Struggling to Promote Your Handmade Business? Maybe THIS is Why
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- If you are struggling to promote and grow your handmade business it could be because you're applying strategies that simply weren't made for you. As handmade sellers, our businesses are creative and so what works for us, often looks very different to the common advice we see online.
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EDIT: Since this video was published, Made In The Moment has since come out as non-binary and uses the pronouns, they/them. My apologies for misgendering. The name of their channel is currently the same. Everything else I said still stands, their channel is fab and well worth a watch and subscribe. Happy pride month you gorgeous lot and remember, be nice or get in the bin. 😁🌈
As I’m sitting here, working at my kitchen table, looking around, “Can she see me?”
Maaaaybe. 😁
I'm the granny who's been knitting for 60+ years 😉 wish we were in the same neighborhood but happy we're in the online community ❤🧶❤
Thank you so much for mentioning that there are people who love and appreciate the handmade for the time and skills it takes. I have met quite a few at craft shows and I can tell you that they are out there!! Everybody : don’t give up! 😊 And supporters: THANK YOU 🙏
I once used POD to design mugs as Christmas presents for my DnD chums. It had a dice design covered in swirly ribbons, each ribbon had the name of a character in our party. They loved it.
I bet they did! I had wanted to knit socks for my group, but I think that was probably a bit too ambitious. Plus, I don't even know if my character will live long enough to see Christmas. The dice have not been kind to me lately. 😄
"Said with love, light, and sparkles" ❤
Don't forget the dollop of sarcasm! 😁
@@KimBliss I won't. It was perfection.
I've very recently had a eureka moment with my marketing. Historically nothing works for me. Social media is an endless oversubscribed doom scroll which I loathe, and my business channel is not for potential customers. But I've just had an uptick in my sales on my Shopify store and I've realised it's because I have been advertising and talking about it, inadvertently, on my personal RUclips channel which is a frugal lifestyle/day in the life channel. That is where community is for me and for many of my subscribers. And apparently this is where my customer base is too. Of course, it seems obvious, but my non marketing brain just hadn't worked it out until now. :) I think that the only people who say handmade is dead, are the people who don't buy handmade, or tried it and weren't an overnight success.
This is fantastic! Aw I'm so glad you've found it and you know I love RUclips for community. I just wish I had more time for my own handmade channel.. I must get back to that.
I'm a kitchen table queen. Design, making, photography and packing it all happens there. Your videos are always entertaining and informative. Slow is my speed, which is handy.
"..kitchen table queen", I love this! 😄
Funnily enough, I was thinking about something you said in this video just today - that the people who like handmade often have links to the handmade and crafting community. I agree! Looking back at the people who have bought my handmade stuff over the years, they were - and are - creative people. I started a Substack this week. I like to write so I'm hoping it might be more community-like than anything Facebook, Insta, etc can offer.
Ooh that's a fantastic idea. Meta platforms seem to be unravelling at the moment. I find myself wanting to be on Instagram less and less and it used to be my social media platform of choice.
I agree totally with your POD stance. It has a place. The design can still be created by a person. But it should be a different category than handmade. I have purchased both-on purpose.
This.☝️
I have a FB group for my community, I talk about my experiences and share relevant articles, quotes, memes etc. It created friendships, and many repeat customers. I very rarely did videos, and I'm an introvert, but I enjoyed being there, which makes a difference. I've even had continuing repeat customers despite not doing anything with it now for over a year (life is crap right now).
I'm so glad you've found your community and thanks for sharing this. It just shows that you can find it anywhere online that you can talk to people on. I hope life gets less crap real soon. 💚x
Love light and sparkles needs to be a mug!
Also, many years ago
i read an article by Etsy about how to have a successful shop, and it highlighted a woman who had turned herself into her own factory worker making scores of the same thing all day every day. I thought, well, that's not what I want so maybe this Etsy thing isn't for me.
Thanks for giving me something to look forward to on Mondays!
Exactly! This is what happens when we take advice from people who don't have the first clue about how running a handmade business is different to other businesses. And let's be honest, Etsy is run by people like that.
