Hi friends! I have been asked a lot about YouTube and how to go about starting a channel to share your art or crafts projects. I never think sharing is a bad thing and it has been such a rewarding experience for me. There are countless videos about the business of YouTube but not many from the perspective of an artist so today I will share my tips with you.
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I hope that gave you some food for thought. I count my lucky stars everyday that I am a part of this amazing community of kind and creative people. How could i not want to tell others how to do it too? If you have any thoughts leave them in the comments, we can continue the conversation there:) Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! In today’s Art Marketing Monday I’ll explain the importance of keeping good records and hiring a tax professional because you never know when your hobby might suddenly become a business!
Keeping those records and receipts is a good idea, even as a hobbyist, because you might decided that you want to “do a couple craft fairs” and then find yourself with a budding business. Or maybe you want to clearly see whet you spent during the year (it can be kinda scary LOL) so you can set a realistic budget for next year. In any event it never hurts to know the truth about your finances. Have a great day and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! It’s Art Marketing Monday, I think that’s going to be a thing (at least until I run out of ideas) and today I want to talk to the bloggers and vloggers out there who enrich our lives with their inspiring content. I know many of you have blogs and YouTube channels and I know how hard it is to get your channel large enough to be hired or sponsored by companies or even get on design teams working for product. You likely have a passionate audience who often buys things you use and recommend, so why not get some of that money that you have earned? I am going to talk about affiliates today. Anyone with a blog or YouTube channel can sign up to be in an affiliate program. You put a link to the product you used and if someone clicks through and buys it (or anything else on that website) you get a small % of the sale. It will not cost your viewer extra either. It is a way your viewers can support you while purchasing stuff they want. I’ll explain more in today’s video!
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Unfortunately there some states where you can not be an affiliate with the major companies, Maine is one of them so no Amazon, Blick or Joann affiliations for me which is a shame because I send so many people over there anyway for the deals but I have found smaller companies who are more than happy to have me like Hallmark Scrapbook and honestly, I’d rather promote an independant family run business who stocks all the new products at the lowest prices. See what I did there? 😉 I bet most of the bloggers you follow also take part in affiliate programs and I know of a few who make a near full-time income at it. They don’t live in Maine. Many other bloggers use it as a way to offset costs of keeping their website up and running. However you choose to approach it remember to be honest about your affiliations, it will only help you in the long run. I really hope this helps some smaller crafty content creators out there bring in some cash so they can continue doing what they love and (selfishly) keep inspiring the rest of us! The rising tide lifts ALL boats. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! I have been meaning to make this video for a while. I get asked a lot if I went to art school and how did I get into YouTube, blogging, designing for magazines and teaching art. It is probably a rather odd path to take but I did not have anyone’s footsteps to follow in so I just plowed ahead in any direction that looked fun and I could make art. It occurred to me that there really is not a roadmap for artisans to go about making a living for themselves. I hope my journey gives you some ideas if you want to make a living for your art or craft. I hope you find it useful. 😀
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I think what I want to express is that it takes time, a thick skin and perseverance (even to the point where everyone but you thinks you are wasting your time) to get anywhere worth going. Everyone suffers disappointment and rejection but the people who succeed suck it up and go back for more. Basically, just don’t give up if you really want it BUT if you would be happier with a 9-5 job and doing art in your spare time just to please yourself that is absolutely fine too. You have to do what you know in your heart is right for you. If running an art related handmade business is your goal I encourage you to devour anything that our sponsor Renae Christine from Rich Mom Business has to say. She is such a smart cookie and she is giving away a free handmade training course to all of my readers. You can register here. If you have already taken my advice and taken her free course (well done you!) make sure you are also subscribed to her YouTube channel because she keeps everyone up to date in changes to ETSY, new online selling platforms, SEO, and lots of online selling and marketing stuff. She is my online guru and I am proud to call her a friend, or “Bestie” as she would say. 🙂 I love introducing my friends to each other! Thanks so much for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! Another art marketing video for you tonight where I ask the questions: Do you need a mailing list? (Spoiler: yes, you do!)
