Hiya friends 
This is for anyone who makes an income from crocheting. I’d really like to make an income and start a business, there’s just so much joy crocheting brings me. Any advice, tips, or anything at all I’m very open!!
I was wondering about what platforms are better?
Also if you have your own shop, do you sell patterns, makes, svg files?
If your selling patterns this website and ravelry are better money wise! Etsy is better for selling crochet items! Hope this helps!
Yes that actually does help a lot!!
I sell mostly on Etsy.
Actually I sell consistent each week on Etsy. It’s all about knowing how to write titles and tags that get you seen by the right people.
If you don’t mind, patterns or makes? Or files? I’ve been debating on making an Etsy but I feel like it’s too early for me
I say that for how much you have to pay etsy compared to ravelry and i did some research of my own for my own shop and ravelry has you pay less and makes the same amont of sells on etsy! It was just from personal research!
I have Ravelry too but don’t get any sales there but maybe every few months if I’m lucky.
All my Etsy is pdf patterns.
Would you mind if I messaged you more about it?
I haven’t’t yet decided if I’ll be including crochet in a full business yet, but I do have creative business experience. A few tips I’ve picked up along the way:
Downloadable products will almost always offer the best return simply because production time/costs remain the same regardless of how many sales are made.
Having a three-five year business plan in place before you launch can be incredibly valuable. A good plan has saved me from folding more than once, and the outlines of a good plan are only a Google away.
Knowing your customer is probably the most important factor in growing a successful business. The customers you’ll have here will not be the same customers you’ll have on Etsy, nor will they be the same customers you’ll have at markets, or on Facebook, or… Have a good picture in your mind (or even on a vision board) of the type of customer that might be attracted to each product and then tailor your marketing/place of sale to that customer.
NOTE: THIS INCLUDES PRICE! I don’t know a single successful artist that sells their work for the same price at every gallery they’re invited to. If you’re selling, for example, cashmere baby blankets with complicated stitchwork, an overpriced product may actually sell better than a reasonably priced one. Similarly, you may want to offer more complicated patterns at a lower price than some simple patterns when selling on a marketplace that includes experienced crocheters (like Ribblr) - newbies rely on patterns more than experts.
Yes right now I feel like listing fees for me make a slight difference, but I also am looking for more organic audiences. I definitely need to sit down and also get as much feedback as I can!
This is so informative!! Thank you so much!! I have a certificate from meta for social media marketing so I know a little bit about the targeting audience, but I did not even think that even across the platforms they will all fluctuate. For makes it is easier for me to price as I created my own pricing tool in Notion. Patterns, I’m still not really sure where to price!
I’m pretty new to pattern selling, so no wisdom here, but I’m currently basing my prices on how long the buyer will be using it per piece. So, if they’ll likely be looking at the pattern once or twice just to make sure they’re on track I’ll be offering it on the low end. Conversely, a pattern that will likely be followed very closely will be offered on the higher end.
I also don’t ever see offering a single pattern for more than $10, with the vast majority under $5.
Thank you so much for the insight!! It really has helped me and I’m writing all these down to help
