How to Make Money with a Crochet Blog (2024)

This is it. The question I get ALLLLLL the time (even from my family, haha!) “How do you make money with a crochet blog?” Well my dear friends (and a special shout out to my in laws!) I am going to BREAK IT DOWN. There are a lot of “how to start a blog” kind of posts out there already, so this isn’t going to be that. Today I am talking about the money, honey. Specifically how I make money, because every blogger is different!

Let me share a little back story. Since my high school days I always had a summer job, I did sports all year long, then I went to college and was really active there as well. I was either working or in school! Then I had my first son 3 weeks before I graduated college. My husband and I felt that it was important enough for me to stay home with him that we made some big cut backs. He was working a lot and I… wasn’t. NOT that learning how to be a mom isn’t a ton of work! But after about 6 months I was beginning to realize that there was going to be SOME down time. And I was needing to fill that with something besides Grey’s Anatomy. I began selling scarves. Then hats. Then I opened an Etsy shop. Then I added some craft fairs. Then I started writing patterns… And it all evolved into The Friendly Red Fox. (Want to read more about that process? Read the How to Make Money with Crochet Series)

The reason I am sharing this is so you know my absolute favorite thing about this whole blogging thing is… I am my own boss. I set my own hours. Right now that is a lot of nap time and late nights and early mornings. I get to stay home with my boys and that is my most important thing. It has evolved from covering the cost of yarn to paying some pretty major bills.

My husband. Guys, he is the best. There is no way that I could do it without him. He does more dishes and folds way more laundry than I do! He also helps watch the kids so I can work, even after a long day of tests or clinicals. And he likes every single thing I post on Facebook, it is seriously the sweetest thing. This doesn’t have much to do with blogging, except I think he is awesome and to be a blogger you definitely need a support group!

They are why I do what I do.

Ok enough of that! Let’s talk about how the crochet blog process works. Like I said, most people don’t realize that I do actually make a pretty good income doing this. (We aren’t talking millions here… but maybe someday!) Running a blog is a lot of work. I am the crochet designer, writer, photographer, social media manager, graphic designer, tech manager, marketing manager and email answerer. I have spent YEARS learning a lot of different things solely about the world of blogging. But of all the ways to make money crocheting… Blogging is a serious
time commitment. Most bloggers work more than the traditional 40 hour work week. I need to be very consistent to see any kind of pay
check! How many hours do I work? I get this question a lot too and it is
hard to answer. Probably about 20-30 hours a week. It depends on if my
baby is teething or my husband is super busy in school (#life). But I LOVE IT. Like I said, I get to stay home with my boys and set my own hours all while doing something I love.

Are you ready to learn how I make money doing it?

1. Ads
My biggest moneymaker is the ads on my site. I am paid by how many people come and look at my different posts. So I obviously want all of you to come and look and crochet and learn and hopefully that translates into a lot of page views. The more page views, the more moolah. It’s a pretty simple concept that is much harder to carry out. Pretty much the entire reason I spend so much time on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Email…is to get people to go to my site. So thank you for being here and reading this! You are literally helping me put my husband through grad school and paying for diapers. It’s a glamorous world over here, folks!
This is a big part of why I offer patterns for “free.” I use those quotes because it is free for the reader… but not free for me. There is quite a bit that goes into just getting those instruction and pictures on the screen… all summed up in the words “time” and “money.” It does make money for me, eventually. So like all businesses it is an investment.
But some people don’t love the ads so I offer my next biggest moneymaker…

2. Paid PDF Patterns
I am a member of a lot of crochet groups on Facebook and the other day I saw someone share my pattern and thought “Yay!” and then read the blurb. She was complaining that she was having a hard time copying and pasting and didn’t want to “waste $3 on the PDF.” KNIFE TO THE GUT. I had spent a TON of time on that particular pattern (it was my free mermaid pattern if you are curious!) and included a lot of tips and tricks that I feel like are important. I get that some of my readers don’t want to be on the computer the whole time they crochet! That is why I take extra time and make the pdf! But if they aren’t coming to my blog… I don’t get the page views… and I don’t buy diapers. I obviously don’t love that, but I realize that it is part of the internet business world! I’m not too beat up about it because I obviously got some page views which means ad money, but not as much as I could have, right?
I think most people really don’t understand how it works. I really, really doubt she realized she was hurting me financially. I get it is easy to think its “only $3!” although that adds up pretty quickly! Most people (in spite of some of the comments on the internet) are good and decent and quite a few are even amazing and awesome! There are a LOT of people who appreciate my work enough (thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!) and pay for the PDF. They get the pattern for a small fee, and I get a little bit for my efforts. Win win! This is my second biggest money maker. I sell them through Etsy or on Ravelry.

3. Affiliate Links
Often I will link to certain products like tools or yarn that I used for a certain project. If someone follows that link and buys it I get a small commission because I sent them over there. I really like this because it helps me show exactly what I used and people don’t have to worry that they have the wrong item, and I do make more and more over time. I do this in my posts and you may see me share an affiliate link on Facebook maybe from Amazon or Etsy! It doesn’t cost any more for the buyer but it starts to add up for me. I think of it as a “finders fee” if that makes any sense!

4. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are a great way to make money blogging (but I haven’t done any quite yet.) A company will pay a blogger to create something with their product and write a review. The best kind of sponsored post is one where the blogger is already using the product. If you saw me write about kitchen faucets you may be confused. But if I wrote about my favorite crochet hooks, then it would be a natural fit. By law it is always disclosed if it is sponsored.

So those are the MAIN ways that a crochet blogger can make money! And it may be different depending on the blog. I talked to a few other crochet bloggers and how we all made money was VERY different. For me it breaks down to 40% ads, 40% pattern sales, and 20% affiliates. But as the internet is always growing and changing, other opportunities may arise!

Have you thought about a crochet blog? Do you have more questions? Be sure to join The Friendly Crochet Club on Facebook and ask them there!