Are your crafts homemade or handmade? I recently had a discussion about this issue, and while it might sound like nitpicking, it matters because it impacts customers’ perceptions of the quality of your work.

While it’s subtle, the term homemade, for most people, doesn’t carry the same meaning as handmade. Handmade implies to most people that something is made with skills that are not easy to develop and is of high quality. Homemade, on the other hand, implies that the item is something that anyone could make. It doesn’t carry the same weight as handmade.

Years ago, when I stated my jewelry business, my business mentor was reviewing my first business plan. I had quoted a lot of statistics from the craft industry (as opposed to the jewelry industry) in my business plan because I felt that based on the scope of my business and my plans for developing the business, those statistics were the best representation of my own business. He commented that while the statistics made sense, I should refer to myself as a jewelry designer, not a crafter because jewelry designer carries more weight in the minds of the general public.

He was right. The language you use to describe yourself and your business impacts the way you and your business are viewed by potential customers.

Of course we like to buy handmade items because we appreciate the talent, artistry and care that goes into making handmade items. There’s something special about filling your home with things that are beautiful and handmade with skill. In my opinion, it’s far more appealing than bringing endless amounts of mass produced and characterless junk into your life.

So, while you may tend to buy handmade more often than not, have you made a conscious decision to buy handmade and support local artists? At buyhandmade.org. they challenge you to take the pledge to buy handmade. You’ll also find several very good reasons why buying handmade is a smart decision. You may even be able to use some of their ideas about the importance of handmade items in our society and our economy to help promote your own products and educate your customers.

It takes commitment to sell your crafts online. If you’re willing to put in the work required to bring traffic to your site, it can be quite rewarding to sell your crafts online.

The biggest mistake people make when they create a website for selling crafts lies in failing to determine a strategy for promoting that site. They create gorgeous sites that are often works of art in and of themselves, but then they fall short on marketing the site. There are over 100 million websites, and that number is growing every day, so your work is not done once you craft business website is designed. Without a strategy to promote the site, an online craft business will not survive.

Luckily, there are great, cost effective resources that can help you to promote your online craft business. In fact, there’s no shortage on information about building an online business. The biggest challenge lies in separating the truth from the hype. I’ve written several articles about selling crafts online. You may also want to check out my favorite resource for building an online business, Site Build It! It’s affordable, it provides you with all of the tools, information and support you need to launch an online business from scratch, and my favorite thing about Site Build It! is the fact that the company is run with absolute utmost integrity.

If you are selling crafts online with your own site, you’ll need to find ways to promote your site so it ranks well at the major search engines. One fairly simple and free (or inexpensive) way to promote your site is through backlinks. A backlink is simply a link to your site from another site. Search engines like them because they see them as a “vote” for your site. That is, they assume that if another site links to your site, it is, in effect, saying ‘this is a good site’.

One simple way to get backlinks is through the Value Exchange program. It’s free to join. You simply enter in keywords that are related to your site, and you will be provided with a list of other websites and their owners who have also joined Value Exchange and are interested in exchanging links. You can also download the free e-book Make Your Links Work (scroll about half-way down the page) for more tips on promoting your site with backlinks.

For more free and inexpensive ways to promote your website, please see Tips for Selling Crafts Online.