Do you recognize the header at the top of today’s blog post? If so, you’ve probably navigated over to my Facebook page at some point in the past. The last time I posted something on my Facebook page was February 25th.
In fact, I haven’t even opened my Facebook account since then. Not even once. Until today, that is, when I went in to take some screenshots — the same screenshots you’ll see in today’s blog post.
I used to be involved in a dozen different doll-collecting and doll sewing groups on Facebook. They’d offer contests where everyone would post their dolls in holiday dioramas or themed outfits. I’d look at other people’s pictures of their dolls and leave comments. They’d look at my pictures and leave comments. And it was really fun, but…
I gave up on Facebook groups when I realized admins were picking and choosing which posts they’d let me share and which ones they wouldn’t. In my book, that’s called censorship.
It didn’t matter that members of these groups were allowed to buy, sell, and advertise their handmade doll clothes. In fact, the group from the screenshot below even has the words “all crafters” in their group name, welcoming all crafters to display whatever creations they have for sale, but they censored three of my posts, including the one below, which gives away my free patterns as well as showing my projects in a diorama with a miniature quilt.
I mean, yeah, I get it. Nobody wants to be in a group that’s spammy. But I only belonged to groups that “allowed selling” doll-related items that were handmade.
Aren’t my patterns handmade? I don’t use expensive software. I just draw the patterns on graph paper with a pencil, scan them, and draw the lines in, using Microsoft Paint. And on top of that, I’m not even selling my patterns. I’m giving them away for free!
Here is what this group (and many other groups that I belonged to listed) on their “about” page, so why was I being censored?
When I voiced this issue, some people (those people who actually appreciated that I was posting free patterns) suggested that I make a Facebook business page where I could post my patterns, so I could just offer links to the patterns instead of posting them in doll lovers’ groups.
I tried that route.
See this post?
That was a post that linked people to my Facebook business page, and do you know what I discovered? People would just take a screenshot of my pattern without ever visiting my own website.
You might think, “Well, what’s the difference? They got the free pattern, good enough!”
But here’s the problem… The PDF for each of these patterns costs me money to store them here on ChellyWood.com, so if people never navigate to my website because they can easily download my patterns from Facebook, I don’t earn any of the money needed to keep my free pattern website going!
When you come to this website and view my ads, I earn a fraction of a cent on each ad you scroll through. When I say a fraction of a cent, it’s a very small fraction.
In fact, as I wrote this blog post, I did the math. Here’s what my ad revenue shows for this very website that you’re viewing right now:
In September of this year, the ad revenue totaled $73.17 after showing you 224,306 ads. That means I earned approximately .0003 cents per ad view.
In October, the ChellyWood.com website earned a total of $59.56 for 238,971 ads.
You might be thinking, “Hey! That’s not bad. You’ve earned a fair chunk of change off of your ads…”
This year was a payment year. I had to pay that almost $500, using the money from my ad revenue, just to keep storing my patterns on my website.
Yes, I’ve gotten 13,285 visits to my site this month, and each visit helps get ad revenue, but how many people are still trying to get my patterns off of my Facebook “business” site instead of coming to my site?
And how much did I earn from my Facebook “business” website? Nada. In fact, they wanted ME to pay THEM to advertise my site!
So while people on Facebook were able to take screenshots of my free patterns without ever visiting my real website, I was losing money on my website.
In fact, it looks like 2024 will be in the RED for me. I paid my $499 fee for storing patterns, back in March, but I haven’t made enough money on ads (including YouTube ads) so far this year, to cover the fees I’ve paid. I mean yeah, it looks like $59.56 in October is more than enough to cover the cost of my $20.79 per month, right?
But think about this… The last time you went into JoAnn’s to buy fabric and snaps, what did the bill cost you? I’ve been buying all my fabric second-hand lately, to try to cut costs!
When I realized how badly my Facebook “business” site was actually hurting my business, I tried to completely delete the ChellyWood.com Facebook “business” page, but of course Facebook likes to offer free stuff that they can earn money from. So there didn’t seem to be a way to get rid of the Facebook “business” page for ChellyWood.com at all.
