Selling Crafts Online

In the last craft business post I looked at the profit potential for you from getting involved with other people’s affiliate programs. This post is going to look at the basics of how you can run your own.

Having affiliates for your online craft business can be a great bonus. It’s a bit like having an extra sales force. They have the ability to reach people who might never find you. They can multiply your profits many times over.

It isn’t really too difficult to implement an affiliate program either. Although most of us get a bit concerned about adding extra code to our craft websites we are fortunately offered an easy way out. For a small  cut, some people will do a lot of the work for us.

This is what I do. Although there are many software programs around for managing an affiliate program I would rather be spending the time in my craft business making crafts. I try and leave as much as possible to other people.

Best Providers?

So for ebooks or downloadable patterns and plans I use either Clickbank or E-Junkie. These two companies are both experts at digital downloads which is why I use them. Clickbank I use for digital ebooks over $8.00 because under that their fees make E-junkie cheaper. So for patterns, plans and short reports, things in the $3.50 to $8.00 range, E-Junkie give me the best deal.

There’s a little more to it than that. Clickbank have a huge army of potential affiliates and they will manage all that for me. I have to set up the download page but Clickbank handle pretty much everything else and pay me twice a month. E-Junkie also have an affiliate program but I have to manage it. Not difficult, and their fees are very low, so for low price items they are my preference. There is nothing to stop you selling a more expensive product through E-Junkie but you will have to work harder at getting your affiliates. You can also use E-Junkie to provide secure download for Clickbank products but that’s getting too complicated for me!

E-Junkie will also handle “real” good for you and provide you with a shopping cart (Clickbank don’t). In fact E-Junkie are one of very few people whose technology works equally well with blogs – an area where some affiliate programs struggle. For this reason I also use E-Junkie to sell my “real” crafts.

I recommend both these companies but that doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Investigate thoroughly before making a decision. E-Junkie you can start from just $5.00 a month which is ridiculously cheap but that doesn’t mean someone else isn’t more appropriate for your craft business. Have a search around, ask awkward questions and keep asking until you get the right answers.

How Much Should I Pay?

The question which most craft business owners ask is how much should they pay their affiliates? The answer is as much as you can afford. It has to be worth the affiliates time and effort or nobody will be interested. On digital goods it’s usually between 25 and 50% – and it can go higher. You might think that’s a lot but think about it for a moment. Once your digital product is finished there are no production or distribution costs so why not make it as attractive as possible to your affiliates? If you want more info on the whole ebook and digital publishing thing, click here.

For real goods, affiliate payments are usually in the region of 5 to 15%. You have to think harder about your profit margin here. Remember, you never pay an affiliate until a product has been sold and you have been paid, so if you have to give away half of your profit margin but you make five or six times as many sales, it’s probably worth it.

Of course there are no guarantees, and adding an affiliate program to a craft business isn’t for everyone. There is great potential but there is also some investigative work to do beforehand and some ongoing management. You might get many people join your program but few will actually put in a lot of effort. 90% or your payments will go to 10% or less of your affiliates. Nevertheless, it gives you the chance to reach many more customers for very little outlay.

E-Junkie can be found here.

Clickbank can be found here.

Make sure you read the details carefully!

Whether you are running a blog or more traditional website there are craft business basics that you need to use if you want to succeed. Keeping potential customers coming back to your site – making it “sticky” – is obviously pretty important!

You might hope that interesting info, nice pictures, easy and clear navigation would all guarantee that. Unfortunately it won’t. Truth is people skip by and skip on… there’s a very short attention span online. Your craft business needs to do more than just look good.

Even if your potential customer likes your site, they might never come back. They might think about bookmarking you… and they might not. We’ve all done it, said you’ll go back to a site later – but then not got distracted by something else, never to return…

The fact is your craft business loses out on customers every day. In business, not everyone will buy from you! However, you can do something very positive to try to grab those “hovering” people. Those “nearly” customers.

What you need to boost your craft business potential is a newsletter or e-mailing list, just like I’ve got here to keep you up to date with site changes or important news. Just think about it for a minute. If your visitor will give you their email address you don’t have to worry about them coming back to your craft site, you can get back in touch with them!

And because it’s via email you can do so as often as you like, for virtually no cost.

OK, there’s a cost for the management of these services (you let other people handle the software and all that for you so you can concentrate on what you do best) but you’re talking about a few dollars a month. Don’t you think it’s worth that? To have the potential to get back to your craft business visitors with news and special offers. To give them multiple chances to come and buy from you… even if they forgot they once visited? Frankly, you’d be mad not to.

I currently recommend YMLP because they offer to manage your first 1,000 subscribers for free! Can you imagine? A thousand potential new customers you can get in touch with with a couple of clicks – and it costs you nothing? Craft marketing doesn’t get any better than that!

Even when you exceed that, it’s literally just a few dollars a month. In fact you’ll likely find their prices in Euros because the operation is based in Europe – but who cares, this is the internet!

A slight word of caution though. Run well, a newsletter can add tremendously to your craft business. Done badly it will put people off. A lot of companies want your visitor’s email address so if they pay you the compliment of giving it to you, treat them well. Make them feel special.

As an added bonus you might want to give them a discount off their first order, or offer them something of value (like the dowloadable ebook I give subscribers). It’s easy for you to do and you’ll recoup any small cost many times over, so why not make a little extra effort?

Do that, right at the start of your relationship, and your new subscriber will feel that they are being dealt with personally. Chances are that will get you loyal, repeat customers who have a tremendous impact on the long-term profitability of your craft business.