help me decide, design my own decoupage sheets, online story website or stay illustrating?

[sundaymorning]

Hi,

I'm in a dilema as to which direction to go business wise. I get some freelance work illustrating children's books, greetings cards but I am a slave to waiting for the freelance work to come in. I have recently been ill and not been able to work and this may be on going for a while so decided I want to generate my own income.

Ideas I have had so far are:

Designing and selling decoupage sheets for crafting...have done a few and they have come out quite well.

Making story videos to sell as downloads ( bit like jackonory used to be ...remember?!)...but not sure if people use them or would pay much for them? Tried a quick one here without words or story really to see if the technology works so don't expect too much! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqzCzGc41T4 would you buy online storybook downloads?

Making large colouring posters to sell online, quite detailed pictures - not seen any good ones when I've looked for my kids.

Any thoughts? I'm quite good at making websites, I could sell on ebay and etsy so it can all be done from home really.

Can't decide which direction to try! Advice please!

Anyone? Really can't give all of them a go at the same time and follow the best one...would value your opinions. Good ideas? Rubbish ideas? Best idea? x

Hi
Had a look at the youtube video and the illustrations are great! However i wouldn't pay for story videos to download. Would be more likely to buy the posters if there was some way of having them personalised ie name added etc. Can't comment on the decoupage as that's something i've not done.

Hope that helps and good luck

Hi veebee - I must admit I had doubts about people wanting to buy 'virtual books'. I am making some for a charity and people keep saying why not make my own and try to sell them for 50p a download. Just not sure children would want to watch stories like that...unless maybe personalised in some way.

Many thanks for your opinion!

Agree with VeeBee that while the video and illustrations are lovely, and I'd love to see them on Jackanory, I wouldn't pay to download a video. I don't think I'd pay for the others, either, to be honest. What about prints for children's rooms (designed to be framed)? That's more the sort of thing I'd spend money on.

I am thinking of prints but they cost so much to produce that I'm not sure people would pay the price I would have to sell them at. 8 x 10 print would have to sell at £18+ and I'd be getting about £2 of that. Not sure people would buy and if I could sell in enough volume to make much.

Thanks for your opinions x