How do I sell my crafts?

Question

Why is it so hard to sell my crafts. I love to scrapbook but have run out of my own pictures to scrapbook, so I thought I would offer my services to others. So far I've only have two clients. Ok I get that scrapbooking is expensive, but once your book is done it's forever.

Then I thought I would sell some of my handmade jewelry, but I've only sold $70 worth of jewelry. For knitting, I have sold some hat’s but had to give always some of my baby blankets. As for my handmade cards, I didn't even try to sell them.

So how do I get people to buy my crafts. I tried e-bay, but that ended up costing me money and I wanted to get a booth at an Arts and Crafts fair, but booths cost $400 money I don't have. I'm not trying to be the next Bill Gates, I just want to be able to afford to keep on crafting.

Offer me any tips or advice you think might help.

myspace.com/crafting_queen

Answer 1

There is a Yahoo group called "Scrapbooking 4 Others".  They offer a lot of help and guidance.  They have files full of helpfull articles and suggestions.

You need to get your work out there by doing small church or community fairs.  Maybe start making a lot of premade pages, mini albums, and cards to be ready for the holiday season of craft fairs that start in September.    One good seller at the craft fairs is the "Explosion" mini album.

Hope this helps.

Bobby in  MD.

Answer 2

Kacky has given you some good and correct advice.

If you are dead set on the products you have right now, try going to small gift shops around town and put your stuff on consignment. You can also try hospital gift shops as baby blankets do well there (and baby hats) and you can have pre-made scrapbooks there too... Just some other ideas to help you get started.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Yahoo offers websites for about $12 a month.  There are other sites that are free.  The trick is to get traffic to your website.  With the Yahoo sites, you get emails telling you tips on how to make your site successful.

I have some of my crafts at local shops that carry craft items.  If they are willing to put your items on consignment, you might also ask them if you can put up a sample of your scrapbooking work.  Then you could leave some business cards for people to get in contact with you.  Vista Print will let you pay only shipping and handling for printing 250 business cards.  They also have matching items for reasonable prices.  

There are also some smaller arts & crafts fairs that may not cost nearly as much.  You might try looking into ones at local churches.  My church has one every September and the booths only cost $50 - 75.  

There are also several sites online that will print books or catalogs for you.  You could use one to make a catalog for you crafts.  Then when you went to a store to try to put your things on consignment, or to an art fair, you would have something to show what you do.  It would be much easier than carrying all your craft items around.  You would look more professional too.

Some craft stores might allow you to post flyers inside the store.  This would be a good place for you to try and sell your scrapbooking pages.  You might also offer teaching services for scrapbooking.  Many people want to get into scrapbooking, but are afraid of all the things out there.  You could charge $10 - 20 to teach someone.  Tell them all they need to do is bring their photos.  You could show them what they need to do.  You could charge extra if you needed to take them shopping because you didn't have the supplies for what they wanted to do.  Teaching could probably bring you in more money than doing the pages for someone.  You could offer to continue to be a guide for the people you teach.  Let them know that you can teach them other things for the same fee.  You could also let them know, if you wanted that you would be available for free tips by email or phone.

If you have other friends who are into crafts, then maybe you could pool together with them on a website, fair booth, etc.  Then you wouldn't have to pay for the cost alone.  You could volunteer to run the operation and maybe as payment for such you keep 5% of the profits from the sales.

I hope that some of these ideas helped.

:)

Answer 4

Have a yardsale, get a booth at festivals.

Answer 5

You're doing crafts that people would rather make for themselves. Most people wouldn't bother to own a handmade card or a knitted item unless they are the one that made it.

Think of something that people wouldn't be able to easily make for themselves. I was sitting in the bubble bath one night looking through a home dec catalog when I saw something and realized I could do one ten times better than that. So I designed my own and that's what I sell. I started on Ebay just to gather testimonials, but now I just use my own website.

.

Answer 6

the crafts sell online [ not eBay] then take the jewelry to a specialist. hope i helped!

Answer 7

heres what you need get your name out there make bizzuness cards they dont havea to high class one just make som off your computer cut out and hand them out to ppl make flyer and hang them up around town tell ppl what kind of crafts you make and sell go to small owned shops in your town ask them if you can sell your cafts there tell them your give them a cut of the profits of what ever you  sell ask to see the owner of the shop  and ask  him her if they would like to buy your cafts to sell in there shops

Answer 8

The thing is, you need to go somewhere where there are people interested din crafts.  A great place to sell crafts is etsy.com because everyone either there to sell or to shop. (most people both).

Another good bet is local craft fairs.