I started selling my handmade stuff on Etsy since the beginning of 2006. It’s been great but I have gone through peaks and troughs.

Recently I heard about ArtFire. I think this is going to be the new generation of Etsy. Just to tell you the most important things first….

• FREE listing fee
• FREE selling fee
• Unlimited number of items to list
• 10 photos PER item
• Really easy to use listing process (especially the photo which I will explain a bit later)

Most importantly…

• ONLY $7 per month for the above for the first 5000 people signed up (usually $20)
• If you refer 10 people to sign up, EVERYTHING is FREE FOREVER!
• The basic membership is free, but you can only list up to 10 items at one time.

I have signed up and I am already really impressed. After selling on Etsy for nearly 3 years, using ArtFire was a real breaths of fresh air!

Artfire is similar to Etsy but I can see that many things which Etsy were lacking they have improved on it. I have briefly written my perspecitve on Artfire. Hopefully this is helpful.

No listing or sale fees!
No listing fee, no commission fee on sale on Artfire. On etsy it is 20 cent listing fee plus 3.5% sale fee. This will prevent you from paying so much fees during the high sale season such as Christmas. So far I have listed 5 items and everything was free. yippeee!

Be Noticed!
All new items listed will appear on the front page of ArtFire. I think this is a lot fairer than Etsy. Being on the front page of Etsy is like a winning a lottery. If you have limited budget and couldn’t pay $7.50-$15 for showcases to advertise items, it would be so hard to get your items noticed. On Etsy some people are always on the front page and others has never been on it.
It is not like that on ArtFire, because all the new items listed will be on the front page.

So Easy to Use
It is difficult to change from one system to the other. I experienced that with DaWanda. I was honestly and pleasantly surprised how easy it is to use Artfire. I love the fact that everything you need to do to list your item can be done on one screen. You can upload multiple photos at once (i.e. not have to wait for one photo to finish uploading).
Other settings such as bio, profile, shop policies etc. are all done in the same manner.

Great For Your Customers
Your customers don’t have to open an account with Artfire to buy your things. (c.f. etsy). You can link your Artfire shop and anyone can purchase your items. This is helpful and would potentially attract more customers who don’t want to open account unnecessarily.

Monthly Fee
It’s free to register for the basic account. If you want to list as many items as you want, the only thing you will pay is the monthly fee. That is fair enough considering everything else is free. Currently it is $7 for the first 5000 people who signed up (It will be $20 per month after). My Etsy fees (listing and sold) cost around $30-40 per month. So I am already saving a lot of money. No matter what.

BE QUICK!!!
There are only a little more than 1000 place left for this great offer. You can always sign up to the free account, but don’t leave it too long as you could miss this great opportunity!

If you decide to sign up, please list me (sewknitting) as the referrer. Here’s my direct link:

Good luck!