Hello again, savvy savers! Happy Monday, ya’ll! As it’s a new day, it’s a new way to sell and save, as part of this months No-Spend Challenge! Today, I’ll be focusing on Craftsy!
If you knit, crochet, quilt, cross-stitch, or do any type of sewing, and you are a savvy-saving, crafty kind of person ( you come up with your own designs for the things you make), then you can earn a passive income selling your unique patterns on Craftsy! Of course there are lots of other sites you can use to sell your patterns (Etsy, Ebay, etc.), but the great thing about Craftsy is that it’s free to list and Craftsy lets you keep all the money from each sale — they take no fees out of what you earn.
If you make your own patterns and don’t mind others having them, you’re not out anything other than a little bit of time if you post them on Craftsy since they take no listing fees nor a commission. All the money you earn from sold patterns is yours, and they provide a very nice platform for you to use to get your stuff out there; a great opportunity to statsh a few bucks bask for the upcoming holiday season!
So, what’s Craftsy?
Craftsy is fast becoming a very popular website for “crafty” types. In addition to offering a pattern marketplace free of charge to Indie designers, they also have virtual crafting classes you can take and some good prices on crafting supplies.
Every single pattern you create can be sold over and over when listed on Craftsy. So you can list it once and keep it up for good. And the more patterns you have listed, the greater the chances you’ll sell something occasionally. I love passive income like this because it means you only do the “hard” work (creating the finished product) once. And then the pattern can sell itself over and over.
Also consider:
- Craftsy is an online crafting community and sales shop.
- The site features craft supplies, classes, online forums, videos, and affiliate opportunities.
- One of the best aspect of the site is their classes; some types of classes focus on quilting, sewing, knitting, cake decorating, art, photography, cooking and many more categories.
- Classes are taught by industry leaders, which allow users to learn at your pace with easy-to-follow HD video lessons you can access on your computer and mobile devices.
- Craftsy offers free mini classes, as well as pay-for-lesson classes, too!
- The best part about Craftsy is their forum which allows crafters from all works of life to be able to sell their patterns online!
Why sell on Craftsy?
- Craftsy loves Indie designers!
- You’ll never be charged a fee or take a commission when you list or sell your designs.
How to sell on Craftsy:
- Be prepared. In order to list your pattern, first need to have an idea of what you would like to sell; scrap-booking, knitting, quilting patterns, etc.
- You will need a PayPal Account. You will need either a Premier, Student or Business account to sell patterns on Craftsy (these accounts are all free to set up through PayPal); this is required so that you can accept credit card payments from pattern buyers.
- Your pattern must be in a .pdf file format. The standard format for patterns on Craftsy is .pdf. So whether yours is a Word doc, a JPG, or another document format, you will need to convert all patterns to PDF before you continue.
- For Machine Embroidery patterns, the supported are .pec, .sew, .jef, .hus, .pes, .art, .and vip.
- If you have multiple .pdf files, you can add them to a .zip file and upload the zip file.
- Photos: Each pattern must have at least one photo, and no more than five, per project.
- Listings: You will also need to write a basic description paragraph about your pattern.
- That’s it! You’re now a Craftsy seller!
Each listing in the Craftsy pattern store has a photo or photos of the finished product, a detailed description of the pattern along with what materials will be needed to get started, and of course the price. You’ll have to go in and add all this information and upload a .pdf of your pattern. Also, if you’re not sure what to charge for your patterns, look around at similar products to get an idea of what others charge for theirs. That should give you a good idea of what patterns for items like yours are selling for.
If you have your pattern on your computer in Word document or as a picture (.jpg), you can convert it to .pdf through an online converter. Here is a free one to get patterns finished lickety split. Then, you just upload your .pdf file to Craftsy along with your photos of the finished product and you’re ready to get your pattern listed and start selling it.
Seller Tips:
- Be sure to think outside of the box.
- If you can do any of the following, you can create a pc file pattern: Quilting, Sewing, Knitting, Cake Decorating, Crochet, Drawing, Photography Collages, Gardening/Planting Beds, Woodworkers, Macrame, Jewelry Making, Scrap-booking, and Embroidery.
- Write patterns how you would want to read patterns.
- You can Google patterns to be an idea of what written formats should look like.
- You can make anywhere from $3.00-$10.00 per pattern.
- This is a great way to make passive income at home.
- Have fun!
Affiliate sales:
Looking for passive art-based income, without personal sales? Are you a blogger or have a following on social media? You can sign up as an affiliate for Craftsy and earn commissions when people buy products or sign up for crafting classes through your blog. Go here to sign up as a Craftsy affiliate.
So, today I challenge you to create a Craftsy account, and then sell a pattern on Craftsy!
Here’s to saving,
