Like you I’m sure,  I look at lots of craft websites and subscribe to lots of great craft blogs. There is no doubt that crafters are dedicated to their crafting and work very hard to sell crafts online. Whilst working hard is a key part of being successful selling crafts online, working smart will increase your success.

One way to maximize the success of your web pages and blogs is to utilize keywords within your content. If you are a regular blogger or add new craft items and articles to your website regularly, dedicate a little time to keyword optimisation and you will improve your website rankings, increase your website traffic and ultimately sell your crafts to more people!

So, here are three simple but very effective tips that will increase the traffic to your arts and crafts website by utilizing keywords.

Write great content. Before you embark upon any website or blog venture be sure to start from the point of providing great content. Whether you are building a blog or a full-blown e-commerce site you need to provide useful and informative content as well as craft products. Without it you will not get regular and sustainable traffic to your site.

So be sure to create a website that has content that is useful to your readers. For example if you sell hand crafted products make sure your website text is descriptive. Tell a story about your crafts, engage the reader, make them want to read about your crafts. Use each section of your website to add value and inform your readers and they will become customers.

Choose your keywords. Before you write for your blog, or create content for your website, be sure to research your keywords. Use Google’s keyword tool to find keywords that relate to your craft area. These keywords are the ones that you want to use to attract the right readers to your website. Choose primary and secondary keywords.

So for example a primary keyword for an article like this might be “selling crafts”. Notice that I have used it in my title. Secondary keywords are often what are termed ‘long-tail’ phrases. They are short phrases that relate to your craft area. So for example, a good one for this article might be “how to sell crafts”. Spend sometime using the Google Keyword tool to choose primary and secondary keywords that you wish to use in your site.

Use your keywords. It goes without saying that once you have selected your keywords you should use them in your website or blog text. Be sure to use your primary keyword within your title and within the first 20-30 words. Then use the primary and secondary keywords evenly throughout the rest of the webpage text.

Don’t go overboard; if your content is loaded with unnecessary keywords Google will punish you. Using keywords throughout your text in an even way will keep your webpage interesting for the reader and provide the best chance of search engines finding your webpage and listing it their search results.

These three methods will take your website or blog to a level above most online crafters and bloggers who just don’t consider keywords when creating content. The result will be better search engine rankings and more traffic to your website which in turn will lead to more craft sales. Give it a try.

Steve

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I can’t tell you how many shows I have been to and seen stall holders asking for change. It’s a basic requirement when doing craft shows or fairs to have crafts money in a secure cash box.

If you want to make money from crafts you’ll need to take a little money with you to your craft show. There is nothing more likely to stop you selling crafts at a show than having no change for your customers.

A great tip for getting a ‘free’ cash float
In my opinion you can’t have too much change. So take plenty of it to your craft show. Here’s a great tip to get a ‘free’ cash float on the day of the show.

All you have to do is save your loose change and coins inbetween shows. Personally I always save my loose change in a little cash box, the very one I take with mew to craft fairs.

Each day I pop the loose coins I have in my pocket onto the cash box. Over a few weeks, and especially in the winter months when you might not be doing many shows, the change really does add up. When you come to do your craft show you will be pleased to see that you already have a great little cash float that seems to have been gained for ‘free’. It’s a whole lot better than going into the bank on the way to the show and exchanging crisp bank notes for a bucket of change.

Planning your cash float when pricing your craft products
Now you do know that the first customer of the day will buy a $1.45 item with a $20.00 note! This always happens! But a sale is a sale, right, so it’s very welcome! This is when you will see the crafter running around the fair asking everyone they can find for change of a $20!

Now there are two schools of thought about pricing your craft items and both need a different approach when it comes to filling your cash box.

1. Price items at rounded numbers.
There are lots of crafters who prefer to price their items at $1.00, $5.00, $10.00 etc.. By doing this you need to make sure you have lots of notes in your craft cash box. It does make life a lot easier, it saves you searching for loose change and it makes adding up orders much simpler!

2. Pricing your craft items below the dollar mark
There are equally lots of crafters who believe in pricing their craft products just below the dollar. $4.97 or $9.99 for example!

There is a lot of merit in this from a marketing point of view, which we will discuss another time. From a cash float point of view, if you go this pricing strategy, simply make sure you have lots of little value coins to provide change. Saving your change as suggested above is a great way to prepare for this as it will give you loads of loose change.

Organising your craft cash float isn’t rocket science but a little planning before the show will really help your run your craft show table smoothly.

Next time I will show you how to use your craft shows to generate sales even after the events have finished.

