Help for makers

It helps to have these ready on your phone or computer before you start:

• Your logo, or a simple square photo that stands for your shop.
• A cover photo: your best work, in good light.
• Photos of one to eight pieces, with a name and price for each.
• At least two photos of the making (see below). These matter most.
• A few lines about the shop, and a few about you.
• The link where shoppers buy: your website, Etsy shop or similar.

The form saves as you go, in the browser you're using. If you start on your phone, finish on your phone.

Our reviewers want to see that you make what you sell. The photos don't need to be polished, just real. A phone is plenty.

• Raw materials: the clay, the wool, the timber, before it's anything.
• Hands at work: you at the wheel, the bench, the loom.
• Work in progress: half-finished pieces, drying racks, a messy table.
• Tools of the trade: your kiln, press, sewing machine or chisels.

Shoot near a window in daylight, and write a short caption saying what's happening, like "Trimming the foot of a mug". A video link (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram) works as well as a photo.

ByHand takes JPEG, PNG and WebP photos. Most phones and cameras make one of these already.

iPhone photos are sometimes saved as HEIC, which some computers can't open. Upload straight from the iPhone and it usually works. If it doesn't, on the iPhone go to Settings → Camera → Formats and pick Most Compatible, then take the photo again. Or take a screenshot of the photo and upload that.

Very large photos are fine: we shrink them for you before they upload.

You can paste a full link, or just type your name on that site. Both work.

• Instagram, TikTok, Threads: your name after the @, like @wrenandkiln.
• Etsy: your shop name, the part after etsy.com/shop/.
• Bluesky: your full handle, like wrenandkiln.bsky.social.
• Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube: open your page, copy the address from the top of the browser and paste it in.

A reviewer looks at every shop before it goes live, usually within a few days. We email you either way.

• Live: you're in. Shoppers can find you straight away.
• Changes asked for: we'd like to list you but need a little more, often another making photo. Read the reviewer's note, edit and send it again.
• Not accepted: the note says why. If you think we got it wrong, edit and resubmit.

Fast-track review puts your shop at the front of the queue. It doesn't change the decision.

From your shop's page under Your account, these go live straight away, with no review:

• Markets and fairs you'll be at
• Your social links
• Prices and links for your pieces, their order, and marking them sold out
• Taking a piece off your shop
• A break ("away") note, with the date you're back
• Small changes to About the shop: fixing a typo, or adding a sentence. A rewrite, or adding a lot, goes to a reviewer like any other change to your words.
• Your shop details: your country, where you ship, how soon orders go out, and what you offer (commissions, personalising, gift wrapping and so on). Shoppers can find you by these.
• Who makes it, if you'd like to say: for example an LGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, disabled, or refugee or migrant maker. It's optional and never checked, you choose whether your shop page shows it, and you can remove it any time. See the community lists.

New pieces, new photos and other changes to your words are checked by a reviewer first, so the shop shoppers see is always one we've looked at. Email us with what you'd like to change and we'll sort it.

You can also post one update a month: a new collection, a sale, a peek at the bench. It shows on your shop page and in the news feeds.

Your shop's page under Your account has a Tell people section with your link, captions you can copy straight into Instagram or Facebook, and a "Reviewed by a human" badge for your own website.

A few ideas that work well:

• Put your ByHand link in your Instagram or TikTok bio.
• Mention it when you post about a market you're going to.
• Ask happy customers to leave a thumbprint on your shop.

• Views: visits to your shop page. Search engines and bots aren't counted.
• Clicks: people who went from ByHand to your website, your pieces or your socials. These are your likely buyers.
• Thumbprints: shoppers who liked your shop. More thumbprints move you up your aisle.
• Followers: shoppers who asked to hear about your updates. Each time you post one, they get an email (unless they've turned those off).
• Rank in your aisle: where you'd be on the aisle's "Most loved" tab.

Above the numbers, "In plain words" sums up your month in a few sentences.

Every Monday morning we also email you a short round-up of the new thumbprints your shop got the week before. After a quiet week there's no email. To stop it, use the link at the bottom of the email, the switch under your stats, or Emails in your account.

About once a week we check that your shop's web address and each piece's link still open. If one doesn't, twice in a row, you'll see it at the top of your shop's page under Your account. Only you see it.

Some sites (Instagram, for one) turn away automatic checks. We don't count those as broken, so a link we don't flag isn't a promise that it works: it's worth clicking through now and then.

A featured stall puts your shop at the top of an aisle for a week or more. It's always labelled as sponsored, and it doesn't change where you rank otherwise. Each aisle has only a few slots. Your stats show how each one did. More about featured stalls.

Every payment has a receipt you can download as a PDF, under Purchases and receipts on your account page. ByHand isn't VAT-registered, so no VAT is charged.

Featured stalls and fast-track reviews start as soon as you pay, so they can't be cancelled after that. If we end a featured stall early for any reason other than a broken rule, we refund the unused weeks. The seller terms have the full details.