Knitting information, ideas and success stories from women who create real cash flow from their knitting and crochet.
Archive for the ‘Make Money Knitting’ Category
Sell Your Knitting And Crochet Online – Without A Website!
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Did you know that you don’t have to have your own website to make a profit selling knitting and crochet online? In this post I’ll be revealing the top online craft sites for selling knitting and crochet, and what may surprise you – E-bay isn’t one of them…
But isn’t there heaps of opportunity on E-bay because it’s so huge? (you may ask), isn’t there heaps of traffic and don’t people pay more because it’s and auction? Well I wouldn’t list any knitting or crocheted items on there…ever.
Why not? Most people who are shopping on E-bay are after one of two things – something that is very rare or hard to find, or a BARGAIN. And most people who are shopping on E-bay do not put enough value on the time and effort that goes into making handcrafted items. It breaks my heart to see such beautiful pieces being sold on there for so little money.
I would much rather see your products listed on quality craft and knitting sites where people appreciate their value and you aren’t paying outrageous listing fees.
So here is a list of quality craft sites with their advertising and selling fees. I have listed them in order of highest traffic first (according to Alexa at time of writing). Try them as a great way to sell your knitted products without having your own online knitting website, and safe in the knowledge that the people who come to these sites to buy are more likely to realise the true value of your skill and time.
www.etsy.com – Probably the most well known craft mall, with a wide range of high quality crafts and lots of traffic (ie customers!). Etsy lets you set up a "shop" with your own URL based on your username, for example, http://niceknits.etsy.com, and a customised banner, profile and shop policy. It’s easy and you dont have to be too web-savvy to set it all up. They also provide secure shopping and an artisans community where you can ask other sellers for advice or tips. Fee: Free to sign up, $0.20 to list each item for 4 months, plus 3.5% comission upon sale.
www.kinfolkcrafts.com – Great for country crafts, this site has a friendly country feel. Created in 2000 as a resource for crafters who want a web presence but don’t have time to maintain their own site. They offer customised service and will design a web page and even a unique logo for you. Fee: The Standard package includes one web page for 10 of your products and costs $75 for set up and design, then $10 per month for hosting, minimum 3 months hosting and no commission fees. As you grow, there is an option to upgrade your site, and you have the ability to have your own unique URL, eg www.niceknits.com (no mention of kinfolk in the name)
www.handmadecatalog.com – A nicely presented site, designed for crafters to be able to sell online without maintaining their own website. They do national advertising in the US, and marketing to bring in targeted customers. There are there levels of membership, with the premium allowing you to have your own webpage address eg www.handmadecatalog.com/niceknits and list up to 1200 items. Fee: Basic is $4.95 per month, plus a 15% commission, Standard charges $7.95 per month, plus a 10% commission, and Professional is $12.95 per month with a 5% commission on top. Annual payment discounts are also available.
www.craftmall.com – Large online mall, wide range of categories Fee: Basic accounts range from $7.95-$47.95 per month for 15-500 products, Premium accounts range from $14.95-$54.95 a month for 25-650 products. Alexa Ranking (at time of writing): 816,209
www.artsefest.com – Another large online mall with a big range of categories Fee: between $14-$18 per month if you build a site through them, $8 monthly if you already have a website (long-term sign up discounts also available)
www.youcraftylot.com – This is a UK based site created by Hazel Allen, who aim is to create an online crafting community and become the biggest craft sales site in the UK! Fee: Free to join, 10 pence listing fee and no sales commissions!
www.handmadefusion.com – This is a relatively new site offering quality handmade items. Fee: $0.15 c perlisting for up to 4 months, 3% commission on sold items.
www.artisansmarket.com – This site was created by a group of artisans and small business owners that wanted to provide a network for artisans as well as better services and education for the public. It is a clean and well presented site. Fee: $10 a month plus 10% of sales. Annual payment discounts are also available.
Three Quick Tips:
1. When you chose a site, you should take into consideration how much it will cost to list or rent ‘space’, compared to how much traffic they actually get.
2. You should also make sure that the site is relevant for your products, for example, don’t list on a country-craft site if you are trying to sell high-fashion products to young city-dwellers.
3. You may need to test a few different sites to see where your products sell best.
My Knitting For Profit Book has more tips and advice for listing in online malls, and how to sell knitting online without your own website. If you have found another good site for selling knitting or crochet online, let us all know by leaving a reply below!
