Today I published my final blog post at CrochetMe.com, nearly eight years after I launched the site. I’m feeling awash in bittersweetness.

Farewell, Crochet Me is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

The topic is doing work for free (with the assumption it’ll pay eventually) versus only doing work for pay. This round of discussion was sparked by Jenny over at Craft Test Dummies who, appropriately, cried foul when a company called Creative Paperclay put out a call for crafters to join their fairly demanding design team and offered compensation only in the product they require the designers to use.

Sister Diane sums up Jenny’s take, and her own, over on Craftypod. Go have a look.

My take on this issue is similar to my take on many issues: It’s not black and white, no one answer is the right answer for every person, and decisions should be well informed.

I think it’s important to keep in mind the particulars of who’s asking for the free and paid work, and under what circumstances. (ETA: Some companies offer to pay for work under grossly unfair terms, remember. Just because pay is involved doesn’t make it fair.) In the case of Creative Paperclay, I think their demands are way out of line considering the lack of monetary compensation to their design team. They want to control an awful lot of what people do, and they want to control it for an awfully long time. It may be a fine arrangement for a hobbyist who’s not too sensitive to having their time and talent exploited, but it’s downright insulting for a professional.

Sometimes, though, the benefits of working for free are reasonable and fair. To apply one broad stroke to say that working for free is not only bad for you, it’s bad for everyone fails to account for the subtleties involved with creative business growth and amateur recreation.

Now for those examples.

First, CrochetMe.com. Diane makes the very good point that if you want to build a name and reputation for yourself by doing unpaid work, do it on your own terms and for yourself. I agree with her.

When I launched CrochetMe.com in 2004, it was a hobby. I started it on a lark, remember. It was months before I decided to run it more formally as a business. I ran the online magazine for almost five years, and during that time it never turned a profit. I was never paid, and neither were any of the contributors to the site. Ad revenue covered hosting costs, so I consider the business to have broken even.

So CrochetMe.com was unpaid work. For my part, it was unpaid work for me. (For the contributors to the site it was, in part, unpaid work for me, too, but that’s a can of worms we can open up another time. For now I’ll direct you to what I said above about fair and reasonable.) And of course it wasn’t just work for me. I ran CrochetMe.com from a place of inevitable principled motivation. I had things to say about crochet. I had opinions to express and attitudes to challenge. I was on a mission.

What did it mean for me to be doing the work for myself? It meant I made the creative decisions. It meant I wasn’t beholden to anyone else’s constraints. It meant I got to show off exactly the kind of work I wanted to do. And from this project – directly from it – I built my career. A career during which I’ve been paid to write for magazines and blogs, paid to write books, paid to be a magazine editor, paid to speak and teach, paid to co-host a television show and paid to edit books. (I’ve also done some unpaid writing projects and unpaid speaking engagements.)

In addition to being a very important personal and public project, CrochetMe.com was my portfolio. It got me noticed. It got me – and many of the contributors – paid work, and lots of it.

And then I sold the site, which pretty much meant that those five years of intense work I didn’t get paid for did, in fact, pay off in the end.

I consider this a big fat pile of success in the column of unpaid work.

Now for the second example.

My new project is Mighty Ugly. In almost all respects it’s different from CrochetMe.com – except, of course, that I’m driven by an inevitable and principled motivation; I have things to say.

For the most part, Mighty Ugly is a live, in-person project consisting of workshops and seminars and speaking engagements – not one based primarily online. Ideally, I get paid for each event I do.

But I don’t get paid for each event I do. This summer, as I got the project going again after a baby-inspired hiatus, I did a few events for free. I didn’t get paid to be at Maker Faire Vancouver, and I didn’t get paid to be at the Cos & Effect convention, either. And here’s why I did those events for free, and why I’ll do one or two more of them for free in coming months:

I do not have a budget for advertising.

I know how to rock online, kids. I’ve been working online for years. And though I’m not inclined to use my online mad skillz to in-your-face sell stuff to people, I know how to get the word out about things I’m excited about.

I do not, however, know how to rock offline the same way. And I do not have the cash to do things like buy ads in places my target audience/customer/client will look. I also don’t have the cash to sponsor events that will reach my target people.

What I do have, however, is a limited amount of time, a giant pile of materials, a stack of promotional postcards, and my shining personality. I also know that my project is the kind of thing that makes people take pause. It makes people stop mid-stride when they’re walking by my table so they can take a second to see what’s going on. I know that when people come to a drop-in Mighty Ugly workshop at a conference or larger event, they have fun, and sometimes their brain explodes.

Given all that, I do some free events because my hope is that I’ll reach a few people who might then hire me. Or who will come for a longer, more formal workshop that they’ll pay to attend. Or who will tell their friends who work in HR that Mighty Ugly would be a great addition to their professional development program. Or who will invite me to participate in another event, for pay.