Thank you! This was perfectly timed. My business has always been a hobby business although I've dreamed of it supporting me in a much more lavish lifestyle than I currently have. The problem with that dream is that I'm too lazy/not willing to put in the effort to earn lavish lifestyle amounts of money. I've recently retired from my "real" job and here in the US, upon retirement, you are only allowed to have a certain (pretty low) amount of additional income. I have spent the past couple of months being excited about the opportunity to spend so more time on my business while also feeling like a failure because my business will never be able to grow enough to earn thousands a week, all while trying to ignore/hide the fact that in all honesty, I have zero desire to work hard enough to earn thousands a week. This video made me realize why I've been feeling so frustrated/anxious/irritated/ guilty/hopeless/overwhelmed... almost since the day I started my business. Between this video and retirement, I've been given permission to chill out and ignore all the 'hustle' advice. I can't express the weight that has been lifted since watching this. Thank you!!
The idea that you should spend your life working towards retirement, then once you retire, continue to hustle to make more, more, more, blows my mind. You've earned your retirement! If you can't give yourself a permission slip to drop down a gear and enjoy life without the grind when you're retired, when can you? 😄
Well done for allowing yourself to enjoy it more instead of feeling the need to continue the hustle. Life is too bloody short. 💚
Digital/print on demand has taken over Etsy and ruined it. I'm not afraid to say it, I've been there long enough to witness it happening.
*Pushes my POD mug out of shot*
@@KimBliss😂
I enjoyed listening to you, great video! I am currently trying out some stuff and learning about selling my art too, and it's a bit difficult since my art is entirely made by me, but it's all 3D Printed. I have the feeling that lots of people wouldn't like the label "handmade" put on 3D Prints for different reasons (either they believe the computer generates everything for you, which is not true at all, or because a machine is making the physical shapes out of plastic), but let's see
Thank you for this ❤ I’ve been going back and forth making content for my business. Because I am insecure, I am not confident, I’m scared of criticisms and harsh comments. But I love love watching makers who make videos and get themselves infront of people. I am my own community.
I can relate to all of this, but remember you don't need to put yourself in front of the camera if you don't feel comfortable with that.
Maybe ask yourself what would it look like to make content for you, and not for other people? If you just made a post that you liked, regardless of what that looked like?
Then, if you gave it a go and found that it just wasn't for you, you'll have learned something and that's perfectly ok and valid too. 💚
@@KimBlissYou’re right! Trying wouldn’t hurt! Thank you!
I think you are my new "best friend" - lol. My partner and I have a small, VERY niche handmade business - one that relies on the sense of community and shared hobby to succeed. So many things I kept yelling out YES! to. Thank you for this. I shared it with my friends who are also in the same small handmade niche as us.
Aw! I'm chuffed it resonated, and thanks for watching it and taking a moment to say this. Very much appreciated. 😁💚
As usual…totally and utterly delightful… Informative and slightly sarcastic. My cup of tea. Thank you, and have a wonderful day. ❤
BTW…You know, we all love you.… Don’t you?
Aw Susan thank you. 💚💚💚
Designers and artists should be able to put their work out and pod is great for that! As someone who designs and 3D prints his products I 100% agree with the hand made category idea, even though I wouldn’t expect it to include me, even though I do produce my products entirely on my own.
I dunno, aren't 3-D printed products handmade? Yes, a machine is used in the process, but I don't think that's any different to me using a sewing machine to stitch up my project bags. If your hands are involved in the physical making of the product, in my mind at least, it counts as handmade. 😊
@@KimBliss definitely more so than a POD product! 😅 every detail is designed by me and I’m the one producing the products at least!
What a great video! Your videos have really helped me on my newbie path to making content and hopefully one day, selling my new work I'll be 62 soon and am a lapsed professional artist but have become so isolated due to my husband's serious illness. I morphed into a caregiver and that has taken most of my time and energy (a labor of love!) and I don't really have a community any more. Trying to rebuild one at my age will be a challenge. Anyway, I really appreciate your videos.
