ive been building

Klicker · April 04, 2014, 03:42:36 PM

Is there a local farmers market near you I think you wood do well. Rod

yukon cornelius · April 04, 2014, 07:54:29 PM

there is a few around us. we have been thinking about those. we went to a swap meet last sunday but we didn't make the entrance fee back. we are going to try it again this sunday. my wife sold a couple things a t a craft show. I have a ton of stuff made up to sell. anyone use etsy.com?

hackberry jake · April 04, 2014, 08:08:03 PM

I have bought a few things off etsy but never sold anything. Its a neat idea for a website. We need more of things like etsy to keep the american dollar at home.

yukon cornelius · April 04, 2014, 08:23:51 PM

we have been on there for 3 weeks and we have sold 2 things but only a total of $23. that's not going to go far. I think it is will pick up. I hope anyway. I love the idea of it. we need to beat the pavement and keep trying to sell things.

Klicker · April 08, 2014, 09:26:15 PM

We have been doing the farmers market for a couple of years

yukon cornelius · April 08, 2014, 09:56:56 PM

we have done a swap meet the last two weeks. we have only done sunday which is really against what I like to do. my oldest son has a few more weeks of Saturday morning soccer. anyway the first sunday was brutal only selling a birdhouse that my son made. we didn't even make our entry fee back. last sunday we scored! we sold a ton of things. we didn't quite make what we have to make per week but close. its been over several weeks since we made anything so it was nice.

Klicker · April 08, 2014, 11:44:21 PM

Swap and flee markets most people want a deal I find you or I get a better price at the farmers market.

yukon cornelius · April 09, 2014, 12:42:05 AM

that is some great advice. I felt I have been giving my work away there but I have to make something so some money is better than none. I know most people will say you have to make a fair wage but when your out of money a fair wage isn't nearly as high. when I can no longer keep up without demand then prices can be adjusted. not to complain but our family has had some hard hard times this last year. too bad I cant pay my electric bill with porch swings or log furniture. I could see it now. "honey we really need to start conserving electricity. our bill is 3 shelves and a pie safe this month!" on the same lines I would love to see the world go to a barter system.

thecfarm · April 09, 2014, 09:10:04 AM

Never know what people will buy. My area would be hard to sell big items. People just don't have the money. Small stuff,$10-30 will sell.
Bundle up some fire starter wood.

yukon cornelius · April 09, 2014, 10:06:48 AM

that's another great idea! its also grilling season, ive been wanting to run some hickory limbs through the shredder for smoking wood and selling bags of it. if it would sell it would be low cost and low labor in it.

ScottAR · April 15, 2014, 12:18:35 AM

I don't what your local markets are but here one could rent a space at a flea market/ consignment shop.
You take your goods in and price em, the cashier rings it out to your space and ya settle up at the end of the week or whatever. I know several folks that do this for extra money.

Ya never know what will work. I have a friend who is retired and enjoys making oil paintings. He has them displayed at a couple doctor's offices. He sold one last week for $500.

yukon cornelius · April 15, 2014, 08:52:03 PM

hey scott, we have been looking for one of those spaces. the only one we have found with an opening was way off the beaten path in a little town. we will keep shopping.

etsy is slow it seems. we get around 30 views a day. we have sold 5 items in a month which is pretty good!small items though. we keep plugging away.

rrrun · May 20, 2014, 11:37:16 PM

Love the planter boxes. The Lady has been after me to build some just like those, but I've avoided her so far. But time is running out....

yukon cornelius · May 20, 2014, 11:46:18 PM

I shipped a few out to California recently. well ya know I could build them for ya and send em out there....then you could say you built them. im only looking out for you ;)

Jason_AliceMae Farms · May 22, 2014, 10:39:51 AM

Yukon - what is your shop name on etsy? I have used it in the past but no real success but I also was not working it too hard since I did not have a lot to sell. I am thinking about reactivating my account and would also like to see what you have up for sale.

mesquite buckeye · May 22, 2014, 07:15:55 PM

So, like where is the wheatland with all that rock?????

smiley_biggrin01

Seriously, I really like your stuff. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

Do you have access to black locust? Also really good for outdoor use.

yukon cornelius · May 22, 2014, 09:35:45 PM

the wheat is not too far from us. we are only a few miles from some really flat land. we are near Truman lake and its not so flat at all.

thanks for the compliment!