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I have had a couple of mailing lists in my day. I had a physical (snail mail) mailing list and an email contact list for my art lesson business in the late 90’s. The postal list was really effective for a brick and mortal local business! I had an email list through Your Mailing List Provider for a couple of years to promote my Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff line of graphics but I closed that list down when I switched to selling through MyGrafico plus it was costly for the amount of emails I sent. For my needs now I set up an informal list through TinyLetter, you can sign up for my mailing list here. I mainly wanted that one to announce classes that might happen across the country (or see if there is interest for me to come to a certain area) and to possibly notify people of new videos since YouTube does not notify subscribers like they used to. That is a rant for a different day LOL! Mail chimp is a good solution for a small business too because you can have 2,000 contact and send 12,000 email a month (as in 6 emails to 2000 contacts) before you have to pay. It is the best deal for small business email. the Tiny Letter service I use is free forever but not set up for e-commerce but perfect for me as a content provider to keep in touch with her crafty peeps-that’s you guys! 😉 *I am not affiliated with Mail Chimp or Tiny Letter, I just like them. 🙂
The thing I want you to understand about a mailing list is that it is a direct line to your customers. People might not check your blog often or follow you on social media but if you were to have an art opening or teach a sip-n-paint they would love to come but they have to know about it. A mailing list is NOT an excuse to shamelessly spam people either. It should offer value to them as well as you. Ask yourself “Is this info useful to the people on my list, if so send that email!” If not, they will unsubscribe or ignore it. Choose your emails wisely. This has me thinking…I had been having a hard time getting people to my free library art classes in the past, I would announce them on the library Facebook page, I think we need a library email list! Oh, and I need about 5 more hours in my week too, maybe there’s an app for that LOL! We have just touched the tip of the iceberg with promoting your handmade business with an email list, if you want more help making your handmade business a success (whether you are a painter, jewelry maker or papercrafter) check out Rich Mom Business’ free 3 video course at FreeHandmadeTraining.com, she will tell you what you need to know to go from sagging sales to a thriving business. She is the only career coach that I know of that deals solely with handmade businesses, I’ve taken the course and it is great, don’t miss out because I’m not sure how long it is around for and if you have already taken it and want more she has over 600 free videos on her YouTube channel. I’m subscribed, are you?
One more fun fact, if you are subscribed to my blog via email, that is different then being on my email list. If you reply to one of those emails your reply get’s posted as a comment here on my blog, if you reply to my email list email it goes directly to me, like we are best friends, how cool is that? Thanks so much for reading through this, I know it is a lot of info and not really interesting unless you are a handmade business or blogger like me but I know it can help a lot of folks trying to make an art career happen. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Thanks to RichMomBusiness.com for sponsoring this post!
Hi friends! After I did my last craft fair recap I had several emails from viewers saying that they have customers who seem really interested in their work at their craft fair booths but they leave without making a purchase. This is something I also heard from other vendors at fairs I have been too. I think a lot of crafters and artists have a hard time closing the sale. In today’s video I will talk about making sales and sensing when a customer is ready to buy and also overcoming the invisible considerations that a buyer has when deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
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Overcoming objections: These are the invisible walls between you an a customer. These are ways to dissolve the walls:
Price everything fairly and accurately. Do not discount your wares but you can offer an incentive to purchase like a free pair of earrings with a necklace, or buy three get one free.
Establish yourself as a trusted authority in your field/art medium.
When a customer seems ready to buy ask for the sale “Would you like to take this home today?” of if they are shopping for a gift “What is the price range you are looking for?”
Make it easy to pay by offering to take credit cards or know where an ATM is if you don’t.
Of course this advice is for selling in person. If you prefer to sell online check out our sponsor RichMomBusiness.com, they have a free ETSY webinar coming up this Tuesday called Your First 100 Sales. Renae Christine will teach you EVERYTHING you need to know to start a successful Etsy business. Make sure you sign up because space is limited. I never miss her webinars because she crams so much useful info in them. I use her advice to improve my craft fair and craft booth sales but if you are selling online her tips are even more valuable. I hope you check her out. Thanks so much for stopping by today and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! Tomorrow is the fist day of June and I have already been seeing calls for vendors at local sidewalk festivals, farmer’s markets and community fairs hitting my Facebook wall. If you are considering selling your art work or crafts soon check out tonight’s video where I tell you about the 4 P’s of Marketing!
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All it takes is one of these elements to be off to lose sales. So let’s take a closer look at them:
Product: This is your beautiful artwork. Whether it is a painting, a necklace, cards or purses this is the thing you make. You need to take a good hard look at an item you want to sell and ask yourself “Would anyone want to buy this?” and “Who would want this?” You need to keep that person in mind. Sometimes what you make for yourself because you love it will be different from what you would make to sell, for instance, I love bright colors and bold patterns so that is what I make to keep but what I make to sell will be more on trend and conservative because most people do not dress like me and they might even think that purple, orange and turquoise clash, hard to believe I know.
