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Episode 25: Tech Tools
264 Plays2 years ago
I discuss the software used by designers and tech editors, sharing my knowledge and research into what works and what doesn’t.
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Transcript
Introduction to Tech Tools in Knit and Crochet
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Craft, Design, Edit, Sleep, Repeat. I'm your host, Lisa Conway. Welcome to my world where we try to understand the business of knit and crochet design.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hi, everybody. Welcome back. Today, I want to talk to you about something that I've been anxious to talk about for a long time, and that's the tech tools that designers and tech editors use to do their jobs.
Transition from Traditional to Tech Tools
00:00:55
Speaker
Now, we all are familiar with the low-tech tools with the knitting needles and yarn that gives us so much pleasure.
00:01:05
Speaker
But then we get into the nitty gritty of making it available for other people. And that's where things can get challenging for some of us. Now, for tech editors, usually the tech tools aren't a big problem. We kind of revel in numbers and we revel in grammar. And so those are the things that we love to do. But for a designer, it can be a bit
00:01:35
Speaker
intimidating I guess to look at some of these tools. So let's take a deep dive and look at what tools you might want to use, what you might want to start with, what you might want to move into.
Text Editing Software Overview
00:01:50
Speaker
And to get started, the lowest level tech tools are your word processors or text editors, not tech editors. The tech editor comes later, text editors.
00:02:07
Speaker
And there are three basics that we pretty much all know about. Well, the third one, probably only Mac users know about. But there is, of course, Word from Microsoft.
00:02:24
Speaker
That's the most commonly used text editor out there. There's Google Docs, and on the Mac side, there's Pages. Now, some of us may also say, but what about the actual low-level text editor?
00:02:46
Speaker
And I'm going to say that is not a tool you guys want to even think about using because your formatting options are very limited and it just isn't going to do the job. So Word, Google Docs and Pages are our basic
00:03:04
Speaker
text editor where we want to get started. Now, Word Microsoft has gone to an annual subscription. And for some, that might just be a bit more than they can do. From $6 to $22 a month for the suite can be really expensive, especially when you're not going to use everything that they're providing.
Pros and Cons of Google Docs
00:03:33
Speaker
And I couldn't find a way to find just Word or just Excel. All I could find was the suite, the whole kit and caboodle. And that included their email program, Outlook, OneNote, which is a note taking and life organizing app. People are using it in all kinds of ways.
00:04:03
Speaker
So, outlaying that kind of money and in order to get that price that I quoted, the $6 to $22 a month, you have to agree to the full year. You cannot cancel or you pay an extra fee.
00:04:23
Speaker
That's and they probably want that money all up front So if you multiply the six times twelve, that's probably what they're gonna want right now and some people just don't have that So then there's Google Docs
00:04:36
Speaker
Google Docs is a perfectly fine word processor. It is limited on some of its formatting. Some of the things that you can do in Word and Pages you just can't do up there. But it is online. It is free. All you have to have is a Google email address to use it and it will get the job done.
00:05:02
Speaker
I will also say that it is one of the places where tech editors can edit your document. So even if you work in Word or you work in Pages, you may want to convert it to a Google Doc if your tech editor prefers using that method. Personally, I don't. I am not a Google Docs fan. I started using it mostly for the podcast when there were multiple people
00:05:31
Speaker
Involved and we needed to share documents and and that's one place where Google Docs definitely screams I'm the best because it's really really easy to share your documents but I find the method of I go in and make a comment and
00:05:50
Speaker
and it automatically emails you what I commented on instead of waiting until I'm finished. So every single comment I make generates a new email. And same when you are working on those comments and you write your own comments. As you fix things and mark things off, I get an email every single moment you do that, every single time you do that.
Free Options for Mac Users
00:06:16
Speaker
And that can be really distracting.
00:06:19
Speaker
I personally am not a fan of that. It totally drives me crazy to see 15 to 20 emails sometimes when you are fixing things.
00:06:37
Speaker
The way I have to check my email on a regular basis and be notified of things to get that ping every single time is just horribly distracting to me. And it makes my workflow challenging. So it's not my favorite. If it's your favorite, that is the way I will work. I totally get it.
00:07:02
Speaker
But it's not my favorite. And then there's pages which only Mac people will be familiar with. It is free when you own a Mac computer. It is free if you own a Mac.
