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HOW THE HECK DO I SELL ALL THIS STUFF WITHOUT SPENDING A FORTUNE - ON ADVERTISING, AND BOOTH RENTAL FEE'S ETC.?

I've been trying to figure this out myself for some time and have found some tricks of the trade.

First of all - it's always good to have a business card - so that you have information on hand when people are asking about you and your work.

I have to say that FREE is the way to go when you are on a budget and the website http://www.vistaprint.com offers FREE business cards - you just pay the shipping. You have to pick a template and you can't customize them unless you want to pay for them. A friend of mine told me about this site, she advised me not to even look at the custom options (she ended up spending a bunch of money on custom ones - they got her). I choose to stick with the free templates and I found one that worked really well and they are beautiful. The catch is they want to put their advertising on the back of the card. I thought it was going to be tacky but it's really not that big and placed in the lower half of the back of the card in light colored ink. I think i paid just over $5 for shipping - not bad for 250 cards.

Look for your local farmers market - great place to vend craft items - it gives you good practice on pricing, selling, and setting up a table. My local farmers market charges a $7 fee during the week and $25 fee on Saturdays. It's first come first serve during the week and you have to put your name in for a lottery on Saturdays - Saturdays are the days you want to sell - the traffic in places like this tend to be slower during the week - that may not be true for all markets but it is true in my Midwestern one.

Community art festivals & sidewalk days are usually free to artist's and crafters. Our town has an art walk once a year that is free - you just have to go to a planning meeting and request a space. Most towns have sidewalk festivals in the summer that are open to anyone who wants to set up - these are not as lucrative as the festivals that you pay to get a booth in - but it's good practice and it's a way to pass out your card and create local interest in your work.

Asking cafe's or other artsy shops to sell you stuff on consignment is another cheap rout of selling work - There are a lot of local businesses looking for free art. They get to have fresh new changing art - and once you sell it you can always make them something new. If you do decorative arts, ask a local business to hang your work... a lot of places can't afford

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