Image by TheAlienness Gisela Giardino, via Flickr Creative Commons

In this show:

• To further our ongoing discussion of Free and how it affects the craft community, I share my own story of Free. In some ways, Free has created my business. In others, it’s created big challenges.

• I talk about the most important by-product of Free: community.

• …And once again, I welcome your comments on this very complex subject.

Links:

Here’s the discussions we’ve been having about Free so far:

• Paul Overton shares his experiences with Free on Make & Meaning, with Free: a Case Study.

• Paul and I also did a podcast about free a while back.

• Here’s a piece I did on Make & Meaning, Free is Not a Marketing Tool. Some really interesting discussion in the comments.

• Kim Werker did an excellent post on her blog about how Free can lead to getting paid, but what you have to do to make that happen.

• We also did a liveblog event at Make & Meaning about Free. You can read the transcript here.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Image by Tara Swiger

In this show:

• An interview with Tara Swiger, an accomplished knitting teacher who has a lot of interesting things to say about teaching a craft.

• We talk about what it’s like to teach one-on-one vs. in a group setting.

• Some discussion of how different people’s learning styles affect their approach to crafting, and how a good teacher can help

• Some good ideas for starting up a teaching practice in your own community.

Links:

• Check out Tara’s online yarn store, Blonde Chicken Boutique, and her new brick-and-mortar shop, A Novel Yarn.

• Want to meet Tara on Twitter? Here she is!.

• And I highly recommend Tara’s Learn to Knit Kit of you feel knitting-challenged.

You might also enjoy this interview Kim Werker did with Tara about social media and crafty businesses.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Images by Kristin Roach

In this show:

• An interview with Kristin Roach, who turned a fun blog idea, Craft Leftovers, into a full-time business… one step at a time.

• Some discussion on the value of just trying stuff – and being willing to accept successes and failures along the way.

• Helpful ideas on the value of finding those intermediate steps between you and your big business goals.

• …And a really important emerging idea: finding ways to create small income opportunities for other crafters.

Links:

• Visit Craft Leftovers online, where you’ll find Kristin’s blog, shop, patterns and projects.

• Kristin’s zine, Craft Leftovers Monthly, is always a delight – and gives her an opportunity to pay her contributors.

• Kristin also runs a side business, K.r.o Studio, where she pursues her fine art, teaching, and community projects.

• Here’s that ebook we just released: Card. Paper. Ribbon.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Paul Overton returns to the show to discuss the idea of Free: how the internet’s abundance of free information both enhances and challenges our creative lives.

• We talk about lots of aspects of Free: how it builds community, how it challenges corporate interests, and how it launches crafty careers.

• …And we talk about some nuts and bolts of using Free in your own craft business.

Links:

We mentioned a whole lot of people in this show. Here they are:

• First, read Paul’s excellent post on Make & Meaning – Free: A Case Study

• …And this post by me, Free is Not a Marketing Tool.

• As you might expect from a discussion about Free on the web, we also mentioned Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, and John Jantsch.

• A really interesting book about the emerging economy of Free is (imagine this) Free, by Chris Anderson. You can get the book for free as an audiobook.

• Or, you can get the gist of the book via this blog post and video on Wired.com. (Thanks, Paul!)

• We also talked about some folks in the craft community who use Free well: Ann Wood, Lee Meredith, and Kathy Cano Murillo.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Hunter Coleman (a good friend of mine and a true accounting geek) helps us understand the tax side of a crafty business.

• Learn about what kinds of records you need to be keeping, what forms you need to fill out, and what to do if record-keeping makes your brain sad.

• Do you need to hire a bookkeeper, or should you do it all yourself?

Links:

Hunter was kind enough to link us to the appropriate tax forms on IRS.gov:

• Form 8829, Home Office Expenses
• Form 8829’s instruction booklet

• Publication 535, General Business Expenses (That link goes to the 2008 edition, btw.)

