Free Patterns Lead to Sales

Freebies lead to sales! Period, end of story. Offering free and well-done patterns and project ideas on your commercial site will lead to increased sales. On my other crafting site, Crafty Tips, the sites that get the most traffic have been those offering something for free.

Being able to convert those looking for free patterns and projects into customers shouldn’t be too difficult with a little forethought.

Supply Lists

Just like a recipe lists the items required, your free projects should include a supply list and that supply list should include some of your products.

This ornament is made with our golden (insert your product name here) which can be purchased from our site if you follow this link.

While not included as part of the original pattern, we added these buttons link shown here to make our teddy bear look like he’s wearing a little sweater.

Or it could be done slightly more subtly. List the complete pattern or project and then list the supplies used and make all of them links to where the items can be purchased.

Teaser Patterns

Patterns that while complete, suggest how other things you sell can make it better or use that completed project.

This pattern is part of our collection of cross-stitched Christmas ornaments. Other similar patterns can be found in our Christmas patterns collection.

Use this beaded flower as an adornment when you make our felted hat kit (didja’ catch that great SEO’d link potential?) to make your own felted hat.

The technique you learned in this project is also what makes our stash bags so easy to make.

Framing

Display the finished project in or on something you sell. After folks have made that wonderful whatever, they’re going to want a way to use it.

Share a small embroidery pattern and then show it as the top of your treasure box.

This free cross stitch pattern makes for the perfect gift when added to our tea towels. (Didja catch the potential for at least 2 great SEO’ed links in that sentence?)

Obviously, this is a perfect way to suggest frames, matting, or any other method of display.

Stickiness

While perhaps not a feature of most hand-crafted items, stickiness is something every website owner hopes for. By periodically adding quality patterns and projects to your site, you will increase your chances of being bookmarked, emailed, and mentioned on other websites.

And, while they may not buy on their first or even their second visit, your site is constantly being exposed to others who may.

The top 20 most Popular Craft Sites on Crafty Tips are primarily offering free projects; only a handful are straightforward links to a commercial site. The first link within the top 10 most Popular Craft Sites that is for a commercial site advertises both free advice and free patterns.

SEO Anyone?

C’mon now, I hope you’ve not missed my oh-so-obvious mentions of how to use free patterns and project sheets to increase your search engine rankings? The easiest SEO – search engine optimization is that done through your site’s content and internal links.

Project & How To Writing Time

So what’cha waiting for, get busy and create some great patterns, projects and how to’s for you site.

04/28/04 – My apologies to anyone who would like to leave a comment on this entry. This particular page has been targeted by a group of porn peddlers. You would think since their trackbacks are being deleted and not posted they would go find somewhere else to peddle their filth. I’m done deleting their 10 posts a day and hopefully they will move on to someone who might actually want to see the crap they are peddling.