While this advice is relevant to established arts and crafts business owners, it's particularly useful for brand new startups.  Part of the whole gig for many arts and crafts business owners is exhibiting at craft shows.  Before you decide to whether to participate in a  particular arts and crafts show, try to attend it as a shopper.  Then you can eyeball the crowd and perhaps find a participating vendors who will share with you their impression of how worthwhile the show is to attend.

Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt.  Some artists and crafters may not want to encourage any additional competition or they may just have a booth layout that doesn't encourage sales.  While their experience may not be all that great, the show itself may be a winner for you.

One of my latest articles hi-lights taking the opportunity to add some holiday crafts to your product line for craft shows in 4th quarter.  And here's some just posted info about the Holiday Arts and Crafts show at the Butler Institute of American Art  in Youngstown, OH.

Image: © Hannamaria| Dreamstime.com

Wow, I've run across a bunch of good etsy.com info lately.  Here's part three of a series on marketing yourself, specifically pre-craft show preparation, which will also be applicable for online selling. 

You can access all three articles in the series by following this link.

I also have a ton of info (step-by-step basics) available on how to set up an etsy.com shop.

Also, check out my articles on how to set up an ArtFire.com studio.

Etsy.com has their June 2010 figures up. While sales went down slightly from the prior month, June 2010 sales dramatically increased from June 2009. Check out all the stats at the etsy.com website.

Additionally, there is a great article on the etsy.com website about the Handmade Toy Alliance's fight against the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. 

Rio Grande's catalog containing their gems, findings, displays and packaging for 2011 just arrived in my mailbox.  A separate catalog contains tools and equipment.  If you're not familiar with Rio Grande, I highly recommend you check out their website.

While many artisans feel Rio Grande is strictly a jewelry-making resource, even if you don't craft jewelry, work in PMC or metals, you'll probably find some cool stuff that will come in handy for your arts or crafts business.

Think you might want to expand into jewelry making? Tammy Powley is the Jewelry Making Guide at About.com. 

I've also written a couple of articles on the subject:

1. Basics of Soldering
2. Making Jewelry Using Cold Connections

Wood Jewelry Mold

 Luba V Nel | Dreamstime.com