Change Wood Into Gold
By Stephen Bucaro
Posted Sunday, December 26, 2004
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Today, everything is a cold plastic manufactured product. In the "old days", everything was painstakingly hand-crafted from wood. People love the quality and warmth of hand-crafted wood products. If you like to work with your hands, you can profit from the demand for these products.
If you are inexperienced with woodworking, you can start by making simple scroll saw puzzles and wood toys. You can see some examples of the type of products you can make at (http://home.att.net/~brad247) where Brad sell's them for $4.00 to $9.00.
You will find free downloadable patterns at the Skill Power Tools Web site: (http://www.skil.com/projects/projects.htm) or you can purchase patterns like "The Little Choo Choo" at the Wood Toys and Joys Web site: (http://www.toysandjoys.com)
When you get a little more skill, you can make the kind of products sold at the Wood Expression's Web site: (http://www.woodexpression.com) For example, they sell a 19 x 21 inch oak shelf for $30.00. The Wooden Wood Art Web site: (http://www.woodlandmanufacturing.com) sells beautiful wood letter signs for $4.00 to $5.00. They also sell custom personalized signs. Check out: (http://familysigns.com) where they sell cute crafty personalized wood signs for $10.00 and up.
When you advance to larger, higher quality work you might make products like those offered by The Woodcrafting Co. at (http://www.thewoodcraftingco.com) where they sell hardwood TV trays and display cases for $700.00 and more.
You will find hundreds of woodworking project plans at the WoodcraftPlans.com web site: (http://www.scrollsaw.com) for $10.00 and up. A good source for quality hardwoods, woodworking materials, power and hand tools, is Woodworkers Source (http://www.woodworkerssource.net) which has stores in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona.
Tips for a wood craft products Web site:
- On your Web site, highlight the fact that you can make custom and personalized wood craft products. Customization is what puts your work a step above manufactured products, and allows you to charge a premium price.
- You can generate extra profits by selling kits, patterns and instructions that let your fellow woodworkers copy your wood craft products. You will be surprised how many people who bought a pattern will return later to purchase a finished poduct.
- It is very important to display good pictures of your products on your web site, but one problem I frequently find at wood craft product sites is a total disregard for Web page load times. Most people access the web over a 56K dial-up connection. The size of a Web page, including all the images displayed on the page, should be less than 200 KBytes.
People yearn for the quality and warmth of hand-crafted wood products. Don't limit your sales to your Web site. Hand-crafted wood products are one of the premier items sold at Web auction sites, craft fairs and craft malls. If you like to work with your hands, you can turn wood into gold!
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