The Day We Had a Family Celebration Over $0.80

We believe in celebrating the small things in life.

Like when Baby threw away his diaper for the first time.

Or how Big Brother read the word “famine” on his first try.

Or the day we made our first $0.80 on our family’s new e-commerce website.

Today was that day. A day of family celebration!

We launched our brand new online marketplace www.sharketmarket.com on Black Friday. Our whole family has been working on this project for quite some time and we are thrilled to see it leave the ground! Sharket Market is an online multi-vendor marketplace designed to support home businesses – particularly those within certain categories such as:

•           Members of the Church of Christ
•           Missionaries/Preachers
•           Adoptive Parents
•           Widows
•           Stay-at-Home Moms
•           Young Entrepreneurs

Customers who want to support a specific type of vendor can shop by vendor category, or they can simply browse the “Products” page and know that every purchase they make goes toward supporting home businesses. The name “Sharket Market” came from the idea of a marketplace that shares support – thus “Shar[e]ket Market” (But yes, it’s pronounced “SHARKet Market,” and our mascot is a quirky shark the kids named Joe).

The idea for Sharket Market came about three years ago when I started the Facebook group “From Heart and Home.” I thought it would be neat to eventually create an e-commerce site where people could intentionally buy from and support stay-at-home moms. Then we thought, why not expand that vision? Why not create a website that would also make it easy for members of the Church to buy from brothers and sisters in Christ? Then we expanded further with a desire to help adoptive families bring their little ones home, so we created a way for vendors in that category to receive 100% commission on their products. From there, Sharket Market kept growing.

Now you can register as a vendor for free, add unlimited products to your store with no expirations, and receive 95% commission. The 5% commission that we receive supports our family as we strive to minister in the domestic mission field of Wisconsin. The only other cost is the PayPal transaction and processing fee of 2.9% + $0.55 per sale. There are NO others fees involved in becoming a vendor or selling on Sharket Market.

We work with just about every type of vendor. We accept all kinds of products from handmade items, to virtual services, to downloadables, to stuff you just have sitting around your house that you’re ready to part ways with. And for those working with direct sales or network marketing companies that don’t allow sales on third-party sites, we have a way to list your company too! You can become a vendor and purchase an affiliate link that will show up just like other products, except that when a customer clicks “add to cart” they will be redirected to your company’s ordering page. For more information, go to www.sharketmarket.com/product/affiliate-link.

There is space for everyone on Sharket Market. If you don’t fall into one of our specific categories, we’re still here to support you! You can register to become a vendor and simply mark your products as “General Home Business.” If you’re not sure if your product would work on the site, just shoot us an email at mama.llama@sharketmarket.com!

One of our most recent changes is the addition of the “Young Entrepreneur” category. It’s so hard for young people with entrepreneurial spirits to find a place to market their work. Now kids and teens can become vendors too! All they need is their parents’ permission and a parent’s PayPal account.

We’ve been working hard as a family over the last few months to launch Sharket Market. There have been long nights, frustrating days, and so. many. bugs to kill. We finally got the site running smooth enough to begin registering vendors on Black Friday and made our first profit that day by selling an affiliate link.

But TODAY we made our very first commission!

Today we all did a happy dance and celebrated with chocolate because we made our very first $0.80 commission on Sharket Market! That means our site is REALLY WORKING the way its supposed to - and that's worth a family celebration! Woohooo!

Congratulations to the Blue Jay Boutique on being our first vendor to sell a product through SharketMarket.com! Go to www.sharketmarket.com/store/bluejay to see their wide selection of quality candles, including holiday scents to bring you Christmas cheer!

Want to know more about Sharket Market? Head over to www.sharketmarket.com/faqs to find the answers to our most frequently asked questions. Then check out the rest of the site! If you want to become a vendor go to www.sharketmarket.com/vendor-registration to start setting up your shop. Or, browse our products and share with your friends!

Share Support. Surf the Market.

Merry Christmas, everyone!