I really enjoy making this stuff.

rrrun · May 24, 2014, 01:57:08 PM

I've just started making stuff for sale. There was a local Street Fair with some crafts & some corporate businesses ... solar energy, real estate, etc., along side the hand made stuff. I'm doing cutting boards and cheese boards ... I've sold about 20 items in 4 days of the Fair. Interesting, I'm now getting follow up business as people want to buy one more, get one for a present, etc. Still not making enough money to pay my lumber bill, but I am making progress. Promotion is key: facebook, website, etc. Your stuff can be really cool, but if no one sees it, it doesn't matter. We haven't tried a swap meet yet, but intend to check a few of those out over the next several weeks. Definitely intend to do several craft fairs leading up to Christmas.

jueston · May 28, 2014, 08:29:11 AM

i've made some stuff to sell at craft fairs and have not had much luck, but i'll tell you what has done the best for me, which i would not have expected. charity auctions. i gave away cutting boards and wine holders to a few local charity auctions, after that i got a single order for 40 of them, and several smaller orders, which kept me busy for months. giving away 3 or 4 of them was the best advertising you can get.

i haven't been focusing on that for a while now, because i've been busy, but if i was going to return to that i'd make a really good website and an etsy store, have some cards professionally made and leave them with the wooden things i give away to charity auctions. i think that would be a better use of my time then the craft fairs based on my experiences...

thecfarm · May 28, 2014, 08:43:39 AM

The small things,low price items,$20-30.would sell in my area. The brenches and the beds,people may want,but the money part says no. :(

yukon cornelius · May 29, 2014, 12:06:15 AM

jueston if you start an etsy store let me know and we can be a team. im not sure exactly how it works but something like extra promoting of each others stores. we did donate a porch swing to a charity auction but our name was not on it.

cfarm no one around here has any money for anything it seems. I laughed at some of the junk I saw people buying at swap meets and told my wife our stuff was too nice. I thought if I would run over some of our stuff it would sell. the only thing I sold at the last one was a headboard that fell over in the trailer and got scuffed pretty bad. :D oh yeah then we got it back since it didn't fit. its weird that a queen headboard doesn't fit a full bed. that's another thread.

jueston · May 29, 2014, 10:21:18 AM

the thing about etsy i have been told, and experienced to some small degree, is that etsy doesn't sell your items for you. if you put your items on etsy and then sit and wait for them to sell, you'll be sitting and waiting a long time. you need to create an etsy site and then find ways to drive people there. i think a lot of people use craft fairs to advertise there etsy site as much as sell stuff.

but i'm no expert at selling my wood projects.

if only this 9-5 wasn't taking so much of my time i could spend more time in the shop! ussually in the winter things slow down in the office and i have more time to play in my shop. i'll let you know if i get back in the game.

yukon cornelius · May 29, 2014, 04:23:17 PM

jueston that is accurate to a degree. etsy has a lot of ties that gets your products seen. it shows shop stats that tracks where traffic to your page comes from and numbers of views broke down. I have seen siites like google, bing, the find, rockanddirt, architectural design, log cabin forums our own forestry forum and several others shown as places people have found our stuff. so they put it out there pretty well as far as im concerned. shipping is a huge problem and expense. for instance a simple log bench we made was going to cost several hundred dollars to ship about 4 hours from here. it just barely exceded the dimensions to ship standard ground transport so it would have to ship freight. when the bench is $100 and shipping is well over $300....well deal squashed. small items ship easily. number of items in your shop is a big key. we sell about 2-3 items a month on there and we are new. have about 30 items in our shop and get 30 to 50 views on average a day. when we had 10- 15 items we would have 10-15 views a day. its just one more place to get seen. we also direct people to our shop through craft shows and fairs. we see a huge spike after each show. it is very cool to know that something made in my shop by my hands is going all over the country. it doesn't take much to amuse me ;D

36 coupe · July 11, 2014, 07:05:28 AM

Quote from: thecfarm on May 28, 2014, 08:43:39 AM
The small things,low price items,$20-30.would sell in my area. The brenches and the beds,people may want,but the money part says no. :(

A fellow who made bird feeders told me that 30.00 was the limit.Any thing over that wont sell.Ive built picnic tables for 35 years.Last year and this year are very slow.In past years I could sell 50 tables and had a dealer that sold 40.Its hard to sell on a busy highway and I wouldnt even try on a dead end road.I built pine Adirondack chairs for a while but cant compete against the 15.00 plastic chairs.Times are hard for most people here and it will get worse.

mesquite buckeye · July 11, 2014, 12:15:55 PM

Quote from: 36 coupe on July 11, 2014, 07:05:28 AM
Quote from: thecfarm on May 28, 2014, 08:43:39 AM
The small things,low price items,$20-30.would sell in my area. The brenches and the beds,people may want,but the money part says no. :(
A fellow who made bird feeders told me that 30.00 was the limit.Any thing over that wont sell.Ive built picnic tables for 35 years.Last year and this year are very slow.In past years I could sell 50 tables and had a dealer that sold 40.Its hard to sell on a busy highway and I wouldnt even try on a dead end road.I built pine Adirondack chairs for a while but cant compete against the 15.00 plastic chairs.Times are hard for most people here and it will get worse.

BTW, 36, where is here for the rest of us? ??? ???

Enquiring minds want to know. ;D