Scrapbooking Full Time – How to Make Money from Your Hobby
by Veronica Stone on January 18th, 2008
Do you dream of making a living doing something you love? It might not be such an impossible dream if that passion is scrapbooking . This multi-billion dollar industry continues to grow, and for those with the passion and the commitment, the way is open for businesses large and small to succeed.
Scrapbooking has been described by the Wall Street Journal as a "cottage industry", but even that sharp suited magazine had to admit that it is "remarkably well organized" and mostly run by women.
A career in scrapbooking offers many advantages, especially to the stay at home mom. This is a business you can run from home, giving you time to attend to your most important job – being a mom – as well as giving you extra income, social contacts and the good feeling of being able to share something you love.
One of the quickest and easiest paths into a scrapbooking career is through a direct sales company such as Creative Memories. These consultancies offer a greater creative challenge than the traditional party plan sales, because you can hold workshops, crop meets and classes to build your customer base.
If you are very experienced at scrapbooking and know a lot of techniques, you can cut straight to the chase and set up your own scrapbooking consultancy. Advertise in the local newspaper, or leave a notice at your public library. Tell everyone you know, because word of mouth is an excellent promotional tool.
Among the services you can offer are lessons and workshops, and scrapbooking for busy people. Someone out there wants a scrapbook, but can’t find the time to do it themselves? You bet. Scrapbooks are not just the product of a great hobby, they are a desirable possession. Offer your expertise to those too time-poor to do their own pages. Spread the word around your friends and acquaintances that you are available to create scrapbooks for special occasions like weddings, births and anniversaries.
You will need to find a scrapbooking wholesaler to supply you with cheaper scrapbooking products, as buying your supplies from scrapbooking stores will quickly see you out of pocket.
Another way you can share your scrapbooking expertise is to set up a website. Bring visitors to your site by offering free content, such as scrapbooking tips and hints, and start building up your income with advertising, Google Adsense, and/or affiliate programs. You can use the site to advertise your consultancy business as well, and start up a premium subscription newsletter. The more subscribers you have, the more you can charge for advertising, and the more free content you can offer your subscribers – which will encourage more traffic.
If you’re good at making your own embellishments for scrapbooking, why not offer them for sale on eBay? Most embellishments, like decorated tags, are small and light, so it is easy to maintain a thriving mail order business without having to worry about storage space and postal costs. If you are good at computer art, and have a good printer, you can also design and print out pages and embellishments for sale on eBay.
Remember that customer feedback is the most important factor in eBay success. Only offer what you can deliver, send off your orders promptly as soon as the money is paid, and occasionally offer a little extra, like tucking a free gift into the order to encourage return customers.
Another way you can make money scrapbooking is to offer your creative knowledge to magazines and websites by writing scrapbooking articles. If you have good language and spelling skills and can describe simply and clearly the various techniques, you may even be able to get a column or paying blog.
You can collect all your material into a book and sell it from your website as an ebook, or offer it to publishers of craft books. Scrapbooking is a very popular hobby, and publishers are hungry for more material as its popularity grows.
Whichever path you choose, sharing your skills or selling your products, there is a job in the scrapbook industry for you!
