One of the best ways to get your craft business up and running is to participate in your local craft shows, but because local craft shows usually only happen a couple of time a year such as Christmas, Easter, Mother and Father's day you will have to find other outlets throughout the year to sell your handmade crafts.

Other ways to sell your unique handmade crafts and gifts is to use consignment stores, or sell your crafts to local gift shops. The internet is also an amazing venue for selling your handmade crafts. The internet will give you the opportunity not only to sell to your local market but to sell to a worldwide customer base that is looking for unique handmade gifts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Setting up an e-commerce web site can seem a little daunting to crafters that are not computer savvy, but there are other ways that the artists and crafters can get up and running on the internet without it costing them a lot of money, in fact it can actually be done for Free.

There are a few great Craft Malls on the internet that gives the crafters an opportunity to open their own craft shop where they can list their handmade crafts and start selling worldwide with just a few clicks of a mouse. In no time flat the crafter will be selling their crafts from their own online shop with their own web address, their own control panel where they can easily add their products and product descriptions, set up their shipping charges and taxes and when someone orders their products payment goes directly to the crafter. No commissions are charged.

After you have researched the Craft Malls and you find one that you feel will work foryou and your handmade crafts you can't just open your store and sit back and wait for the orders to start coming in. Treat your new online store like a real business, if you opened a brick and mortar store you wouldn't stock it and walk away, you would spend time there promoting your new business and moving your stock to keep everything looking fresh and up-to-date. Please do the same for your online shop and in no time flat you will have a successful online craft business that you will be proud of.

Your online craft shop will give your regular customers the opportunity to buy from you year round, when they need that special gift for a family member or friend they can just drop by your online shop and buy. Your online shop will also give you the opportunity to find new customers from around the world.