How It Works

Table of Contents

How to create a Profile

Your profile page in EthicArts is one of the best ways to show your value and skills to potential Collectors. We recommend providing as much accurate information about you as possible. Remember that your info is always safe with us. You should only worry about it whenever we give you the option to use third-party companies, like Google Maps. But our goal is to be 100% privacy safe!

To create a profile in EthicArts you need to sign up into our website. The steps are very simple.

Click on the “Sign up” button, either on the center or on the upper right corner of www.ethicarts.com . On the Sign up page: fill in the requested info; read and agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy; tick the correspondent box if you want to receive emails with information and marketing about us; and finally, click and solve the captcha and that’s you done!
You will then receive an email with a confirmation link in a few seconds. Check your spam folder if you can’t find it in your inbox. Click the link provided on the email to confirm your email and voilà, you are part ofEthicArts now!
The confirmation link will take you to the website as a logged in member. Now, to continue creating your profile, hover the pointer over the circle with your initials on the top right corner of the website. A panel with several options will appear. Click on Settings and it will take you to the Profile info page.
On the Profile info page you just need to fill in all the different fields with the information requested. (Note that not all of them will be available for the rest ofEthicArts’ members to read).

How to post a Listing

InEthicArts, Listings are advertisements that Creators use to showcase their services or Collectors can use to request what they need.

If you have a clear idea of what you are offering or looking for, posting a listing couldn’t be more easy! Follow these steps.

Click on the “Post a new listing” button on the top right corner.
From the list of categories, select the most appropiate category and subcategory for your listing. If you don’t find any suitable ones please contact us on hola@ethicarts.com and we’ll be happy to help you with your query.
After defining the category and subcategory, you have to choose your listing type. If you are a Collector you will normally use the Requesting type to ask for what you need. If you are a Creator you can use the one that will allow you to better trade your talent (i.e., a painter might want to sell his paintings as products, a photography editor might want to offer his editing services by one edited picture [p/unit] or by working time [p/hour or p/day], a film equipment hiring company will rent out their product either p/hour or p/day, etc… )
Once you have selected your listing type, it’s time to actually define your listing by writing its name, price, the location where you can deliver the good or provide the service (especially important for in-person lessons, renting equipment, hiring performers, selling goods, etc…).
When adding the description of your listing on the detailed description box, you can use the Markdown formatting tools to edit your description as you want and make it stand out, add Youtube videos or in-line links. To learn the easy Markdown commands click on the link that appears on the text above the description box (which reads “format your description using Markdown”).
Once you have finished defining your listing, you can hit the post listing button at the bottom of the page and your listing will be send to review before being published on the marketplace! It can take from a couple of hours up to a day for it to be published. Anyone interested in it can either comment on the public discussion or send you a direct message. Happy trading!

How to leave a review

Reviews are vital in our marketplace because they give valuable feedback to both Creators and Collectors, generate trust and help you know more about the member you are about to trade creativity with. Our system automatically prompts both Creator and Collector to review each other after a transaction, so here are some steps to complete this process:

1. On the “Leave a review” page that appears after finishing your transaction, you will find two options:

A positive or negative rating (thumbs up or down).
A free-form text box for comment.

Rate the other member and leave a feedback comment as constructive, honest and detailed as possible.

You can refuse leaving a review for another member after a transaction. Any review you receive will appear as part of your profile page.

For now, free give aways don’t offer the chance of leaving a review, but we will implement it in the near future.

How to set Stripe and Paypal payments

InEthicArts we use the third-party companies for you to carry out your creative transaction. You can connect your Paypal account to your EthicArts account to receive payments through that platform, or you can introduce your bank details and then Stripe will allow other members to pay you using their credit card.

Disclaimer: We are well aware that the aforementioned companies are corporations that don’t match most of our privacy and ethics standards. Sadly, we are obliged to work with them as they are the only affordable option for us at the moment from the ones provided by Sharetribe, our marketplace developer. We will change this as soon as possible, and will also recommend you to read their Privacy Policy (Paypal, Stripe) so you are completely aware of how they manage your data.

For now, here’s a step-by-step instruction on how to configure both payment gateways.

