Makers Month: Why Blogging is Important for your Handmade Business with The New Craft House

Today we are having a lovely chat with a pair of gorgeous babes who, like us, run an awesome craft blog. They have also launched a craft kit business, run lots of workshops and have a passion for all things Liberty. Say hi to the lovely Hannah and Rosie from The New Craft House to tell us why blogging is important for your handmade business.

Tell us a little bit about your business and blog?

Three years ago we set up a craft blog together. It grew quite quickly and within six months we'd won the Cosmopolitan Best Craft Blog award. After that, we started running workshops with brands and our business kind of organically grew from there. We now have a range of craft kits that we sell on our shop  shop.thenewcrafthouse.com, we write tutorials for magazines and we still run a lot of crafty workshops.

You started as a blog, then launched a business was that always what you had in mind?

No, it was never our plan! We started the blog purely as a way to share all of the things we were making. Neither of us have any 'official' training in anything crafty and were both planning some pretty boring career paths.

How has blogging helped your business? 

Without the blog, we wouldn't have a business so it's been crucial! Even as our business has grown, though, we still see the blog as really important to our business. It's good to be able to update people who follow us on the things we're up to and share our new products or workshops. On top of everything else we really enjoy blogging!

How do you find time to blog? 

We're lucky to work full time on our business now so blogging falls into part of our normal weekly work routine. When everything else gets busy, it sometimes gets left behind. We probably need to make it a higher priority.

Are there things that you have learnt from blogging that have helped in running your business?

So many things! It's helped us practice our project writing skills which have been super useful for writing magazine projects. We've also learnt a lot of crafty practical things from reading other people's blogs which are always useful when running a craft business. 

What kind of things do you suggest to blog about if you are new to blogging for your business?

The best advice is to look at other people's blogs in a similar field to you and see what they're writing about and what posts you enjoy reading. Take inspiration from their blogs but be careful not to copy them - build your own unique style! 

What are your top three tips for blogging to support your business?

1. Try and keep to a regular blogging schedule. It doesn't need to be too often, but your readers will like to know how often to expect a post. 
2. Images are also really important so spend time getting a few good images for each post, natural light is key!
3. Make sure you also engage with your followers and other people in your community. They'll support you and offer so much help and insight.

Thanks so much Hannah and Rosie for telling us your story and passing on your tips. Pop along to the Handmade Fair next weekend and say Hi to the girls as they will be there with their newest kits for you to get your hands on, and don't forget to check out the girls on Instagram and twitter @newcrafthouse

Are you still on the fence about if you should be blogging to support your handmade business? Ask your questions in the comments below and we will do our best to answer them.

Sammy and H


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