Advice for raising money through creative pursuits?

NervousHomeowner

Patchwork_Girl wrote: »

I've paid for ebook covers - I used people I found through Elance so that might be worth checking out too.

Thanks for the suggestion!

ElphabaThropp

I sell on Etsy, personally I find Folksy a waste of time as the search function is so dire you'll only get buyers you've directed there yourself, better to direct buyers to your own site so you don't pay the fees! You'll get a grip of postage pretty quick, if most of the things you are selling are a similar size/weight it is straightforward.

My biggest tip is you have to treat it like a business, too many people when taking their hobbies to the next level still treat them as hobbies and wonder why they don't make any money. You have to know what your costs and margins are exactly to ensure your profits are worthwhile. There are lots of sites offering advice on how to price your work.

Good luck!

NervousHomeowner

ElphabaThropp wrote: »

I sell on Etsy, personally I find Folksy a waste of time as the search function is so dire you'll only get buyers you've directed there yourself, better to direct buyers to your own site so you don't pay the fees! You'll get a grip of postage pretty quick, if most of the things you are selling are a similar size/weight it is straightforward.

My biggest tip is you have to treat it like a business, too many people when taking their hobbies to the next level still treat them as hobbies and wonder why they don't make any money. You have to know what your costs and margins are exactly to ensure your profits are worthwhile. There are lots of sites offering advice on how to price your work.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice! I think the other thing I worry about is that Etsy is so big, I'll pay to list my stuff but because I'm not well known nothing will sell and it'll be a waste of money/time. I guess there's only one way to find out, though

Thanks for the advice of treating it like a business! I do tend to treat it that way as it isn't a hobby but my career. I do some freelance work currently (Just not enough! ) so I'm fairly knowledgable when it comes to pricing/legal stuff on that front and I have a fairly good idea of how to work out margins etc. as various members of my family have done similar work in the past. The thing I am worried about at the mo is making/ordering stuff only for it to not sell and then being stuck with the surpluss.

ElphabaThropp

What I like about etsy is you can get together with others to help promote each other. That helps your visibility. You can also run promotions where you pay a little extra and it puts your items higher in the search listings, you can set how long you want the promotion to last and how much you're willing to spend.

When I first got my shop ready to go I paid 7 dollars and had my items promoted for a week, I got lots of sales and they've remained steady since.

I'd say start small but rather than having 7 of 1 item I'd have 1 each of 7 things, then you can see what sells and add to your stock slowly.

If you're good at digital art and can create digital collage sheets they're very popular and you don't need to worry about stock, postage etc. You just email the pdf to the buyer, just make sure your terms of use are clear.

RockPaperScissors

I got a bit of work on logos/branding from here before http://needdesigners.com/

Does require some actual idea work before you even get picked though. Also looks like they are redoing the site at the mo, but might be worth a check back at some point :-)

NervousHomeowner

ElphabaThropp wrote: »

What I like about etsy is you can get together with others to help promote each other. That helps your visibility. You can also run promotions where you pay a little extra and it puts your items higher in the search listings, you can set how long you want the promotion to last and how much you're willing to spend.

When I first got my shop ready to go I paid 7 dollars and had my items promoted for a week, I got lots of sales and they've remained steady since.

I'd say start small but rather than having 7 of 1 item I'd have 1 each of 7 things, then you can see what sells and add to your stock slowly.

If you're good at digital art and can create digital collage sheets they're very popular and you don't need to worry about stock, postage etc. You just email the pdf to the buyer, just make sure your terms of use are clear.

Thanks again for the advice! Very helpful, especially regarding the promotions. I think that is definitely something I'd want to do when I get some stuff up. I also really appreciated the advice about putting 1 of a number of things up for sale, so you can see something that will sell!

I do indeed do digital work, but I have no idea what a digital collage sheet is! Had a google but can't for the life of me understand what the point of them is :rotfl: Are they used as desktop backgrounds etc.? I don't mind sending PDFs but of course there is the typical worry about terms of use and with it being the internet, you have very little idea of what people do with your work afterwards. Definitely seems like a potential idea though, if they are selling well currently!

RockPaperScissors wrote: »

I got a bit of work on logos/branding from here before http://needdesigners.com/

Does require some actual idea work before you even get picked though. Also looks like they are redoing the site at the mo, but might be worth a check back at some point :-)

Thanks for the link! I'm not too fussed about putting together a proposal or something first, I think that's fair enough It is just the projects where people are expected to create finished pieces without being paid that bother me!

emosprint

If you would like to consider a long-time project, I think you should create a infographic website. You design infographic pictures and attract people to come to your website by your ways. Gradually, you can get income from advertisement depending on your website traffic. Also, the website is the way you show your talents, skills that makes some customers would like you to work on their projects (freelance jobs).

lindens

NervousHomeowner wrote: »

I'd heard of Etsy but never Folksy so thank you! Just had a look and it does look like my stuff would fit in there and it's UK based so a huge plus! I have an etsy account but I'm a bit apprehensive about it because it's international & I'm unsure about postage etc.

On Etsy you can limit your postage area to whatever you want, so if you dont want to post internationally - then dont! just quote for Uk prices.

ElphabaThropp

A collage sheet is a printable page for crafting. For example a paper design or journalling card that can be printed at home to use in scrapbooking or paper craft. Another popular type is small pictures to fit into cameo settings which can be overlain with glass or resin for jewellery. Most cameos come in a standard range of sizes so once you have the image I imagine it would be straightforward to adjust to provide different variations.

Search collage sheets on etsy for lots of ideas and to see what is popular.

Most common terms of use is that it is for personal use and use for resale in a finished physical product but not one sold on cafe press/zazzle etc. So greetings cards or jewellery pieces are OK. You can read the different sellers terms on Etsy to get an idea. A lot of stores have instant digital download so you don't need to worry about emailing them yourself, just set it up, respond to queries and collect the cash .