There are all sorts of ways that you can make money from crochet. Most crocheters start to make money by selling what they make. It’s the obvious way to start things really. And many people who start to sell their crochet don’t actually think of starting a business, they just want to make a little bit of extra cash on the side. Then it starts to snowball a bit, and eventually they start to treat their sales more like a business.
This is when the question starts being asked. What other ways can I make money from crochet? This starts when the realisation hits that if you take a day off, there’s no money coming in or you end up with a never ending order list.
Having alternative ways to make money from crochet can give you the chance to take a break without missing out on sales, give you the chance to rest your hands from constantly having your hook working away, and remove the pressure of always having to get orders out on time. Having other crochet income streams also means that you are protected in case orders suddenly drop off because of the economic climate.
Other Ways To Make Money From Crochet
A lot of the big names in crochet now no longer sell what they make. It might be how they started out but it’s not where they are now. Businesses such as The Crochet Crowd, Marly Bird and Moogly, they all primarily sell crochet patterns but they also blog and they make money from affiliates by being affiliated with yarn companies and offering product suggestions.
9 Ways To Make Money From Crochet
There are lots of ways that you can make money from crochet. Click here for my quick guide to 9 ways to make money from your crochet skills that you can download for reference
1. Selling What You Make
I know, it’s the obvious one and probably what you are doing right now. Selling what you make is how most crocheters start their business, but it is far from your only option of making money from your crochet. In fact, it is often the least profitable way of making your crochet pay.
2. Ad Revenue
I’m sure you’ve visited crochet websites to find a pattern or a stitch guide and seen ads all over the site. Well you seeing those ads brings the owner of the site revenue. The more visitors they get to the site looking at those ads, the more money they make. This is how designers are able to offer patterns for free. You can gain ad revenue from Websites, YouTube and Podcasts. A great option if you want to create content
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is where you earn a commission by recommending products to others. For example, if you recommended a particular crochet hook to someone, and they use your special link to buy it. The company will reward you a percentage of the sale price as a thank you for bringing them a sale. The customer doesn’t pay any extra than usual, and the the more people that buy from your links, the more you make.
4. Classes
Do you enjoy teaching? You can earn an income by offering crochet classes and teaching other how to crochet. You could hold these in person or even online. As your reputation as a good teacher grows, you could end up with a nice waiting list of people waiting for a spot on one of your classes.
5. Courses
Courses are like classes except they are usually prerecorded and don’t need you to teach them in person or live. Sometimes they have a support element so the students can ask questions, but they are not as intensive on your time as classes. These are hosted on an online learning platform and will teach a particular skill or technique.
6. Patterns
After selling what you make, patterns are the most obvious way for a crocheter to make money from their crochet. The crochet pattern market is huge, with millions of pounds worth of sales taking place every year. Writing patterns does mean you need a good attention to detail, but they are not hard to start writing and can be very lucrative.
7. Memberships
You can make a membership out of any idea. They usually involve having a community so that your members can interact with each other and you provide a service. That service could include patterns, support as they learn to crochet or even showing them new crochet techniques. The possibilities are endless. The best part about memberships is that they give you a fairly predictable monthly income – bonus right!
8. Subscription Boxes
Subscriptions are when you send your customers a box of something each month. Subscriptions are generally where you send out physical items such as yarn or accessories each month. You could sen out a monthly crochet care package, or a pattern with all the necessary yarn and notions is a popular idea.
9. Sponsorship
Sponsorship is where you get paid, or receive a benefit for promoting someone’s product. Many crocheters team up with yarn companies to promote their brand through patterns. You can also get sponsored to create content like blogs or videos about someones hooks, blocking boards, yarn winders – whatever the company is offering you. Once you gain a good following, this could be a great source of income
There you have it. 9 ways that you can make money from your crochet. You can choose whichever combination of these that suits you to make your crochet pay and give you the lifestyle that you’ve been dreaming of, and you can do it your way.
9 ways to make money from crochet is a lot of ideas, but how many should you use?
As we’ve seen over the last couple of years. Big changes in the way you live can happen overnight, which can have a dramatic effect on your income. It can cause one stream of income to completely dry up, also if you only have one way of bringing money in, you can loose your business overnight. So having several sources of revenue protects you from extreme events and makes sure that you will always have some money coming in.
If you love writing or speaking about crochet, then a blog or a YouTube channel might suit you. These allow you to make money from ads, affiliate marketing and gives you a platform to talk about your own products and creations. If you want a more predictable and stable income then starting a membership will help you do that. If you love creating new designs all the time, then pattern writing would suit you.
I wouldn’t suggest trying to do everything, that’s just not possible when it’s just you working on your business. But choosing 2 or 3 is a great way to secure your income and have enough variety of revenue to protect you against a sudden change of circumstances. Also some revenue sources are seasonal. Crochet products tend to be more popular in winter than in summer. But crochet classes aimed at kids will be more popular in school holidays, especially the long summer holiday where parents are looking to keep their kids occupied.
As with everything new it’s going to take you time to learn how to get started and build an audience. You need to get into the best way to optimise the platform you are using so that you can begin to attract an audience and customers and start to see the money coming in. It will always take time to build. You will not make a tonne of money overnight, but stick with it and it will pay off in the end.
Just because one person does it one way doesn’t mean you have to do it that way. What works for one person does not work for someone else, and your business as it grows will be unique to you.
I no longer sell what I make at The Cool Crochet Society. And it’s simply because I never enjoyed doing that. If you sell what you make, and you want to make a consistent income just from that, you have to be prepared to make the same thing over and over again. That’s something I’ve never enjoyed doing. I like to try different things all the time, so for me having a product line became a chore as I couldn’t just create what I wanted. I fell out of love with my business. If I wanted to keep making money from my crochet, I had to change what I did, I needed a different business model, I had to open my mind to accept other ways of making an income, and different ways I could make money from crochet.
So I turned to crochet patterns. And for me this is ideal. As a crochet pattern designer. I’m continuously making new things all the time. And it’s perfect for me. But I’m also a blogger. Which I also use for affiliate marketing, and I sell advertising space there too. These things take time and effort to grow, but can be very lucrative if you take the time to do it well. And of course I’m now teaching others how to grow their own crochet business, to help you avoid the pitfalls I fell into and create the business model that suits you the best.
Whichever way you choose to make money from your crochet, make sure it is something you enjoy. Nothing will make you fall out of love with your business quicker than doing something you don’t like.
If you are ready to turn your crochet business into a recurring profit machine, there are 3 ways I can help you :
- Listen to my podcast for more crochet tips and advice
- Sign up to my newsletter for weekly crochet selling tips and resources sent straight to your inbox
- Check out my free Facebook group for daily tips, resources and support
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