Back in the online game

Once upon a time...
I used to make things and sell them on Ebay. Then I lost my account because of a piece of paper I have yet to send them.
So I waited a few years and then tried Etsy. I had a couple dozen listings at one point in time but sold nothing and so I let the ads expire and waited again.
 I am back in etsy or at least I have a toe in the water. I really struggle with on-line selling.
taking good pictures, making attention grabbing ads, throwing enough search terms in the listing so people will find it...
But getting better at all these things is more likely to get me success in the electronic media market place than just local bazaars and shops.
So I am determined to dedicate time to learning better photography skills, writing good ads, being active in the promotion of my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Alaskanbonesandbeads.
I am also determined to label the things I have for sale so people know me and can contact me. I am determined to put together my Artist page and keep my name easy to find.

Priced to sell

The good thing about selling your crafts is that its an opportunity to perpetuate the cycle of creativity.
The difficult thing though is deciding how to price your work.
Looking around at those who sell similar items through on-line sellers like etsy or Ebay or Facebook groups can give you an idea of what people are asking. But check up and see if they are actually selling those items at that price.
Then decide if you want to join this market or if you want to keep things more local at shops or at bazaars. If this is your path you may need to modify your prices to reflect the local market or mark up put on by shops.

But there is also the formulas you find on other blogs for how to price your work.
Some say you should take your costs and triple them and that is your sale price. But what about if you craft like me with a lot of salvaged and second hand materials. Here is an example:

I recently began making sleep masks. A quick search on-line and I found prices ranged between $6.50 to $25.00 with very little difference between one mask and the other.
When I price things I use a formula that takes into account not just material costs but time spent as well.  But when I craft something I seldom just make one so I end up guestimating how long it takes to make a mask. Instead I try to pay attention to how much time it takes me to get 10 of them done or how many I can do in an hour. (depending on the craft)
In general when I get that figured out, I can take my material costs (as if I was buying stuff new) and add for my time.  I tend to value my time at $18-$22 an hour.
The time that is lost in the process is time spent developing a new design, and time spent on label or package development. In this case I modified the patterns I found to make the masks more comfortable, I also designed a care label to print and attach to all of the masks.
So:
Fabric & elastic cost $1.50
Label printing $.07
Time to make @ 25 minutes at  $18/hour
and I more or less came up with $10 each as being a reasonable cost for these in my area.
At present I only have them in one shop and they do a mork up from my $10.
But if I want to sell them at other shops that want 50% I may not be able to afford to sell them in those outlets.
As far as on-line marketing goes I am sure my price makes them very competitive.

Serious business

I have had the opportunity to watch some folks I know wade ever deeper into the business of creativity. 

One friend, Lizzie Newell is a writer. She explores a world with its own sexual and environmental situations. But in addition to the pure writing there is the whole editing and marketing process.
She is blessed with the talent to design book covers for herself and a few others, but the effort she takes to understand self publishing, because her stories do not fit into a neatly defined mass market box that publishers push on unsuspecting readers is amazing. There are places for independent sellers and small scale publishers to get their product made and on the shelves, but it takes a lot of hustle.

Other friends have opened businesses as the outlet for their creative endeavors. Happily Carol at the Screaming Weasel in North Pole has recruited other artists (including me) to sustain and diversify her inventory.

I have also seen the efforts of other artists who network continually to get shows and their name out to galleries and businesses to hang their work for first Friday art walks or in pop up shops. or marketing through Facebook groups, Etsy, Ebay, Craig's list, and their own websites.

I find myself wondering if I would ever really have the energy and drive it takes to follow any similar paths. Because as many hours as they spend marketing their work they still find time to create new works for the public to enjoy and desire and buy. 

And more than anything I would need the confidence in what I produce to market at the intensity that I would need to to make it pay me.

finding like minded people. Communities within communities

Finding people who like what you like or do what you do can be difficult if you get too narrow in your focus. Some of you maybe asking why you should care about the support of other people doing similar things in your area. There are a myriad of reasons.
Competition: if you are showing or selling your work it is good to know you else is competing for the attention and the money. 
Cooperation: you can share tips about where to find supplies, how to market and how to avoid having side by side booths at the county fair.
Support: its good to know other people have the same thought processes and they may have experienced many of the same hurdles you have. 
Introduction: you can share information about other people in you local crafting community.

So how do you find these like minded people?
Networking. 
Be social when you are at vendor venues. Talk to the customers, but also the other vendors.  When you are not a vendor at a venue go and look around and introduce yourself. Almost everybody appreciates making more connections to people.

Have a card. Having business cards (even if you are not a business) means people can invite you to events you do not hear about through the usual channels. Hand them out and make sure you have an email address that people can use. if you have a webpage or FB page let people know. You do not need to have a physical/mailing address or phone number on the card. But and image and a few words that describe what you do is a great idea. 

Pick up cards too. This gives you a way to start looking at how other artists are marketing themselves. Maybe this can lead to a discussion or the discovery of a class about marketing for the artist. 

Have an on-line presence. You do not need an extravagant webpage to grab people's attention and Facebook is only one facet you should consider when developing your on-line space. Be careful though not to let the on-line pages become your focus instead of your art. Static pages that are rather like a super version of your business card but that do not need constant updating, unless you want to add to your gallery is a good plan. Make sure your business card and your fb page direct people to you webpage as well. On-line markets are also important to connect to all your other on-line media.

Go to events. The more you are seen the more you are known. Marketing at local craft bazaars and shops works great when possible buyers can meet the artist. Gallery walks and such get you known in your own communities.

We should not be afraid to make connections. We should not fear that what we do will lose the mystery or the magic because we are in touch with our communities. Reach out and find more reasons to make connections.