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Is Selling Crochet Patterns Worth It? How to Make Money Selling Crochet Patterns

Often when starting a crochet business, the first thing people want to sell online is physical crochet items, however, you may have also heard about…

Often when starting a crochet business, the first thing people want to sell online is physical crochet items, however, you may have also heard about selling digital patterns and wondered: Is selling crochet patterns worth it? In this post, we’ll cover whether or not selling crochet patterns is really worth your time and effort and how you can get started.

The answer is yes! Selling crochet patterns is definitely worth it. Selling digital patterns requires very minimal production and supply costs and therefore has a much larger potential profit margin than selling physical items. It is also a great way to build and earn passive income as is a fully scalable business model. You only need to make each pattern once and it can be sold over and over again going forward.

Now let’s look at exactly how to get started selling crochet patterns and how much you can expect to make…

How Much Can You Make Selling Crochet Patterns?

The great news about selling crochet patterns is that you can make as much or as little as you want. The sky is the limit! This is because selling crochet patterns is primarily based on passive income, and selling digital products means that you will never be limited by how many items you can produce and sell based on your time.

The standard format for selling crochet patterns is in the form of a digitally downloadable PDF. This means that you’ll only be required to create the PDF once, and then you will be able to sell that file over and over again without any additional work.

Selling patterns is infinitely scalable. Once you have established your pattern business with a baseline of listings and have momentum going with sales, you can then be as hands-on or hands-off with the business as you want. You can always add more patterns to your shop and you can always grow and promote your business.

The downside of this, however, is that the growth of your pattern business is going to be up to you and the amount of work you put into growing and promoting your business.

If you’ve already set up your pattern store and are ready to start growing your business, I’ve also written an article all about how to do that: How to Grow Your Handmade Business for Beginners

How Much Should You Sell a Crochet Pattern for?

A typical crochet pattern should be priced between $2 and $10. Charging too little for your pattern may cause customers to view your pattern as lacking value or ‘cheap’, and charging too much for your pattern will not allow you to be competitive with other pattern sellers.

The best way to find out what you should be charging for your particular pattern is to do market research. See what similar patterns are currently selling for, and stay around that price.

Pattern prices will also scale with the amount of work they require to complete. Patterns for smaller items like toys, socks, hats, or cup cozies will generally be priced lower than large projects like blankets, pillows, sweaters, or cardigans.

Pro tip: Once you’ve established your core pattern line for your shop, bundling different patterns together can be a great way to produce extra sales. Try bundling similar items together, like hats and gloves, toys and toy accessories, or several of the same type of item. For example, you may bundle several different sweater patterns into one listing.

Pattern bundles should cost slightly less than the included patterns that would be combined on their own. This will encourage buyers to spend more in your shop while also saving money.

Where to Sell Your Crochet Patterns

Etsy

Getting started with pattern selling on Etsy is super easy and straightforward. Setting up a digital storefront here is really user-friendly and, if you have any trouble, Etsy provides great customer service and support for sellers.

As a crochet business owner, I make a majority of my income (5 figures a month consistently) on Etsy alone! If you’d like to get a jumpstart on opening your Etsy shop the right way, be sure to grab my Etsy Launch Checklist for Crochet Business Owners!

To start selling your crochet pattern, all you need to do is create a new listing, fill out the prompts with relevant information, and add the PDF file to the downloadable files section of the listing.

If you choose to have automatic renewal on your pattern listings on Etsy, your pattern will automatically be available to buy again after each sale. This means you won’t have to do any upkeep and you can spend that saved time focusing on creating new patterns instead.

If you’re interested in learning more about the pros and cons of Etsy for crochet sellers, I’ve covered it in more detail in this post: Where Is the Best Place to Sell Crochet Items?

Additionally, if you’d like to start your new Etsy shop with 40 free listings, you are welcome to use my referral link.

Ravelry

Ravelry is a digital marketplace similar to Etsy, but it is specifically for buying and selling crochet and knit patterns.

Listing your patterns on Ravelry is a good idea even if you do not specifically want to sell them there, as anyone can point to patterns all across the web on Ravelry. If you don’t do it, someone else probably will.

The uploading process for Ravelry is slightly more complicated than Etsy, but if you follow the prompts for listing a pattern you shouldn’t have too much difficulty.

From there, you can choose to list the pattern in your Ravelry shop, upload the PDF file, and set a price. Ravelry operates through PayPal, so it may be beneficial to set up a new or separate Paypal account specifically for your pattern business.

If you decide to list your patterns on both Etsy and Ravelry, be sure to link to the Etsy listing page of the pattern within the Ravelry listing. I have personally found that doing this not only drives some traffic from Ravelry to my Etsy shop, but some of the traffic from Ravelry end up purchasing a pattern from my Etsy shop instead.

Your Own Website

If you have a website or blog dedicated to your crochet business, it may be a great idea to take advantage of that incoming traffic and start selling crochet patterns there as well.

Most commonly, crochet sellers will offer their patterns on their websites or blogs for free while running ads, and then direct their readers who are interested in an ad-free version to the paid PDF of the pattern on their Etsy and Ravelry stores.

Another reason you might want to start selling patterns on your own website or blog is if you have a social media following around your crochet hobby or brand. Driving traffic and making sales on your own website will give you more control over your business and lower the cost of fees for each sale, therefore increasing your overall profit margin.