00:07:19
Speaker
an Apple phone or an iPad, so it's a perfectly good editor. It's not as strong as Word, I will admit. It doesn't do everything Word does, but it does everything you need. So for something that doesn't cost a dime after the cost of your computer, if you haven't purchased a computer yet and you're thinking, which do I want, you may want to consider the fact that
00:07:49
Speaker
Yes, you're paying more upfront for an Apple machine, but there are things you are getting that you are not going to get in a Windows machine. And I will tell you from work experience, because I have been in the tech field prior to doing this job, I worked teaching software products.
00:08:12
Speaker
and I was living in a Windows world. I have a husband who is a network administrator and he lives in a Windows world.
00:08:24
Speaker
Apple is a just,
Costs of Apple Products and Software Longevity
00:08:26
Speaker
much more stable product. I have a machine that I purchased in 2008 that still functions. Now, it doesn't function to today's standards. It won't run all of today's software, but it will do everything I need it to do for the kids. It has the free word processor and the free spreadsheet, and it has software on it that I can't run on my new machine.
00:08:52
Speaker
That I still want to use so and it functions beautifully it turns on it runs it does everything I need it to do It just doesn't do everything that the new software will do so That's a pretty long life 2008 to 2023 and it still works. Okay Apple products are gonna work longer and
00:09:19
Speaker
laptops are going to live longer from the MacBooks are going to live longer than your bought off the shelf in the store windows, HPs or
00:09:35
Speaker
any of those other Apex, Asus, those are going to, they're cheap. They're going to die a lot sooner and you're going to have to invest more in the software.
Spreadsheet Software for Designers
00:09:46
Speaker
So think about those things. If you're at the point of choosing a computer itself, but you already have a windows machine, word or Google docs are your choices. If you have to go free, which a brand new designer probably should,
00:10:05
Speaker
Google Docs is your choice. If you are going to start doing your own grading,
00:10:15
Speaker
Or if you are a tech editor who wants to check other people's numbers, you're going to need a spreadsheet. You're going to need a number cruncher. And that is Excel, part of your Microsoft suite, Google sheets, or on the Mac side numbers. Again, Excel is much stronger, is
00:10:44
Speaker
going to do a lot more. But for the basics, the things that you really need, Google Sheets and Numbers will do them both.
00:10:55
Speaker
I personally have an old version of Word and Excel on my Mac that I use for those types of documents. I do not pay the subscription. I refuse to pay the subscription because I just don't power use those
00:11:18
Speaker
those applications and needed them all. So I have older Mac versions that still function, still do everything I need them to do. They just don't update.
00:11:31
Speaker
I'm sure at some point I will reach a point that I will have to make a choice because as operating systems change, as operating systems get more features and do different things, I may reach a point where those don't work anymore, but they work now.
00:11:53
Speaker
So that is an option if you are on a Mac. Look for the old Mac software that you can still buy in the box, rather than the subscription. But Excel is our
00:12:13
Speaker
I'm trying to find the right word. It is the strongest. Again, it has more features. It has more functions, the functions being the mathematical formulas that are built in. You're not going to necessarily need all of them.
00:12:30
Speaker
Even as a tech editor or as a grader, you're not going to use all of them, but there are some that may work a little easier in Excel than in Google Sheets or Numbers. But believe me, Google Sheets and Numbers will do everything that you really basically need.
00:12:48
Speaker
and the functions are there for them. I have not worked in Google Sheets enough to be absolutely positive of that statement, I will admit. Even if I'm working in Google Docs, I don't work in Google Sheets, I work on my desktop
Advanced Design Tools: InDesign and Affinity
00:13:07
Speaker
And I work in either Numbers or Excel. Again, Google Sheets is free. Numbers is free with a Mac computer. And Excel will be part of the annual billing for the suite that I mentioned before. As you get bigger as a designer, you may decide that you want more layout features than a word processor will give you.
00:13:35
Speaker
You want something that will do columns easier. You want something that will integrate your photos better. That's where you get into layout software. And there are two that come to mind. The Adobe Suite InDesign.
00:14:00
Speaker
big. I mean, that's, InDesign is what book publishers and magazine publishers use to lay out their work. It is a learning curve to use. It is
00:14:20
Speaker
an excellent choice if you can afford it. Now you can get an entire Adobe suite or you can get Just In Design and some of the other Adobe products. It is a subscription.
00:14:43
Speaker
for a one-year subscription, InDesign by itself is $20.99 a month. There is a fee if you cancel before the end of the year.
