I'm back with another business-themed post! I wanted to kind of post about my journey as it's happening. Honestly, it's not that exciting. I'm not making a ton of money each month or growing wildly with leaps and bounds. But I think it's a slow process, especially for someone in the handmade business. I'm trying to find my niche, figure out what sells and what people like, and how to best market what I do.
Where I Want To Be:
In the next few months, I'm hoping to grow my blog traffic by a few hundred views (aim small, miss small, right? The Patriot? Anyone?). I love offering tutorials and DIYs and updates about my shop. To market these, I've been using Craftgawker, Pinterest, and Instagram. All three are highly visual websites and apps, and if you have great photos and a good eye for styling, they can be really beneficial.
Goals:
- Buy a new blog template for a more streamlined and clean-cut site
- Research marketing and small business tactics
- Engage with other small handmade businesses to share experience and tactics
- Research SEO and how to make it work for my shop
- Continue to market tutorials
What's Helping:
All of the above, actually. Instagram has helped a lot with building a following. And if you can get a photo accepted by the critics over at CraftGawker, a lot of traffic comes from there as well.
Future Goals:
I would also like to start selling more items from my shop, but I think I still need to figure out what my niche is. Generally, it's handmade items, but I'm not sure if I need to choose one particular product or if it's okay to keep a diverse shop. Personally I love the diversity - I love making different kinds of items using different crafts and techniques, and I love the colorful look of it. But I'm really not doing very well with sales, so I'm hoping to work on that more and figure out what I need to do.
Hope you enjoyed this little business update!
good luck. I've found my niche and what I mean by that is I've found what I enjoy. And I really could care less if it makes money. What I care about is enjoying what I do, communicating and making friends and of course learning more about knitting and crochet and spreading my love of God through that. Since you've been talking about crafting so much I've noticed a huge decrease in spiritual posts from you, and to be honest the first reason I started following you and was interested in your tutorials was that you talked actively about being a christian. And thats fine, but I noticed you were heading in a different direction! I still love your blog and read every post.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the convicting words from you, Carolynn. I've been trying to offer more tutorials to teach others how to craft, and honestly that does come from a desire to spread God's love through the handmade. I just haven't known how to voice it or incorporate that as much. I think it's a good thing to be a good steward of the skills and gifts God has given me, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to make more of a living through it. However if that doesn't happen, I still greatly love what I do and have been loving getting to know more people on here. Have you checked out One Sheepish Girl? She's a Christian as well, but doesn't talk about her faith in every single post. :) I really admire her work and where she's going with her creativity. Don't worry, I'm still actively seeking the Lord and growing in Him. Again, I appreciate the honest words. Hope you have a wonderful day :)
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