This is very kind of you to say and I hope you find your community. You're certainly welcome here. Caregivers are heroes without capes and I applaud you for making time for creating and art again. 🎨 💚
@@KimBliss Thank you. 🙂
For me, as far as social media goes, Facebook is for my family, Twitter (Xwitter?) is for my friends, but Instagram is for my TRIBE. That's where I can connect with all the fiber loving crochetists, knitters, spinners, dyers, weavers, shepards and that is truly where I feel happiest. Like you, I appreciate art in all of it's forms, whether it's a handthrown stoneware mug or a beautiful skein of hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester wool. It's where all the threadheads hang out! Love and hugs, always.
I've never heard the term "threadheads" before and I love it! And this is so true, it's what has kept me on the platform and even the group of people I play D&D with are folks I met via IG through the community there. 💚
@@KimBliss I first heard the term spoken by Corinna on her Just Vintage Crochet channel. I'm not sure if she coined it or just popularized it, but I love it, too!
I work at my kitchen table too! 😊
I appreciate your videos so much. Sometimes I re-watch while I'm sewing just to have the company! Thank you so much. It's all been encouraging.
Oof. Your comment is exactly the sort of thing I referred to in the video. It came just at the right moment. Thank you. 💚
It's brilliant to feel like we have an ally on youtube. There are way too many hustle culture gurus on youtube who devalue artistic creation. "Art is just something to slap on a product and we need to make it as quickly and cheaply as possible".
I think these people must have zero passion in life, or they'd know that handmaking a thing is satisfying af
Yes, timely comments save a creator's day. So very true. Thank you for keeping us company while we make handmade items. You rock. 🥰
And thank you for keeping me company right back. 😊💚
I want to thank you for your podcast and your channel. I stumbled across it a while ago now when I was contemplating getting Etsy in your channel happened to pop up and every week, your information is both inspiring and motivational. There are days when I go out to my shop and I do get a little discouraged and I do wonder why I do what I do and if it’s worth it to continue on and then one of your videos pop up again and that little extra bump, I need to keep moving, thank you very much for your channel. I have actually been thinking about doing videos about my bills and my creations that I do. I think I might pop over to your pat and see what it’s all about again thank you for all of this.
Thank you, Jacob this is extremely kind of you to say. I'm glad my videos are helping, even if that's just keeping you company while you work. This whole running a business online is not as easy as many seem to think it is and if you're making any sales with the way everything is right now, you're doing better than you might realise. Of course, it would also be nice if we could perhaps make a little more though.. you're definitely not alone I promise you!
Hang in there and thank you for sticking around. 💚
I'm learning how to do laser engraving for jewelry...among other things. Your discussion of a maker with a community perfectly describes an Etsy (!!) company called Monarch Pine. The owner sells materials for laser engraving and has an excellent Facebook page where she provides both info for how to engrave her products (very helpful for newbies like me) and, of course, the materials themselves. She's not just shilling, she is, as you say, both setting up a community and giving to it. Your insight here is spot on.
btw, I love the mug, I use my toadstool mug for tea while watching you!
I'm so glad, cheers! 🍄☕️☕️
Great, I’m going to look for Emma thank you 🥰
I have no problem with POD if people are using artistic skill to create original designs. A mate of mine went viral as an artist and uses POD to satisfy demand.
The problem is POD is also highly attractive to low effort hustle culture "creators". Thus Etsy gets flooded with shirts that simply have a word written in a free font plastered across it, or worse, clipart or AI. It looks sub-par and stinks of "I'm only here for the money"
THIIIIIIIIIIS! It's a fantastic tool for creators to use as you stated, but it's the get-rich-quickers that have ruined the niche and flooded the market with tat in the quest for passive income.
Hello 👋🏾 reached out to you on social not sure how otherwise, but I wanted to say, Thank you 🙏🏾 I found my voice because of you and posted my first sit down video today of my experiences over the past 17 years on these platforms. I hope you will watch and share with your community 💕Elisa
Slight tangent here, but just you talking about the different attitudes towards handmade and 'proper' businesses, reminded me of a comment I picked up when talking to a seller at a (fairly upmarket) craft fair a few years ago. He was quite an artistic type selling stained glass items, and he made a snooty comment about the number of 'homemade' sellers coming in alongside the 'handmade' sellers that year. Have you noticed a divide in attitudes even within the handmade community? Handmade vs. Homemade - studio vs. kitchen table?