00:14:56
Speaker
If you want to go month by month, if you're not sure that you're going to use it long enough, there is, I think it was $34.99 per month. Or if you want to go for the entire suite of Adobe products, it's $54.99 a month. So if you want two or three of these, it's probably cheaper to go with the full suite
00:15:22
Speaker
because at $21 a month for three, that's over $60 a month right there. So if you get into that third application, it's time to look at the whole suite. They're extremely powerful. Adobe is the product, just like Microsoft is the products for Word and Excel.
00:15:54
Speaker
but there's a growing in popularity program out there that I'm very seriously considering myself called affinity publisher. Now I will have links to all of these things in my show notes. So please don't worry about that. Uh, affinity publisher by itself is a flat fee of $69 and 99 cents.
00:16:23
Speaker
you can get the iPad version for $19.99. Now there are two other pieces of software that I'm going to be talking about as we go along that are part of their suite. And if you want to get the entire suite, all three pieces for the computer and all three pieces for the iPad, it's a one-time fee of $169.99.
Importance of PDF Readers
00:16:53
Speaker
And when you compare a one-time fee versus having to pay $54.99 a month, every month,
00:17:06
Speaker
From now until eternity until you decide not to use the product anymore and that does not mean that they're not going to change the prices on you between now and eternity. One flat fee sounds pretty good to me. And I've heard really great things about this software.
00:17:26
Speaker
As I said, I am seriously considering purchasing it. I'm considering purchasing the whole suite because I think that there's pieces in the other parts of this that I'll talk about as I go along that I can use to my advantage.
00:17:45
Speaker
As tech editors and designers, you might want a good PDF reader. As a tech editor, you need one that's not only good at reading, you need one that's good at annotating. So you need to be able to make notes for the designer directly on that PDF. Acrobat from Adobe is obviously the number one. They are the original, they are the
00:18:17
Speaker
one that started out this whole PDF thing. PDF actually came from Adobe, that file format. So they are the giant. They are part of the suite that I mentioned with InDesign, or you can buy it by itself. Again, it's going to be a monthly fee.
00:18:43
Speaker
In the Windows side, there are lots of different things. You're just going to have to Google PDF annotators. I think I saw a list of like 20. The highest on that list was Foxit, which I have used.
00:19:02
Speaker
On my iPad, I did not use all of the features of it. I only use the free version. It is a paid-for product. But the last I looked, it was a one-time fee. So Foxit may be something to consider. Again, Google it because there were so many different options. I didn't have room to talk about all of them.
00:19:26
Speaker
But if you want to look for a cheaper alternative to Acrobat, there are plenty of options out there. On the Mac side, on the Apple side, all Mac computers come from it with an app called Preview. Preview will do all the reading and all the annotating.
00:19:49
Speaker
It has a lot of the features of Acrobat. It's not as strong as Acrobat and it's not my preferred method. Sometimes annotating and preview can be challenging because the app for some reason will move things around on you when you save it.
00:20:07
Speaker
Don't ask me why. It is something that is a quirk of the program. There are editors out there that use it with great success, but I've also had other editors in the Tech Editor Hub comment, hey, I'm having trouble with preview. It's doing this. What is your suggestion?
00:20:28
Speaker
I always come back, do you have an iPad? Because if you have an iPad, there is an app out there called iAnnotate. It is a flat fee of $9.99.
Photo Editing Software Comparison
00:20:41
Speaker
I've yet to be able to get it on the Mac. However, with the change in iOS and Mac OS, it may actually become available because they're not going to have to do a lot to get it to work on the computer.
00:20:58
Speaker
I don't know if you'll have to pay a second fee. Some of the applications just automatically become available on your computer. Others do not. This one has not, but iAnnotate works beautifully. They have multiple colors that you can annotate and highlight in. It's really easy to move your annotations around so you can link them to the specific error.
00:21:27
Speaker
It's the one I do all my work in. So I have my computer and my iPad open side by side. I do the annotating on the iPad and I run my numbers in Excel. I have run my numbers in numbers, but I tend to use Excel just because of some of the formatting features. Again, I use an old version.
