A Million Compliments and No Sales

That's the comment I got from a crocheter recently on my Lifetips site in response to a tip on how to price your crocheted goods (a rough starting point: calculate the cost of the materials you used and multiply by three).  She said she never knew how to price her items and that she gets a million compliments but very few buyers.  Pricing is such a tricky part of running a crafts business.  We all know that the love and labor that go into making items is incalculable and that the cost of materials alone often doesn't really capture the value of the finished product. But, the "problem" is how much are others charging?!  If you are creating something really unique, then you get to set the standard, but the rest of us really do have to take into account the prices of comparable goods (I know, how can something else compare to what you are making, but buyers don't necessarily think that way).  I vaguely remember from econ class that there is this phenomenon called "Giffen goods", where the more you charge, the more demand grows!  Suffice to say, especially these days, that's a rare phenomenon. 

So, your action item for today is to do some research and see how much three successful sellers are charging for their items and see if you need to make any price adjustments to yours.  Now, I'm not necessarily suggesting that you should, as a result, drastically drop your prices (because, once dropped, it's really hard to raise them again).  Instead, first try experimenting with discounts, BOGO (buy one, get one free), gift with purchase, or other types of value-enhancing strategies.  Hope this helps those of you struggling with the right mix of products and pricing!

Emptiness

The title refers to my Etsy shop -- it is now down to two active listings, which will expire next week!  I have (sort of) done this on purpose because I need to revamp the shop and figure I should do it on a clean slate.  Of course, how this revamping is going to occur is not totally clear to me yet, but I have a week in which to figure it out ;-o

I still struggle to figure out how best to spend my limited crafting time and what products frankly will appeal to the most people.  I think a lot of people struggle with the dilemma of making what they want to make versus what will actually sell.  Of course, you're always hoping that the two will be one in the same!

Right now, as far as actual crochet projects go, I'm intrigued with crochet techniques that yield knit-looking fabrics.  I'm testing out some different ways to create "knit" and "purl" stitches using a crochet hook and incorporating those stitches into a few projects that I've got pictured in my head.  I know we're just starting summer, and it is my favorite season, but my mind is already on scarves and shawls, though I just got this cool ribbon-like yarn that I think would actually work well for a summertime cover-up, so maybe I should work on that before getting sidetracked by scarves and winter garb!

Speaking of summertime days, I think I'm going to get out there and enjoy it -- I can crochet when it's dark outside!