CraftMarketingTutor.com

There are lots and lots of sites like Etsy, Handmadecatalog and so on where you can market your crafts on the internet. Then of course you could set up your own craft website. So why would I suggest that using a blog to sell your crafts online is the best avenue? In fact I’ll go further than that. If you’re not using a blog in your craft selling you are missing a huge opportunity!

I’m not going to get all marketing-speak on you (tempted though I am). This is about cold, hard facts.

The “gallery” sites are very popular, and for people who are only interested in a small to medium home craft business they do an excellent job. The fees seem low and there is no long terms commitment. But what happens when you start to become more popular? What if you want to build the kind of crafts business that sells all over the world and can provide you a comfortable full-time income.

If you do the math, you’ll find that these sites start to get surprisingly expensive. Then there are the rules and regulations. In reality it’s someone else’s site, not yours, so you’re not in control. They decide what the site looks like, what things cost. Price rises are something you just have to put up with. There’s also the question of your identity. Are you one amongst hundreds or are your crafts unique and deserving of that reputation?

So a website then? Again, I’d say there’s nothing specifically wrong with craft websites if you know what you’re doing, but what if HTML, php and the like are a foreign language? You could always pay someone else to do it I suppose.

Using a blog to sell crafts online is the best of both worlds. In fact the best of many! You can run a blog for less than the price of a family pizza each month and it’ll be yours. You’ll have complete control over every aspect of it. Craft blogging has come of age and the number of professional tools, many of them actually free, is nothing short of astonishing.

What’s more the learning curve is so small. HTML? forget it. Oh, you’ll probably use it, but you may not notice as the most difficult things you’ll do will be to copy and paste.

Then you have to consider how your craft customer is going to find you amongst all the “noise” online. In addition to all their other advantages, blogs are also very well ranked by the search engines. People love them too because they’re easy to update so they stay fresh and lively. Even if you’re not directly using a blog to sell crafts online, as a promotional tool they’re second to none.

The invaluable ebook “The Crafts Success Crash Course” is available free here: Sell Crafts Online. You’ll also find lots and lots of practical, professional advice about using a blog you sell your own crafts online.