00:21:54
Speaker
But iAnnotate is extremely strong. For a $10 app, it's amazing. Very easy to use, very easy to send to the client with my notes. You can choose for it to automatically create a summary sheet. So every annotation that you've made is numbered and then printed out. So if there
00:22:21
Speaker
having trouble with reading a box, a comment on the PDF itself, they can turn to the summary sheet and find it there. I always include it. I don't know how much my clients use it, but it's available and it does make it nice to
00:22:42
Speaker
know that that your client can read every comment you made. And it's a lovely app, but you do have to have an iPad to use it. You don't have to have a fancy iPad. You do not have to have the iPad Pro. You do not have to have an iPad that uses the iPad pencil, the Apple pencil. All you have to do is tap
00:23:07
Speaker
you know, and type and you're good to go. On my iPad Pro, I love the fact that I've got my keyboard to type with. There are other iPads available now that use the keyboards, so check it out if you don't have one. But as a tech editor, I love that application. My clients
00:23:28
Speaker
have never had an issue. And PDF is actually my number one preferred way to do it because I know I'm not going to accidentally mess anything up in their document. I'm not changing anything. I'm just making notes on things. So for PDF readers and annotators, number one in my book is iAnnotate. For photo editing, and this is a big thing for the designer,
00:23:57
Speaker
because you want those photos to look great.
00:24:04
Speaker
A little bit of post photo editing is always a good choice. There is obviously the Adobe product Photoshop. Photoshop comes with a suite like InDesign. It's more expensive. It's extremely powerful. It does take a bit to get to, there is a bit of a learning curve, so don't expect to
00:24:33
Speaker
open it up and use it right away. It may not be your number one choice. The second Adobe product that may actually do more for you is Lightroom.
00:24:52
Speaker
photographers and photo editors Lightroom is the number one app and then Photoshop allows them to change the background or mess with it in ways that Lightroom Lightroom deals with the
00:25:14
Speaker
the hue and the lighting and all of that. So I've never used it. I know a lot of people who have. But so those two apps may become something that you want to look into. But again, they're Adobe, they're expensive.
00:25:32
Speaker
And if you're going to look into it, figure out what do you want to do, which applications work for you, and decide is paying for the full suite worth the cost. Now Adobe has another product. It used to be
00:25:53
Speaker
something that you would hear about a lot more than you do today. It's called Photoshop Elements. Now, when you search for Adobe products, you may not see it on their main page. Search for Photoshop Elements itself. It is a lighter version of Photoshop. It does probably about 90% of what Photoshop does.
00:26:21
Speaker
But you don't have that monthly subscription fee. It is a one-time $99.99. If you have any video editing that you want to do, add the Premiere Elements, which is the video editing software, $449.99. That's both pieces. You get both the Photoshop and the Premiere Elements in one package.
00:26:51
Speaker
Again, those aren't the cheapest, but at least it's a one-time fee and they are strong applications. If you compare to the Affinity products, Affinity is actually a little cheaper because you get three products for the 169, well, actually you get six products for the 169.99.
00:27:19
Speaker
you actually get nine because you get the Mac version, you get the Windows version, and you get the iOS version of all three apps. And then last but not least, I'm going to mention Affinity Photo.
00:27:35
Speaker
Like Affinity Publisher, it's $69.99 with a $19.99 app for the iPad, or it's part of their entire suite. I have not used it. I've heard great things about it. It is something I'm seriously considering for my designing.
Stitch Charting Software
00:27:57
Speaker
Now we move into charting software and I have done a lot of research. There are a ton of applications out there that claim to do both knit and
00:28:15
Speaker
crochet charts. I think that anything that does both, you have to really look at where their strength is. Most of what I found were applications on the iPad rather than on the computer.
00:28:35
Speaker
consider that. Is it, you know, where do you want to do your work? Because most of these applications do not cross over, at least not at this point. I also only really was able to search
00:28:50
Speaker
Apple products and online products. So I came up with the three top. Now there used to be another one and it's very sad they no longer support it. I can't remember the name of it right now, but it was a really, really good charting application, especially for knitting.
00:29:12
Speaker
It has been surpassed by Stitch Mastery. Stitch Mastery is available both Windows and Apple. It is computer based, not iPad based. It's not a tablet based product. It works really well. There are a ton of features that you have to kind of run through the tutorials to learn because there's a lot you can do when you dig behind the basics.
00:29:41
Speaker
I forgot to look up the price. I paid for it. I want to say it was around $60. And by the way, I am talking US dollars here. I apologize if you're in another part of the world. Please search for the pricing because I know it's going to be different where you're at.
