This is the fourth in my series of articles about outlets where you can display and sell your creations if you wish. Sometimes selling a piece is what’s needed to give our creativity a boost – someone else handing over their hard-earned cash can make us feel that we’ve achieved what we set out to when we first started on our painting or piece of jewellery or sculpture.

One of the most notable things about Bonanzle.com is the ease with which you can list something, especially in comparison with other sites which sometimes make you lose the will the live before you’ve even managed to get an item up there for sale.

With Bonanzle I just clicked the ‘import from eBay’ button and a couple of hours later (after the queue had been worked through) my new shop was full! But, if you’re listing from scratch (rather than importing from elsewhere) it has some other pretty cool features, too, like the ability to crop an image, and price suggestions. To list an item is self-explanatory and it actively helps you through the process, too. If you’re at a loss as to how to describe your item you can search Amazon or Yahoo to see how it’s been described there.

Listings are free to sellers and, at least until the end of 2010 the final fees are fixed at: $0.50 for items that sell for under $10; items under $50 will incur a $1 fee; a $100 sale will have a $3 fee, and for items selling over $1,000 a fee of $10 will be levied.

That can’t be bad, and it’s nice that it’s so simple and you don’t get tied up in knots trying to work out what you’ve paid to whom for what.

There are the usual forums and promo activites like the ‘hand picked list’, and other avenues to explore. You can be as sociable, or not, as you please.

One of the things that looks really useful, (but which I’ve not yet used myself) is the real-time chat option so that buyers can ask their questions of the seller and get issues sorted out immediately instead of having to wait for emails to go back and forth. There is also an instant message facility.

A lot of people who use Bonanzle are ex-eBay. I’ve just opened a shop (or booth) on Bonanzle but I’m hanging on to my eBay store at least for now. I’ve looked at a lot of other places to sell, but in the end it’s eBay that gets the most traffic at the moment. It might be that this will change. Until then I’m sticking with eBay AND with Etsy and Greeting Card Universe, and at least for the time being, with Bonanzle as well because I like it so much.

The only way to really experience it is to give it a go. Jump in and try it out!

If you want to have a look at my shop on there, which is still a bit new and rough and ready, it’s here.

Creatively yours

Susan
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