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Another Great Craft Article
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Crafts To Make And Sell.com
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How to Use the Free Web Tool
WordPot
to Find Good Selling Crafts

by Dusty Foster
Copyright (c) 2007

If you haven't found a craft you want to devote your time to, it may be because you're not sure what people are in the market to buy.

The good news is there are many software tools on the Internet that can show you what people are looking to buy online. And if they're looking for these items on the Internet, their probably looking for them off-line in your own community, too.

Start by making a list of craft ideas that interest you, such as quilt making, leather crafts and jewelry designing. Then I'll show you how to take this list and plug one item at a time into the free online software tool. You'll discover how many people all over the county have used search engines to look for that particular item in the previous month.

You'll clearly see what items people are looking and HOW MANY PEOPLE searched for them during the previous one-month period You no longer have to guess if people are looking for the items. In minutes you can discover what phrases thousands of people typed into the search engines!

How to use the free solftware tool called WordPot:

Go to WordPot's website at www.wordpot.com .

Now, enter into WordPot's box a word relating to the craft you're thinking of making.

For example, if you type "quilt" into WordPot, you'll discover that thousands of people typed that word into search engines just last month. But keep in mind, not all these people were looking to BUY a quilt. Many may have been looking for pictures of antique quilts or for quilting supplies.

You'll see two columns of numbers to the right of each word or phrase. If the two numbers are the same, it means the searcher typed that EXACT WORD OR PHRASE into the search engines. If the numbers are different, that means the word or phrase on the left was PART OF THE PHRASE typed in by the searcher.

By clicking on the phrases that have different numbers, you'll get another list of phrases related to the word or phrase you typed in.

There are loads of search engines on the Internet. Google is just the most widely used. Although WordPot doesn't glean it's data from every search engine, it reaches enough of them for us to get a very good idea of what people are looking for.

So for example, if you type 'baby quilts' into WordPot and receive a number like 625, you can be sure that over 1,000 people typed this phrase into various search engines in the previous month. Multiply that by 12 months and you'll see there are lots of people looking for stuff related to baby quilts!

It's not possible to remember all the WordPot results, so copy and paste the most interesting lists into a text (.txt) document so you can print your lists and analyze them. Be sure to give each list a heading with the exact phrase you typed into WordPot which produced that list.

Keep in mind that some crafts are very seasonal and therefore the numbers will fluxuate widely during the year. For example, if you enter the phrase "handmade christmas stocking" into Wordpot in May or June, you may get "No results". But the same phrase can produce a very high number in December and January. (Remember, you're getting the statistics from the previous calendar month, not the last 30 days.)

Don't be thrown off by seeing a low number for the craft you're interested in making. If you follow the principals in the ebook, Crafts To Make And Sell, you'll learn how to customize and personalize a craft so yours is entirely unique. Once you've accomplished this, you're in a "micro-niche" where you may find very little competition for your handmade item.

Furthermore, if your items are very personalized, you'll be able to charge a higher price for them. And "customize" doesn't only mean you're putting someone's name on it. It could mean you're willing to make something in unusual sizes or colors!

Keep in mind that WordPot only shows you one side of the coin, that is, how many people are searching for a particular item. The other issue to consider is how many people are offering exactly what you're thinking of making. But that's a subject for another article.

Also realize there are many people not plugged into the Internet yet and most of your sales may be made off-line anyway. So in your own community and surrounding areas, you may have the market all to yourself. The ebook, Crafts To Make And Sell, teaches you how to reach those people, too.

But it's fun to play with WordPot, especially if you're not sure which craft you want to devote your time to. Remember, it represents only the people who searched for those items on the Internet in the previous month and only on certain search engines.

What do the numbers mean to a crafter:

When I started using this tool, I was more concerned with the large numbers at the top of the lists than with the small numbers at the bottom. But I've learned that my thinking was backwards. Let me explain...

Say I'm thinking of making customized horse halters. I type in 'horse halter' and I get a large number. As I look down the list I see "pink horse halter" has the number 25. That means that last month more than 25 people were looking for pink horse halters. They were NOT just window shopping to see what KINDS of horse halters exist in the world. They obviously have a female horse and wanted to BUY her a PINK horse halter.

This would mean that if I decided to make horse halters to sell, I would be sure I had PINK ones on hand. In fact, I'd ADVERTISE that I have pink horse halters because I know there are people searching for them.

Therefore, the information at the BOTTOM of the WordPot lists is just as important as the phrases at the top to a person who is looking for something to make that sells.

If I customized the horse halters by putting the horse's name and the owner's phone number on the halter, I'd have something very unique. It could be a very good micro-niche!

This is how WordPot can help a crafter discover which handmade items people are looking to buy. Isn't this an AMAZING tool?!!

Use WordPot to spark your imagination for new craft ideas:

When you type in a phrase, examine the whole list, right down to the bottom. Then back up and look for the words and phrases that have different numbers in the two columns beside them. This means there are more phrases 'behind' that phrase. Click on the phrase and see what you uncover. Trust me, you can be very surprized at what some people type in!

Use these lists to think about what you can make to meet these searcher's needs.

And let's not forget the poor spellers out there. Try 'crafs' and 'paturns' to see what you get.

The Internet is an exciting world with lots of activities and potential. Use WordPot like a tour guide to see where people want to travel when they're surfing the Net.

Someday, the numbers WordPot gives back will include the number of searches done by people looking for YOU and the type of handmade item YOU MAKE!

Never give up on your dreams. WordPot proves that people are out there looking for handmade items. Why shouldn't these items be YOURS!

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The author of this article, Dusty Foster, explains many other ways to discover what sells - and why.

You won't get as many valuable tips for finding a craft that sells well and where to find customers for them for a lower price than this ebook package of $9.95 .

Let this crafter teach YOU how to make money doing something you LOVE to do.

Craft To Make And Sell Ebook


To get a copy of Dusty's ebook package,

Crafts To Make And Sell

with all the bonus material, click here.



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