00:30:02
Speaker
I invested in Stitch Mastery because a lot of people kept talking about it and I've been very happy with it. It's doing a lot for me.
00:30:15
Speaker
As I get a little bit more used to it, I am going to start offering charting if my clients choose to give me written directions. I can turn that into a chart, but I've got a little bit more learning to do before I'm super comfortable. So consider that.
00:30:35
Speaker
There is an online, there are two online products I'm gonna mention here, and that's Stitch Fiddle, which does both knit and crochet, and Stitch Maps. These are online products. There are free versions and paid versions of both, I believe.
00:30:57
Speaker
I've played around in the free version of stitch fiddle. It's not bad. It's not super strong compared to stitch mastery. I don't know as a knitter if I would be really all that interested in paying for stitch fiddle. Although I know that crocheters use it a lot. It is one of the stronger crochet charting applications.
00:31:27
Speaker
Stitch Maps is a very unique method of doing your knit charts. I think it does crochet. I'm not positive. I didn't look close enough. Stitch Maps
00:31:47
Speaker
turns your chart into a visual representation of the knitting. So again, I'm not sure how strong it is and I'm not sure how easy it would be to import those charts then into your patterns.
00:32:07
Speaker
Stitch Mastery makes it really easy to export your chart and your key and your written instructions. You can put in your knitting instructions in the chart. You can create your chart and it will create knitting instructions based on that.
00:32:29
Speaker
will say look carefully at those knitting the written instructions because the wording can be really awkward and It doesn't necessarily catch your repeats exactly the way you want them So look at those written instructions carefully, but they it does do a very good job. I recently did a color work chart and I
00:32:56
Speaker
As a person who understands that everybody can work off of charts, even for color work, I went ahead and included the written instructions that Stitch Mastery created for me in my pattern. My tech editor said, yep, they're perfect. They work just right. And since I didn't have a lot of repeats, I didn't have any repeats in this particular chart, there was nothing to edit, nothing to change in those written instructions. So Stitch Mastery would be my number one.
00:33:26
Speaker
stitch fiddle, my number two, and stitch maps, my number three, for checking out and looking at and comparing price-wise and all of that.
00:33:39
Speaker
Lastly, I'm going to say that if you are doing simple charts, you can do them in your spreadsheet program. You can do them in Numbers. You can do them in Excel. I wouldn't highly recommend Google Sheets because it's harder to do unique fonts. But if you can get a hold of the right fonts, you can do your charts in the spreadsheet.
Creating Schematics: Illustrator and Free Tools
00:34:09
Speaker
but it's in my book cumbersome for some types of charts. I would not want to really do, I have done a lace chart in numbers. I had to really, really fiddle with it to make it work.
00:34:28
Speaker
Next, we have schematics. If you draw your own schematics, you need some form of software to draw vector graphics. So starting again with the Big Bang, there's Illustrator.
00:34:50
Speaker
Illustrator is the Adobe version of a vector graphic drawing program. Again, it's big. It does a lot. And for a simple schematic is probably more than I would recommend. It's especially at their prices.
00:35:11
Speaker
There is Affinity Designer. Ah, that's the third one. Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publishers. So they do not have a video editing software at this point. Affinity Designer, again, it's part of their suite or you can buy it by itself. Personally, if
00:35:35
Speaker
I was going to do, if I was going to move beyond the basic word processor and the basic photo editing that I can do just on my phone or whatever, I would be looking very seriously at Affinity because they have the three basic pieces that you need. You need the layout, you need the photo editing, and you need the vector graphics for the schematics.
00:36:05
Speaker
Those are your paid versions and then we can move into two free that I found. The one that I use on my iPad is called Vectornator. Now it is available on both the iPad and the Mac. It can be a little bit
00:36:25
Speaker
complicated moving from one to the other because they work just a little bit differently. But they're free. They're free both on the computer and on the iPad. They do everything that you need to do to do a basic schematic. And I've been fairly happy. Not 100% but fairly happy.
00:36:54
Speaker
The other free option that you'll hear a lot of tech editors talk about is Inkscapes.
00:37:01
Speaker
I have Inkscapes and when my Vectornator has failed me, Inkscapes has saved me every time. So I would highly recommend it as well. It is only available on the Apple computer and Windows computer. It is not available on tablet. So you have to do your work there.
00:37:26
Speaker
The reason I prefer Vectrinator and the reason I prefer doing it on my iPad is because I can use my Apple pencil and draw.
