How's your year been so far?

This is my second year with my creative head ! My business is Cottage Crafts making and selling patchwork cushions ,quilts,bags,aprons ,round cushions etc.
This year I’ve done bigger Craft /Country Fair events and been consistently successful .Decided on my base items that sell really well and don’t remake other items.Next yer want to do some Designer Fairs with my best items .

I have only just started. I know I am four months in as my first listings on that other well known site came up for renewal. One sale there, two elsewhere, none on here yet. But I’m happy to take it slow, ramping up to attempting a fair nearer xmas but need to pick the right one as the stuff I make is most likely to do well in bigger fairs and not so good in a local church one, for example. I’m still at the learning as I go stage as far as marketing goes. Love making but selling it doesn’t come naturally to me!
Love your quilts. I used to own so many vintage ones and somehow lost them along the way. Very stupid of me.

Love your hoops,very unique ! Hope you do well :smile:

I’ve had a steady year so far, I have 3 online places I sell, they’ve all been a bit on the quiet side with the occasional sale. I have a number of repeat customers and have a steady flow of commissions. So overall not too bad :slight_smile:

I only started doing online promo last Nov, despite having my shop for 8 years! I had always relied on personal customers visited from a parenting forum I used to admin but since the forum closed my sales were dropping rapidly. I have sold nearly twice as much this year than last year, and mostly to a new client base so I reckon if I wasn’t using social media my sales would be rock bottom. I used to only sell in May and Nov/Dec (the parenting forum had promos in May and Nov) but now I sell all year round.

Thats good to hear ,Annie,I struggle to sell online,but do really well at fairs etc.
Need to learn the art of marketing online.Still don’t know how to put pics of my items in relevant blogs .Any help appreciated :smile:

My time as an admin on a parenting site taught me a lot about selling - one of my roles was looking after the WAHM section (work at home mum). I think it is important to portray a positive outlook in your social media, people are less likely to buy if you pick arguments with people, lol. And that isn’t just on your shop page, I think a positive attitude is beneficial on others forums too, you never now who is a potential customer so be polite and friendly to all. Which brings me to another point, your potential customers are also other sellers. Do not be afraid to promote the work of others, it wins you friends and promotes a spirit of unity. If you promote others, they will promote you. It widens everyone’s reach.
On a practical note, the thread here which promotes daily listing works as a team, with everyone promoting each other - that is great for getting your products out there. List in other threads too, let people see what you have. There is also an informal Folksy sellers group run by sellers which has a good reach. I also visit British Crafters as they are very supportive of sellers and have an excellent reach. I don’t belong to any other non-Folksy groups, I don’t have time.

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not been the best year so far I must admit!! I have some lovely customers through my studio and through my website but in 3 years I have only had one folksy sale? I do struggle a lot with getting to grips with social media in order to create more sales…I dont want to pay for seminars but is there anything that is handy that people can recommend in order to push traffic and help sales?