Have you contacted interior designers to see if they would be interested in sourcing your furniture? You might also try to get a furniture store to take it on consignment or some other arrangement. Or rent a building and have a showing similar to an art show.

In my area, new companies are using the trading sites, not Craigslist, to post their companies and products. It's free and gets your name out there.

Have you tried selling on Etsy.com a site for all kinds of handcrafted items and art.

-Make an instagram account & use hashtags #DIY #furniture #forsale #handcrafted #design etcetcetc (don't forget to make your account public)

-Check out local markets, fairs, vendor sales, etc

I second the Instagram avenue. It's a hassle having to learn how to properly use social media to market your work but it's necessary and will absolutely help you with exposure (for free) and sales.

Wouldn't I just get exposure to people I already know?

I have tried, Social media advertising spent thousands of dollars, contacting EVERY single interior designer within 100 miles, every architect, every furniture store, never had a single response from anybody. I'm on Houzz, I run Google, Bing and Yahoo ads, I had an Etsy store for a year, never sold a thing. I post on CL, Google+, haven't even ever got an email or phone call. I need serious help. I am VERY good at what I do which is design and build. I just require people to contact me to purchase my totally worth it products and services.

From your description, it sounds like you have tried all the usual things and even more of the new things, so I can see how frustrating it must be. I strongly suggest you take a look at a marketing book. Spend a few hours on it. Ask yourself the tough question: are you meeting the needs of consumers or are you making things you like? Look at what the best selling coffee tables are on amazon, for example. Try the Macy's, Target, Mitchell Gold, RH and other websites. What is selling? How does it differ from what you are currently producing? What do people buy in your price range?

As a good way to get to know people and what they are looking for, you might consider a booth at a local weekend art walk or a local upscale farmer's market. People buy handmade objects with their eyes and their fingertips. The aroma of fresh wood shavings adds to the sales.

By the way, if you want constructive comments about your website, I suggest you ask someone local with a good website to take a look. Or find an industrial-rustic furniture website in some other metro area and compare yours to theirs, page by page. Fix what is missing from your website, consider how their photo styles may contribute to their success, look at their price lists and shipping policy, figure out who their customer is (a 30 year old single woman? a 55 year old empty nester, a second-home owner?) , is their emphasis on themselves as artistes or on the customer's shopping needs? and so on.

Two comments I might add: (besides that I love the table you show here)

1. Handcrafted things often are best promoted on a design blog. Some who create furnishings use a blog to tout their wares and have an inhouse / online "store." You may want to search some of them to learn more about how that could work for you.

2. If Craigslist is not working for you, your things may not be priced competitively. If you will use Etsy to sell, you will soon learn what the sweet spot price wise is. If you want a premium for a high end product, you will need a high end art retailer . . .look around in your jurisdiction to learn if they exist. In my area, there is a design center area where "galleries" show furniture. That might work for you.

I checked out your site. You do have cool furniture. It is taste specific however for those who love industrial. Perhaps some just can't see it in their space. I would suggest getting your product into some room designs so people could see it in a room setting, mixed with different styles. I also like the idea of art shows. People could see and touch. I do pottery so I know how much time you spend crafting something special isn't understood by most consumers, they just compare it to what they could get at home goods. Frustrating I know!

Your website is on the stark side. Staging the pieces just like in your first photo or like in the one attached will make them more appealing. Provide more information about the pieces (what they are made of, dimensions, etc without overwhelming the reader of course.) But most importantly, put a price tag on them!

You might want to consider having new photos taken for your website. Two of the tables that are not tagged as angled look as if the legs are not straight. The photo of the reclaimed wood and metal shelving unit has shadows that distort the beauty of the wood. People are willing to pay for great quality but your pics aren't really showcasing it. You might also consider taking additional views of the items you are selling. Good luck!

Thanks for all the great advice, these are some spot on insights as to why my business is not working, I thought I could throw a ton of cash at it and make it work but I guess I was wrong. I will save some more money and invest in making my site better, and getting my stuff out to real places where people can see how nice it is. I WISH I COULD JUST MAKE THINGS!

