by Jessica Knorr

Created on: July 06, 2008

Making and selling your handmade craft items can sometimes be a very trying but rewarding experience. It may not always be a bouquet of roses but with a little bit of research and some creative marketing tips it can really be the start of something big. Here are some tried and true tips on how to get things going in your new craft adventure.

One of the first things that you need to consider when trying to market your crafts to other people is "Who will be your target audience?" Are you making something that has a very small marketing niche that you can capitalize on? Are your items something that will appeal to a wide variety of people or a very small focus group? For example, let's say your item is handmade miniature doll house furniture. In this example your focus group would be that of people who collect dolls and doll houses. So it wouldn't make very much sense to advertise on a site or craft show that is selling primarily all hand knit items. You would want to do your research and find the sites and places where your item would fit and get noticed by your target audience.

The next thing that is crucial in your success and can sometimes be over looked is how you will purchase the supplies for your craft and factor that cost into the price of your item. Many crafters have a difficult time coming up with fair market pricing because they don't factor in supply costs, their time and knowledge of the craft they are doing. It is crucial that you factor in your supply costs, time and any over head costs when pricing your items. Without factoring these things into the equation your profit margin will suffer greatly and many times you will have no profit at all if you don't set up your pricing structure to include all of your costs. Remember that you are in a business and the sole purpose of any business is to try and make a profit.

Once you figure out your target audience and come up with your fair market pricing for your item the next thing you need to figure out is where to sell your items. There are so many options available today that can prove to be excellent venue sources. One decision that you will have to make is weather or not you will primarily sell your items online, in stores and consignment shops or craft shows or all of the above. You may choose to do all three of these to broaden your exposure and create a bigger profit margin or you may just choose one and really focus all of your efforts in that area. Where ever you are going to sell your items it

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