• Schedule C: Business Profit or Loss
• Schedule C’s instruction booklet

For more detail on the differences between hobby and business income, Hunter recommends these links:

• IRS’s 8 Important Questions for Hobby Income.
• Hobby vs. Business Income, from Motley Fool.

If you have royalty income to report on your taxes, Hunter recommends this article from eHow.

If you’re looking for accounting software, try these links:

• Here’s a nice, simple roundup of options from Mashable.

• This comparison of ten major accounting packages offers an in-depth look at what they can do.

• For a craft-focused take on this question, try this Etsy forum thread.

…And if you’re looking for tax preparation software, TurboTax and TaxCut are major brands.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

• Let’s look at Engagement Marketing, a very important tool for your crafty business in the internet age.

• We’ll talk about how blogging, Twitter and Facebook can help you reach new customers… if you use them wisely.

• We’ll also look at the most common online marketing mistakes I’ve seen crafty business owners make in 2009.

Links:

If you want to go deeper into these ideas, check out my ebooks:

• Making a Great Blog: A Guide for Creative People

• Creating a Blog Audience: An Unconventional Marketing Guide

• Social Media for your Crafty Business

You might also like these engagement-marketing resources from around the web:

• Trust Agents is a book well worth reading.

• Its co-author, Chris Brogan, writes a great blog.

• Another worthwhile book: The Whuffie Factor, by Tara Hunt.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- It’s a CraftyPod tradition: the annual interview with my Mom, Pam Harris!

- Mom talks about her first year as a blogger, and about being a blogger from a different generation than a lot of the online craft community.

- She also answers questions sent in by listeners – some pretty great ones!

Links:

- Many thanks to these people for submitting questions for this show:

- Rachel Klein
- Cassi Griffin
- Hanna Andersson
- Margo
- Debbs
- Chris Miser
- Debbi Crane
– Denise Duclos

- Check out Mom’s blog, Gingerbread Snowflakes.

Want to hear Mom’s past podcasts? Here they are:

- Show #65: Gingerbread Houses

- Show #81: Making a Season

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- If you want to make your living in craft, are there other ways besides opening an online store selling handmade goods? You bet there are! Jennifer Chau did it – learn more about her business, Label Tulip.

- Consider all the skills you’ve learned in your various corporate jobs. Any of them could be applied in a crafty context – and this opens a lot of new opportunities up for you.

- Learn how Jennifer did just that – used her corporate-world skills to find a great crafty business.

<Links:

- Check out Jennifer’s business, Label Tulip.

Update Note, 2/10/10:

If you follow the link here, you’ll notice that LabelTulip.com is not currently operating. I don’t know what prompted Jennifer to take down her website, and I don’t know whether this change is temporary or permanent.

Whether Label Tulip has succeeded or not, this idea is applicable to you and your creative business endeavors. So, enjoy.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- With so many blogs, so many projects, and so much crafty Goodness on the web every day, how can we hope to keep up? Rachel Klein, of One Pretty Thing, gives us some tips.

- Learn how Rachel manages to read over 4000 blogs and websites each week, rounding up the best links for her amazing website.

- Apply Rachel’s strong organizational skills to your craft projects, too.

Links:

- If you haven’t already, do visit One Pretty Thing. It’s a fantastic resource, week in and week out.

- Also, Rachel mentioned this Design*Sponge article about running an advertising program on your blog.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Chocolate Moelleux, photo by Kathy. NOM NOM NOM.

In this show:

- An interview with Kathy High (aka Adoxograph), a professional chef who approaches cooking from an almost crafty perspective.

- Find out how food inspiration can be found everywhere – even science fiction.

- Learn what you need to stock a good pantry, and make amazing food regardless of the season.

Tasty Links:

- Visit Kathy’s blog, Gelatin Sheets, especially this recipe for Chocolate Moelleux, which will pretty much guarantee you a happy life. And also, this one for Rhubarb Ginger Ale.

- …And in this video, she makes gougeres look easy.