Once logged in www.ethicarts.com, hover your mouse pointers over the button with your picture on it (or your initials if you haven’t uploaded a picture yet) on the top right corner of the website. From the menu that will appear, click on settings.
On the Settings page, click on Payments at the bottom of the list on the left. It will reveal the Payout preferences section, which shows to options: to receive money to your bank account (Stripe option) or to your Paypal account.
To set up payment via your Bank Account (using Stripe), fill in the information requested on that section of the page. Before saving your details, we encourage you to read and consider the Stripe Connected Account Agreement that you can find by using the link right above the “Save details” button.
To set up payment via your Paypal Account,
1. Click on the “Connect Paypal account” link on the correspondent section of the page. This link will direct you to PayPal.
2. Log in to your PayPal account or create a new one.
3. Grant the marketplace the required permissions. After this, you will automatically be taken back to the marketplace to complete your setup. You can read more about these permissions here.

Note: Paypal only allows you to trade with a Business account, so you would have to configure it before setting up your payment fromEthicArts. We recommend you to create two accounts on Paypal, one for your personal use and another for the business use, to avoid certain fees Paypal charges when using the Business account.

Additionally, our marketplace developer Sharetribe.com has more practical information on how to set up your payment method here: Stripe / Paypal

What is EthicArts business model?

EthicArts provides its members with an ethical online marketplace where they can carry out their transactions in a safe and fair environment. Of course, joining EthicArts and accessing all the current and future tools for Creators and Collectors is completely FREE!

Whenever a transaction happens, EthicArts will receive a 13% commission fee from its final price. I.e., if Stella agrees on selling Mary a handmade necklace for £100 using EthicArts, Mary will pay £100 using their selected payment gateway, of which Stella will receive £87 and EthicArts will receive £13 (n.b.: the minimum price per transaction is £7, and our minimum fee is £1.5, which is the minimum to cover Paypal and Stripe commission fee).

All the money we receive is used to cover the marketplace costs and improve its functionality to provide our Members with better tools and opportunities to further develop their artistic business. The better EthicArts becomes the more advantages and benefits for our Members and the greater the positive impact we will have in our World!

How to communicate with others

Communication is basic to help EthicArts grow and thrive. That’s why you can easily message directly any other member ofEthicArts.

You have two options to do so:

From the user’s profile page: you can access this page by clicking on the user’s name displayed on any of their listings. Once there, click the “contact” button under their profile picture.
From the user’s listing: on any listing done by the user you want to contact, you will find a “Contact” button to the right-hand side, next to their profile picture. In this case, the listing information will be included in the message.

The message will be sent on the marketplace to the user’s marketplace inbox. The user will also get a notification to their email address informing them that they have received a new message.

To view your received messages, you just need to hover your mouse cursor over your profile picture (or initials if you haven’t uploaded one yet) on the top right corner of the page. Then click on the “Inbox” button from the menu that will appear, and it will take you to all your current conversations. If you have any unread messages, a small notification will appear on your profile image and the inbox.

You can also communicate with other users publicly and regarding a specific listing by leaving a message on their listing’s Public Discussion. To do so just access the listing and type your message on the box under “Public discussion”.

Finally, our marketplace developer, Sharetribe, has more information about this feature here.

How to contact us

To contact EthicArts’s team you can either:

Send us an email an hola@ethicarts.com
Click on the “Contact us” button on the top of the page and use the box that will appear to type your message and send it to us.

We’ll be back to you as soon as we can!

How to change notification settings

Each member can change how often they receive the newsletter and which notification emails they receive. These can be changed under “Notifications” in the member’s profile settings.

Each member can choose to receive or not receive the following emails:

When another member sends them a message
When another member comments on their listing
When another member starts a transaction for one of their listings
When another member accepts their offer or request
When another member rejects their offer or request
When another member gives them feedback
When they have forgotten to mark an order as completed (that email is sent two days before automatic order completion)
When they can give feedback after a transaction
When another member marks their order with the user as completed
When they receive a new payment
When a listing public discussion they follow has a new comment
When a listing they have commented on has been updated