How To Make Money From A Knitting or Crochet Blog
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
I have been getting some questions about how to make money online from knitting and crochet, especially from blogs which many of you already have.
If you are going to the effort of regularly writing on your knitting blog (knitting website), and you have built up a following of people who like to get your information and ideas, then it's worth setting up a system so that you are rewarded financially too!
There are many ways to make money from a knitting or crochet blog besides selling your own knitting or crochet products, two that you may not have considered are:
1. Adsense Advertising – you allow Google to place those small text ads on your site, and you get paid every time someone clicks on them. This strategy may not make you millions, but its great to have a little flow of money coming in each month that covers your hosting and gives you a bit of cashflow.
2. Affiliate Marketing – if you have a blog that has a reasonable amount of traffic and subscribers, then you can actually make a nice income online by finding information, products and services that would benefit your readers and putting them in touch with the people who provide them. I learned how to set up a blog like this from Yaro Starak, who is a really down-to-earth guy from Australia. I actually met him a couple of weeks ago and was inspired by his relaxed and friendly style, and how he has created a six figure income just from blogging!
After chatting with him, I realised that his information and ideas would be really valuable for anyone writing a knitting or crochet blog. So with his permission I have included one of his articles that gives you his top 10 tips for starting a money-making blog. He also has an amazing report that gives you his complete blog building system for free – if you are at all interested in making money from blogging, I would highly recommend getting a copy.
Click here to get your copy of "The Blog Profits Blueprint" for free.
And now here are Yaro's top 10 tips for starting a blog (you might be past this stage, but there are some great ideas for increasing your readership and also giving your readers really great value)…
It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called "traction", which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.
Top 10 Tips
10. Write at least five major "pillar" articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good "how-to" lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn't news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.
You don't have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.
8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that's the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you've done a good job!).
7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people's blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.
Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.
6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger's article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it's sort of like your blog telling someone else's blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.
This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.
5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.
4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.
To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.
3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it's so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it's worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!
2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn't bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it's worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.
How you benefit is through what is called your "Resource Box". You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.
1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I've listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won't stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.
I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I've put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it's certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.
This article was by Yaro Starak, who is now a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is also the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.
To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:
How Much Do I Charge For A Knitting Job?
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
In this post I wanted to share a question that was sent to me by Trina, who is about to do her very first knitting for profit contract work. Here is her original email and my reply:
"Hi,
I just wanted to ask your advice – my aunty wants me to knit a cardigan for her baby daughter – she's already got the pattern and the yarn – and wants to pay me for my time. Where do I start thinking about how much to charge her? Would it work on a per-hour basis, or just a 'finger in the air' full amount?"
This is a great great question – and one of the trickiest to answer because every situation is different. In my Knitting For Profit book I go through the essentials for people who want to "contract knit" professionally, and many of these apply to you even though it is a family member you are knitting for. In my answer I am assuming you haven't been paid for your knitting before.
The main thing to remember is that you want to still be friends when the project is finished and paid for! This means the less surprises the better. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Do you know how long the project will take? can you estimate reasonable accurately? Have you ever knitted that pattern before? And are you sure that your aunt has bought enough yarn? Is the yarn appropriate for the pattern, and is it all of the same dye lot? What sort of time frame does she have and can you get it done fairly easily in that time frame?
Ideally, you'll know the answer to these and be able to recognise if there are any issues on the horizon. Deciding what to charge depends on the answer to these questions, and also remember that many people underestimate the time and effort that goes into knitting a garment (especially family if they aren't knitters themselves!)
It will probably come down to you giving a price that you feel is fair for your time and effort, and seeing whether your aunt is happy to pay that price. Being something for a family member means you're probably not in it for a huge profit. Contract knitters tend to charge between $5-10 an hour depending on the project, but that's assuming professional speed (so what may take you 10 hours to knit may take them significantly less time and thus have a lower total dollar cost).
If you decide to contract knit for a living, there are many different types of project you may do. Yarn stores and manufacturers need knitters to use their yarns to knit up patterns and swatches, and many designers need knitters to test their patterns. There are also high-end designers who need the skills of top knitters to help them create uniques and original works.
Whichever path you choose, the main message here is that if you knit something for someone and are being paid for it, you should ideally have a written agreement with the answers to the questions I mentioned above. This saves having unpleasant surprises and means that you will enjoy your work, and your customers will keep coming back for more.
