Online Venue #6 -- Indiepublic

Another site I joined about 7 months ago is Indiepublic. My impression is that it's more a indie-artist networking site, but I haven't spent a lot of time there.

From their front page: "Indiepublic is an independent art and design community. If you're an artist, designer, retailer, blogger, or just someone who gets giddy when they buy indie, we've saved a seat for you!"

I did set up a profile page, with links to my main selling sites. I loaded some pictures (although I haven't put up anything new in a few months). I joined some chat groups and tried interacting, but I didn't find much actually "chatting" going on. In fact, nearly every "so-and-so started a discussion..." that gets sent to my email inbox is a promo. I don't know how many Indiepublic members aren't simply artisans trying to sell something. My main reason for joining was for the interaction between artisans trying to make a living at their craft, and there appears to be little of that actually going on.

I remain a member because of the "incoming" links to my actual selling venues. Maybe somebody will stumble across me. However, I have devoted a grand total of zero hours to it in months. So I guess I can't really count it as one of the time-consuming things I try to squeeze in to each day. Perhaps just popping in at least once a month with some new pictures and comments would be beneficial, and not be too detrimental to my scheduling issue!

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Online Venue #5 --SmashingDarling

About 7 or 8 months ago, I joined SmashingDarling, a site dedicated to indie fashion. (As in "you look smashing, dahling...") As a venue for people searching out new indie designers, this place is really cool. And those of you who appreciate indie...you know how ga-ga you can be when you find cool new stuff!

For me, though, I'm still up in the air about whether to remain there. The site is slick and eye-catching, which is good. The premise for the site itself is great--the indie movement is growing by leaps and bounds. And they are dedicated to clothing, accessories, and jewelry only, which makes for a little less "competition" in the handmade arena. For a "Darling" (artisan) the set up and listing process is relatively easy, which is also good. But they have a weird payment system. Smashing Darling itself collects the money from the customer, notifies they artisan where to send the item, then sends the artisan a check once a month. I'm sure that works fine in 99% of the sales, but what about the occasional "oops"? I'm not crazy about the idea of sending out an item before I have the money in hand. So far it hasn't been an issue, because I haven't sold anything there. Of course, it's also the venue to which I pay the least attention--until today I hadn't even checked on my boutique in well over a month. I've only got three items listed there, and one of them I put up today!

So, the question becomes should I try to work it into my schedule on a more regular basis, add more stuff, and see what happens? Or in the spirit of this Online Venues series, beginning with the Spread Too Thin? post, should I drop it and free up a bit of time for something else? I guess I'll have to let you know!

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