Price: How much you will charge for an item. Generally it is figured by the cost of raw materials plus overhead (labor and overhead like a % of studio rent and utilities, packaging etc.) plus a profit margin. You are probably thinking “Hey, I am the labor, why do I need a profit on top of that?” Because there may come a time when you need to hire help to fill or package orders and you will need to account for that expense as well. You also need to temper this price by what the market will bear and what other artisans are charging for a similar product so the price you can charge in a ritzy city will be different that what you can get in the country but it is a starting point anyway.
Place: This is where you are selling your goods. Don’t expect to get Upscale prices if you are selling your jewelry at a yard sale (Top tip from RichMomBusiness.com BTW!) Your items need to be sold where the customers will value them. Fun and funky costume jewelry will go well at casual festival while more upscale pieces will sell better in a gallery setting. I have a rented booth in an antiques mall that works great for selling my cards, earrings and watercolors as they make great add-on purchases for items customers buy from other vendors. You might also decide that your local economy is not diverse enough to find enough people who want to buy your wares and selling online might be a better bet for you. BTW, RichMomBusiness has a free ETSY Webinar coming up if you wanted to check it out.
Promotion: This one I save for last but it is equally as important because what is the point of making all the beautiful things to sell if nobody sees them? When you are picking a place see if there is any promotion included. Is the festival advertised? If you are selling in an online multi vendor marketplace does it have built-in traffic? if you are making your own website from scratch how are you going to get people to see it? Now it is so easy to get the word out via social media and ask your friends to share it too expanding your network because it only takes a second to hit the share button. Maybe you will post some flyers on community bulletin boards or offer a coupon for a free trinket to shoppers ahead of time. Don’t skimp here, this is probably the hardest, out of the comfort zone, “P” of them all but it has to be done if your business will be a success.
Now I ask YOU, have you ever tried selling your work? How did the “Ps” fit in. Can you identify any parts of your marketing plan that were off? If you want to make money selling your work I advise that you jump in and try. You will learn more from your failures than your successes so if you compare the cost of a bad craft fair vs. the cost of a business class it was a sweet deal on education! You learn by doing, these tips I share are to get you started so hopefully you can learn from my experience and grow faster. Good luck!
I want to take a moment and thank Renae Christine from RichMomBusiness.com for sponsoring my YouTube videos during the month of May. This gal knows her stuff especially about selling handmade items online. You can check out her FREE 3 handmade training video series here and tell her “Hi!” from me. She can teach you way more about online sales than I ever can and her tips even help me with my brick and mortar sales. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! As promised I am sharing how I did at the higher end craft fair I exhibited at 2 weeks ago.
I had revamped my packaging and edited my booth so it did not look like too much of a hodge-podge. I stuck to my best sellers and left the rest behind. Since I changed my packaging on new products I took all my jewelry in my old packaging and put them in grab bags because in the past grab bags have always sold out.
I made some mistakes (one that const me money and sales!) and learned a few things from other vendors at the show including one question you need to ask before you agree to rent a table.
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EEEK! The Large grab bags are sold out! I still have a few small $5 bags and a few Bow MAking jigs though. Thanks so much for making my day! What a happy email inbox I had today. It you have already ordered you are all set and will receive an invoice for the grab bags you wanted.
So, I have a lot of grab bags left and I really do not want them taking up real estate in my rented booth at The Schoolhouse Antiques Mall since my booth is only 6’x9′ so if anyone want to order them I will give you show pricing: $5 small ($10 value) or $10 large ($20-$50 value.) (Large is sold out, sorry:( )The grab bags have great stuff in them, they are ideal to separate up and give the items inside as gifts, they contain earrings, pendants, bracelets, necklaces, amulets, beaded bookmarks and rings. I grab-bagged them so I would not have to re package them with my new labels and honestly, I get more motivated to create when I have space in my booth! I will even give you free shipping if you are ordering in the United States. If you want to order one or a few of these email me at artstudiosofbangor@yahoo.com and put “grab bag order” in the subject line. Just let me know how many of what size you want and I will send you a PayPal invoice. Also we just made a new batch of Bow Making Jigs and I will throw in a small grab bag with every domestic (USA) order. The bow jigs are $20 plus $6 US shipping via priority mail. *International order are also welcome but I will have to figure postage by weight and location.
I want to thank Volusion for sponsoring this video, thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! I made cute stands for my business cards to match my new craft fair packaging. All you need are dominoes, alcohol ink and hot glue.
Watch the video to see how easy this project is:
I worked on editing some if the footage I took of my booth at the craft fair so I can have a recap for you in a few days. I’m also going to have some giveaways coming up so make sure you check back every day:) Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