Many thanks to Trina for letting me share her question with you all, you can visit her blog and say hello at www.ballatrina.blogspot.com.
If you have a question you would like answered, just write a reply below or message me on the contact page – I'd love to hear from you!
How To Publish Your Knitting Book
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
After our discussions about copyright, I thought it was a good time for a post from the other side of the fence – if you are a knitting designer and want to publish your knitting patterns, or a teacher and want to publish a knitting book. How do you go about this, how much does it cost and what sort of copyright should you place over your work?
Becoming a published author is actually easier (and cheaper) these days than you might think. There are a huge range of publishers to choose from, many specialising in the crafting categories, and there are also online do-it-yourself services which are free to join and have a "print to order" service. This means that you don’t have to invest large amounts of money into printing hundreds or thousands of copies of your book before you know how well it well sell.
And coming from a knitting business point of view, your first step when considering publishing your work should be finding out whether there is a market for it! You need to think about who your target market is, whether the content of your book is popular at the moment and will appeal to a broad range of people, or whether it is very targeted and appealing to a smaller niche market.
General, broad appeal knitting books tend to be about learning to knit, how to overcome problems, and general knitting or crochet patterns. Even these tend to have some kind of spin on them to make them unique and interesting. As you already know, I’m a fan of niche markets, especially for this kind of project where your niche product has the potential to come “into vogue” and become a bestseller purely because it unique and different.
A good place to start this kind of research is on Amazon.com, where you can see what the most popular books are in each category. If you look in “knitting books” at the moment, the bestselling pattern books include two for sock patterns, two for knitted or crocheted embellishments and decorations, one for warm weather knitting and one that provides solutions for knitting questions. If you look up knitting books, you’ll find a long list of these books which will give you a idea of what is available and where there may be a gap in the market that you can fill.
Once you have chosen your topic and created your content, you’ll need to decide how you are going to publish, advertise and sell your work. You have three main choices for publication:
Option #1 – Use a publisher to copyright, edit, print and distribute your book. There are obviously a huge number of publishers around the world, some very large with wide distribution networks, others smaller and perhaps more suitable for niche publications. Here are some that have a range of craft titles:
• Martingale (martingale-pub.com)
• Lark Books (larkbooks.com)
• Trafalgar Square Publishing (now part of the Independent Publishers Group – ipgbook.com)
• Sterling publishing (sterlingpublishing.com)
The main advantage of using a publisher is that your knitting book will be more widely distributed, a lot faster than you could ever do yourself. It will be sold into stores and advertised in catalogs, most publishers have reps that will promote and sell your book. You’ll also have experienced editors giving you feedback and ideas. However, you will be giving away a lot of your control over the book, as well as the profits.
Option #2 – Self-publish your knitting or crochet book using a service such as lulu.com or createspace.com (who sell through amazon.com). This way you have much more control over how your knitting book comes together, how and where it is sold and promoted and the copyrights over the book.
If you want to use less restrictive copyrights, and allow people to knit your patterns and sell them, or use your patterns or teaching techniques in their knitting classes and basically get your name more well known by sharing your work as much as possible, then self-publishing may be a better option.
You will get more of the profits, and most of these services allow you to print on demand which means there aren’t high costs involved in start-up. But you won’t get the same level of distribution as with an offline publisher. You can order copies for yourself and sell them offline, and your book will be listed on Amazon and various other online sellers, but you won’t have anyone actively promoting it unless you organise it yourself.
Option #3 – Publish online as a knitting E-Book – if you already have a website, or you know of sites where your book would sell well, you could publish your knitting book as an e-book and purely sell online. This is a great way to start because it costs very little to do, and will give you some feedback and an idea of the size of your market and how well your book may sell when you do decide to publish offline.
There are also online pattern sellers that will list your patterns individually, which means you can control the copyright and distribution of each of your designs individually. Or you could list them on your own website.
There are several copyright options available to you. If you do not want your patterns to be used for anything other than personal use, then you can add the phrase “all rights reserved” to your copyright notice. You can also add exceptions such as “not to be used for commercial gain”.
Personally, I’m not a fan of restrictive copyrights like this. The world is moving towards a much more free approach to sharing information and ideas, and this means that ideas are passed around and reach a far wider audience than if you severely restrict their use. As a designer, your income comes from sales of patterns or books, and lots of sales are made from personal recommendations, so the more people who know about you the better!
