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How to Get Paid Woodworking: Selling Works or Through Commissions

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Get Paid Woodworking

It is a dream come true to be able to get paid doing what you love. It would be so nice if your hobbies pay for your meals too.

So how will woodworking as a hobby get you some cash? Getting money for your works may not be a regular income, but it can supplement what you make with your regular, day job. When you first begin, you probably won’t get paid much but keep at it and eventually your hard work will pay off.

The following are some of the ways you can earn money doing woodworks.

Sell Your Products Online

With the internet age, you can probably sell anything online. There are lots of odd things that are being sold on the internet these days. Just look at Amazon and Ebay and you will find all types of products, from used dolls to houses.

Selling your woodwork on these sites won’t be anything out of the ordinary. Takes lot of pictures of your sculpture or furniture and post it online. Make a creative title and price it higher than your original price to give room for hagglers.

Make your website

If you do not want to use third party sites to sell your products, then you can also make your website. Your site will showcase your products, and you can have an option for online shopping for your site. PayPal buttons are also available, so they can pay you through it and just ship your product to them.

You can also earn money from the advertisements that are posted on your site. And a website can generate money with the number of visitors the site has. So there are two ways you can earn when you make a website; from your products and from the site itself.

Local Craft Fairs

There are craft fairs organized locally, contact the fair organizer and ask if you can have space during the local craft fair. There you can show off your products and sell them. An advantage to fairs is that they don’t last for a long time and only come once or twice a year.

This means that you wouldn’t need to quit your job to accommodate the fair. Bring the woodworks you have done during your spare time and showcase them to the fair crowd. Put a reasonable price and see all your products go.

READ: Creating Your Ideal Outdoor Living Space

Magazines and Periodicals

This option might not involve actual woodworking projects but this is also one way to earn money with woodworking. You can write articles regarding woodworking and submit them to magazines specializing in woodworking. You can use your experience and knowledge of the trade to create informative articles which will then be published. Or you can also make tutorials on how to make a specific furniture or sculpture, and sell on sites such as Craftsy.

There are also blogs and sites that will pay you to write articles about woodworking. Just do a search and you can find magazines and periodicals looking for articles about woodworking.

Through Commission

If you don’t want to sell your ready-made projects, then you can advertise yourself instead. Offer your services to build people of specific types of furniture they want. Some might want a wood sculpture or a weird looking bench or an antique-looking ornate table. Get their orders and work on them.

The advantage to this is that you can ask for payment upfront, this means that you wouldn’t have to fork money out. Your capital is just your skills. The disadvantage is that the commissioner can have a lot of say on the work that you will be doing.

Teach your Craft

Another way to make money from woodworking is to teach it. There are vocational schools that might be looking for someone to teach woodworking in their schools. You can share your love for the craft and inspire students to try it. It will also allow you free use of their workshop to work on your projects. This is usually not full time so you can still keep your day job. You might find that teaching is also a passion, and you would want to keep doing it.

Work for Construction Firms

If you struck at going at it on your own, maybe it’s time to try working for someone else. Someone who knows the ins and outs of the trade, an expert in the field. You can learn from them and possibly use that knowledge in the future, in the meantime working for them.

Construction firms are always on the lookout for talented woodworkers, who can make intricately designed balusters, wooden doors, window panes and the likes. They also care for your safety, with top-of-the-line your safety, with top-of-the-line equipment. This is also one way to make money from doing woodwork, it might not be on your own, but you are still making money nonetheless.

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