You could be sitting at a craft show ready to take on the day - expecting hundreds... no thousands of people going through the turnstiles and filtering their way into your craft show booth. The first hour is slow; the second brings you a few people and your first sale of the day.

After a while you start to wonder... why are there so few people coming to the craft show? That's a valid question. You just spent $200 to secure a booth, so you need to make several sales in order to make it worth your while. But, those sales just don't seem to be coming.

After you have been to a few craft shows, you'll probably be able to figure out which one are worth it, and which aren't. But, you can eliminate this trial and error experience just by doing a little homework ahead of time. Here are four things you can do before you spend money on a craft show booth:

Go as a spectator first - If you are looking for new shows to sell your crafts at, you might want to be a spectator for the first year. You can make notes on traffic, traffic patterns, most popular items at the craft show, among other things. The value of seeing what you are getting into to start is going to help you filter out the crafts shows that aren't worth the price of admission.

Talk to booth owners - You can do this as a part of your spectator visit, or if you are a first timer. Take a few moments to talk to the other booths at the show and find out what they can tell you about the craft show. This gives you an opportunity to learn a few things about that particular show, and maybe make a few business friends along the way.

Talk to organizers - If a craft show has been run for a long time, there are probably statistics of some sort kept on how many people pay to get into the show. This is a vital statistic, and can provide you with an idea on the volume of potential visits you might have to your booth.

Keep a notebook - I am going to expand on this in a future article, however, I think it bears mentioning right now. Keeping a craft show notebook is a great way to keep track of the different elements of each craft show so you can make an educated decision on the potential success for that show. It is going to help you avoid the shows that cost you more than you can make.

No crafter wants to go to a show with poor attendance, tight wallets, and the potential for losing money instead of making a good profit. With a little bit of work beforehand, you can virtually eliminate the chance of anything like this happening, and you can ensure that the craft shows you attend help you make the profit you deserve!

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Rob Goyette shows you how to make your craft show business profitable in his best selling ebook: Craft Show Success Secrets. Visit his site.