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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

If you have questions regarding our Crafters Market Place.  This is our Frequently Asked Questions area, we recommend that you read through this entire section to gain more information about what we do and what you will need to do to have a professional looking internet e-commerce site.  Your participating at the onset is very crucial.

•  How do I get paid for my products that are purchased?  We send earning out once a month either by mail or to your Pay Pal Account.

• How will I know how about my orders?  You will be sent the order form of each customer via the shopping cart.

• Why is it necessary to charge a 10% transaction fee when I'm already paying my monthly membership?  This helps to deflect the cost of our expenses to be able to offer you this service without requiring you to have a Merchant Account.

• Why do I have to pay in advance?  This prevents excess bookkeeping and man-hours needed to take care of each craft shop and member.  We are initially a Web Design Company, we need to spend more time designing web pages and making necessary changes to each site in the craft shop and promoting each one to ensure proper exposure.  Having our members pay in advance alleviates a lot of time spent making sure that each client has paid.  We send out the request for payments and don't need to worry about it unless a member does not make payment.

• What if I can't make payment on time?  You are given a bill at the beginning of each quarter.  Payment should be sent to our account or mailed to us by the end of that month, giving members approximately 25 to 30 days to make payment.  If there is a problem, if you let us know, we can always work something out.

•  Why does it say that I'm paying for 3 pages but I also get 10 pages for each product?  We feel that creating a pop-up window page for each product gives the customer a better look at the product.  This is something that most Craft Mall providers do not do for their clients or members.  In other words although we charge for only 3 pages, you will be getting 10 additional pages for each of your products too!  

• Can I have more than 1 Craft Shop?  Yes, you may have as many different companies that you want.  You pay the same amount for each shop, the only difference is that you have two or three or as many different company names.  You will need to purchase our Crafters Market Place Package again so that we can create a sub folder for your account.

• If I choose to have more than one Craft Shop will I have the same URL?  No we will create an entirely new site address for you using your company name.  It is possible however, to add to your existing site with a link created to your new company.  This is your choice.

• How do I purchase additional catalog pages?  You can go to our Service Page and you will see a link for additional pages or you may choose to purchase your additional catalog pages when you purchase a Crafters Market Place Craft Shop.

• I don't have a scanner how do I send my product pictures to you?  There are a few ways that this can be done. 

  • If you don't have a digital camera, take your product pictures using any type of camera, but have your roll developed on a diskette.  This will allow you to send the photos via email.

  • If there isn't a film developer near you that allows this type of developing, just develop your photos and send them to us via postal service and we will scan them for free.  Make sure to send a return addressed and stamped envelope if you want your photos returned.  If you need to do this just send us a message and so we'll know to expect it.

• I'm not that great with a camera.  How do I take pictures of my products?     Here are a few guidelines in taking your pictures.  If you follow these, we won't have any problems with graphic enhancement of your photos or need to have you retake them.  You must always remember that your photos are the only thing that your customer has to judge whether or not they should buy the product.  It is the only representation that they have.  So the quality of the photo is really crucial for internet customers.  If you have some catalogs lying around your house, take a look at the way the products are presented.  This is the type of presentation that you want for your internet catalog.  You can view some of the examples of photos that have been sent that we've worked on at our Photo Sample section.  You will also be able to see what types of photos you should not send.

  • You must take the picture of an item in its entirety and if sold alone by itself.

  • Make sure that nothing is blocking any parts of the product.

  • Get as close as you can to the product without making it blurry.  Stand at least 2 feet away from your product.  If it's on a table level your camera to it so that you don't get a distorted angle view.

  • Background Colors:  The main rule is not to have the background be the same color as any border color so that the borders merge with the background.  This is crucial as we will create transparent backgrounds or add your site background color to each of your product image.   It will look more professional if your photos do not have different backgrounds that do not match your site background.  Drape the background cloth behind each product then place your product in front of it.  See the Exceptions for taking pictures without the necessary background color.

    • For items that are clear or made with white lace or the lace is part of a border of a product, make sure your background is a solid blue. 

    • For items that are not like the above use a white background, except if your item has a white lace border or clear border.

    • Items that is meant to be put on a wall like wall hangings or magnets or  things hung from a doorway.  Take a picture of  the product as it should be used.  You may need to tack the background on the wall or behind the product.

