Update June 2, 2014- Unfortunately Craftinest is now no longer online. No one knows what happened. Though Craftinest did post on their facebook page that a fire had destroyed much of their sites equipment and they held out a promise to us that they would repair the damage and get the site back up and running . . . that promise is yet to materialize. As I update this post is has been about 9 months since anyone has heard from Craftinest. Craftinest has not bothered to update their facebook page nor notify any of their many shop owners as to what is going on. All our emails are returned as undeliverable. We have pretty much given up hope that Craftinest will repair the fire damage and reestablish their website.
Personally I believe that they grew too quickly and the inundation of so many artists and crafters overwhelmed them and their sites capacity to handle such an influx of shops and traffic. The loss of Craftinest is sad as it held forth so much potential . . . but sometimes things are simply not meant to be.
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When I first sent off my application to apply for an online Craftinest Storefront, I figured they'd be a marketplace much like Etsy or Artfire, only without the supplies vendors and vintage shops. However Craftinest is more like a hybrid between these standard marketplaces and having to construct one's own website. . . minus all the HTML hoopla. With a Craftinest store the search engines call up your shop and not the marketplace. This was explained to me by Samantha in the correspondence that I've copied and pasted below:
Hi Anna,
Our format is definitely different from Etsy (and it’s many clones)
with more of an ecommerce website format. Each store is basically its own
mini-ecommerce website... with the mall being the central hub to bring all
stores together.
As for your store domain, it is only available in the following two
formats:
Sub-domain: http://almostprecious.craftinest.com
Sub-domains never use the www in front of it. However, if someone
types in http://www.almostprecious.craftinest.com , the browser will automatically forward to the proper http://almostprecious.craftinest.com format. So you can use
either.
One thing that I did want to add to the whole store domain issue is
that Etsy only forwards the request for your store domain to their own etsy.com
address. At
Craftinest, the store domain is an actual sub-domain that persists throughout
the buyers experience.
On Etsy:
And the item listing URL’s don’t include the store domain at all. .
.
Whereas at Craftinest:
And the store domain is included throughout your entire store. . .
including item listings, categories, info pages. I’ll use another store as an
example with an item listing URL of http://twolittlewitches.craftinest.com/find/1399-Bunny-Rabbit-Kids-Wall-Art-Print-for-Kids-Room-Girls-Children-Decor-by-Two-Little-Witches
So as you can see, your store domain is more present with
Craftinest. In fact it’s more useful when you look at the results in search
engines. To see for yourself, type in “Almost Precious Etsy” into Google and you
will notice one result for your store - www.etsy.com/shop/AlmostPrecious.
Now try using the sample store from above by typing “two little
witches craftinest” into Google. Not only is the store domain presented as
twolittlewitches.craftinest.com
, but there are several results since all listings and categories
use the store domain too.
Hope that helps... Please let me know if I can be of any further
assistance.
And
welcome to our little nest.
Samantha
The Craftinest
Marketplace
So now you can see why I was impressed about the Craftinest marketplace and excited about joining their site and why I encourage others to join me there. :)
So now you can see why I was impressed about the Craftinest marketplace and excited about joining their site and why I encourage others to join me there. :)
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