links. The more often you post, the more content you provide for search engines to find and the more frequently you'll show up in the "Latest Activity" area. Blog posts are archived so search engines can find and rank posts from months ago and longer. Ask your questions here. Or if you can help someone else with a question, please do.

Add Craft Shows and Gallery Openings Here is where to list art and crafts related events.

How to Link to Your Other Websites Here is how and where to link to your other storefronts or crafts domain sites from Craftsu.

Getting Traffic to Your Profile Page from Google Read this article about how to use incoming links to your Craftsu profile page to get traffic from Google, Yahoo and Bing from shoppers looking to buy handmade crafts like yours.

Mini Stores

Setting Up Mini Stores This article describes how to find 3rd party apps for setting up mini stores here on Craftsu so you can sell direct to shoppers. We don't offer support for these apps, so you are on your own. But we hope success stories will find their way back into the forums.

Videos

Videos We've uploaded some resource videos for help with Etsy, Artfire, eBay and other topics like copyright infringement and recycled craft ideas. If you have a useful video to share, submit yours for approval.

Getting Help

Getting Help Here's where to look if you have any problems or issues about the functioning (or lack of) features of the Craftsu website. Craftsu is a Ning based network, so you will be directed to a Ning Help page.

Craft Business Newsletter Subscribe free to the Craftmarketer.com Craft Business Newsletter to get tips and resources for growing your craft business.