Either this strategy will work or it won’t. But I don’t have the money to risk a failed advertising scheme, so I’m happy to take the risk with my time. Especially because I have fun every single time I do an event. And because other people have fun every single time. And many people feel challenged in a satisfying way. And some people tell amazing stories. All that is related to my passion for the project. It’s no-brainer for me to do these events for free.

As long as I can sustain the business by getting paid work. That’s the kicker. So far it seems to slowly be working.

Only time will tell if this project is a sustainable business. For now, I’m comfortable with my balance of free and paid work. Stay tuned.

The Fair, the Unfair and the Ugly: Working for Free and Working for Pay is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

The designs in this book are as lovely and clever as the designers who made them, and I hope you find at least a few things you’ll want for yourself in addition to the ones you’ll want to make for the people you love. The blanket on the cover is by Doris Chan, and it makes me so, so happy. Other designers featured include Kathy Merrick (whose own book is also coming out this fall), Karen Drouin, Kristin Omdahl, Katie Himmelberg, Donna Hulka, Chloe Nightingale, Jennifer Hagan, Lisa Naskrent, Annie Modesitt, Robyn Chachula, Christina Potter, Jill Wright, Sandi Wiseheart, Toni Rexroat, Myra Wood, Megan Granholm, Erica Alexander, and Julie Holetz (who also did the tech editing).

I think it would be great fun to support the indie booksellers and local yarn stores we sometimes take for granted, don’t you? If you’re an online shopper, pre-order a copy at Powells.com or add it to your wishlist over there. Let’s make someone at the great Portland indie scratch her head at the onslaught of interest in a crafts book. As an added bonus, a copy will arrive at your door long after you’ve forgotten you bought one. There’s nothing like surprising yourself.

If you’re an in-person shopper, get thee to your local bookseller or yarn store and let the owner or manager know you’ll want to buy a copy when the book comes out. Not only will this help others find the book when they see it displayed in the store, it’ll also result in you having a conversation with the most-certainly awesome and friendly people who create the shops you love so much.

Got questions about the book? Fire away!

Crocheted Gifts: Preorder from an Indie! is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

When I went to the bank again earlier this week, there was the teller, and she smiled and greeted me by name. Not “Ms. Werker,” mind you. But “Kim.”

This is the kind of outstanding, and fairly effortless, customer service that sets companies apart. Not only am I back to being thoroughly happy with my bank as a whole, but I now also know that if I have a problem, even a relatively minor one, I can go to them. They will help me the best they can, and they’ll be pleasant about it. For my part, I’ll be pleasant, too.

Kids, the Dunbar & 28th branch of the Bank of Montreal is made of WIN.

Now. Remaining on the topic of customer service but bringing things around to the realm of online*, check out Shannon’s post about Zappos. Zappos is pretty much the uber-example of how a company can successfully utilize social media tools.

Example #1: They are rocking Twitter. How? Both by making the company seem extremely accessible (it’s the CEO that does the twittering), and by paying attention to what people tweet (see Shannon’s experience).

Example #2: Their own website. The product image and info below are the result of a simple block of code I copied from the (um, awesome) product’s page on the Zappos site. That’s how easy it was to embed their product in this post, showing it (with a direct link to the page where you can buy it) to all of you. In an even more unique move, Zappos also provides text for a shortened link on the page, and says this about it: “Zapp.me links are tiny urls that you can copy & paste into blogs, emails, twitter, etc., so you can share this product with the world!” Since Twitter posts can only be 140 characters long, people often have to shorten long web addresses by using services like TinyURL. Zappos saves this step. Genius.

I’m fairly overwhelmed by how beautifully Zappos gets it. They get that their consumer base is their strongest asset not only because, duh, they pay money to Zappos, but also because their enthusiastic word-of-mouth makes their friends and acquaintances and perfect online strangers aware that people enjoy buying things from the company, and that just might lead them to pay Zappos money, too. The first comment on Shannon’s post is from Amy, who said, “Maybe we should tweet about shoes more often!” Exactly. Zappos, for the win.

* The Bank of Montreal’s website is awful. Good thing their humans are so wonderful.

Making Happy Happen: An Update & Zappos is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Day 21, originally uploaded by kpwerker.

I’m half a step from unconscious.

Day 21: Crochet Me 3.2 Is Live is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

I’m about to write a few posts, because that way the handy Events plugin will keep track of everything in one, handy, automatically updated place.

I so hope to meet you this fall!

Frequently Flying is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

And now we prepare to feed 23 of our dearest friends a belated US Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Just the thought of chocolate pies is keeping me vertical.

Crochet Me Winter Issue & Thanksgiving (Belated) is a post from Kim Werker's blog.