And now I just have to live with the fact that people can still access my patterns through Facebook without ever visiting this REAL ChellyWood.com website.
It was a BIG mistake to create a Facebook business page, and I wish I could go back in time and just NOT create it ever. Period.
Looking at my Facebook page sort of makes me feel sick to my stomach. I feel like “I got took,” as my grandma used to say. So if I haven’t answered your questions on Facebook, please understand… I’m happy to answer your questions here, but I don’t even want to go look at Facebook anymore. It just makes me ill.
Feel free to leave your own comments on how you use Facebook to share doll pictures, whether or not you belong to Facebook doll groups, and what you really, truly think of Facebook these days. You can rant, like I did, or you can thank Jesus and Mark Zuckerberg for the invention of Facebook as a phenomenal platform, if that’s what you really think.
I won’t censor your comments unless they’re totally off-topic or not family friendly.
If you enjoyed this blog post, and you’d like to see my videos, you might want to navigate over to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1 to look through my playlists.
If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.
For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.
For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.
It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.
As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.
To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.
Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:
*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.
Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.
I know you can’t delete any facebook page. I created 2 for our new theatre director–one for my sewing shop and 1 for the creative tool shop. When the director left, the new director asked me to take down those pages. Tried and tried — now 10 years later, they are still up. I would love to make a donation to your site. Just let me know how to do this.
Hi Cora. Yes, this is so frustrating about Facebook!
You asked about the donation page. Thank you! Here’s a link: https://chellywood.com/2023/07/28/new-donation-button/
You can also find the donation button on my main menu. It’s at the top of the page on a desktop or laptop computer, but it may be a menu button on phones and tablets.
I’m finding facdebook more boring than ever i has become a ‘sell it’. page. It has very little conversation or discussion. I’m not complaining about your page i do go to your website If a posting sells things. why can’t they allow you to ‘give away’ things. My facebook has become a place for a lot of other towns to dump their postings !!
You said, “It has very little conversation or discussion.”
I know. I used to enjoy being a part of discussion groups with other ladies who sew for dolls. I used to look forward to it. But as I said in my blog post, they wouldn’t let me talk about the patterns I design because it was seen as spammy, even though I don’t sell my patterns. So I just quit talking to people on Facebook and stuck to the group of people who come here for my doll-related activities and discussions.
My website is less interactive, but I guess that’s a blessing too. If you run a Facebook page, you’re constantly having to police all the bad people. So I don’t want that either.
I designed my “Do a Pick” games to try to make this website a little more interactive with my audience, and it does that to some extent.
Thanks for commenting, Marcia.
I’m not sure how the business pages work on FB, but I’m wondering if you can just delete the posts with the free patterns even if you can’t eliminate the site. I now you can delete your own posts and also comments others make to your posts on personal pages.
Hi, I ready your post with interest because the Facebook part caught my attention. The only reason I am still on Facebook is because my doll groups are there but I figured out sometime ago that Facebook isn’t the place to be. Me, I didn’t even know you had a Facebook page because I have always used this website for you and of course, You Tube, which is another subject however. Everything everywhere is about the almighty dollar and nothing else. I only post in the doll groups and very rarely on someone else’s post to make a comment. I totally ignore my Facebook page now because of what I have learned about people on Facebook.
Hi Chelly, I do belong to some doll collecting groups on Facebook but I rarely visit. I have really slowed down in my use of Facebook over the past couple of years. I barely use it at all now, not even to check with family and friends. I can’t explain why. Maybe it was taking up too much of my time, maybe I got tired of ranty posts in the communtiy group pages I followed.
I do find it odd that your posts were censored on a buy and sell site. Did you ever ask the admins why? FB groups can be a bit cliquey I think. As for people copying your patterns that is a bit mean. I don’t know why people just wouldn’t go to your site. It wasn’t going to cost them anything.
Honestly I don’t know how people make money from social media unless they devote their life to it. I use WordAds on my doll site. I think I’ve made about $500 in 8 years or so. I just do it to help out with the cost of maintaining my paid site because I need the extra storage for photos. I’m not going to get rich on $5 a month which is about the average.
