The Business of Longarm Quilting - Websites & Blogs
Hiiiiiii!!! I want to start with a big thank you to everyone who asked questions on the last post! I'm saving them all for one post, so watch out for that in a couple weeks. In the mean time, if you have any more questions about about any “business of longarm quilting,” how I run my business, or topics you’d like me to address, please keep leaving them in the comments, or email me (kathleen(at)kathleenquilts.com)
A website is an important thing. The real life answer, is that I rarely go to any store or purchase anything without looking it up online first. And I'm certainly not the only person who does this. So if I was looking for a longarm quilter, and they didn't have a website, chances are, I'd never find them.
And now, for a personal tidbit...
I never actually meant to start a longarm business. It just kinda accidentally happened. I had a website and an instagram account, and suddenly people were asking me to quilt for them. And then more people. Until suddenly I had a longarm business. Partly because I had a website. And it wasn't even a website meant to build my business.
End of personal tidbit....
So as a longarm quilter who is trying to build their business, you really need to have a website. And it needs to include the following:
- Your contact information. Or at least a way to contact you. This can be an email address, a contact box, or however you want customers contacting you. But it needs to be easy to find, and you need to be prompt in replying when contacted... so no using an email address you only check once a month or twice a year or whatever.
- Pictures. You need to have pictures of things you have quilted, so your customers know what they're getting into. They are going to want to see what quilting you have done before they decide to send you their much loved quilt.
Some other things that are nice, but not 100% needed
- Turn around time -- how long is your wait? If a customer contacts you today, when will their quilt be quilted-- next week or next month or next year or...
- What is your booking procedure? what does a client need to do to get their quilt quilted.
- Where are you located? Some people prefer local quilters, and want find someone near them. It also helps your search results-- I might google "Alberta Longarm Quilters" to try to find a local-ish quilter... and if you haven't put your location on your website, then you're not going to show up.
The other thing to think about, is your website specifically made to advertise your longarming business, or is it to showcase your quilting? My website for example, is mostly about my blog, showing my quilting, talking about quilting, etc. There is a link a the top that says "Custom Longarm Quilting" that will get you the information about how to book me for quilting, but it is not the main focus of my website. However, it might be yours. If you're not into blogging, and you really just want a website to advertise your longarm business, you might want to have this information on the home page, easier to find.
Before you tell me, "oh, websites are so hard and take so long..." sure, they can. If you want a really nice website with fancy stuff, then yes, it's going to take time. But if you are just trying to make something basic with some pictures and some contact information, you can easily make a wordpress.com site in half an hour, maybe an hour. And then, tada, you have a website. It might not be pretty, but you can go back when you have more time and fix it up. So, if you don't have a website already, go make one now.
That's it for this week! Remember, if you any more questions, please leave a comment!
Later days, Kathleen.
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