You can use a Creative Commons Copyright, which means that you are happy for people to share, build on and perpetuate your work which is much more in the spirit of the knitting community! To find out more about Creative Commons Copyright, have a look at this site which has lots of great copyright information for knitters and crocheters – www.girlfromauntie.com/journal
Whichever method you choose, publishing your knitting book means more exposure for your designs, and helps get your name more widely known as a designer. Being a published knitting designer gives you more credibility, and may help land other opportunities to further your knitting design career.
An Update On Knitting Pattern Copyrights
Monday, May 11th, 2009
The comments after my post about quick knitting patterns were great because they highlighted an issue that most knitters who sell their work will face, whether you can use a someone else’s knitting patterns to make knitted products to sell (even if the knitting pattern is free). So I’ve done a bit of research on copyright and how it applies to knitting and crochet…
Copyright is a form of legal protection for creators of original works (whether literary, artistic, dramatic or musical) which ensures they are credited (and/or paid) for that work for a certain period of time. This includes original knitting and crochet patterns.
Copyright laws were created because there needed to be a balance between sharing ideas and information, and making sure that the original creators of those ideas are credited for them. Without copyright laws, people may be much less willing to share their ideas for fear that others could use their creation to make money, with no credit or reward to them for their inspiration. But sometimes copyright works against the author, with people unwilling to use an idea or inspiration for fear of infringing copyright, and so the work is never widely known.
When you find a knitting pattern, whether it is in a published book or free on the internet, it is automatically subject to copyright laws, which are in essence the same around the world. If it says "All rights reserved", that means you basically can’t do anything but knit it for yourself or perhaps as a gift. If it just says copyright or says nothing at all, then the best course of action is to contact the designer and ask.
Obviously, you can’t just change a couple of stitches and claim a design as your own, but you can use the ideas and techniques in a pattern to create your own designs. Exactly how much different it needs to be to not infringe copyright is like asking "how long is a piece of yarn?". A lot of it is down to common sense and courtesy really – if you’re not sure, just ask the designer. The knitting world is generally a friendly and sharing community, and every author can decide what you are allowed to do with their patterns. If you ask, most are quite happy to at least discuss it.
There are also patterns available that are in the "public domain". This means that their copyright term has ended, and you are completely free to use them, reproduce them, modify them and resell them as you wish. Generally these are vintage knitting patterns published before 1963 (this is for the US, and providing their copyright has not been renewed).
These days there is a big swing towards "free licence", which means many people are putting their original ideas and works out into the world happy for people to use them as long as they credit them as the original creator. I really like this model because it encourages sharing and collaboration, which is something that sits very well with the knitting community spirit.
If you are a designer, it is also a great way to get your patterns known by lots of people, because they will be more willing to share and recommend them. You are also likely to make more sales worldwide with this model because it opens up whole new markets – especially people who want to make money from knitting and need unique patterns that they can sell from!
And when you think about it, the actual knitting pattern is really only part of the creative process of the finished knitted product. The knitter will choose the colours and yarns and fix mistakes or make small alterations to a pattern. So every finished piece will probably be a bit different from the original design!
If you have patterns that you are happy for people to sell the finished work from, feel free to post your web address and details in the comments section below and get some free traffic! Or if you have any comments or other information about copyright of knitting patterns, please post a reply and let us all know.
Top 5 Tips For Selling Knitting At Craft Shows
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
Craft Shows are a great way to get a lot of people to see you and your knitting business in a short space of time. Plus there is the potential to make a lot of money too! But competition at large craft show events can be intense, so you need to know how to maximise your time and exposure to make the best of your investment.
I have displayed at many large shows, and have paid a lot of attention to which stands get the most customers. This is a great way to learn what works, and get innovative ideas for your craft show booth.
Here are 5 ways you can ensure that you get the most for the time, effort and money you invest into a craft show booth…
Tip #1 – First Impressions Are Everything!
Even though it sounds like common sense, it’s worth remembering that many customers are going to decide whether or not to come and look at what you have to offer based on their first impression of the stand as a whole. If you can catch their eye with something interesting, you are going to be getting more traffic to your stall, and traffic means business!
There are some little inexpensive tricks you can use to make your booth stand out (and you can do this for small markets and fairs too).