    • Items that should be placed on a table should be taken on a table or a mantel.

    • If your item has details in the back, send in pictures of the front and back.

    • Take more of the product then the background.  In other words, your photo should consist mainly of your products image and not too much of the background.  An image that has too much background will make enhancement of your photo difficult when it is created to it's appropriate size.  A lot of background will mean that your product image will be smaller and increasing the size will distort and make the product blurry once we enlarge it again.

     

    Exceptions to the rule:

    • If your product is a Christmas ornament you may arrange the ornament on a Christmas tree then take the picture, or put a garland or other Christmas decorations in front of it, yet, do not distort or block the view of the product and take the picture.  You may want to put the product higher than the decorations, like put it on a box covered with a cloth then place the decorations.  This type of photography is what's used in printed catalogs.

    • If your product is used for the outdoors, take it in the setting that it should be used as.

• How do you know so much about photography?  As the owner of Creative Junction, I use to work for a professional photographer who handled advertisements and catalog shoots.

• How long will it take before my site is done?  That pretty much depends on you!  Most times, we wait for our clients to send us the necessary information and a lot of times it's the photo enhancement that will take time to do.  So, it's very crucial that the photos are taken to specification and that information is sent in a timely fashion.  There will be times when clarification will need to be done and your response to these email messages will determine the length of time it takes to have your site up and ready.  If we had to pin point an approximate time, a simple set-up like this should not take longer than 2 weeks to a month, depending again on how fast you can get all the information and photos to us.

• What do you do with the photos that I send you?  We do not have a limit to the size of the image that you send as we will crop your images or resize them to it's appropriate size for your internet catalog.   Here is what we do with your photos once we receive them:

  • Crop out the unnecessary background.  If you have more background than product image, your finished product image may become distorted or blurry looking especially for the pop-up window detailed product view.

  • We will also create a transparent background for your products to match your site background or add your site background to it.

  • We at times will need to paint back some of your images if parts of it disappear when we're doing enhancement.  You will not be able to tell the difference.  You'll be able to check out some of the samples of the enhancement that we've done in our Photo Sample section.

  • We use one of the more expensive image manipulator programs which are Adobe Photo Shop, MGI Photo Suite and Paint Shop Pro to work on your photos.  The combination of all of these programs allow us to enhance your photos quality.  These programs will lighten or darken or create effects that we need to make sure that your photos is presented properly even if you send some blurry, off focused pictures.  But, even with these programs, we can only work with the images that are sent and can only do so much with them.

  • We also compress your photos to optimize the load time on your page when your site is viewed.  We have a program for this also.

• Why is the background so important when I'm taking the picture?  Because the background that you use will make it easier to work with your graphic. 

• How long does it take to work on one photo?  Depending on the quality of the photo it could take between 15 minutes to approximately one hour to work on one photo.

• Why should I become a member of Creative Junction's Crafters Market Place, there are other Craft Mall out there that I can join?  Yes, it is true that there are many Virtual Craft Malls on the internet.  You can compare us to the some of these other providers by clicking here.  But, here is what we offer aside from what you've read above.

  • We design web pages and know what it takes to make sure that your site is created properly with all the necessary meta tags as well as making sure that these tags go hand in hand with your body content.  This is very important for your site exposure.  Search Engines are what everyone uses to find what they're looking for.  We design sites that works in any criteria that search engines use.  Search Engines do not have the same criteria.  Your site will be user friendly as well search engine robot friendly.

  • We have been designing web pages for well over 4 years, but have just recently started doing it as a business.  As the owner, my first personal site received an award the first month and received over 10,000 hits the first 3 months.  We've also been doing graphics for about the same length of time and we have the necessary knowledge and programs that is required to create a professional looking site.

  • As the owner, I also know the craft business as I make crafts myself and have done craft shows as well.  I also own a very active craft list and have been managing many different types of business for most of my adult life. 

  • We will provide you with business knowledge, the knowledge of the craft business, photography know how and web designing.

  • We also will give you free programs that are essential to managing your e-commerce business.  Our competitors do not offer any programs for you.

  • Plus, we usually add extras that we don't charge for.  We may put down in writing what we will do, but if time permits we will add your link or submit your site or add an interactive form that we usually charge for.  Our main goal is to help fellow crafters get their products out there to sell and make money!  We will give you all the necessary help that we can and then some.