00:37:42
Speaker
So for some things, using a mouse gets very cumbersome and drawing is one of those things. So I look forward to trying Affinity. At this point, I'm really excited that it does those three things.
00:38:03
Speaker
So I guess you could say that while they're, I'm happy with the free versions and I highly recommend them. Um, I'm kind of interested in seeing what a paid version will do that the others won't.
Selling Platforms for Designers
00:38:19
Speaker
So, um, boy, we've gone through this really fast, a lot less time than I expected, but we have one more thing to talk about and that is how do you get paid?
00:38:33
Speaker
How do you get paid for your work? Where do you put your work in the end that lets you receive money for it? How do you get it out to the public? As a designer, obviously, there's nothing bigger than Ravelry.
00:38:50
Speaker
I realize that many people are in a position at this point that they cannot use Ravelry. So I highly recommend that if you are a designer and you can use Ravelry, you do use Ravelry, but then you have a second backup. I still do not have a second backup.
00:39:12
Speaker
I'm still weighing my options on that second backup because I haven't really wanted to do something through my own personal website, but I think that's going to be the best option.
00:39:29
Speaker
So, you know, it is what it is. So there's Ravelry, obviously. Ravelry is really easy as a designer to use. They do charge their fees. I have not found their fees to be unreasonable for what they provide. Because if you think about the number of eyes that could potentially see your work through Ravelry,
00:39:55
Speaker
even with The drop-in user because of the changes that they made what was it a year ago two years ago. I'm losing track of time It's still a really good place to have your your your patterns your designs Second one that I heard a lot when Ravelry did its thing was Lovecraft's now Lovecraft's is a UK based
00:40:25
Speaker
online way to distribute your patterns. Lovecraft's is not as big as Ravelry and it's much harder to search, but there are people out there having really good success with it.
00:40:44
Speaker
It is both a yarn, they do carry yarn and tools and all of those things, as well as carrying the patterns for both knit and crochet. As I've heard, it's a little more complicated to actually post your patterns there. There are slight differences in how the pattern needs to be formatted, that sort of thing.
00:41:12
Speaker
But it is an option, it is a good option, and it is one many people are using. I haven't purchased from them as well, so I don't know what the customer service is like.
00:41:30
Speaker
Um, there is another one and I can't remember what it is, but you have to format your pattern specifically because it's an application kind of like knit companion where you open up your pattern and it helps the you as a knitter track where you're at in the pattern. So as a designer.
00:41:54
Speaker
There are really strict guidelines as to how to post your pattern. For the life of me, I can't think of what the name of the place is right now. And I should have researched it before coming on, but I did not. I apologize. There's also knit companion, but I don't know what their rules are either. But I do know that as a knit companion user, I could in fact search their database and purchase patterns through them.
00:42:26
Speaker
Maybe I should research that one. Anyway, so Ravelry and Lovecraft's are the two biggest. And then you move into your personally monitored sales. Etsy. Etsy is another place
00:42:54
Speaker
where you can upload your PDFs and sell. And I've heard both good and bad. I've heard some people who've had a really hard time getting their patterns noticed on Etsy. So therefore their sales are not very high. I've had others that have had really good success on Etsy.
00:43:23
Speaker
So it's kind of a hit or miss. Etsy fees are expensive. You pay a fee for every item you list. And I think if it's multiple items, it's a per item. It's been a long time since I put anything on Etsy.
00:43:42
Speaker
And I've never put a downloadable product on Etsy so I don't know if you say list a pattern and then have it available multiple downloads available if you charge every time someone downloads it. I know every time you make a sale you also pay.
00:44:05
Speaker
And because Etsy is linked to PayPal, and that's the number one way you get paid, you not only pay Etsy fees, you pay PayPal fees. You do the same with Ravelry and I'm sure you do the same with Lovecraft's. So that is probably not really.
00:44:25
Speaker
a thing if you're comparing those three. But remember that on Etsy, you have to monitor those downloads a lot more strictly than you do on Ravelry. And I'm pretty sure that Lovecraft's is the same, that they monitor that the people got the download they paid for.
00:44:45
Speaker
You have to do that on Etsy. So there's a lot more of your time involved in doing Etsy product sales. Beyond that, you're now talking about having your own personal website. Now, your own personal website is going to cost for the host. And there are some really good hosts out there that make it really easy to build your website.