• Choose a colour and theme for your booth that suits your knit or crochet products. For example, if you produce knitted baby items, decorate as you would a babies room. Add props like a crib if they will fit (a dolls pram or crib is small enough to fit on a table and will attract attention), and use colours like pink, baby blue, light purple and light green. If you’re niche is organic and natural yarns, then add props like a potted plant, cardboard trees and a green and brown theme.
• Props are great! They attract attention and are excellent conversation starters. I have used mannequins, stuffed toys, plants, cardboard cut-outs, a model house, and even a racing car game (some of these were not for a craft show obviously!)
• Your main display table should be covered in a clean and ironed cloth (don’t laugh, I have seen some surprisingly scruffy looking displays in my time), of a colour that compliments or highlights the colours of your products. If your knitted products are mostly white, don’t use a white table covering, or your products will be lost in a sea of white.
• If you have been to the craft show event before, think about what colours everyone else tends to use, and choose a different one so you stand out. Make sure you pay attention to these things when you are at a craft show. Try to get time to look around at everyone else’s displays and make notes!
• Place boxes underneath the table cloth to give your display height and texture.
• Remember to decorate the walls of your booth, drape them with cloth or examples of your work. This adds height and depth to your display.
• If you are offered overhead lights for the booth, use them! They will make your stand brighter and more noticible – good light is one of the things that really isn’t worth skimping out on.
Tip #2 – Make It Easy For People To See, Touch And Try On Your Knitted Products.
Again this may sound simple, but if people can’t easily see and feel things, they will be less inclined to buy. The following ideas are straight from retail research about the way people shop and buy. All the large retailers use little tricks to get us to buy (like putting sweets at the checkout counter, or placing items they want to boost sales of in the front right hand side of the store because that’s where people tend to go first…)
• If you have racks of knitwear, make sure people can get easy access to them without having to squeeze past tables or boxes. Admittedly it can be very difficult to achieve this when you only have a space that is 3 metres square, but you need to get a bit creative with how you lay things out so people can get to your products. Try placing tables in a U-shape inside your booth so they can come right in and reach everything. Corner booths are good for stalls that have racks, so people can wander through them more easily.
• If you are selling knitted or crocheted clothing of any kind (even scarves and beanies), make sure you have a mirror that people can see themselves in.
• Try not to make people bend over to reach your products – if you have shelves, only use the ones that are at about hip height and above. When people have to bend over, they bump into other people and make everyone uncomfortable.
• Remember, you don’t have to display everything all at once! Don’t make your stand too cluttered or it will become confusing. Select a range, and if someone wants a different colour or size, you can get it out for them.
Tip #3 – Invite People In.
If you make eye contact with people and invite them in to your display, you’ll get much more traffic than if you stand mute and just hope they’ll come your way. I was always completely exhausted after a show because I spent the whole time talking and interacting with people. But it meant that we made good sales, and introduced as many people as possible to our business.
Tip #4 – Run A Competition.
This was by far the best way I found to excite interest in my stall, as well as get the names and addresses of lots of people who were interested in my products.
You’ll need to check with the event organiser and possibly register for a competition licence (check if there are local government regulations, the licence is usually easy and cheap to get), but it’s well worth the effort!
I usually gave away $50 to $100 worth of my products in a lucky draw – which was a small price for the extra traffic and interest in my stall. It’s a great, easy way to invite people in by asking if they would like to go in the competition. And after the show I would follow up with an email to say hello and remind them of my website.
Tip #5 – Brochures and Knitting Business Cards.
Vital for exposure and follow-up sales so make sure you have plenty on hand – and not just for customers, but for networking opportunities too! Craft fairs are a great place for meeting people who can help you and your knitting business. Retailers who want to stock your products, other crafters who you may want to work with, suppliers and wholesalers who can reduce your costs. So make sure you have professional business cards that clearly state your name, niche and contact details – see my post on Knitting Business Cards for more information.
I hope these tips will help you get the most out of your craft show investment, and also help if you have a stall at smaller craft fairs and local markets. If you have any other tips or ideas that you have found worked well at craft shows, please leave a comment for everyone below!
Three Essential Rules For Selling Your Knitting
Saturday, March 7th, 2009
If you want to make money from your knitting, having good sales skills will help you enormously. This article will show you how you can sell your knitting effectively, without being one of those ‘pushy’ salespeople. 
Many people find the thought of being a salesperson quite foreign and uncomfortable, especially when the image that the word ‘salesman’ brings to mind is something like this!
