Knitting information, ideas and success stories from women who create real cash flow from their knitting and crochet.
Posts Tagged ‘Knitting Websites’
Knitting Websites to Get Free Patterns and More
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
Knitting websites are plentiful. There are sites that show you how to knit, sites that give you ideas and inspiration about new projects and sites where people who love to knit exchange information and ideas. However, the majority of knitting websites are focused on patterns-patterns you can get for free! This is a convenient way to find fantastic patterns for all your knitting needs.
Even though you can get free patterns from knitting magazines, online searching is easier and yield many more results. But, is this really the best way to get your knitting patterns? The answer to this question is it depends.
Not all patterns are created equally, and what you see online may not be what you get in person. This may not sound realistic to beginning knitters, but for those who make their living by knitting it is easy to realize the importance. When you knit professionally you must keep in mind that any pattern made after 1923 likely has a copyright on it. This means that you do not want to use that pattern as a way of making money; it would be illegal and is therefore off limits.
However, if you are simply knitting as a hobby and using your finished products for personal uses, there is not much to worry about in the way of copyright.
Style is also another thing to consider when you are knitting professionally. Each customer has different needs and patterns that you get from knitting websites may not be just right for a particular customer.
1. How to know What is Safe for Selling
As was mentioned above, there may be ramifications if you choose a pattern online that you plan to sell. People love to have hand crafted items as they are a refreshing change from mass produced items that several other people have. Many people, especially mothers who wish to work at home, enjoy a wonderful career in knitting.
The important thing to do if you plan on making a business out of your skill is what is and is not legal. Since many patterns that are posted on knitting websites are under a copyright, you must be aware of the ones you choose for selling purposes. Typically, if a pattern is off limits you will see that stated plainly on the site. The owners of these patterns clearly tell you that they are copyrighted. If you have been searching for patterns that you can sell and have ran into copyright issues, do not despair. If you keep looking you will find what you need!
2. Knitting Websites that Offer Free Patterns
While many professional knitting websites will contain copyrighted patterns, there are just as many community forums where you can find free patterns. There are several moms who knit professionally and you can find many of them online. Knitting at home can provide you with a nice income and allow you to be home with your children without having to place them in the care of others. This is the biggest draw to professional knitting!
Since there are so many moms who do this for a living, there are many knitting websites that are dedicated to work at home knitting moms. Unlike knitting magazines, the websites are full of other mothers who come together to share stories and ideas, as well as inspire and support each other. Since these websites are more of a community watering hole, the patterns are usually shared freely and without the need to worry about copyright. Many at home professional knitters readily share their ideas and patterns in hopes of helping others as well as being recognized for their unique designs.
3. Online Knitting Communities
An online knitting community has many benefits aside from free patterns. When it comes to an art that you are passionate about, fellowshipping with others who appreciate your passion as you do can be a wonderful experience. Not only will you find several free knitting patterns, but you will find tips, suggestions, parenting ideas, personal stories and long lasting friendships. With all of those perks, the free patterns found on knitting websites may actually be the added bonus instead of the main event!
“How To Get Your Knitting And Crochet Online!” Teleseminar
Monday, September 21st, 2009
The next Free "Knitting For Profit" Teleseminar will be on Thursday 24th or Friday 25th September depending on where you live. This time we’ll be covering questions about getting your knitting or crochet business online including:
• How to set up your website or blog
• The different ways you can make money or take payments for your products or services
• How to advertise your website
• How to get free traffic!
• How social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can get you more traffic
Remember! You must REGISTER to get access to the call and to the recording later! So CLICK HERE to register for the call and enter the questions you would like to have answered. I’ll look forward to having you on the call!
Learn How To Make Money From Home
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
After my last post, I had a lot of emails asking for more information about what steps you need to take to get a website or blog making good money online.
There is so much information available about internet marketing and making money online that it can get a bit confusing and very hard to know where to start.
But it is certainly a skill worth learning - I absolutely love working from home and making a living by providing people with great information. There is a huge amount of money spent online every day, and with the right knowledge and a willingness to have a go, you can start bringing some of it into your life and your bank account too!
Through my experiences in starting up blogs and websites and writing my books, I have realised that there is just one simple key to succeeding in making money online – and that is to take things one a step at a time.
If you bombard yourself with all the information available all at once, it just gets overwhelming and a bit stressful (I know because I did that too…). I learned a lot from an amazing Australian couple who run workshops here teaching the basics of internet marketing, if you are from Australia drop me an email and I can get you into one of their workshops as my guest (the tickets are usually around $2,000) – but this won’t help if you are living anywhere else in the world!
So I thought I would also let you know about another amazing couple I recently found who teach internet marketing one step at a time. Judith and Jim are psychologists and a husband and wife team who wanted to get their business online, but had no idea how. When they started out, they found all the high-tech information from the internet "gurus" very confusing and frustrating, so they created a very simple, step-by-step system for learning the basics of online business and internet marketing.
This is the kind of thing that everyone wishes they had known about when they first started – it is a program that will take you from complete beginner to making your very first dollar online. It’s even good if you have a bit of knowledge but are not sure the best way to move forward.
So if you would really like to learn step-by-step how to start making money online, both with your knitting site and other websites, then this is definitely worth checking out – it’s not cheap, but it’s worth the investment if you are serious about making some money from home.
Go to http://budurl.com/FirstStepOnline
Let me know if you have any other questions about setting up and marketing your knitting or crochet website – I’m happy to help!