I had another question to throw to the ether.....I make made to order furniture, I have some examples on my website of some of the stuff I can do but I can really do whatever anybody wants. How can I get that message across ..."Just tell me what you want me to make and I will make it for you and quote a price" or "what type of need do you have and I will design a piece to suit you"

For the website, add a tagline - All work can be made to fit your space and dimensions.

Again, good advice. I will be on the lookout. I appreciate the Houzz community for helping each other out. Thanks guys!

Did you look on etsy to see if your prices compare?

I think your pieces have an anthropology/ pottery barn vibe. You definitely need to stage them since most people lack vision

Hi how about a flea market we have Brooklyn Flea up here in NY it's a lot of handcrafted furniture you must have something along the same lines in San Diego . I went to your site you do make beautiful furniture ! Good luck

What's missing from your website is your location. What city and state are you in? Generally your style of your website fits with the style of the furniture you produce. However, invest in professional photography so your business reflects a professional level. Staging is not necessary if you sell to the trade. The best way to sell to the trade is to join ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) as an industry partner in your local chapter. Etsy, craigslist and other online shoppers may not be the right target to grow your business.

Thanks SDG....Too bad I already invested all my money in marketing I knew nothing about and now I am close to losing my shop because all my savings and credit are in the negative! I have a degree in interior architecture and design but I can't afford an ASID membership because I don't know how to sell my designs...I'm so sad having worked for all these years thinking I would at least be able to support my family....I know that's a personal problem but the point is I have absolutely 0 budget. All I have is awesome skills, all the tools of the trade, a shop and a dream. I used photoshop to place my photos of my products into backgrounds for the website.I thought it would be better than the dirt where I originally took the shots. I guess I should have just waited to find the right location to shoot them. I don't know, I'm just going crazy working incredibly hard and coming to a dead end. Thanks for all the help...I should have asked for it years ago!

Reach out to some interior designers and ask if they would be interested in having some of your furniture in their office, lend it to them for a month then switch it with something else and keep I going that way...interior design offices would love free (even though you are loaning it to them) furniture and I'm sure would love the idea of having the furniture change in their office for clients to see. Another thought, since your furniture has an industrial look, is to market downtown areas where people may really want that look.

Great Idea drballard, about the interior design office borrowing thing I will try it, the other suggestion about marketing to downtown....how would I go about doing that?

Do you have any marketing materials? You could possibly speak with some downtown apartments/condo managers about leaving some stuff in the lobby or even offer to have some of your furniture on loan in their lobby? Good luck...it's not easy...not sure where you live but in Cleveland, buying local is huge, it's like a cult following, so if there are some other local companies (regardless of what they make/sell, try and get in with them and ask what they have done to grow their business. Often times word of mouth is stronger than the Internet...I would rather do business with someone local...especially a builder...when you can actually meet them and see the furniture in person...gives you that warm feeling and a greater feeling of appreciation when you know the builder likes that piece just as much as you do.

I used to work in the office furniture business and manufacturers of furniture sold to us through independent sales representatives. They each represented several different manufacturers. Does anyone know if reps exist for residential furniture manufacturers? I get what you mean when you say you wish you could just build.

Hey there,

This post is quite old, but you (or someone) may still find value in it.

Looking over you site today, there's a lot of potential to grow you site to generate free organic traffic through the process of SEO (search engine optimization).

You have a very elegant, yet very simple built out design. Implementing SEO would require some additional research and work, but it would pay off in the long run.

For instance, your pages are quite thin with content. I'd work on keywords that are popular in your industry and implement those on your pages. The site also needs more copy added throughout, which would increase the chance of people searching on Google to find YOUR website. You also need to add more links, add meta information to your images, make your contact options clickable, and you might have internal errors on the site you're not aware of.

Also, there's the option of getting on Google Maps if you sell locally. This can be a game-changer for you business and your customers.

I hope this info helps.