Yes and it pisses me off frankly. I've noticed that some will refer to themselves as being artisan instead of homemade as a way to distance themselves from something that they see as being beneath them which is elitest and arrogant rubbish.
I've got no time, love, light or sparkles for that kind of attitude. 😄
@@KimBliss Me neither. Despite having bought from him before, I didn't that day!
I'm glad you appreciate POD has its place. I'm an artist who both makes traditional art, and also hand draws digital illustrations for clothing fulfilled by a sustainable POD company.
I agree that it makes sense to seperate designed by from handmade for search results though as they are different products.
There's a grey area I suppose with prints of traditional art, is that handmade if printed at home and designed by if printed by a production partner?
I think prints that are made at home do fall under handmade, because (in my mind at least), the maker is directly involved in the making process, whereas with POD, it ends with the designing.
But yeah, POD definitely has a place though. 💚
3:42 said with love light and sparkles...hahaha ace
Is "circle back" the new "pivot"... Put it on a t-shit 😊- or a mug 😋
I think "I'm so tired/behind" should be the new pivot. I'm pretty sure I've said one of them in all my recent videos. 😄🤪
8:32 100% on this, im in a discord server group which has over 350 people in who just love buying silver and talking about it!
I was blown away with the community you've built up and contribute to. If I had a cap, I would doth it! 😁👍
Ah DnD dice, been watching your videos for a while and never knew you were into DnD haha. I’m trying to make a small business selling my 3d printed designs. Not sure what your option on 3d printing is, if you consider it hand made. But I design all the things I print to sell myself and at the moment it’s all DnD themed, lots of weapons that hold dice.
If you're creating the thing in 3D space, I consider you a sculptor, for what it's worth. 😊
I guess it's not something I talk about much here, but yup! I play a half-elf rouge and it's a lot of fun.
I do think 3-D printing is handmade, anything where hands are on the product in the making process counts as handmade to me, that's not even talking about the designing that goes in before any printing is done. The printer is just a machine you use to help you in the same way as I use my sewing machine to help me. For both of us though, our hands are still needed during the making process and for me, (personally at least), that makes it handmade. 😊
@@belindaroadley thank you, it kind of is sculpting in a way just with a pc
@@KimBliss nice, rouges are a lot of fun and can be crazy good with sneak attack damage. Current campaign I’m a human cleric, but also have started DMing. It’s good to know as I sometimes wonder if what I do counts as handmade as I sell on Etsy but the fees can be crazy. I found out the other day that Etsy lists my digital downloads for more than the price I put on them, I sell some of the STLs of the 3d products I design. Kind of annoyed me because when I sell them it just shows the price I’ve listed them for then Etsy takes its charges from that too so they are getting more money out of my sales. Anyway I’d love to send you one of my items for free if you like, as a thank you for your content and for being an inspiration as I’m looking into getting my own site.
Yeah it’s a struggle Kim I can’t put an item on Etsy every day or even 4 times a week my dresses are all one of a kind and take so long to make and I can’t off every size ! I used to sell a lot. Not much now and I am useless at social media so I feel I’m done now 😢
I remember having this issue when I used to make dresses too.
You definitely don't need to list every day, or even every week. That tired piece of 'advice' needs to get in the bin where it belongs. 🗑💚
Loved the video Kim and I do love a good flea market too. 😁 Says hippie John 🤣👍
Peace dude! ✌️
@@KimBliss Back at ya with peace, love and happiness. ☮💚😃
I don’t know if this was mentioned yet, but where is the line of handmade drawn if for example you are an illustrator who makes their own stickers in house vs hiring a printer? I’d like to think it’s not so black and white but has a lot of gray areas.
Well the truth is there is no line. Not officially anyway, so it's hugely down to personal interpretation.
My own interpretation is that handmade is anything that a maker has their hands on at some point in the making process (not including the initial design).
