Guest Author - Kate Pullen

Many crocheters create their own designs and enjoy sharing these with other crocheters. While professional crocheters do charge for their designs, many hobby designers freely offer their work to others. The opportunity for marketing and sharing crochet designs has never been bigger. Whereas at one time the only place to find crochet patterns was in magazines or in patterns available solely in yarn stores, today patterns can be found on thousands of blogs and websites. The Internet has made the sharing of crochet information and crochet designs with people from all over the world a possibility that would have been undreamed of only a few years ago.

While publishing your own designs is as easy as setting up a blog and publishing the pattern, actually getting people to find and read the pattern is completely another matter! With a search engine returning nearly two million results for a search for 'crochet patterns', unless a pattern is really well marketed it is going to remain hidden from view.

Free Crochet Pattern Directories
There are many different ways to market a new crochet pattern. One of the best ways is to make sure that pattern directories know when a new crochet design has been published. The directories will provide a link back to the pattern. This gives crocheters another way of finding the pattern and crochet pattern directories often come up near the top of searches for crochet patterns. Getting websites to link back to a crochet pattern is an important way of getting a higher ranking in search engines.

Forums
Another great way to let people know about crochet patterns is through forums. Many crocheters often post questions asking for ideas for crochet patterns or projects and this can be the ideal way to post information about crochet designs. Forums sometimes allow signature lines and this can also be a good way to promote a blog or website. It is important to remember, however, not to abuse this privilege by responding to unrelated posts simply to get the signature line seen.

Protecting Crochet Designs
Many crocheters like to protect their designs even if they are being offered free of charge. For instance a designer may want to prohibit the sale of items made using their designs. It is important to clearly state any copyright or usage restrictions. Licenses such as those offered by Creative Commons are an ideal way to protect crochet designs.