How to sell paracord crafts

In this article I provide a few ideas on how to sell your paracord crafts.

There are a number of channels you can use to sell your creations. Let’s see how you can leverage those to gain sales.

A market stall or show

We covered this type of selling in the article on how to run a successful market stall. This type of selling is great because customers can see and try out the products.

Your own website

Websites are on the rise for quite a while now. People invest money and time into them. Companies as a rule like to invest into having a website.

But in all honesty, a website pays off for only a small number of people.

The problem lies in what people think a website is. Think about it. What is the job of a website. What is the benefit of YOU having your own website.

Your website is a display of your products. But in most cases you may just as well have your display somewhere on the moon. Just because you have a website, you can not expect to have visitors and sales.

Think of a marketplace. There is traffic there daily and setting up a market stall there will drive traffic to you. But you have set up a website next to thousand of others. The competition is high and your are not being found.

How to get your website found?

• The easiest way to use a website is to complement your business. Hand out cards with the website address. Stick the address everywhere you can.
• Promote through social media. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter. Promotion is a great way to get traffic to your website.
• Advertising. You can pay for advertising or hire someone to drive traffic to your site. This is risky and is viable for those with nice profit margins.

 Sell on other websites

When you hear about selling crafts, everyone starts shouting “Etsy”! It is true that you can get sales there. But where else?

There are a lot of sites offering to sell your crafts for a cut of the profit. Ebay is a good example.

What is the benefit of selling on these websites?

Comparing to your own website, these sites have a regular and large visitor flow. You do not have to advertise at all (they do it for you). The people are there and looking for crafts. For items to buy.

Other methods of selling

I think listing all the available methods of selling is not productive, but if you are interested in knowing other ways of selling, think of telemarketing, infomercials, mail advertising and the likes. But knowing the channels you can use is only a part of the puzzle.

What have I been doing wrong?

You have been very naughty indeed! Let me ask you a question to get this started. What kind of paracord items are you selling?

Are they?

• generic, the ones that everyone makes and can be ordered from China for less than you sell them for?
• custom made?
• themed?

If you fall into the latter two categories, then you are on a good path. You need to become different. You need to offer things the market does not know exist.

Is that the golden ticket?

Yes Charlie, that is a good chunk of it. The other big chunk is to connect with:

1. Your environment, the people and businesses around you
2. People online

With those two pieces you can begin your journey as a craftsman.

The success stories

If you think of the big names in the paracord crafts, who do you think of?

For me they are J.D.Lenzen, Stormdrane and Mr.Coop. They are all popular. And they have something unique.

J.D. is a knot making machine. Stormdrane is an artist. And Mr. Coop? He is a nice guy that shares a lot of useful information. People would love to buy from all three, and they do. Why? Because they have a product, but they also have people believing in them. And it is all very well deserved!

People recommend you because of you, not the product you are selling. So, do you need to become an internet superstar? No. But you need to have attractive, quality products and people who like them and you. And that does not happen over night. In most cases, naturally.

It is really a lot easier starting a business in person than online for most people. But joining the two is the best as far as I am concerned.

With this, I bid you good day, sir/lady.

Mark