5 Ways to Profit from Your Crochet Hobby

Have you ever thought of turning your crocheting hobby into a viable business? We have probably all dreamed about it at some point and then dismissed it as impossible. Earning a living by crocheting seems a bit unattainable.

However, we need to remember that some of the most successful businesses have been started as a result of a hobby. What a better way to earn a living than by doing something we love? All it takes is a little bit of creativity and thinking outside of the box.

So without further ado, here are five of the many ways that you might be able to turn your crocheting hobby into a successful small business.

- Sell your crocheted items at festivals, craft fairs, on Ebay, or even on your own website. Before I returned back to school, I had a nice business selling crocheted lawn goose outfits on Ebay. (For those of you not living in the midwest, we like to place concrete geese on our front porches and dress them according to the season.) Although there were many people selling goose outfits, I focused on the ones for the smaller 8-10 inch geese.

Not many people were selling this size because they could get more money for the larger outfits. While it was true that I made less per outfit, I made up for it in the volume I sold. In addition, the smaller outfits took me an hour or two to create, unlike the larger ones which often took ten hours or more to complete. The key really is to find a niche market. You might consider crocheted doll clothes, hair accessories, or afghans. You could even do custom orders.

- Create your own patterns. If you like to design your own crochet patterns, this is another way to profit from your hobby. You can send your crochet patterns into various magazines for publication, or you can publish and sell them yourself. With an inexpensive desktop publishing program, it is easy to create professional looking patterns. These can be sold through your own website or Ebay.

You can even create digital versions of your patterns that your customers can download so they can access your patterns immediately. If you have a large quantity of patterns you have created, then you could start a membership site. You could charge customers a monthly fee to have access to all of your patterns. By constantly adding new patterns, you could build a nice source of regular income.

- Sell patterns from old magazines. If you feel you aren't creative enough to design your own pattern, then there is a way you can profit from your old crochet magazines. There a quite a few Ebay power sellers who rip individual patterns from old magazines and sell them.

The magazines themselves don't sell well, but the individual patterns do. Place them in a page protector so that customers can add them to a three-ring binder. Patterns sell for around $1 to $1.50, but there are usually ten or more patterns per magazine. When you have depleted your own supply of magazines, you can find them at garage sales or thrift stores for less than a quarter a piece.

- Create a crochet website. If you are internet-savvy, you can create a crochet themed website and monetize it with Google Adsense, or your choice of affiliate program. Your website can contain articles you have written, crochet instructions, links to all the free crochet patterns you have found on the internet, or even your own patterns. Just make sure to put the code for Google Adsense on each page of the site for maximum profit.

- Teach a class. It is probably best to start out teaching for a local craft store. Pick an easily completed project, like a pot holder, and use it to teach customers the basics. After you are comfortable with the beginning class, you could also look into teaching an advanced class.

Owning a small business that is centered around something you love to do does not have to be just a daydream. With a little thought and planning, your dream may just become a reality.