Steve

This is part four of CRAFT SHOW SUCCESS  - PLANNING YOUR CRAFT FAIR “14 simple tasks for craft show success…that you can do at home before the show”

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It is always difficult to know how many craft products to take to your craft fair. There is no definitive answer to this, except, take as much as you can! Now that doesn’t mean packing absolutely every item of craft stock you own and having it piled up next to your craft table at the show. Here are a few tips to help you decide on the right amount of craft products to take.

Size of the crafts you are selling
A lot depends upon the size of your craft products. If you sell small jewellery you probably can take lots and lots of stock with no problems. You can probably even take all your stock quite easily.

However, if you sell larger pieces, for example wooden clocks you will be limited by space in your car or van. A good starting point is, after you have set up your craft table at home, take at least one of each item you want on your table. That’s your initial display sorted. Then work out roughly how many items you can fit in your car. Let’s say it was 50. If you have 10 styles of clock take 5 of each.

Take more stock of craft items you know sell best
The above example is an ok starting point if you have not sold items before. However, if you have any experience of selling your crafts in any way, via your website, on ebay, to friends then you will have an idea of which of your crafts are the most popular. Even if you haven’t sold any items yet, you probably have a good idea which crafts items your friends and family have said they like best.

So, take more stock of these items. Remember the goal is to sell your crafts at the craft show, you don’t care which ones. Any will do. The more shows you do the more you will get to know which items sell and which don’t. Drop the poor sellers and concentrate on the good sellers and stock up on them for each new craft fair you do.

Storage space at the craft show
A consideration that is sometimes overlooked when deciding how much stock to take to a show is the actual storage space at the show. For most craft fairs it will be the space under your craft table. Craft organisers don’t like to see your craft stock piled up next to your table or even behind it. They like the craft displays to be neat and tidy. So before you pile all your stock into your van remember to check the craft show rules on storage.

Also, you probably don’t want to leave stock in your car during the show. One, this is a security risk as your car may be broken in to but secondly you don’t want to be keeping a customer waiting whilst you find your way to the car park and struggle to pull out a craft item from your boot.

Be organised and ready to take orders
A good way to organise things in relation to stock is as follows. After you have tested your craft table display at home, keep all that stock separately packed. Then when you arrive at the show you can unload these and get set your craft display up in no time at all.

Decide on your stock level for each item and have them stored in order under your craft table for easy access. If you sell out of a particular item, that’s great! Be sure to stock more of them next time. The more craft shows you do the more you will learn about your best sellers and you adjust your stock accordingly.

Also, a great tip is to have a little folder with a photo of each item you sell, including any variations and bespoke commissions that you may have made in the past. That way if you have a customer interested in a particular item but they are after a variation you can show them work from the folder that may encourage them to place an order with you for a commission. This folder method allows you to have ‘virtual’ stock with you and can be a great tool for getting extra sales through future orders.

There is nothing better than experience to tell you how much stock and what type of stock to take with you to craft shows, but I hope the tips above have given you some pointers to get your started on the right path.

Next time I will look at the topic of what cash float you should take to the craft show.

Steve

This is part three of CRAFT SHOW SUCCESS - PLANNING YOUR CRAFT FAIR “14 simple tasks for craft show success…that you can do at home before the show”

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Just a quick post to announce the winner of our latest craftshapes.co.uk competition. The prizes were a selection of geometric wooden craft shapes including squares, triangles and circles.

So without further delay the lucky winner is Mary Kirk.

Well done Mary, your prizes will be on their way to you very soon.

Our new craftshapes competition is now up on our site. The prizes are fantastic, a selection of wooden animal shapes, including cats, dogs, fish, rabbits and ducks! Go to our craftshapes competition page to get details of how to enter. It’s dead easy, all we need is your name and email.

Good luck and happy crafting!

Steve

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Setting the right craft prices for your items
Pricing your crafts is always a difficult thing. There is a fine balance between good value and good profit margins. The most important thing to remember when pricing your crafts is to make sure you include ALL your costs. That means direct craft materials used, a percentage for consumables like glue, nails etc…, a percentage for all other costs like paper, marketing materials, print, electricity, phone and so on.

But most importantly you also need to include a cost for your labour. You absolutely MUST include this. It sounds obvious but I have seen this crucial element of costing missed out so many times.

So, be sure to include all your costs and then work out the profit margin you want. You can choose a flat percentage of say 50% or 100% and add that to all items, but I think this is not always ideal. Some items such as larger show pieces might be able to carry much larger percentage margins, whilst other smaller items might only take 20% or 30% margin.

The goal is to find that balance between good value and good profit margins. Try different pricing strategies at different shows and see what works best. Don’t just set your prices and leave them, tweak and amend them to best effect.