These are still extremely valid items and niches, but I do think there needs to be a distinction between what's made by the maker/seller, and what's made with a third party manufacturer.
Again, both completely valid and neither better or worse than the other. I just think they need to be categorised differently. Again this is just my personal opinion though, and I'm always open to hear others. 😊
I'd love to make videos like you, talking to the camera, so people can connect more with me. But, I am not someone that people want to look at. So, I show videos from my pov, where the camera is pointed at my workspace. But I just do t have a face for video
There is absolutely no pressure whatsoever to make videos, let alone make videos with you in front of the camera. Yes, it's what works best online at the moment, but you get to choose what's best for you. Always. ❤️
As for not having the face for camera and people not wanting to see your face, is this something other people have told you or is it what you're telling yourself?
Ultimately it's what you feel comfortable with, and if the idea of filming talking-head videos makes your skin crawl, then there are a tonne of other videos you can make where you don't have to be in front of the camera. It's just another way to be creative and anything goes! 😊
I’ve been binge watching your videos! You are super helpful and I really appreciate all your insights. Thank you so much again! ❤
Edit: and I totally agreed when you said that having a handmade category would help. Because same as you when I was trying to find anything handmade. Etsy was giving me digital and print on demand stuff. 😅 no hate I love those categories as well but I think having the category for handmade would really help.
Exactly this! It's not about removing a category off of the site, just organising things so buyers can find what they want more easily.
And thanks for watching! You must be bored of my voice by now. 😄
@@KimBliss haha exactly! I totally agree with you! And absolutely not I love listening to you I even recommended you to my sister 🌷🩷
Enjoy your videos, great advice for handmade!
Thank you!
hi Kim~, as a UK seller have you been hearing about goimagine? They are currently only for US based sellers, but I'm just wondering if you've been hearing about it also? I love their mission to champion handmade sellers and donate all revenue to charity, but I can't tell if they are actually becoming more popular or the youtube algorithm has "algorithmed" me into seeing alot of "goimagine" content. 🙃
I actually first heard about it a couple of years ago when another viewer brought it up. I was so excited until I saw it was US only though, but that's fair enough. I can't imagine what a headache taking a company global must be. But if I was in the US, I'd definitely be giving it a go.
In many ways having a small business is like having a child. Everyone will have their opinion on how you should raise your child. Even those who have never held a baby or started a business 😉 Pick and choose the tidbits that work for you and leave the rest behind.
And it's the opinions from those who aren't in the arena with you that can sometimes be the loudest! 😄
Love this analogy.
I mean offer every size
``You seem to be so insightful.
I struggle with the have a minimum of 10 but preferably 20 in stock for each listing. When it’s handmade that is tough plus creatives are not organic machines. We can get BORED making the same thing over and over. I realize that to have an online shop you just have to bite the bullet and recreate a substantial supply of each listing. Just saying, it can be a challenge for the creative inspired bean…
Wait, whuuuuut?? Who is giving that advice? Actually, never mind. I don't want to know. It's stupid either way and definitely not made with handmade sellers in mind.
If I had to make that many of each item I made for my shop then I'd go gaga! 🤪
@@KimBliss Someone who doesn’t know how to make something handmade…apparently. I just laugh when these business gurus who solely look at Etsy as big business not realizing that it is also an outlet for the artist/crafter to keep making their craft. My closets are only so big. Making of wares have been in existence since the beginning of human society.
I recently heard someone refer to handmade as 'early days Etsy when grandmas made quilts' omg! They are shilling memes on t-shirts, no original ideas or changed colors.
Omg. 🙄
As soon as they say 'disrupting' the market......
My brain just goes "blaaaaaaaaaaah".
I agree about the video content, Kim. Buying a refurbished phone with the ability to make quick 'single take' videos has made a massive difference to my engagement on Instagram. It only takes a few minutes and they don't have to be amazing. I actually rarely put up buying options because I would rather concentrate on showing what I make ❤
I really think the realer the better when it comes to 'video content' and I really hate calling it that. It's just another way to connect with people and we're all craving something that feels real these days.
Well I certainly am anyway! 😄