CrafterWeb now has a full complement of websites. We are not taking on any new members at the present time. If you wish to be considered for future vacancies please email us.

If you run a small business in the UK you could be trading on the internet with your own .co.uk domain name very quickly and very inexpensively by joining CrafterWeb. Possibly as soon as tomorrow and for as little as £20.

Quick Start
Don't want to read all the details? Load this quick-start summary page instead.

CrafterWeb
CrafterWeb is a group of small business, craft and artistic websites operated by Runemaker Group UK, one of the longest-established handcrafted product websites on the WWW. It started back in 1994 as a single site featuring amulets and rune sets.

It has now grown to 36 sites of all kinds - small businesses providing goods and services, craft and art products ranging from cartoon name badges to artistic creations in steel, Celtic artwork, handmade soaps, miniature models, paintings, wooden games, silver and gold jewellery, decorated trinket boxes, tattoo designs, second-hand books, greeting cards and downloadable computer fonts.

The websites are all hosted on the dedicated Runemaker server operated by the UK's top hosting company - 1and1.co.uk - the fastest and most efficient service operating in this country.

We try to maintain a membership of 30 to 40 websites to spread the cost and keep prices down to the minimum for everybody. If you think that sounds like a sensible way to start your own website and get into internet trading, read on!

Who can join
Anyone can join - craft-workers, artists, traders, suppliers, services operators - any kind of small business based in the UK. It doesn't matter what products or services you sell, and it doesn't matter how many or how few sales you make.

The system is suitable for independent craft workers, small hobby businesses, retirement craftsmen and women, home-workers, market stall and craft fair traders, mail order traders, and even businesses with a shop premises.

Good reasons to join

From experience we know that many small businesses find it difficult to get started on the web. Here are some reasons why:
		It takes time to set everything up.
		You need to know how to design a website.
		You have to set up your own credit-card merchant account or ecommerce contract, online shopping cart, and of course the web page order buttons.
		The administration for the website, email accounts, ecommerce or merchant account etc. takes up a lot of your time and can be a constant hassle.
		Going it alone can be very expensive and usually requires a long-term contract with the web host and/or ecommerce provider - often paid for in advance.
		Many so-called "free" hosts put banner ads and aggravating pop-ups on all your web pages.
		And if you happen to pick the wrong web host your site could be offline half the time.

By joining the CrafterWeb group you can avoid all those problems:
	Your site will be up and running within a couple of days - a single-page site can often be operational within 24 hours.
	The design, artwork and website publication are all done for you by an expert web designer.
	There's no administration. All you have to do is fill customer orders and bank your takings, we do everything else.
	The expense is cut to the absolute minimum because the costs are shared by all group members.
	No banner ads, pop-ups, annoying animations or other unwanted distractions are added to your pages.
	There's no long-term contract, and no small print terms and conditions. So if you ever want to branch out on your own we just settle up and help you on your way.
	Your site will be online all the time. CrafterWeb has had only two short server outages in the last seven years.

The cost
There is a once-only set up fee and a commission on all sales. That's all. No add-on's, no taxes, no hidden extras.

For example, a single-page website would cost £20 to set up. After that you would pay 10% commission on all sales. Your only risk would be the £20 set-up fee. If you make no sales in any month, then you pay no commission.

For larger websites the set-up fee is higher, see below for details. But everyone in the group pays the same 10% commission on sales.

What's Included in the set-up fee

		Your own unlimited web-space with your own choice of ".co.uk" domain name.
		Two email addresses with the same domain name as the website.
		Design and publication of your website including the page layout, logo, colour scheme, links, buttons, artwork and navigation menu.
		Online ecommerce shopping cart facilities including the price boxes and order buttons on the web pages.
		Promotion of the website through the existing CrafterWeb facilities (in-house search engine, website links, customer newsletters, etc.), automatic listing on Google.

 

What's included for the commission payment

		All account administration services.
		Free currency conversion of customer payments in US$ and Euros to GB Pounds.
		Email notification of all sales.
		Payment for all sales in GB Pounds on demand by bank transfer or cheque.

 

What's not included

		Production of the text for your web pages and pictures of your products. You have to supply those. We will tidy up your text and resize the pictures if you like - no extra charge - but you have to write the details and produce the pictures in the first place.
		General web promotion such as submissions to other search engines (Google is included), specialist link-lists, directories, trade listings etc. That part of the publicity effort is down to you. We can help and advise, but you have to do the work.
		The '.co.uk' type of domain name is included in the set up fee. If you would like to have a '.com', '.net', 'eu', '.biz' or any other type of name we can do that too, but it costs extra - details on request.

 

Set-Up Fees

Example Websites
Here are just a few examples of some very different types of CrafterWeb member websites:
Badges4You Wooden and plastic name badges
Xuella Arnold Handcrafted contemporary silver jewellery
Freya Aswynn Official website of the the world famous runes expert
SF Classic Book Sale private collection of 2nd hand sci-fi books for sale
Books Secondhand all types of used books at startling prices
Rune Fonts Downloadable computer fonts