I’ve just had an update from Dawn over at ScrapventurePro who has released a very interesting and potentially invaluable new book for people considering – or just starting out in – their own scrapbooking business.

If you signed up for my free newsletter you’ll already have receive Dawn’s free ebook on starting a scrapbook business so you’ll know this one is well worth a look.

It’s also remarkable value.

The book is, in effect, the first eight lessons of her personal coaching course. That course itself is an unbeatable way to start and build your scrapbooking business but during what are difficult times for many, the monthly fee is perhaps a bit of a stretch.

Hence this book, which for eight scrapbooking business lessons actually adds up to the price of less than two. Got to be worth a closer look, don’t you think? What’s more, everyone who buys a copy will also receive a free personal email consultations with Dawn for a full 30 days – usually that costs $60.00 on it’s own! Full details here.

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If you want to get into the scrapbook business – and why wouldn’t you – there are more ways to make money than just selling your scrapbooks. For a start, have you ever considered how valuable your knowledge is?

Look at the news stand. What’s it selling? Knowledge and information. Look at the bookstore. What’s it selling? Look at the internet. What is it really? It’s the largest collection of knowledge and information ever assembled. Everybody wants more knowledge. Everywhere people are searching for more information.

What’s more, people are more than happy to pay for it.

So the scrapbooking knowledge in your head is a valuable commodity. A lot of people out there are prepared to pay you well to share that information with them.

Teaching what you know about making scrapbooks face to face is one way forward but might not seem the most appealing scrapbook business idea to some people. I’ll admit I’d find it a bit daunting myself. No problem though, don’t teach face to face.

The internet gives you the opportunity to spread your scrapbook information in different ways. You can put together what used to be called a correspondence course. They always used to be done by mail. Now you can do your scrapbook course online. It’s relatively easy to set up a membership site and deliver content digitally. What’s more you can collect the money digitally too!

Running a course is great because it brings in regular income for your scrapbook business. It’s not the only way to make money though. Why not write a book? Books have always been popular and although some thought that the internet might damage publishing in fact there are more books printed today than ever before. You can publish conventionally, although finding a publisher has always been difficult, or you can go the self-publishing route. Places like Lulu.com will handle the actual printing for you. A third option is the digital publishing route, producing your own scrapbooking ebook. Using this method you can set up systems that work while you sleep and pull in profit margins of up to ninety percent!

Although I’ve not yet written a scrapbooking ebook myself, I do plan to do so. If you’ve got the information in your head it would be foolish not to. I’ve co-authored a couple of craft ebooks and after a few months initial work they earn very nicely, year after year, and I doubt if I do more than a couple of hours a month to keep them going.

Some would say that this is the ideal scrapbook business. Write it once, live of the royalties. It might need more than one book to make a full-time income from scrapbooking but virtually anyone can do it and the potential is huge. If you want to learn more, the best book currently available on the subject is Complete Craft Publishing and you can get full info here.

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One way for any home scrapbook business to get itself better know is using the power of the internet. It has transformed tens of thousands of people’s small businesses and will undoubtedly continue to do so. Using the internet to sell your scrapbooks can be a bit daunting though, can’t it. There are so many options, which do you choose?

For me there’s nothing easier to put into action, or more powerful, than a professional blog. Even if it’s something you can’t yet handle yourself yet there are companies like FirstMoneyOnline.com who provide a remarkably cost-effective coaching service to hand-hold you through the whole process.

So why a blog particularly, why not a traditional website? After all, websites have been working quite well for businesses for a number of years now!

I suppose it’s down to where you want to spend your time and effort. I’m guessing you want to start a home scrapbook business because what you like to do is scrapbooking, not building websites!

The point I’m trying to make here is that a good website takes a considerable investment of time to learn new skills. There are lots of do-it-yourself sites available that say you can do it all with a few clicks of your mouse but when you analyze it, how often do you see those sites at the top of the search engines? Even a little time invested in a site is still a waste of time if it doesn’t bring you any visitors. Doing the job properly means learning code like html and php if you want to get the best out of it. Wouldn’t your time be more profitably spent making a scrapbook?

A blog, on the other hand, is by its nature something which appeals to the search engines as much as it appeals to potential customers. It’s easy to set up, simple for you to run, very powerful as a way to communicate with both new and existing customers and surprisingly cheap. You can use a free service if you wish, but when you can have all the benefits of a professional scrapbooking blog with your own domain name for about the price of a pizza, I’m sure you can see that it’s a far better option.

Not so long ago people looked at blogs as kind of a way to share what you were doing with friends and family. Not a professional tool at all. That’s all changed now, and plug-in technology means that your scrapbook blog could do everything a website could do and more. I’d go so far a to say that starting a home scrapbook business without a blog would be a seriously missed opportunity!

As for FirstMoneyOnline.com, it’s a service I thoroughly recommend if you need competent, professional help to get your scrapbooking blog started. Don’t just take my word for it though, here’s what a couple of other crafters have had to say…

“ Gosh, it’s exciting to get all this started!… Nice to have someone to bounce the idea off… I’m having too much fun!!”  Sharon at BeadandWireFlowers.com

“I am very pleased with your program and your service and would recommend it to my closest friends. I would like to think that I could have figured this all out on my own, but the time and energy it would have taken has been better spent moving forward more quickly than I imagined and the results would not have been as professional.” Charlotte at TheArtofQuilling.com

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