There are so so many free crochet patterns on the Internet, giving crocheters so much choice without having to pay a penny for them. So will anyone pay for your crochet patterns when there are so many free options available?
Well let’s start by looking at why there are so many free crochet patterns around – I mean, what’s in it for the designer to publish free crochet patterns instead of getting people to pay for it?
Just because a crochet pattern is available for free, doesn’t mean the designer isn’t making any money from it. On the contrary, if you set things up right a free crochet pattern can make you a lot of money. It’s just that the reader isn’t paying you any money directly.
Have you been on crochet websites that have advertisements all over the page? Have you watched YouTube videos where ads have played before and during the video? Well that’s how the designers make money. The more views their content gets, the more they make from those adverts. Advertisers pay the content owner to allow their ads to show up. The more views, the more the advertisers pay – you can read more about profiting from free crochet patterns here
It’s a simple but very profitable setup – as long as the patterns are getting those all important views.
So now that we’ve talked about why there are so many free crochet patterns out there and that they are actually making money, let’s talk about selling paid patterns.
Your Paid Patterns Will Sell
Yes they will! Why?
Because free patterns are usually simple designs or crochet alongs that need you to click through loads of pages to get the design. Both of these are also hosted on blogs that are filled with ads and have lots of other information and stories on them to help maximise revenue to the designer.
If you just want to cut straight to the pattern then these other distractions are an irritation. Your crocheter may well prefer buying the pattern instead of having to work through all the extra stuff on the page to get to the bit at the bottom that they actually want.
For more complex patterns like clothes or designs with multiple stitches, no one expects them to be free. Crocheters expect to pay for large or complex designs so for patterns that fall into these categories, you will have no issues at all in selling paid patterns.
But What About Small Simple Patterns?
You can still get great sales if you choose to offer small or simpler crochet patterns as paid designs. This is because some crocheters want the ad free versions, or want to be able to print out the pattern and keep it in their personal pattern library (without wasting ink and paper by printing out the ads and extra wordage that is contained on a Web page)
I’ve had great success in selling simpler designs, in fact my smaller crochet patterns make up over half of my pattern income each year. There is no reason that you can’t sell your crochet patterns even if there are free versions available on the Internet.
There’s another reason that crocheters will buy your pattern over choosing a free pattern on the Interweb. That reason is that the pattern was designed and written by you.
Your followers will buy your patterns because they love your writing style and your designs. They want your patterns because they know that your crochet pattern will be written in a way that suits them and that they will find easy to follow.
Your followers will happily pay for your crochet patterns over finding free patterns simply because it was designed and written by you!
There will always be crocheters who will never pay for crochet patterns and will happily spend hours searching for free designs on the Internet, but there are just as many who will pay to not have to spend hours scrolling through search results to find a well written crochet pattern that they like.
It’s these people who you should be worried about. Those who will never pay should not occupy another thought in your head because you will never convince them to part with their cash – but there are other ways you can profit from them though – read about it here
You should only be worried about attracting crocheters who are happy to pay for patterns, they are your people and deserve your time and effort to provide what they are looking for.
So how do you attract crocheters who will pay for your crochet patterns?
Define your niche – let potential customers know what you speciality is and what kind of designs you typically create
Give them a taste – have a free pattern or 2 available so they can be confident that they will be getting a well written and easy to follow pattern when they do part with their cash
Tell your followers about you – show them behind the scenes, tell them why you design patterns, show them your favourite crochet makes. This all helps them feel connected to you and helps to build a loyal following
Your followers will want to snap up anything and everything you have to offer, simply because you created it. So don’t worry for one more second about all the free stuff out there, your paid patterns will still make you a very good income regardless of what anyone else is putting out there for free.
For more tips on how to start and grow your crochet business, check out my Free Resources here. Grab whatever takes your interest to create your ideal crochet business. You can also follow my free Substack here for more crochet building tips.
