"By Hand" site is like a Facebook site for Crafters...but better!

For anyone interested in selling and/or buying hand-made items, you need to stop and visit the By Hand website! There are so many nice features at this site. At this site I can list links to all of my on-line shops, my blog, my Twitter page, my Flickr page and more. Now when I'd like to direct a potential buyer to my business, I can give them one address, which is my profile address. Pictured above is the "homepage" of my profile page. From this page you can click on the "details" button to see a list of my on-line website links (Etsy, 1000Markets, Twitter, etc) along with a description of the items I make, methods of payment, and my customer service e-mail link.



Another great feature is that I can submit my RSS feeds from my blog and my Etsy shop. The RSS feeds are posted on my profile homepage and as shown below, when your mouse hovers over each feed post, a pop out box reveals a sneak peak at one of my store's items along with a photo.


This nice little feature applies as well to each blog feed, except there is no photo, but there is a snippet of the beginning of each of my blog entries. I love this sneak peak feature for my RSS feeds!



And speaking of blogs, you can make your very own blog directly at the By Hand site and select whether or not you'd like it posted on the By Hand homepage. Hint! This is a great way to gain more exposure. Again, on my profile homepage I can find my By Hand blog entries posted under the "My Blog" tab and see the date, title and number of views for my blog entry. There is so much packed into the profile homepage. I can find a list of the forum posts I replied in, the latest visitors to my profile, my spotlights, my clubhouses and more. Next, I'd like to address two of the items from the list, spotlights and clubhouses.


At the By Hand site you can create a spotlight similar to the one shown above. Spotlights are so fun and easy to create. You can create a spotlight of your own shop items or of your favorite items from other sellers. And once you create a spotlight, items from the spotlight are randomly selected to scroll along the top of the By Hand pages. This feature allows some additional exposure for you and your products. Yay!



The last feature I will discuss is the clubhouse feature. I recently joined the clubhouse called, "I Love Packaging" that was created by Pattie of StructuredChaos. Clubhouses are groups that you can join that focus on a main topic such as Polymer Clay or Loving Packaging. I have discovered good friends in joining the clubhouse and participating in the forum pages. There is so much offered at the By Hand site and so much to discover, please stop by and see for yourself. Just a warning, it is highly addictive. Why don't you find out yourself? Oh, and please come and join us at the "I Love Packaging" clubhouse to discuss all things packaging. All are welcome!