Do I even need the internet or social media for marketing?

[Dave Cav]

First, a little background. I'm a retired shop teacher. I retired a couple of years ago and my wife and I moved from Western Washington to far Northern Utah. We built a house and shop, and I spent most of the last two years building furniture for the new house, fixtures for the shop and occasional projects for neighbors. In the past I would build furniture commissions in the summer for friends and relatives and was generally able to cover my day to day costs. Now that the house is finished I would like to expand the "business" and try to make a little more money, although I'm not dependent on the shop income for survival. I've been using computers since the early '80s, although I am most comfortable with business type software, not web based or graphic products. I don't do CAD or have any interest at this time in expanding into computer machining or laser engraving.

For the most part I build anything from boxes to medium-large furniture pieces, anything I can move by myself and put in my truck. I'm not interested in handyman work, remodels, built ins or, generally speaking, furniture refinishing or restoration. I don't want to crate and ship stuff, and I don't want to make 100 cutting boards every week.

At this point all of my marketing has been by word of mouth. I don't have a web site, business cards, or any social media presence AT ALL. I would prefer not to work on the web, as that seems like an additional complication and additional work and expense. I have already decided I will not be doing any E-commerce. I don't know ANYTHING about Facebook, Pintrest, Instragram or any of the other mobile phone time wasters that so many people seem to be addicted to. I have a couple of somewhat younger friends, both of whom have some experience in internet based business. They both agree that I need a website, and one of them suggested Wix for both domain name registration and web hosting. The other one suggested Pinterest; the first one said no, I needed Instragram.

I agree that I probably do need a basic web site to show my portfolio and provide contact information, but that opens another can of worms. Do I go with a cheap domain name registration service like Go Daddy or NameCheap, or something a little more high end? Shared or dedicated server? And what in the hell is Word Press?

We have a very small Farmer's Market here in town that runs for about three or four hours every Saturday in the summer. My next door neighbor has been pretty successful selling his turned bowls there for the last few years and manages to keep about as busy as he wants to. I thought I would set up a small booth there with some handicraft type items to attract attention, and have my portfolio handy so people could see what I can make. If that's somewhat successful, there is a much bigger farmer's market in the county seat about 12 miles away I could try. However, I'm not going to go on the craft fair circuit and spend all summer on the road. My parents tried that when they retired, and it was a huge time suck with very little return.

So what to do? I mostly just want to make sawdust, build interesting projects, and not build a life-consuming business organization, as I have other interests outside woodworking, and would like to have time for them, too.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

[roger wiegand]

Having a basic web site so that people can find you if they are looking would seem to be a minimum. It's quick and cheap to set up, no need for anything elaborate. A basic cheap or free site from the likes of GoDaddy or Weebly will do fine, no reason to be more elaborate if you're not doing ecommerce, and certainly no reason to fool with setting up your own server. You don't need to worry about what Wordpress is until you decide you need something more a lot more sophisticated. It's nice to have your own domain name, so people go to daveswoodworking.com rather than dave56738.weebly.com. That will probably cost you an extra 30-40 bucks a year. Your web hosting account will also give you an email address that uses your domain name, so you can be dave@ daveswoodworking.com.

Get yourself some business cards, they're dirt cheap online, the folks at the farmers market need one to call you back.

A basic Facebook page (again, simple and free) would be a next step. A place to show some pictures of your stuff, and again, a way for people to find you if they are looking.

I can't imagine any business without these basics, it'd be like doing business in 1970 without a telephone. Yes, it can be done but why make life hard on your potential customers?

If you decide to do any short run production work an outlet like Etsy can help you sell more broadly without the hassle, pain and expense of doing craft shows or setting up your own ecommerce site.

[Jim Becker]

You don't need to go "hog wild" with online presence, but honestly, in this day and age, you still need one even if you primarily get work via referral. As has been noted, at a minimum, you need an accessible portfolio because trust me, you are going to get asked for the URL by prospective clients.

While I have had minimal identifiable "success" to-date with my own online presence for the business, it's provided a way to do the portfolio thing easily and I do get exposure to potential new folks when I post completed work on my Facebook business page. You just never know when someone might say to someone else, "I saw this work by so-and-so that similar to what you want. Here, let me show you the post."

One thing...I invested in a PO Box for the business so that I do not ever have to reveal a physical address to anyone who I do not already know or have at least met in some reasonable fashion. I don't do retail.

[Ron Citerone]

What Roger Said.

[Harold Balzonia]

I started with the exact same thoughts when I decided to sell my stuff. I know NOTHING about computers and social media but we do have a web page and a Facebook page. (I’m not personally on the social media platforms but my business partner is and he handles all of it, thank goodness).

The bottom line is you probably should have a website so people can see your work and also a brief “about the artist” page so people can get to know who you are and how you work etc.... I’ve found people who buy my stuff are interested in what I make but also equally interested in the process, where I get the wood, etc...

if you do even one craft show, make sure you have business cards. You can get 1000 of them for less than $20 online and it’s very simple. You don’t need a fancy logo or graphic arts.

its not so much for “marketing” as it is just letting people know you’re a legitimate business/craftsman/artist. If you’re like me you don’t actually want to “market” yourself and get a huge business running. I do this for fun and profit enough for it to pay for itself and put a little money in my pocket.

Whenever I do a show people grab business cards like they are worth something and a million times, I get asked “do you have a website where I can see more of what you do?” Yes I do.

For me, it’s worth it, it takes no maintenance or upkeep.... I just add new pictures once in a while.

[Kev Williams]

All you need is google- without me asking or authorizing whatsoever, google created an 'online shop' for me. They have pics and directions to my house. I finally gave in and added my 2 cents as to what it is I do, and after I found out it was showing me open 24 hours, I put in some open/closed times. When holidays come around I get an email asking if I want to change hours or add some different info. I can add my own pics if I want. And they list customer ratings. It's actually a bit disconcerting that they were able to do this with no input from me at all. My wife has had a basic google account for years, and I eventually picked up a free gmail account. Guess that's how it started. I suppose they'll happily create one for you if you ask, but how to go about asking, I have no clue! The google listing gets me about 15 phone calls a week, more than I want actually...

[Zachary Hoyt]

Almost everything I sell is sold online and mailed to the customer. I have been on Etsy for 10 years and also sell on Banjo Hangout and a few other places, and three years ago I got a website. I put it off till then because I was intimidated by the process of setting up a site, but it's not hard nowadays. I used WordPress and have been very happy with them. My experience of craft shows and our local farmers market was that on a good day I might sell $100 or even more of wooden stuff (mainly twig furniture, back then, and coasters and such) but a lot of the time I didn't even make enough to cover my table fee. I much prefer selling online, it saves me a lot of wasted time sitting around or answering the same three questions over and over. My website costs me just over $100 per year, that way I get a URL with just my website name and .com instead of .wordpress.com. My site is at hoytbanjos.com if you're interested. I wrote the content and do all of the updates.
Zach

[Dave Cav]

Thanks; lots of good information and a few things I hadn't thought of. Right now I'm working on a domain and then will probably use Wix to build a basic web site. After I get that out of the way I'll see about local farmer's markets, and worry about social media a bit later.

[Jim Becker]

Be sure you set the business up with a small business accountant's advise relative to taxes and liability, including insurance before you "put yourself out there". It's a cruel world we live in... (You hopefully have already done this...)

[miki samor]

If you want that people know your site you need to promote it in internet with using different marketing tools like digital marketing