As a craft marketing consultant working for The International Homeworkers Association Online I have been enamoured with all the possibilities on the Web. Not only does marketing your work on the Web reach a larger audience but it also does not tie up inventory, thereby freeing you for more sales.

For instance; renting space in a craft mall no longer requires a hammer, nails, paint, wallpaper and a booth full of inventory sitting and waiting for a buyer to come along. Now all you need are great pictures and the mall web designer. He/She puts up the wallpaper ;).

Beyond putting up your own web page, what are the possibilities for selling your crafts and how do you select the right site?

Start by selling on consignment. The Artisans Gallery Online offers a consignment store with no risk. Simply send samples for approval and information about your line and if accepted your work will be displayed in their online store in exchange for 30% of the selling price. This type of consignment is inventory free as you just send the pictures and then meet the orders as they come in. When you are ready for your own store, they will set it up for you and include secure ordering as well.

If you are looking for a craft mall online you will want to look for a craft mall with all the attributes you would look for in a live mall. How much advertising does the mall owner do? How much traffic does the site get? If the mall owner is not doing his or her job there is no use doing business with them. It is a fallacy to believe that just by putting up a web page, buyers will flock to the site and sales will double. Not so.

Look for mall owners with marketing experience. Some of the best do not even make crafts. What they do make is sales. A great many have strong business and marketing backgrounds. They will know how to attract the right buyers to their web page store.

Generally speaking, most craft malls will cost less per month in rent than a live craft mall. The philosophy behind that is simple. In a live mall the owner has a tremendous amount of overhead and limited space to contend with; in cyberspace it is not nearly so constricting.

Coomers, also known as The Professional Crafter, is one such place. I have watched Coomers grow over the years and they have had wonderful success with both their live and online malls. Not only is this a great place to sell your work, it is a great site for crafters to network and find information.

Phillip Coomer has a strong marketing background and knows what he is doing. He emphasizes HANDMADE which is important. If you try to compete with importers you will lose. Don't market your items in the same location with imports. At Coomers this will never be a problem.

The Quilted Bear started in my home state of Utah and grew to several locations and then out of state before it went online. Judy Dunn, the owner, knows what the Craft buying public wants and she is excellent at getting those buyers to her site and then happily meeting their needs.

Staying informed is important to your success as a crafter. A great place to get around in the cyberspace crafts community is at Craft Search. You will find endless possiblities for locating supplies at wholesale cost. Also check out the favorite links and you will be right in the thick of things.

This is just the tip of the cyberspace crafting community but I hope it will get you started. Crafting is a wonderful way of life and the advent of the Internet has made it that much better.