How To Turn Your Knitting Website Into A Shopping Site
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Many people ask me how they can start selling their knitting from their own blog or from knitting websites, so in this post I'll show you how easy it is to add a Paypal function to your knitting or crochet site to instantly start accepting payments for your goods or services – yay!
Many knitters and crocheters don't realise how easy it is to start making some money from their creations online. If you already have a website or blog, and you would like to start selling your products or services, then using Paypal's payment buttons is the fastest, easiest and possibly cheapest way to get started.
And you may not realise Paypal buttons can also give you the ability to collect donations for charity fund-raising (like sponsored knit-alongs) or even let people give gift certificates for your sites products!
First of all you need a Paypal account, which is easy and free to set up. Then when you log in, you'll see this screen, choose the “Merchant Services” tab (circled).
To create your payment buttons, choose “Website Payments Standard” (circled on the left).
Now you have a few choices:
The “Buy Now” buttons will take people straight to the payment page and will not allow them to add anything else to their order. This button is for “once-only” product sales, and probably won't be as suitable for you as the free shopping cart option below.
The “Add To Cart” button allows people to buy many different products and as many of each product as they want. This encourages them to buy more than one thing at a time, which is always a good thing!
You can also set up a “Donate” button which allows you to collect donations over the web – this makes it much easier for people to support your fundraiser, and allows you to reach a world-wide audience with your cause.
Or you can include a “Buy Gift Voucher” button, which I think every knitting or crochet website should have – why not encourage people to give your products or designs as thoughtful gifts to friends and family who also love knitting and crochet?
For this exercise, we'll look at setting up the Add To Cart button, which will probably be the first one you use. So click on “Create One Now” as shown circled above.
Step 1 on the next page allows you to customise your button to your needs. You need to create a separate “Add To Cart” button for each item you want to sell with the different price, payment currency and size/colour options for each. In the example below I have created my button for a US$35 beanie that comes in red, blue or black. You can add more than one of these drop-down menus if you also have size choices.
If you want to, you can use your own customised button images by putting in their URL in the “customise appearance” option.
Next add in the postage cost for that item (assuming it was bought as a single item) and choose the Merchant ID for transactions – the secure option uses your registered paypal email address as the ID, or you can choose another email address if you wish.
In Step 2 you can set up inventory tracking and profit and loss tracking which can be very handy. You will be alerted by email if the numbers of a certain product are low, and you can stop people ordering an item if it is out of stock.
In Step 3 you can customise your check-out pages. You can allow customers to add in special instructions, and choose whether or not you want their postal address (for example, if you are selling knitting patterns as pdf's you may not need their postal address to provide the products).
Then you can choose where the customer will go once they have finished paying (circled here). If you are selling knitting patterns, you can upload the pattern or pdf to a specific page on your website and send them there once they have paid (so only people who have made a payment can view that page). If you are selling products you might like to set up a special “thank you” page which thanks them for their order and gives them information like approximate delivery times.
Finally click on “Create Button” at the bottom of the page and you will get some <html> code and a preview of the button (see below).
Now all you need to do is click on “Select Code” and “copy” (using Control C on your keyboard) then go to your web page and paste the code in where you want your button to appear.
I have included an example of what the code looks like on your web page below – I have pasted the script from Paypal (circled) into a table, and then the preview of what it looks like on the website is below that.
Now you know how to start taking payments for your products, gift certificates and donations – if this brings up any more questions, please post them below and I'm happy to help!
33 Places To Find Great Knitting Patterns
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
There are so many places you can find knitting patterns, it can be a bit overwhelming!
The best way to sift through this massive collection is to get specific. When you know what niche market you are going to supply, you'll know what sort of patterns are you looking for and it will make your search much easier and faster.
Here's a few places to look offline:
►yarn stores
►bookstores (especially second-hand bookshops)
►craft shops
►garage or yard sales
►swap meets
►craft markets or fairs fiber festivals
►ebay and other online auction and trading sites
► stuffed away at the back of your (or your mother's) cupboard!
And here's some useful links to online resources:
► yarn store sites: www.jimmybeanswool.com, www.yarnmarket.com, www.y2knit.net, www.bellaknitting.com, www.yarnsupply.com, www.theyarnco.com,
►dedicated knitting or crochet pattern sites: www.knittingpatterncentral.com, www.crochetpatterncentral.com, www.knittingonthenet.com, www.patternfish.com, www.freepatterns.com, www.freevintagecrochet.com, www.theknittingvault.com
►yarn manufacturers sites: http://freeknittingpatterns.lionbrand.com, www.berroco.com, www.knitrowan.com, www.patonsyarns.com, http://redheart.com
►specialised designers sites: www.vogueknitting.com, www.bymelissa.net
►knitting supply sites: www.knitpicks.com
►knitting and crochet information and magazine sites: www.dailyknitter.com, www.knittinghelp.com/patterns, www.knitty.com, www.smartcrochet.com,
Or you can type your specific pattern search into Google or Yahoo and see what comes up! For example just type into the Google search bar "cable knitting patterns" and it won't take long before youl find exactly what you are looking for.
-
-
FREE 16 PAGE REPORT!
Enter your name and email below for "The #1 Secret To Making Money From Knitting" Report
You'll discover the #1 reason why successful knitters make money and real examples and strategies that you can use immediately!
Our privacy policy keeps your email 100% safe!
-
Get The Book
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]
-
Bookmark and Share
Bookmark This:
Plugin by Hendrik Bahr. Recommended Reading
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via RSS