What if I told you that you could make money in knit design?
Think about thisโฆ How often do you talk about knitting? Likeโฆ your go-to yarn, your favorite stitch, that tip that changed your life, the best yarn shop in town, or the new Netflix series you can watch while knittingโฆ you get the point. We love to tell people about the things we love and enjoy.
To some extent, we all do it, and knit design well done can be a monetarily rewarding version of you sharing your very favorite things.
In this post, Iโll go a little deeper into, give a few tangible tips for doing it the right way, and offer up my advice on finding and choosing the right brands to work with.
Serving
Before you even pitch a brand, you need to make sure you have two solid things: a foundation of trust with your audience and personal experience with the brand or product.
How do you build trust? Start giving your recommendations for free so that you build up your audience’s trust over time. If you start by serving, theyโll start considering you as a friend and expert.
Creativity
Itโs a creative job so the more creative you are, the better.
How do you express yourself? And how do you incorporate creativity in your daily life?
It’s easy to find out what you are fascinated with and inspired. Collect examples of styles, find colors right for you, or draw inspiration from your own lifestyle and focus on things that will make you excited and happy.
Then start expressing yourself, one knitted item at a time. As you become better at seeing and assessing the crazy fabulous market of yarn and fiber out there, you will learn to tune into your own special creative juices.
People
Met your audience where they are and deliver their biggest need. I took the time to really listen to my audience’s struggles, figured out what a solution would be, and then shared the offer in a way that spoke to those who were ready for it.
Remember to stay authentic, like youโre talking to a friend. Keep promoting yourself in the same way youโd talk about your WIP or share a new favorite yarn.
Original
Itโs easy to look at what other knit designers are doing and imitate. If you think outside of the box and use your personal story, people will relate to it.
Donโt be afraid to experiment. The best part of being your own boss is you get to test and see what works because youโre in control of how and when you share.
Bonus
I am always looking for ways to add a bonus.
Whether I throw in free patterns, create an extra blog post to teach some accompanying information, or pass along bonus knowledge to heighten their results, I am always trying to figure out how to give my audience a bonus.
Search for affiliate
Affiliate marketing is an awesome way to share stuff you love and generate income. Plus, itโs a fun way to get new free products or credits toward your favorite products!
If youโve found a product you love and use, go check to see if the company already has an existing affiliate program or a way for you to have a referral code and incentive to share.
Strategy
A successful knit design story doesnโt happen by chance. Thereโs a lot of strategies involved.
How you share, where you share, and how you can serve your audience well by sharing.
There are so many ways you can prime your audience and create a true marketing strategy around what it is you will share.
You can leverage social media, email lists, podcasts, blogs, and more, so build a strategy thatโs service-based and consistent, so youโre not bombarding your audience with opportunities all day or popping in with a code seemingly at random every other month!
I hope you are feeling supported and enabled to kick-start your own knit design journey. So share what you love and always check in with yourself to make sure youโre still in alignment with your bigger dreams and vision for your life!