Plaincraft: “The Best Handmade Items Picked By You!”

Looking for a venue where you can gain free exposure for your handmade wares? Want impartial feedback for your creations? Plaincaft is a website where you can have both!

Plaincraft’s concept is simple. You may submit up to three handmade items to their website per day. Each submission includes a photo and link to the item for sale (i.e. on Etsy). Visitors to Plaincraft then rate your submissions from 1 to 20. The current Top 10 items remain on Plaincraft’s front page along with the five latest submissions.

Plaincraft is also on Twitter and has over 1400 followers. When you submit an item, @plaincraft sends a tweet asking followers to rate it. It also sends a tweet when a new Top 10 is selected and for each item in the Top 10.

Although the popularity of Plaincraft is growing fast and the competition is stiff, it is possible to get into the Top 10. I have personally had many items in the Top 10 and a few of my items have been rated number one. My Pretty Petals bracelet is currently in the Top 10 and has been since I submitted it over a week ago [as of this posting].

Here are some tips for ensuring the highest possible rating and exposure:

• If free exposure is most important to you, submit examples of your finest work. I don’t submit an item unless I believe it will be rated highly.
• You can be the first to rate your item. If you feel it’s worth a score of 20, why not give it a 20? I don’t always rate my own items, but you should follow your conscience.
• Send tweets with a link to your submission on Plaincraft asking your followers to rate it. Make sure to include the #estytwitter tag so your team will see it. Post on Facebook, Google groups, etc. as well. Do it as often as you feel comfortable, but don’t spam or tell people how high to rate it!
• Make sure to include your shop name in the title of your submission. For example, when I submitted my latest item, I titled it “Pretty Petals Bracelet – joslinjewels.etsy.com”.

Remember that brand name recognition is a process. There is no way to know for sure if I have made a sale via Plaincraft, but I have received an Etsy convo and tweets complimenting my submissions so I know my jewelry is being seen. My submissions have also resulted in photos of my jewelry being shown on the popular jewelry blog, The Beading Gem’s Journal, in a post about Plaincraft. The website’s author recently contacted me to ask if she could write a feature about my jewelry.

There are only a couple limitations to keep in mind:

• Submissions must be approved if you don’t have a Plaincraft account.
• To prevent the same items from remaining perpetually in the Top 10, submissions expire after two weeks.
• Plaincraft only allows links from Etsy, iCraft, Dawanda, 1000 Markets, Winkelf, Folksy, Shop Handmade, Misi, Madeitmyself, Handmade Fuzion, as well as any independent artist websites.

So why not try Plaincraft? It’s simple, free and fun.

Sheridan Joslin
joslinjewels.etsy.com
http://twitter.com/joslinjewels

Photos © Joslin Jewels/Sheridan Joslin