I've just joined Art Fire

Well, after a busy summer and autumn, the time has come for me to transition from Etsy to a new sales venue for my art and jewellery.

This has been coming for a while, but I had an "aha" experience lately, and realize the effort I've put into being an Etsy-booster isn't being met by a reciprocal effort from the company. In spite of all the recent changes, most particularly in staff, things seem to be getting worse, not better.

So I've started up a new shop at a new website: artfire.com

My first experiences with it have been entirely positive. Joining is very easy and listing items is so simple and intuitive (all on one page, all images uploaded at the same time) that it made my head spin.

The site is in beta, which means that it's still buggy. But most excitingly of all, it means that you can be in on the ground floor, and help shape the site into something very special.

You can see it in the Chatterbox Forums, where Admin reply right away to questions and suggestions, sometimes implementing things immediately, other times adding them to a list. By the way, the list of features the Art Fire team is working on is PUBLIC. That's right, Art Fire seems to believe in communicating with its users, something I find very refreshing after over year and a half at Etsy.

Art Fire currently has a special Artisan Stimulus Package being offered: unlimited listing and relisting, with no selling fees, for a flat rate of $7 US a month FOR LIFE. That's right, for life. That includes stats (STATS!), currency conversion and much, much more. The offer is only for the first 5000 shops that sign up, though.

Because I believe in this venue, and I believe it can deliver most of the things that Etsy, bless its heart, has failed to, I've started this blog to feature Art Fire Artisans and to help spread the word about this great venue.

I'm Dangerous Mezzo. If you'd like to check out my Art Fire Studio, go ahead! Check it out!