I’ve been catching up on my podcast listening for the past few weeks and I’ve recently finished a very interesting episode of CraftSanity. If you’re not familiar with CraftSanity, it’s a weekly interview show where podcaster, Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood interviews some of today’s most well-known crafters and indie designers. In episode #58, Jennifer departs from her usual interview format to record a panel discussion on craft blogging at the 2007 BlogHer conference, which focuses on women who blog. Some of the panelists included Kristen Roach, Amy Sedaris, Leah Peterson, and Kathy Cano Murillo (The Crafty Chica).
I thought that the most interesting part of the podcast was during the age-old discussion about pricing. One attendee said that she suspected that most people thought that her items were over-priced and she asked how she could convey the time, quality, and hard work that goes into her products. One of the panelists pointed out that when they were first starting to sell their work on the web, one of the biggest mistakes they made was trying to make their site look like Macy’s or Nordstroms. There wasn’t a sense that the items were handmade, but rather, it almost looked as though everything on the site came out of factory somewhere. It was only when they started blogging about the creative process, started telling the story about the creation of each item, and including photos of works in progress that they started making more sales. In fact, some of the items that they featured as works in progress on their blogs were often sold almost before they completed it. People became intrigued through watching the process that they couldn’t wait for it to be available.
This is a tip that I’m sorry to say that I don’t use as much as I could on my own blog and website, but I do plan to implement more in the coming year. One indie designer that does this very well is Australian graphic designer, Lara Cameron on her blog Kirin Notebook. Lara designs printed stationary, textiles, and various other things. She’s always blogging about the process of developing her fabric designs, posts some of the loveliest photos of her works in progress, of items made with her fabrics, and every so often she’ll post directions to a craft project that uses her fabrics.
By the time she posts an announcement that her fabrics are on sale in her Etsy store, her readers and fans are just itching to get their hands on them. I’ve seen her sell out of fabric within hours of posting the announcement on her blog.
So what can you do to start telling the story of the work you do? What parts of your creative process do your customers find fascinating? What techniques can you use to start illustrating the story of your work? You can begin by taking more “in-progess” photographs of your work. Get a digital camera to make it easier to take and post photos quickly. While they don’t have to be studio quality photographs, take some time to make them nice. The Storque, Etsy’s blog for buyers and sellers has a nice tutorial on taking photographs for online sales that can give you some tips on how to do this.
Write about how ideas for your work came about. Talk about what was going on in your life or in your career when you were working on a particular piece. Get your customers in on the action. Ask your customers for photos of them displaying, wearing, or using your items and post them on your website or blog. If you have access to a microphone or a video camera start recording audio or video commentary to include on your blog. Use services like Flickr, Slideshare, and YouTube to get these stories out.
It’s easy for all of us to forget that part of what fascinates people about our work are the stories behind it. Use this tip from the ladies from the BlogHer panel to to show what your work is all about.
P.S. Be sure to check out that CraftSanity episode on Jennifer’s site. The discussion about pricing starts at about 35 minutes and 40 seconds into the show, but I suggest listening to the whole thing if you have the time…lots of great info there!