- Catch up with Kathy on Twitter – always a good time.

- And here she is on Facebook.

- Speaking of food, Kathy’s partner has his own YouTube series: Watch Me Eat.

Bon Appetit!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- An interview with Pat Riesenburger, who works with brick-and-mortar craft store owners. She writes a great blog: The Crafty Retailer.

- Get an interesting glimpse into the world of crafty retailing: competing with big-box stores, a tough economy, and the internet.

- Learn some ways to support your favorite local craft stores.

Links:

- Check out The Crafty Retailer, and recommend it to your local store owners.

- Pat’s two businesses are Access Crystal and Aussie Threads & Fibers.

- I love these Portland indie craft stores:

Twisted
Cool Cottons
Gossamer
Collage
The Knittn’ Kitten

…What are your favorites in your city?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- We celebrate CraftyPod’s 100th episode! My partner Katin interviews me, asking questions provided by you.

- Conversation ranges from the ins and out of podcasting to the wider world of the craft community.

- And, I say Thank You.

Links:

- My thanks to everyone who submitted a question on this show:

Wendy Osborne (Please let me know if I can add your link!)
Kim Frazier
Harley Dee
Meg Moynahan
Dorothy Walker
Elise Bond
Alice Merlino
Rachel Hobson
Katie Vandeur
Michelle Jones
Kim Werker
Dawn Anderson

- If you’d like to see all the questions and answers that didn’t fit in the podcast, they’re right here .

- News on the big prize drawing for questioners is coming soon!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- Patricia Zapata talks about how graphic design affects her crafting, and vice versa.

- Some discussion of how design principles can be beneficial to a small crafty business.

- Suggestions for developing your “design eye.”

Links:

- Check out Patricia’s craft blog, A Little Hut .

- You might also be curious about Patricia’s graphic design business, Zapata Design.

- …And check out Patricia’s book, Home, Paper, Scissors.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In this show:

- Some straight talk about crafty publishing: what’s it really like to have a craft book published the traditional way? And what’s it like to publish a crafty ebook?

- Plus, a short interview with June Gilbank, who sells self-published crochet patterns, and has a print book in progress, and has just released a crafty ebook.

- If you dream of writing a craft book, this show aims to bring you solid information and perspective.

June Gilbank’s Links:

- You may be familiar with June’s wonderful crochet patterns . Have you also seen Folding Trees, the blog she co-authors on paper craft?

- June’s ebook, The Punchneedle Handbook, provides high-quality instruction. And she’s designed a lot of cute punchneedle patterns, too.

Self-Publishing Links:

- Sound advice for authors, from Seth Godin, via Publetariat.

- (And by the way, Publetariat is itself an excellent resource.)

- Self-publishers will also find tons of great blog posts, links, and podcasts on the subject at The Creative Penn.

- An interesting Wall Street Journal article for the curious: How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write.

Some Crafty Ebooks:

- Needlepointer Janet Perry offers a series of ebooks on the craft.

- Leigh Ann Tennant has released an ebook of sewing projects for new mothers, called sewExpecting

- Lee Meredith has an ebook of 10-yard knitted cuffs.

- Carina has a lovely ebook of embroidery stitches and patterns.

- Did I mention that I have a couple of them as well?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

A set of Ryan’s new photo blocks

In this show:

- And interview with Ryan McAbery , who was a top seller on Etsy, and then decided to walk away from it.

- Learn what drove Ryan to leave her business behind, and what’s bringing her fresh inspiration now.

- Gain some perspective on the benefits and drawbacks of having a very busy handmade business.

Links:

- Visit Ryan’s new Etsy shop, and see her photography blocks and pendants.

- In Ryan’s blog, All Things Littleput, she shares new designs, snippets of her now-balanced life, and some musings on starting over in business.

- Check out Ryan’s current home – Portland Saturday Market.

- This “Quit Your Day-Job” article on The Storque about Ryan’s top-seller business was published in September 2007.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.