But it’s a myth that you need to be confident, loud or pushy to be a great salesperson especially when it comes to selling knitted products. True, there are some salespeople who are like that, but it’s actually the quiet, caring listeners who are the most successful.
So don’t automatically assume that you will not be a great salesperson, even if you feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea at first. This article will show you how a true professional conducts themselves and have customers who trust and respect them.
This is great news for knitters who wish to sell their knitting face to face!
The art of selling is not about being a great talker, or pushing people into buying things. It is actually about listening to what the customer wants, and finding a solution to their needs or problems.
I have done a lot of face-to-face selling in my time, and I have found that there are three simple rules to live by. These rules can be used by all knitters who wish to sell their knitting face to face.
Rule #1: Selling is about building relationships, not just flogging product.
Everybody likes to deal with someone they trust and feel comfortable with. Your first goal in the sales process is to connect with your buyer. Find some common ground to share such as your love of knitting or crochet, yarns, wool, knitting patterns or knitting fashion, even your children or common experiences.
It doesn’t matter if this is a customer at a small craft fair or the buyer for a multi-million dollar knitting magazine or design house, they are still just people who want to deal with people they like and feel connected to. The more you build up relationships with your customers, the more they will want to keep coming back to enjoy your service and support your knitting business!
Rule #2: Selling is about asking questions and listening, not just talking facts.
Don’t get me wrong, your customer needs to know about the knitted products that you offer, but if you went into a yarn store looking for all natural yarn and the owner insisted on telling you about their entire range of synthetic knitting wool, you would get a bit frustrated and annoyed, wouldn’t you? You would feel that they are not listening to you, and you may never return for fear of wasting your time and money again.
Your customers feel exactly the same way when you try to tell them absolutely everything about yourself, your knitted products and your knitting business.
Your goal is to find out about your customer and what they are looking for. What do they really want or need? For example, if it is a knitted gift they are buying, who is it for? What is the occasion? What sort of things does the receiver like? How much are they looking to spend?
You are getting involved in their decision and helping to guide them towards a choice they will be really happy with. Remember, you are the knitting professional. You know your knitted product range and services better than they do. They are trusting you to listen to what they need, and then recommend the knitted products that best suit those needs. If you do this, you will have happy (and very grateful) customers!
Rule #3: Make it easy for your customer to buy.
If you have followed the first two rules, the customer should feel safe that the knitted product or service you have offered will suit their needs. But no matter how much advice and service you give, if they don’t actually buy then it is all for nothing. You need to make it easy for the customer to buy, so you must still ask for the sale.
Again this does not have to be pushy. It can be a simple question like “would you like me to gift wrap that for you?” or “shall we fill in the paperwork?” or “how would you like to pay?”
Most times, if you have created a connection, then listened and guided them well, a little nudge is all it takes for them to get out their wallet and say “Yes, please!” And that of course is the point at which you get paid for your knitting, which is the ultimate aim of knitting for profit!
Make sure you practise these skills at every chance you get. Whenever you do a craft show or a market, get yourself into “listening mode” and really get involved with your customers. It’s a great feeling when you have helped someone find what they really wanted, and you will have created a connection with another person who will be more likely to come back and buy again, and recommend their friends too.
I think one of the best things about Knitting For Profit is the network that you can form with your customers. As long as you sell with integrity and goodwill, you will have a network that continues to grow and grow!
Make Money From Knitting – The Top 5 Questions
Saturday, March 7th, 2009
Here are the answers to the 5 most common questions I get about Knitting For Profit. If you have another to add to the list, feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to include the answers in another post, perhaps titled "A whole lot more questions about Knitting and Crocheting for Profit!"
Do I need lots of money to start up a knitting or crochet business?
The great news for knitters is…NO! Having a big idea and goal is great, but the best way to start a business is small, and you really don't need much money to begin with. In fact, most of the successful knitters I have found started out with very little money – many were work-at-home mothers or students.
Knitting Business Start-up Tip…
One of the secrets to business success is to test your markets, so you can provide what the market really wants, rather than what you think they want. To do this, you don't need to knit or crochet a huge range all at once. Start out with one or two knitted products at a time, see how well they sell, and focus on the ones that do well. There's an old rule that 80% of your profits will come from 20% of your products, so that's what you need to try and find. The actual costs of starting up a business vary around the world, but these are the main things you will need to allow for in your start-up budget:
1. Your knitting supplies and yarn
2. Some promotional material like business cards and brochures
3. Business registration or license
4. Insurance
5. Some advertising like a website, craft shows, local paper or yellow pages etc.
Do I need to have business experience to start knitting or crocheting for profit?
