Aug
15
2008
It’s nice to have a signature logo or look that makes your crafts instantly recognizable. By graphing an unique design, you can create a line of pieces that bring you and your shop to mind. It works for big business, so why not for us small fry?
If you get stuck for an idea, try searching for free patterns on beading sites. You can tweak it a little bit to make it unique. By creating several different versions of this pattern in different sizes, there’ll be one that’s right for a variety of projects.
Graphed patterns can be used with all sorts of different craft techniques. I use mine with intarsia and fair isle knitting, with beading, and cross-stitch. If I get the sewing bug, it would also make a rock star awesome quilt. Hey, there’s an idea…
Jun
16
2008
Crafters love freebies, and we love to share cool new project ideas. How can you offer your pattern free of charge an still get paid? Where does the money come from if you aren’t charging fellow crafters?
While you could publish it on a webpage or blog on your own site, I prefer to go through Associated Content. They pay upfront for unique craft content, plus you get paid for each time a person views your pattern page. Where does the money come from? Have you noticed how advertisements are placed on most websites?
Look closer and you’ll notice that they usually line up with the theme of the written content on that page. Each time an interested person clicks on those ads, the website owner gets paid.
Note: Never, ever click on the ads that show up on your own pages. You can see how that would look like cheating to the ad provider, right?
Here’s one of my free patterns, crocheted bangle bracelets. I got paid $4.11 upfront, and I get another $1.50 for each 1,000 page views. This pattern has 1,019 page views so far. Sweet. It’s nice to see that people are finding my stuff!
