Bead Daily published a tip today providing "Expert Advise for Writing Your Own Beading Tutorials". Boy did I wish this had come out before I hit the send button yesterday and published my first tutorial in my etsy shop. Input for this daily tip came from three designers: Cynthia Newcomer Daniels, Mikki Ferrugiaro and Nancy Dale:
I'm going to paraphrase their key points (especially the ones I may have overlooked.)
Photographs or Diagrams, that is the question! When fellow beaders in my Facebook Group, (Beadchat hosted by Auntie's Beads) encouraged me to write this tutorial, that was the first question I asked...Photos or diagrams and the responses were mixed...there are pros and cons for each media. I chose to do a combination of both--heavy on the photographs. Tip here if you choose photographs: take tight shots so that the details show; use a dark color thread (I used crystal fireline and found that at times the thread didn't show clearly); edit your photos well (try to remove as much "background noise" as possible from the photos...no distractions from what you are trying to portray and lastly, make sure you photograph ALL the "important" steps (as a matter of fact photograph all steps especially when there may be some confusion); if you don't you may miss a step that is important to the success of your piece and then you'll have to start over.
Testing your Pattern...now this I didn't do (kinda sorta). I sent the "final" tutorial to a non-beading friend of mine for review...grammar, layout, and textual context making sure I didn't trip over myself. What I didn't do was send it to a "beader". Someone familiar with the language and beading that could have provided feedback from a user standpoint. Too many times we read some of the instructions in the beading magazines and want to pull our hair out because it just didn't make sense (unless you looked at the pictures of course). Cynthia Newcomer Daniels recommends..."I think it's very important to have someone else look them over; they see things from a different perspective and I feel more comfortable knowing that someone else understands my tutorials before I sent them out into the world." Random testers can be a big help, too, since Mikki had someone testing her patterns on a regular basis, but found that they were both missing the same mistakes. Always take the time to have your patterns tested by someone that you trust -- it can make a huge difference in customer satisfaction, and return sales".
Selling your tutorial through etsy. A big thank you to +Diana Rehfield, a fellow bead chatter who recommended http://www.crafthub.me/. A site that ensures your tutorials are available for immediate download at the time of purchase. This way customers don't have to wait and you are able to be very responsive.
Lastly, photographs: I touched on it earlier, but taking good photos--if that's the medium you choose--is very important. Sometimes a picture will tell more than words and confuse you less... BD recommends the following:Jewelry Photography Beyond the Basics @ $29.95 (An Interweave resouce) http://www.interweavestore.com/Jewelry-Making/DVDs/Jewelry-Photography-Beyond-the-Basics.html?SessionThemeID=18&a=be130320 (couldn't find it on Amazon) and a quick search of Amazaon resulted in Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photographs http://www.amazon.com/Crafters-Guide-Taking-Great-Photos/dp/159668626X/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1363814763&sr=8-22&keywords=jewelry+photography+book
Here's one to bead on!
