A website like Etsy.com - but featuring woodwork?

custommade.com

-- My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist....medic20447@gmail.com

Wow, those guys on CustomMade.com make me look like a hack…

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails

custommade.com …. but its NOT free!

-- Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye and Thanks For All The Fish!

Hey there pashley,

I have developed a site called The Craftsman's Woodshop. I am offering it for free to anyone from LumberJocks to sign up. My sign up page says that there will be a charge in the future but I am changing that to make it a free site for all to list their work so you can ignore what it says there, I have to change that. I have my pieces listed there and have had two projects come from it myself with many more inquires. So between working in the shop and working on the site I keep myself pretty busy. It is a startup site and has only been out for about 6 months now so I am working on improvements as I move forward. If you want to sign up just go to the “Join” tab and send in your works.

-- Joe Truehart - The Craftsmans Woodshop

Wow, that custommade is really expensive. WoodShopJoe – not too bad; I like the tone of the site.

-- Have a blessed day!

Hi guys – thanks for your comments. Indeed, CustomMade.com is not free and it is focused on the professional woodworker (anyone who creates and sells anything custom made from wood).

The advantage we offer is that our site is entirely focused on the consumer – so we spend a great deal of time, effort, and money attracting consumers to our website and convincing them to buy custom. This includes a staff of full-time marketing, PR, and web development folks. We spend all day figuring out how to make more consumers interested in buying custom so we can continue getting “eyes” on our woodworker profiles. After all, one of the biggest reasons to showcase your work is to get it in front of consumers who will (hopefully) contact you about doing some custom work.

Unfortunately, the costs of running a proper consumer-facing website are substantial, but we feel pretty strongly that we deliver value that far exceeds the cost of our plans. Our lowest plan is $195/year, which is quite a bit cheaper than virtually any other effective marketing medium out there. It doesn’t take more than one job to pay for our service several times over…

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 2010!

-- Mike, Boston, www.CustomMade.com

Mike, I understand your business model – and it sounds good – but do you have any real life testimonials to help sell me even more?

-- Have a blessed day!

Well I have been on Custmade for a while now and have been happy with them.I have recieved orders from the site I will admit it has been a while since any new orders, but like everything else I have tried lately including high end art shows it has been really slow for the past year.

-- Scott NM,http://www.shangrilawoodworks.com

Mike (custommade),
I have been checking our your site for some time and find some real inspiration from the furniture posted there.
I do echo what Pashley has said, and would be interested in knowing what kind of sales are being generated thru access to your site.

Thanks

hey guys.. sorry that I didnt get this before now..
check out these testimonials:

http://www.custommade.com/testimonials.php

because we dont take a fee from the transaction (unlike Etsy), we dont know exactly how much business people are getting… but we know it is a staggering amount, and certainly worth the $.

We just posted a link for a 15% discount, in case you wanted to use one! http://www.custommade.com/subscribe.php?pro=CMFriend2010&cam=CMFB1001

You can also give us a call here 617-300-0169

thanks!

-- Mike, Boston, www.CustomMade.com

Anyone else been on Custommade.com and have had success (or not)?

-- Have a blessed day!

Hey WoodshopJoe,
You have put together a nice site and it is very easy to navigate.
See you soon.

-- Garry, Engadine, Michigan (Upper Peninsula)