  • If you have several choices for your one product and are sold at the same price, we can create a drop down menu for your customers to be able to make their choices.

  • Creative Junction does not charge for all the extras that many Craft Malls will charge.  We can scan your images for you, we create product choice menus, we enhance your graphics, create guestbook's, counters, and so much more all for free!

  • We believe that the crafter should gain all commissions to their creations.  We do not collect any commissions from any sales of your products.  Once we set up your site, you receive all the orders.

  • Your Complete Ecommerce site will be created to your specific designs and we provide you a shopping cart with a secured payment system, printer friendly printable mail order form and all the necessary tools you need to sell your crafts.  You will not need to pay us for anything else aside from your monthly charge, unlike most of our competitors.

• What is so important about meta tags and search engine submissions?  Anyone can create a website, honestly!   But,  creating an effective e-commerce site is very different from making a personal website.  These are necessary to get exposure to your site.  Exposure is what you need to make your product sell.  Meta Tags are used by most Web Designers, however, many lack other necessary meta tags.  Most use just the keywords and description tags and then do not have these in the body of their site text.  In order for your site to be cataloged and re-cataloged in Search Engines, the meta tags must be created hand in hand with the site contents.  Each search engine has different criteria's for cataloging sites, having both meta tags working with your body content will ensure that the search engine robots who comes to spider your site for cataloging will be able to do so.  Plus, we add the extra tags that will require that the robots come back at intervals to re-catalog your site again and again.  In other words, we design the site to make sure that your site is exposed to the millions of internet shoppers.  Getting your site placed in the top 10 pages of a search engine is a must!  This makes the difference whether you succeed or not in your internet venture.

• How can I be certain that you create Meta Tags that other Craft Malls do not?  When you visit a site, click the option "View" on the top left hand corner of your browser, then choose "Page Source" for Netscape or "Source" for Internet Explorer.  Another window will appear with the HTML and codings of that site.  You will see meta tag codes.  If you notice many will use the "keywords and description codes", however, there are other codes that should be inserted that is ignored by many web page designers.  Those codes are ones that tells what type of site you have which is the ratings tag, tells the search engine robots to revisit and which search engine robot should spider your site to catalog it, these are the robot tags and revisit tags.  Also, you will notice a vast difference in our page codings.  The meta tags and body text content for each site must have the same words in order to meet all criteria's of all search engines.  You can visit http://creativeflowersnbutterflies.20m.com to see these meta tags that we installed for that site.  Then check our web advertisement comparison chart and visit the craft shops that these mall providers created and as instructed above View their Source Codings.  The Background work that you do not see when you view a web page is the critical portion which is needed to get your site exposure.

• Will I get an address that is the same as my company name and is this free?  We will try to acquire your company name in a subdomain format like http://yourcompanyname.provider.com and yes, this is free.  However, you will be asked for a second choice should your company name be taken.

• Why do you offer so much more than the rest?  As a fellow crafter, we know how hard it is to even get all the necessary money to create the product let alone venture into the mysterious world of the internet.   We know that selling your crafts on-line is a scary task and it can be disheartening if you put so much energy in creating beautiful products and no one visits or buys your product.  Your success is our success per se.  The initial advertising of your site is crucial and if you don't know how to do it yourself the site will not get any visitors.  We know how to do this for you and the knowledge doesn't do us any good, so we offer all of this because it's something that should be shared.  We're not in it for the money otherwise we wouldn't offer the Crafter's Market Place, the time and effort to create a web page is enormous, but crafting is also a very big part of our lives and to see a fellow crafter succeed is a wonderful thing indeed!

• Is there anything that I can do to get my membership for free?  Yes, Creative Junction is creating a Referral System where each member can refer their friends and family to join our Creative Junction Crafters Market Place.  If they sign up under your referral you will receive one month free for each referral that signs up.  Sign up for our Newsletter and you will be notified when this program is available.  Go to the bottom of this page to sign up.

• I have more questions, can I get in touch with someone to ask more questions?  Yes, you can send the webmaster a message anytime.  The webmaster is the owner of Creative Junction.  You can send an email to webmaster@creativejunction.zzn.com

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