Having a creative hobby is healthy in so many ways. It relieves stress, helps keep your mind sharp and can help you pass the time without sitting in front of a TV. As you craft more often, you also get very good at it. You may have been noticing that your crafts look as good as anything that you see for sale in stores or online.
Which should make you think. Maybe your seasonal craft projects could be sold and make you some extra Christmas money. Or, if you have a lot of people asking about your house decor that you made yourself that you could actually make a business from it.
There has never been a better time for creatives to actually make a living from their creativity so you should be no different. There are so many ways to make money from your crafts that you can certainly make a living from them if you are dedicated and focused.
In this article, I will give you some ideas on how to make a crafting career a reality.
Find your niche
To really stand out amongst the competition, you have to sort of specialize. Instead of doing every kind of craft and hoping that it sells, you need to find one particular medium and topic that you enjoy the most and focus on that if you want a good crafting career.
It could be anything at all and it will have a market. Think about what somebody would be searching for on Google or Etsy and go from there. If you think about it, nobody is searching for the term “cute crafts to buy”. Instead think like somebody searching. The search will look more like “cute kitten design for cross stitch”.
This way you can see that you will be found if you focus on a certain topic and medium. It also helps you to save money on your materials. If you are too general then you end up with a lot of arts and crafts supplies that you may not need. By only buying the materials that you actually will use more of nothing gets wasted or sits around for long.
It also makes your process much easier when you are only doing one thing. If you are trying to create a lot of different types of crafts, then your workflow slows down quite a bit. Since it’s important to work quickly to make more money you want to have your system down pat and that’s easier when you are not trying to do too much.
Build a fanbase
It is important to have a solid customer base, but it is much better to have rabid fans of what you are doing. A customer may only buy a product once and then is never to be seen again. Having fans means people are always looking to see what’s new and are collectors of your creations.
The way to do this is to build excitement around what you are doing. You should have a good presence online and at any craft fairs or flea markets. If you have a product or creation that sparks a lot of discussions then this is half the battle already won. You will make a name for yourself among people who are also interested in having a crafting career and are looking for the type of thing that you do.
Use social media
The most obvious way to build a fanbase is to use social media and Youtube. By finding the people that are already interested in your niche you will inevitably be able to grow an audience. And this audience will turn into paying customers.
For instance, if you have a Youtube channel and use it to show off your work by offering lessons on how to create things then this is a good way to get people interested. Or, you can do a watch over your shoulder type of video where people can simply watch you make your creations. Lastly, a video series on how to decorate using your crafts will also find lots of followers.
You need to find the right social media platform for your audience since every platform is different. Figure out who your ideal customer is and then find the platform where they are hanging out. If your fanbase is teenage girls then Snapchat or Tik Tok is the way to go. If your ideal customer is a middle aged suburban woman then Facebook and Pinterest are where you should focus.
It takes time to build up a following so make sure you are dedicated enough to your crafting career to see it through those early days when nobody is following you.
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