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Promoting Your Craft

Attracting Buyers

Dear Friend,

Could you direct me to someone who can help me market an idea with a new "Latch hook" technique?

I have a background in art and machine knitting and can adapt art to fabric with this technique.

I had a demo in a local AC Moore and have seen this as "NEW" 2 yrs. later.

I cannot seem to get anyone else's attention. PLEASE HELP!!

Donna

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You say you have a new technique for this. Techniques are difficult – but not impossible – to market.

You don't have anything tangible to sell. You could give classes and more demos, but once you have taught the technique, the people you taught can use it without restriction and even teach others.

If the technique is well-received, you could find yourself in demand to teach courses, give demos, even give rug-hooking parties.

However, based on your experience, the rug hookers of the world are not going to beat a path to your door. You will need to self-promote – a lot! – to get your idea out there and/or look for other income streams to complement your technique.

Here is an article (aimed at Baby Boomers – sorry if you don't fit that description!) that describes many options for turning your ideas into a profitable business.

One of your best bets would be to self-publish an e-book, a computer program or instructional DVD, depending on which fits your needs better.

If you stick with a purely digital product - something that is delivered electronically - you can use a service called Clickbank to promote your product. You pay a 50% commission and sites that specialize in hooking will try to sell it for you.

Don't worry if you don't know how to do any of this. You can hire professionals on services such as Elance who will do the work for you. Read Self Publishing for more information.

If you are using a standard latch hook, you could contact the manufacturer. They might be interested in promoting a new technique that would help them sell more rug hooking supplies.

You could submit how-to articles to needlecraft magazines and crafting websites.

You could launch a website, as we have done.

Notice that we don't sell many of my own products (just a few of my original patterns). We give advice, teach techniques, help crafters solve technical problems or find supplies.

We have advertisers like a magazine and Google ads which we allow to be placed on our pages. See what I mean about other income streams?

Before you start down any of these paths, try to identify which one(s) will allow you to do the part of your art which you really enjoy. Make that the base of your business.

For example, in my case, I love crafting itself and am very eclectic. So I've done many types.

I had a moderately successful local craft business and sold at craft fairs and in a couple of galleries.

I didn't really enjoy direct selling (like at craft fairs), but was being pulled more and more in that direction. I decided what I really wanted to do was continue crafting; develop my own art; and share my knowledge and expertise with others. How could I do that???

The Artful Crafter was the answer. I love helping other artists get started in business or perfect their techniques. If you could use more advice as you narrow your focus and decide which path to go down, please write again.

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