If you read the knitting success stories here on this blog and in my Knitting for Profit book, you'll see that most of these knitter women had absolutely no business experience when they first started out. And when you think about it, every successful business person had to start somewhere. Most of them admit they just jumped in and learned things as they went along! If you would like help from the start, there are lots of government and not-for-profit organisations that offer start-up support and advice. My Knitting for Profit book has a step-by-step guide to starting a knitting business, and links to these resources in many countries around the world. And I think it's really interesting that the most common piece of advice that successful business people give to newbies is not about complex business strategies or start-up budgets, it is simply…. 'Just do it!'
Knitting for $$$ – Can it really be done?
Absolutely!! In my extensive worldwide research I have found many examples of successful knitters making money from their passion. One of my main reasons for writing this blog and my book 'Knitting for Profit' was to share these amazing and inspirational stories of knitter women who have achieved their dream of making money from knitting or crochet. You can read some of their stories here on this blog. When you do, you will realise that they started out just like you, some with no money, some with no business experience, some with small children and mortgages. Anything is possible, especially when you have the right information and resources to start with.
What if I'm not a good salesperson, or I don't think I would enjoy trying to sell my knitted products?
Selling your products is just as achievable as knitting or crocheting your products, it may be new to you and feel a bit strange at first, but once you learn the three simple rules of selling (see my blog article 'Three Essential Rules For Selling Your Knitting'), you'll see that sales is much more about genuinely helping your customers choose what's best for them, rather than pushing them into something they don't really want. Besides, there are many ways to sell your knitted products without ever having to talk to the buyer, and if you make a great product that appeals to a niche market then you won't have to sell it, because it will sell itself!
What do I do first?
The very first steps for starting your knitting business are actually the easiest and most exciting ones! This is the part where you get to shop around for ideas and inspiration, decide on your path and begin your journey.
Step 1: Research your market and assess your knitting skills and desires. One of my goals in writing the Knitting for Profit book was to make this process easy for you. I have uncovered and developed five main strategies that you can use to make money from knitting and crochet (in the Knitting For Profit book I go into great detail about these five strategies). You need to choose one of these paths based on your knitting skills and what you are attracted to.
Step 2: Find your niche market and decide how you will make your knitted products stand out. This is absolutely essential for your success.
Step 3: Write a business plan. This will be your map to guide you on your 'knitterpreneur' journey. It will help you decide who your customers will be, what knitted products you will sell, where and how you will sell them, and what knitter resources you will need to start out. There are lots of standard business plan templates available for free online (have a look on the US small business site, it has a fantastic range of resources for new businesses at www.sba.gov), or you can use the specialised Knitting Business Plan Template that comes as an extra bonus with the Knitting For Profit book.
At the risk of sounding repetitive… 
if you would like to know more about these steps and how you can easily achieve them, read more about my new Knitting for Profit book at www.KnittingForProfit.com
Five Money-Making Knitting Niche Ideas
Friday, March 6th, 2009
If you want to make money knitting, my golden rule is to find a niche. No matter which of my Five Knitting For Profit strategies you choose to follow, in order to really make a profit from your knitting, you need to be a bit different, stand out from the crowd and fulfill a need in the marketplace.
So here are five more Money Making Niche Knitting Ideas (there’s a theme here if you’re looking…)
1. Knitted Wedding gifts – have a range of knitted pieces that would make a thoughtful and appreciated gift for a couple starting their married life. For example, ‘His’ and ‘Hers’ or names/initials knitted into scarves, hats, jumpers, pillows or blankets. Or his and hers versions of the same knitted item, like beanies knitted in complimentary or matching colours. You could also provide useful knitted household items like potholders or washclothes in silver or white.
Use wedding bell or heart motifs. Once you specialise like this, it is easier to find ways to sell your knitted products too. You can contact local wedding or bridal shops, go to bridal shows, find companies that specialise in wedding gifts or kitchen tea parties (there are lots online) and list your knitted products with them, or see if local gift shops would like to stock your knitted pieces. You can also sell your specialty range through one of the may online craft malls. It’s amazing how word spreads when you have something unique to offer!
