First of all let me say that I find being a stay at home mum the most rewarding job but that doesn't mean that I don't miss contributing to our household income, there is something extremely satisfying about bringing in your own money. I have spent the last 6 months looking into various ways that I can use my creativity to try and bring in a little extra cash. This is not going to make you mega bucks - I've only covered some of my material costs (I spend a lot on materials - I'm addicted!) but every little helps. First of all I will mention a couple of routes I have gone down over that last two years that did not work for me.
I make no money from blogging
I read many blogs that have tips on how to increase your reader numbers exponentially in order to profit from your blog but it takes a lot of hard work and time. You may have noticed from this blog that I am no regular blogger, I want to create quality content and I just don't have the time to do this on a regular basis and take my son to playgroups, do housework etc. I could forgo sleep, but I need my sleep!
I make no money from Etsy
I have had 2 Etsy shops over the last 3 - 4 years, my first etsy shop was before my son was born when I had a lot more time to put into marketing. I sold 4 items. I opened my second shop since my son was born and put into practice all of the things I had learned from my first shop and managed to sell 2 items. I am currently winding down my Etsy shop as I am spending more on listing items than I have made in sales and that's without taking the cost of my materials into consideration. I think Etsy is such a big animal now it's hard to stand out, again unless you have a lot of time to spend on marketing yourself.
Now here is what has worked for me!
Guide Central
I first found out about Guide Central when they invited me to a breakfast in Dublin where a few of us makers could share some of our skills with other crafty like minded people. Unfortunately by then I had moved back to the UK from Ireland where Guide Central is based so I couldn't attend. I did however go on to the Guide Central website to see what the site was all about. If you apply to their maker program and are accepted they pay you $7 for every guide they publish. On top of this, for every like you get on a guide they pay you 5c, so if your guide is popular you can make even more money from it. Creating these guides has also given me the base for a lot more DIY tutorials on my blog. Guide Central is still quite new and I am sure they have plans to develop it further. So, if you are always making things - take some photos of the steps and apply to the maker program and at least you can make a bit of money out of your project even if you don't sell it. Here is my guide central profile if you want to investigate further or even follow me!
Craft Fairs
This is where I have made most of my money this year and I only attended one fair before Christmas. I dropped my prices substantially from what I was charging on Etsy as I knew I didn't have to deal with fees and shipping and I had a lot of stock I wanted to shift. I had done fairs before and sold nothing so I was surprised at how much I sold. It was an event with lots of local mums a month before Christmas. It was also a good way to get word out there to other mums that I make jewellery as I am not very good at selling myself!
Encourage Commissions
I made it clear at the craft fair that I would be happy to make items on request. I had requests from a few people to make make a necklace to go with a pair of earrings, or a piece in a particular colour. Sets are something I think I will develop further as this is a popular gift option and you can charge a higher price point. I made about 50% of what I made at the craft fair on additional commissions after the event.
So, these are my ways of making a bit of extra cash using my hobby, I am always looking for new options and have just listed a couple of items on handmake me so I may report back on that once I have been listed on the site for a few months. Do you have any other tips that have worked for you? I'd love to hear about them! Happy Crafting.
So, these are my ways of making a bit of extra cash using my hobby, I am always looking for new options and have just listed a couple of items on handmake me so I may report back on that once I have been listed on the site for a few months. Do you have any other tips that have worked for you? I'd love to hear about them! Happy Crafting.