I think what you do is great. I haven’t made any dolls clothes since moving here but I do appreciate your patterns and will certainly use some if I ever do.
Yes, I agree about Facebook “taking up too much of my time.” I feel that too.
Thank you for your kind words. You comment is thoughtful and honest. I appreciate that.
I think maybe your FB business page could be useful to you if you only post images of your dolls in the clothes you made and just post a link to the patterns. Don’t post images of the patterns. Make it so that readers have to go to your website to get the patterns. I know that it is also possible to make it so that nothing on your website can be copied and pasted or screen-shot. I don’t know how that is done, though.
I love your idea, Suzanne: “Make it so that readers have to go to your website to get the patterns.” But when I have done this in the past, people flagged me as a spammer.
So I’ve just walked away from Facebook all together.
I really want my patterns and tutorials to continue to be free to everyone, but I need people to at least view the ads on my site in order for the website to be sustainable and self-sufficient. I’m not sure how to get that message out, so people understand it. Facebook has no interest in helping me do that because they (the company running the site) will continue to benefit from my existing Facebook page. They don’t care that I’m out here making new patterns and tutorials all the time.
Tedious I know, but can you not delete each post on that page At least those ones with the patterns? You as the page creator should be able to do that. (three dots at at top right of each post should provide that option.)
I have deleted several Facebook pages over the years, not sure any were official business pages, I think at least one was. It was a bit of a rabbit warren to find out where to do it if I recall.
Yeah, I’ve struggled to delete stuff from my business page, thought I had actually deleted it, and came back the next day to see that it was still in there. Facebook’s “powers that be” don’t want me to delete anything that keeps getting traffic.
I would highly recommend to stop offering free patterns and offer some free tips on your website but have the “free” patterns under Patreon.
I have considered switching to Patreon. My agent recommended that from the beginning.
This may sound a little “out there,” but I started this website because I needed a platform as a writer. What I really, really want to achieve before I leave this world is this: I want to publish a book the traditional way, not self-published.
And I’ve been working toward that goal right along side the creation of this website and all of its free content. I still haven’t had any of my manuscripts accepted by a publisher. But I keep trying.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a thoughtful comment. Patreon is a good idea…❤️
Friends of mine have a lot of priblems with FB algorytm.
I have seen your free patterns been sold for money here and there on the web too.
Maybe you can try to post only the picture of the dress and say: want the pattern? Go to my site.
I know about my patterns being sold for money elsewhere. The sites I’ve seen have a version of the pattern that is obviously a screenshot because the edges of the pattern are so blurry. One site had a Chelly Wood pattern offered for a whoppin’ $40!
I told my agent about it, and she said it’s likely happening in a country where copyrights aren’t honored. So there’s no way to stop it from happening.
They are clearly getting the patterns off of Facebook. If they had used my site to “steal” my patterns, it wouldn’t be such a blurry version of it. Oddly, they don’t even delete the words “free pattern” off of the pattern they’re trying to sell!
Clearly these are people who are desperate for money, so I just say a prayer for them.
Chelly, I am so sorry you have to go through with this. I don’t understand how some people can be so cruel and mean, and above, be so dishonest, and disrespectful! I would like to pray that they would all go away and never return! I know that can’t happen. I do pray that it will never happen to you again. It is just pure jealous, and they should just STOP this , and never do this again!I am praying for you, you don’t deserve this at all GOD BLESS YOU. If it hadn’t been for you, there would be NO free patterns at all. THANK YOU for all you have done, and are still doing.
Jeretta, there are folks who need your prayers more than I do. I have a roof over my head, a husband and children who are healthy and love me, and I eat three meals a day. I mean, I appreciate your prayers, but this is just a little low-budget website that’s being kept up by one little lady. So let’s all pray for the things that REALLY matter…
*Let’s pray for children who are growing up with one or more parents absent from their lives.
*Let’s pray for families who’ve recently suffered a loss (financial losses — like those in Florida; loss of a family member like many folks in the Middle East; and worst of all, loss of hope for the future).
*Let’s pray for world peace. Always. It will come, if we just keep praying!