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Craft Marketing- It's Still Marketing: How to Start Your Online Craft
Biz
by Chris Malta & Robin Cowie
Published on this site: September 13th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
You love craft-making, and you're good at it-everybody tells you that
you should start your own business. After all, eBay alone sold over $38
million in crafts and craft supplies in 2003, and those sales have been
climbing at a rate of about 60% each year! Why shouldn't you have a piece
of that pie? James Dilehay of craftmarketer.com will tell you that to
build a successful craft eBiz, you'll need more than just your art-you'll
need marketing skills and a game plan.
Do Your Art Homework: a 3-Part Assignment
If you're contemplating turning your hobby into a serious e-business,
Dilehay advises, "The first thing I would do is do some research."
It's important to know if there's any interest in your product.
You need to educate yourself about your market:
- Use a keyword research tool, such as http://WordTracker.com.
You can type in your idea or concept and get a feel for the supply and
demand that's there. You can see how many people are searching for your
kind of craft, how many competitors you have, etc. The Market Research
Wizard, available at http://WorldWideBrands.com,
is another great tool for tracking product demand. If you plan to sell
on eBay, they have a tool called Terapeak that gives you sales data
on your product-type: what's listed, what sold, what didn't sell.
- Look at the cost of making or getting your craft item before putting
it on your webstore.
Add up your cost of goods, your cost of labor-all costs involved directly
or indirectly-your website fees, your shipping costs, etc. If the amount
you need to break even is less than the average market price of your
item, the difference is your profit. If the amount you need to recover
is greater than the market value, consider other items or look for ways
to lower your costs.
- Locate product sources to fill your needs.
For craft supplies, try browsing the mixed lots in eBay's wholesale
category. Take a look at http://Andale.com
for a list of suppliers you can draw from. If you are buying finished
products for resale, you might check out http://craftmarketer.com/aid.htm
for a list of agencies that help third-world craft artists sell their
products in the U.S. Or try http://wholesalecrafts.com,
a webstore for craft artists who vend to retailers.
Consider all Your Options
There's another option besides making or buying your crafts, and that
is affiliate marketing. Dilehay defines affiliating yourself as "putting
out information for another company and directing people to their website,
and if they make the sale, then you get the commission." http://Guild.com
represents a lot of craftspeople and has an affiliate program you
can check into. And you can affiliate yourself with craft-related sites
that are already doing well. The difference with affiliate marketing is
that you spend more time driving traffic and less time managing inventory
or dealing with customer service.
Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com are the
Writers and Hosts of the Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and Product Sourcing
Radio Shows. http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo
for more free eBiz info from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!
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