Crafts That Make Money
Wondering what kind of DIY crafts you can make to pull in some extra money this year?
It’s becoming more and more common these days for people to be starting a side hustle, and many are turning to their creative side for the solution.
I've been getting a lot of questions about crafts that make money vs crafts that don't, but I don't think that's the question that people should be asking necessarily.
I wouldn’t say that there are specifically “crafts that make money”, or "crafts that don't make money", (industries, some are better than others, yes), but more importantly it’s about the quality, execution, and the positioning of that craft that will make it more appealing to your customer, therefore making it easier to sell, and in turn earning you more money.
For every shop selling candles that is succeeding, I can show you 5 more that are utterly failing. There’s a lot more to selling online successfully than just picking the right craft to sell.
Fortunately, it will just takes a little imagination and research to get you moving in the right direction!
In this post I’m going to help you start thinking differently about your craft business, what crafts you should be selling, and how you should be presenting them to your ideal customer so that you can be selling one of those 'crafts that make money' :)
Let's jump in.
I'm going to already assume that you have some general idea of what you want to sell. If you're still figuring out this step then go take a look at these posts below before you read this one!
Still with me? Great.
I'm going to help explain the concept of ‘positioning’ by showing you a few examples of similar crafts with completely different positioning (and some that just skipped it) so you can see what a huge difference this will make to the potential customer that arrives at your shop.
Positioning is just a fancy word that means the place where your product falls in the market in comparison to other similar products. You can ‘position’ your product to stand out to a specific type of customer (therefore making it more appealing to them to buy). #veryimportant
Learning this simple concept should help you understand why choosing the right craft to sell is only a small piece of what you need to sell crafts successfully online. If you really want to have a craft that makes money you shouldn’t skip this part.
Crafts that make money
The first thing you might want to consider is to pick a handmade item that is in an industry in which people love to spend money.
This will increase the chance of you making online sales.
Some of these areas include:
Weddings
Pets
Kids/Babies
Jewelry
Art
Home Decor
Holiday
Pick a craft that falls into any of these areas and you’ll instantly make selling a little easier for yourself!
How to Sell Crafts Online
Let’s get into the examples (because I know you’re a visual learner ;))
Here are a few examples of what I found when I went over to Etsy and I typed in “soy candle”.
Candle 1:
This company makes soy candles. But this is not just any handmade candle, this is a personalized soy candle.
It’s also a perfect gift…not because it’s a candle, but because it’s a giftable personalized candle. The packaging is also beautiful and simple.
Imagine Brianna opening this gift after having a super rough month. Rebecca knew she was struggling and wrote her a sweet note that she can now look at and think about every time she lights this soy candle.
This gift now holds a lot more meaning because it’s been personalized for Brianna.
This company has done a great job positioning their products as meaningful gifts by adding unique personalization features, as well as offering top notch packaging…making it easy for customers to email over a quick message and then have a great gift delivered asap.
Crafts that make the most money will be the crafts that are positioned to solve a problem that your customer needs .
Here’s another one of their products -
Can you see how they are making it extremely easy to make you look like the best gift giver ever…and who doesn’t want that??
Hopefully you can see how powerful this can be in helping you stand out among all the other soy candle listings out there.
Now let’s look at another example:
Candle 2:
This company has very cleverly positioned their soy candles towards book lovers specifically! It might seem a little random, but with one quick look at their profile, you can see that they are doing extremely well.
There might have been some research involved, or they might have had a hunch that this would be a popular niche..either way, it’s panning out!
Take a look at how clearly their niche and tag line are stated in their shop description. When you arrive to this shop you know immediately who this product is for - or who you can gift it to! (tell me you didn’t just think of 3 people who would love this).
This specific niche and positioning makes them stand out like crazy, and it’s working. They have also aligned their packaging to go along with it as you can see below -
You can see why this shop is doing so well.
Again, they are also just selling soy candles…just like the first shop.
Now let’s take a look at a third shop that sells essentially the same exact product, but who did not clearly position or execute their products as well as the other two craft shops -
Candle 3:
Unfortunately, this shop didn't really position their product, or their business. Which sadly is the case for SO many online craft shops.
There is nothing unique about this shop that tells us who these candles are for…in fact, their product descriptions list out a large number of end uses for them:
“These super cute 2oz scented candles are perfect for a table setting or anywhere in the house. Also perfect for weddings, bridesmaid gifts boxes, Chrismas gifts, employee apprectiation, thank you gift, or any other idea you may have!”
Without even realizing it, the shop owner has made their product and their shop easy to forget, because there is nothing unique or memorable about it.
There are over 7k listings on Etsy for “vanilla lavender soy candle” and this listing is getting completely buried without a way to stand out.
Another problem here is that their craft product photos are blurry, which really doesn’t help things.
Their price point is also extremely low which will lead a lot of people to think that that it’s cheap because it's a crappy product, and they have other very random products being sold in the store like macrame keychains and stickers (?).
It’s all very scattered and amateur.
There IS a lot of room for improvement here but this shop could easily make a comeback just by getting a little more specific with what they are selling, deciding WHO they are selling it to, and positioning their products towards their ideal customer.
So that is how you position a product so that you can increase sales, stand out online (esp. in sites like Etsy), and in general, just sell more.
I hope that you’re now a little more clear on why there is a whole lot more to finding what crafts make the most money beyond just picking what craft to sell.
Positioning was always a little confusing to me, especially when I first learned about it, so don’t worry if you need a little time to wrap your head around it.
With a little brainstorming and research, you’ll be able to successfully position your products to make some serious online income too!
Did you learn something new today? Let me know in the comments below.
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