All you wanted was a little place to sell your crafts, but before you know it you’ve got a blog, a Facebook page, and a full-fledged small business to look after!

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to figure it all out on your own.

These 50+ resources and guides from the crafting community and small business promotion experts are the resources I turn to again and again for help with running my own craft business. How to manage your time, where and how to market, how much to spend on advertising, how to manage your inventory – it’s all here! 

Bookmark this list and refer back often as you build your own successful craft business. If you find it helpful, please share it with your crafty friends on social media!

Happy reading!

Starting your Craft Business

• Craft Business Power: 15 Days to a Profitable Online Craft Business – hands down the best book for craft business owners (Amazon link)
• Handmade Business in 31 Days – All the bits and pieces that go into launching your very own craft business, broken down into bite-size chunks
• Blacksburg Belle – Utterly FANTASTIC website dedicated to helping crafters run small businesses
• 10 Things you MUST Do to Have a Successful Online Craft Business
• Naming and Opening Your Etsy Shop – Our own guide to opening your Etsy shop the smart way
• Identifying Your Ideal Customer
• Where to focus your time when starting a small business – It’s easy to get overwhelmed; here’s a list of the 5 most important things to focus on.
• 5 Important Attitudes for Etsy Success – How to combine your goals, vision, and attitude to achieve success
• Pricing Your Crafts
• Think Twice Before Quitting Your Job to Sell Homemade Jam – Keeping your expectations realistic can actually help your business thrive in the long run

Handmade Marketplaces

Listing your crafts in multiple markets = more chances to get discovered! Just be sure to polish each storefront to a shine, no half-assing allowed.

• Aftcra – Prides itself on American-made handmade goods (no supplies or vintage items) and charges no listing fee!
• Artfire – Vibrant craft community that offers a help number for sellers and free listings
• Etsy –  The web’s best known handmade marketplace, but each listing costs 20 cents and recent listings are given search priority
• Folksy – A UK-run craft marketplace, pay per listing or subscribe with an annual fee

Marketing your Craft Business

Where to Market your Crafts

• CraftGawker – User-submitted craft gallery
• iShareCrafts – Another user-submitted craft gallery
• DeviantArt – Free to join/post artist community, a great place to post photos of your projects
• Instagram – Upload photos of your crafts, attach your shop or blog URL to your profile. Don’t #forget #the #hashtags.

Marketing Strategies

• How to Get Your Product on the Front Page of Etsy
• How to Ask a Blogger for Help – Reaching out to other bloggers/crafters is a proven formula for success
• Get Featured in Thousands of Etsy Treasuries
• 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity – Massive list of ways to promote your craft blog and business
• Ten Marketing Tips
• The Two Hour Blogging Workday – Fantastic walk-through of how much time to spend on promotion and social media for your business
• Networking for your Etsy Business – What social media sites to create accounts on + how to link ’em all together

Blogging for Crafters

• Lunarpages Web Hosting – Simple WordPress installation and good customer support. I’ve used Lunarpages for over 8 years for multiple sites, including this one. Use promo code aff15off for a 15% discount on your hosting.  (Affiliate link)
• 10 Smartest Things You Can do to Promote Your Blog – Don’t miss the “Rule of 100”
• Blog themes for sale on Etsy
• Pretty Darn Cute Designs sells cute, crafting-appropriate WordPress themes for the Genesis framework (ie: you have to buy the Genesis framework separately to use these themes)
• 53 things to post about when you don’t know what to post about
• The 10 most overused words on craft blogs
• Small Craft Business Tips: 20 Proven Types of Blog Posts

Social Media

• 9 Creative Women Share Social Media Success Secrets
• 10 Tips to Double Your Facebook Likes
• Marketing Your Crafty Company on Instagram
• Using Facebook to Boost Your Craft Business
• Social Media Frequency Guide: Best times to post to social media – Did you know the Eastern and Central time zones contain 80% of the U.S.’s population?
• 5 Tips to Increase Your Visibility on Flickr

Pinterest

• 25 Things that Make You Look Dumb on Pinterest
• 5 Ways to Promote your Products on Pinterest

Legal Stuff: Sellers Permits, Business Licenses, etc

This stuff varies by state, so try searching on Google for opening an online business in YourState/YourCountry to learn the specifics.

• CraftsLaw – a legal site for craft business owners
• Habits that Will Make Taxes Easier Next Year – What to keep record of
• Law 101: Guide to Setting Up Your Etsy Business
• Sellers Permits? Business License? Etsy forum thread on the necessary business licenses

Motivation & Craft Business Management

Feeling discouraged? Here’s some great pick-me-ups for you and your craft biz. 🙂

• Three D’s of Success
• The Hidden Danger of Excessive Opportunity – How NOT to get overwhelmed and distracted
• 300+ Etsy Tips from Successful Sellers – LaunchGrowJoy’s EPIC compendium of Etsy advice from sellers with thousands of sales
• 111 Motivational Business Quotes

Humor

• CraftFail

What great resources did we miss? Tell us about YOUR favorite guides and resources for running a craft business in the comments!

PS: Did you like this post? Check out our Ultimate Product Photography Tips List. It’s the #1 most visited page on DIYCraftPhotography.com!

Some links in this article are Amazon Affiliate links. Read DIYCraftPhotography’s full disclosure here.

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