Use craft price tags to increase craft sales
The second area of pricing that I think is often overlooked is the use of price tags. I am always surprised how uninventive lots of crafters price tags are. Often they are hand scribbled tags.

Now, I am not saying they need to be glossy printed masterpieces but if you are a creative crafter I think you should get creative with your price tags. And not just to show of your creativity.

Even a little price tag is a chance for marketing, to help brand you crafts and add to the value. It seems like a little thing, and it is, but having nicely crafted price tags (and other marketing materials) really helps when creating an overall image and increasing sales.

I recommend having all your price tags (plus spares) made up and attached to your items before the day of the show. Plus I would include your website address on every price tag and leave it on the item for the customer to take with them after a purchase. Your aim is that they will visit your website after the show and make further purchases or subscribe to your mailing list and so on.

Next time I will look at the tricky task of working out how much stock to take to your craft fair.

Steve

This is part two of CRAFT SHOW SUCCESS - PLANNING YOUR CRAFT FAIR “14 simple tasks for craft show success…that you can do at home before the show”

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This is the number one top tip that you must follow to make your craft fair table stand out from the crowd. At home long before the show, find a table, work surface or floor area the same size as your craft fair table and set up everything that you plan to use in your craft show display. The same applies if it is a craft show booth or market stall area.

The objective is to spend a little time and plan out your display and see exactly what you can (and can’t) fit on your craft show table. This really is the most useful planning you can do. When it comes to the show there is nothing more important than your table display, it is the first thing your customers will see and you can improve your chances of making craft sales massively by getting your display looking fantastic!

So take your time, set everything up well in advance and see how it is looking? You will easily see if you have too many items, too few, if the table is too cluttered or busy, or if you don’t have enought items to show. It’s a very simple but very effective process, just set it up and play with until you get it looking how you want it.

Once you have your craft show table fully set up and you are 100% happy that it looks fantastic and professional you have made a massive step forward to craft show success.

Next time I will provide a great tip to make maximum use of your craft show pricing.

Steve

This is part one of CRAFT SHOW SUCCESS - PLANNING YOUR CRAFT FAIR “14 simple tasks for craft show success…that you can do at home before the show” so let’s get stuck in…

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I have been thinking about the creative process recently. Now of course, making handmade crafts is a creative process, no doubt about that, but sometimes ideas just don’t come or we get easily distracted and lose focus.
But also there is another issue that I think is potentially more important when it comes to creativity and crafting.

Being creative when it comes to selling your crafts.

There are many crafters that make fantastic work, glass, wood, cards, textiles, you name it.
They are inspired and creative and full of ideas and enthusiasm. But then when it comes to promoting and selling their work they are stumped. All of a sudden the ideas are gone! All that creativity seems to have vanished! This is often even more apparent when it comes to selling crafts online.

Why is that?

How do perfectly good and creative people lose all creativity when it comes to selling crafts online?

Perhaps it is the technical side of things that puts them off and causes the problems? Or maybe it is just lack of interest in the Internet, or a lack of interest in the idea of ’selling’?

I don’t have the answers but personally I do try and give the selling process as much creative thought as I give to the crafting process. As a result I enjoy the sales process (I love it!) and I also sell a whole lot more crafts!

So, here are a couple of thoughts you may wish to ponder that relate to creativity. These ideas are applicable to the creativity of crafting and your selling strategy.

1. Think for a moment about what creativity is?

Creativity is the process of turning ideas into reality. Scientist believe it takes place primarily in the front lobe of the brain. The creative act has two processes, thinking and doing. You need both to be creative.
If you just have ideas and don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.

So when you are next pondering over a crafting or selling problem, concentrate on your idea but also spend equal time thinking about how to actually do it!

2. Think of ways to increase you creativity.

There are lots of ways to increase your creativity and generally they are quick and simple to achieve.
Here are a five to get get you going…

A. Brainstorming
To properly brainstorm, define your problem, suspend all judgement and just write down the ideas. It doesn’t matter how wacky or weird just write them down. In the second stage refine the ideas and work more on the better ones.

B. Set up a dedicated space
There is nothing that kills creativity more than having to clean up or move things around before you try and think of the next big idea. Clear space - clear mind!

C. Write every day - carry a notebook
Whatever you are trying to create, carry a note book and jot down ideas as they come. Dip into it regularly and record all those little thoughts that come throughout every day!

D. Join an online forum
Thera re always loads of ideas and solutions floating around forums. post questions, answer questions, interact and watch ideas come!!

E. Keep moving
If you are thinking physically move around. Instead of sitting at a desk, go for a walk, do excercise and so on. It can really make a difference.

I hope that has given you some food for thought and has sparked a few creative ideas that will help not only when you are crafting but when you are thiking about selling your crafts.