00:45:15
Speaker
But then you have to figure out once you've got your website, how are you going to collect the fees and how are you going to create the downloadable document? Where is that document going to be stored? How are you going to get that to the customer?
00:45:36
Speaker
PayPal is a way of collecting the fees, but I don't believe PayPal has any way to deliver it to the customer. So if you collect through PayPal, you now then get an email that you then have to email out something to the customer. That's going to be a lot of your time.
00:45:55
Speaker
there is a really good invoicing app that you can build in. Again, I think you'd have to monitor your downloads and that's Stripe. Now as a tech editor and for my tech editor listeners out there, PayPal is okay, but Stripe has been my
00:46:22
Speaker
love in collecting fees. I have clients all over the world. I have clients who have all different types of currency. When I build them, when I create the invoice that goes out to them, I look up the current conversion rate,
00:46:49
Speaker
and I bill them in their currency. That way, neither one of us is paying the bank fees on converting those funds from euros to US dollars or from US dollars to euros or whatever. Stripe does charge me a very small fee.
00:47:17
Speaker
But it's actually the total fee for collecting the money and converting the currency is less than the fee on PayPal to collect in US dollars. So I have the convenience of billing my clients in their currency.
00:47:41
Speaker
and collecting in US dollars. And again, in PayPal, you're going to pay conversion fees and they're going to be higher. And that's going to be another thing you have to think of is where I put my item, how am I going to get paid from clients, from customers that are all over the world? Look at those fees because
00:48:06
Speaker
they can be, they can be tough. Those fees can take a lot of your profit, especially when you're selling a $5 pattern and you end up paying a dollar or more in fees for that $5. So you actually make $4 or less in some cases. Are you okay with that?
00:48:31
Speaker
There is another way that I've heard a lot of since the whole Ravelry thing and people were moving to a secondary way of
00:48:42
Speaker
selling their patterns and making sure that they still reached all of the potential customers. And that's pay hip and pay up is something that I believe you put on your personal website. I'm not familiar with their fees. I have not looked into it deeply, but I am planning on it. Because again, I'm only on Ravelry. I've only got one pattern right now. Actually, I've got
00:49:09
Speaker
Two more ready for release. It should have been released, but I have not really, haven't done the work to get them out there.
00:49:17
Speaker
Long story part of it being just the whole being sick and having the problems post surgery, but pay hip. I heard a lot of comments about by my patterns through pay hip. So that's another one to check out, check out their fees, check out how they collect the, the, make the conversions. Um,
00:49:46
Speaker
and consider your own personal website beyond Ravelry. There are a lot of reasons that we need to find that secondary source. It's just the way life is. It used to be Ravelry was an it, you didn't have to worry about anything else, now you do.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:50:08
Speaker
As a very special note,
00:50:11
Speaker
When you find and when you have created that non-ravel resource for your patterns, there is a great place to be found, and that is yarndatabase.com.
00:50:26
Speaker
She created this database strictly because of the fallout of Ravelry. The database is quite large. You can find designers. You can find tech editors.
00:50:48
Speaker
Don't know if she searches for yarn, uh, for testers or not. I'm not sure if that's a place where you can do that. Um, but it is a great place to list your alternative source to robbery. So don't forget once you've set up that alternative, whether it's Lovecraft's Etsy, your own personal website, get in your own database, get your work out there, make sure you add new designs to the yarn database.
00:51:19
Speaker
I am not affiliated people. None of this is, I'm not getting anything from any of these people. So when I tell you it's my favorite, it's because it's my favorite. Yarn database is a great source for people to find patterns
00:51:39
Speaker
outside of Ravelry that they can actually purchase, not on Ravelry. So get yourself listed there. It's a great, great, great website. I have now talked for nearly an hour. There's going to be a couple of cuts, like when the dog came and jumped on me.
00:52:03
Speaker
But I think I've said enough. If you have questions, please reach out. Join in my Facebook or Ravelry groups and let me know your thoughts. Email me at knit design edit at gmail.com. Leave a comment on YouTube or Apple or wherever your
00:52:32
Speaker
You're listening. Uh, let me know what you think. Give ask me questions. If you've heard of an alternative, let me know about it because I would love to share that and make life easier for you guys. So in the meantime, it's about lunchtime. You guys have a great day.
00:52:55
Speaker
Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you listen and join the conversation in our Ravelry or Facebook groups. For show notes or knit tech editing and related services, please visit my website at arcticedits.com.