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  • From: "Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Marketing
  • Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:44:39 -0400

My daughter is a silver smith, she sell her things on etsy. She has been
able to almost make a living. She quite her computer job and does this full
time. Look her up on Etsy.
Lavendercottageoriginals
Jeanne
tnhillwoman
North East TN zone 6
----- Original Message -----
From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Marketing


>How do you maintain a steady income?

There's at least a very simple answer to that question. You don't.


> >Other than word of mouth, how do you market yourself?

This must be prefaced with the fact that most cottage industry crafted
items
are not things people buy on impulse. They look, think about it,
contemplate
it, compare it, decide on it, change their mind, think about it some more,
.... and then some of them buy it.

I got a call this summer from a cooperative retail store made up of local
hand crafted items. A 22 year old woman wanted to buy one of my products
because
she'd seen it there when she was 16, could not persuade her parents it was
equitable, and so as an adult and settled in Denver, she came back to
Abingdon,
Va, asking for the item ... which was no longer there as I had parted ways
with the outfit years previous. The store and I made an exception to our
usual
M.O. and she got the item she came for. But it is not unusual for the
initial
contact and the sale to be eight years apart .... which goes somewhat to
answering the first question.

So ... if you are contemplating a specific item or type of item you are
going
to make, look into the trade magazines. In my case a quarterly insertion
in
the most popular trade magazine 4" x 3 1/2" costs about $40. The second
most
popular magazine is $25. Also I have joined all the internet discussion
lists
having to do with the product I make and I have a signature line with my
website.

You can put the item on eBay "buy it now" for 30 days at a time. The cost
is
minimal and although you might not sell it, you are permitted a link to
your
website page describing it which itself can contain a link to the home
page.
It gives you tremendous exposure for very little cost. Likewise there is
an
outfit that only allows hand made objects for sale .... www.etsy.com

We have scores of festivals in this area every year. I do to some of those
and demo the product and pass out cards. No one buys one there, but a
month to
five years later they do. I have six items in the shop right now
unfinished
and all of them are promised. A few months from now I may have ten in the
shop completely finished and no one making an offer for them.

James


"The master craftsman makes a cut. He does it one time and it's good
enough."
(the late and very great luthier Robert Lundberg)






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