Remember creativity is something you can choose to do and practice. The more you do it, in all aspects of your life, the better you will get at it!

Steve

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If you have decided to go for it and become a craft show exhibitor there are lots of simple and effective things that you can do before the day of the show that will increase your success. And what is success? Making the most money from selling your crafts, yes, but also having fun and enjoying the experience.
In this series of 14 Blog posts I will provide you with some great tips for planning your craft show.

It takes a leap of faith to go from making your crafts at home for friends and family to actually ‘putting them out there’. It can be quite nerve racking but at the same time it’s a great feeling to see the efforts of your labour displayed beautifully and have people actually buying your crafts. So, if you are planning your first craft fair or if you are a regular exhibitor, well done, you’re already on your way!

It really does take some courage to show off your crafts at a craft show for the first time. Not only are you showing the world your efforts but you are asking people to put their hands in their pockets and hand over their money for your crafts. What will happen, will you fail miserably, will you bring home all your unsold crafts?

Don’t worry, if you plan properly, have patience and smile a lot, you will have craft show success!

There is a huge amount of information on the Internet about how to run craft show tables or booths. My aim here is to take a step back from all that. I want to step back to the point before your craft show, by doing a little planning you will save lots of time later and avoid potential problems on the day of the show.

This Craft Show Success Blog Series will provide fourteen simple tasks that you can do at home before the day of the show. If you follow these tips you will be ultra organised on the day which will reduce your stress and allow you to have more fun. And the more fun you have the more you will smile. And the more you smile the more you will sell!!

In the next post I will begin with the very best tip I have found for being successful at craft fairs.

Steve

CRAFT SHOW SUCCESS  - PLANNING YOUR CRAFT FAIR
“14 simple tasks for craft show success…that you can do at home before the show”

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The summer hasn’t been great so far, let’s face it! But with the weather improving and a late summer on the cards is it now time to make your own Christmas decorations ready to sell during the festive season?

For many crafters now is the time to be getting out the glitter and tinsel, well perhaps at least christmas style supplies that are a little more subtle. If you are part of the Craft Fair circuit then you will definately already be thinking about what Christmas decorations to make.

We have noticed at www.craftshapes.co.uk that sales of wooden christmas shapes have increased. Wooden Christmas trees, stockings, snowflakes, snowmen and so on are all selling well at the moment.

Which is what reminded me to post here to then remind you that if you are a crafter don’t wait until mid November to start your Christmas crafting, it’s too late. Start building up your stock now at a steady pace then when Christmas sales really kick in you won’t get caught out and find yourself runnig aroud like a headless turnkey!

Also, as a side note if you pop over to the excellent ‘ebay pulse’ tool (just search for it on Google) you might be surprised to know that pretty much day after day the most searched term in the crafts catagory is Christmas. So if you are a crafter who has Christmas stock don’t take it off your site, promote it all year as there are lots of potential customers searching for Christmas items all year round.

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It’s a great headline! It’s not mine, it belongs to John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0.

If you are an online crafter you will like to keep up to speed on what is happening in the internet marketing world, which I recommend you do. I am sure you subscribe to  a few lists of your favourite gurus. If you do I am also sure that you have been bombarded with emails containing affiliate links to John’s TS2. I know I have. I bet I have received at least a dozen different emails from Internet Marketers I follow.

Is it annoying? Not really, at the end of the day these people are looking to earn their commission by getting the people on their lists to use their affiliate link to buy what is no doubt a fantastic product. So I can’t blame them. It’s amazing to see what a huge range different free bonuses each one is offering. There are some great deals!

And this brings me on to Traffic Secrets 2.0 itself. I haven’t had a sneak preview so I don’t know how good it is. But what I do know is that John Reese is on a mission to raise the bar when it comes to Internet Marketing products. He always aims to over deliver and this time I think he is looking to blow all the competition out of the water.

We can lean a lot from this. Ok, we can’t all spend a year of our lives dedicated to developing one product but the principle is still the same. Aim to over deliver! There are so many terrible e-books, digital online courses, reports, membership sites and so on all promising to get you rich by using their methods. So many times these miracle cures fail to deliver.

It is no surprise to me that the king of them all is the person who works the hardest to offer genuine quality and value. And that’s John Reese.

I haven’t decided whether to buy John’s programme yet, I’d like to for sure. But one thing I will take away from it is that I will try harder to offer the best quality products I can. This is one technique that I am convinced does work to help drive traffic to your website.

Until next time.

Steve

P.S If you want to have a look at John’s sales letter for Traffic Secrets 2.0 you can see it here.

http://www.trafficsecrets.com/

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