2. Christmas Ornaments and Stockings – I know of knitters who have great success and more back-orders than they can handle for these knitted or crocheted products. You can either sell the finished items, or you could sell the patterns. It’s very seasonal but it’s a wonderful time of year to be selling knitting! For pattern ideas look up Christmas knitting patterns in your search engine.
3. Mother’s Day gifts – although it doesn’t have to be mothers day to give your mum something nice, if you have a themed range of ‘gifts for mothers’ it is easier for your customers to find you…usually fathers and children! There is a lovely little ‘treasure locket’ pattern on purlbee.com, and so many other lovely, thoughtful hand knitted things that you can create with mothers in mind.
If you chose this niche, I would label each knitted item with a tag that said ‘special gifts for mum’ or something similar, to really show customers that’s who your products are designed for. And whether you choose to sell online or off, people will know right away that a gift purchased from you is a gift that is meant for their mum, and that she will enjoy receiving it.
4. Flag designs – people love to celebrate their heritage no matter what time of year it is, but on national days people want to show it even more! You can put flag designs and colours on almost any knitted product, from blankets, shawls, scarves and hats, to booties and baby wear, to potholders and washcloths. You then have a specialised range of knitted products that really appeal to people who love their country and are proud to display it.
5. Costumes for pets or children – unique and funny designs are the key here, because if you create something different, word will spread quickly and you’ll enjoy lots of sales! A couple of examples are the very successful baby viking hats from bellaknitting.com and the ‘Kritter Knits’ at ByMelissa.net. Themed costumes for Christmas, Easter, Halloween or Thanksgiving are always popular too, and a great way to get your knitted products and name known.
So there you are, five more niche knitting for profit ideas that are already making money for knitters around the world! If you have any more suggestions I’d love to hear them, so please leave a comment!
What is Knitting For Profit? And What Is A Knitterpreneur?
Friday, March 6th, 2009
“Knitting for Profit” means you are making money from your knitting skills (yay!!). This can be achieved in a variety of ways, but how do you become a true "Knitterpreneur"??
Knitting For Profit could mean you are selling the pieces you knit, or it could mean you are getting paid to teach other people how to knit, or you could be earning money from your knitting designs or knitting patterns. Whichever way you earn, you are being paid for your knitting skills and talents, and you have become a ‘business owner’, no matter how much or little money you are making, or whether you officially call yourself a business or not!
You see, there are many different levels of ‘business’. You may think of a knitting empire. A large fashion-knit design company, or popular knitting or crochet magazine, or perhaps a large established knitting pattern design company or yarn manufacturer. Million dollar turnovers, worldwide distribution and teams of staff. This is a big vision, but entirely possible as shown by the large knitting companies that already exist.
Or you might be thinking of a smaller knitting business. Based at home or in a retail shop, one or two employees and creating enough income for you to live your knitting passion and be surrounded by the things and people you love. Lots of knitters live this vision by owning yarn-stores.
Or what about just a bit of extra income for the family? Not getting rich, but having enough to be able to stay at home and care for your children. Enough to keep your family comfortable, and let you keep on expressing your creative spirit.
Or perhaps you just think of knitting. A micro-business that lets you buy all the yarn you desire, and makes enough so you can knit for free!
No matter what your goal or vision, if you make money from your knitting, you are knitting for profit, and you are what we call a ‘Knitterpreneur’.
We believe anyone who starts a business, no matter how big or small, must have some entrepreneurial spirit in them! So we created the word ‘Knitterpreneur’ to describe all of the amazing people who go on that journey using knitting or crochet.
Get some inspiration and ideas from the real live stories of Knitterpreneurs on this blog – have a look in the ‘Success Stories’ category for them. They are well worth the few minutes it takes to read! There are also more in depth interviews in my book "Knitting For Profit".
I hope you’ll join us in the Knitterpreneur community, by learning all the tips and tricks to Knitting for Profit found here and in my book. My book is designed to be a step by step guide to helping you become a successful knitterpreneur. And if you would like to share your own story with us all, please contact me at liz@knittingforprofit.com, I’d love to hear from you!
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About Liz
Welcome! My name is Liz and I am a work at home mother of two. I am also the author of the new book “Knitting for Profit”. I have created this blog to give you more great information, ideas and resources for making money from your knitting passion! [more]
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