6

The Reality of Selling Jewelry Online

by Barbara Lester.
(Nashua, NH)

I don’t know if I would say it is stopping me, but what I am finding is that after spending many hours with a web designer, spending much money setting up a new web site with a shopping cart ($$) and having the site marketed pretty well – I have yet to sell anything from the site.

I truly believe that jewelry is a “touchy, feely” type of purchase and at shows I have no problem selling but yet, not a one.

I have had people email me from the site asking where they can “see” my stuff, or if they can come to my “store” (home) to buy!

Now I KNOW that others are selling on line, on Etsy (?) and other places, and more power to them.

I wish I knew what the secret is – but as I said, I just think a woman wants to feel and try on before she buys.

My answer to this problem? When my hosting year is up – I’m going back to a “static” or gallery type website, where my pieces are shown and people can certainly contact me to buy a piece – but no shopping cart etc.

Barbara Lester
Barbara’s Baubles

Comments:

To Touch or not to Touch !
by: Sandy and Paul

That is a very beautiful Pendant Barbara !
We started selling our necklaces at home parties in a small town – eventually, however, we ran out of friends. We did well. We also did well at festivals but the energy factor became an issue. So we tried ETSY and nothing happened for whatever reason.
I work in sales for a large company and my clients always do the “ooh – and ahh” thing because I get all dressed up and get to wear what I make. Paul always asks me to get their e-mail address and he’ll send pictures…but the company might frown on that…
However…renotreasures@yahoo.com is ours !
If nothing else , We can exchange ideas. Maybe we’ll learn something ! Best regards, Sandy

Don’t give up the Ship!
by: Rita

I am always amazed when I “think” that people are outselling me 10 to zero. Things are not always as they appear, a lesson I keep learning over and over.

It sounds like you’ve made an expensive try at web site success. You can turn your shopping cart in for PayPal, it’s free until you sell something and then it isn’t that much.

Keep that website going its great advertising if nothing else. You can get hosting for $3.95 per month and email accounts are free. Marketing is another story if you pay for it.

Get listed everywhere you can, you need traffic. If enough people see your jewelry someone will buy. I do agree with you about seeing it in your hands, that’s the way most of my jewelry gets sold.

Traffic in stores is down, sales are down so I figure it’s only going to get better and I’m going to be ready!

Visualization is the Key
by: JK

Barbara, I went to your site. You might benefit from more images of each piece from different angles, detail shots, on a model, etc… Including a ruler or coin in the images is also useful for scale. Include the piece’s dimensions in the description. Some non-visual people need the extra info to imagine what the piece would look like on them.

Good Luck!

Etsy is worth a try…
by: Dana Saylor

Etsy, and/or other handmade sites like ShopHandmade, 1000Markets, Artfire, Dawanda (based in Germany but with a UK page), are all worth the effort for specific reasons. I have been an Etsy seller for about two years now, and despite its large numbers of jewelry designers, I continue to support my husband and I through my sales there. Granted, we live VERY frugally! Anyway, I would recommend learning about each of these sites. Some of the most important aspects of selling on these sites are:

1.) Excellent photographs (Etsy allows 5)
2.) Inventive and interesting descriptions
3.) Reasonable but not “cheap” pricing
4.) Excellent customer service and followup

If Etsy is too large a venue for your liking, try one of the newer ones, like 1000Markets.com which just launched officially a few months ago. They have less competition, but also a bit less visibility (now). Best of luck to you!

Optimising your website.
by: Michelle

Hi Barbara

I too share your frustrations, it has taken me a long time to get my website more or less working for me!

A few suggestions I have are the following:
Firstly you and your web designer need to make sure your website is as “google friendly” as it can possibly be.
Google’s “organic” search results, the ones that return results when you search for a particular item, are ranked according to the “best match” for the request you have typed in, so for example if your main product is copper jewellery, google needs to see the words “copper jewellery” on your homepage, in your page title and in your web page program metatags.

With your website package it appears that your website company can make these changes for you, so I would suggest reviewing every main page with your website company (your home page, your main product pages etc)and make sure that the title of each page, the webpage metatags and the content (words) on that page all describe the featured product/products accurately and in detail.

That way, when a person searches for the particular product you specialise in, google will read your web page, say to itself “oh that webpage mentions that product several times, so it must be relevant to the search request” and then it will return your website as a result for that search.

No amount of paying for submissions to search engines, or website marketing can replace the free “organic” search results google and other search engines can give you, so make sure your website is optimised for “organic” search results on the main products you want to sell.

If people can’t find your website on the first page of the google search engine they tend not to visit your site.. (you know how it is!)

Secondly: photography is the next challenge, I would suggest you look at purchasing a photo editing package, so you can get your photographs to really sparkle, the trick is to get that “it’s so delicious I want it” response from your customers. Bear in mind that having a website to sell your jewellery is as labour intensive as having a real shop would be! And please don’t give up, like any business it takes 2-5 years to be profitable and get noticed.

Other tips for sharp websites include: use lots of white space around products and words.
Have an about us page, with customer feedback, descriptions of your products, a bit about yourself etc etc.
The average buyer needs to know your are legit, established etc to feel confident about clicking the buy now button.

Thirdly: Look at your website as if it was a real retail shop, think about how you would shop when buying jewellery and gifts, and make sure your website reflects this
View your website the same way, how can you intervene like a shop sales person would and convert the viewer to a sale….

I hope these tips help, website marketing is all about determination, gritting your teeth and a bit of luck to boot

thanks
Michelle
www.creativity.net.nz

Persistence pays off
by: Annie

It IS hard. I had a site for three years that had TWO online sales in that time, although existing clients would use it as a catalogue. The site however wasn’t optimised and I couldn’t tweak it to get the look I liked.

I ended up going and getting a site made last year – it looks just like I want it to look and is opitimised for SEO. I kept the same web address so listings had been valid for years and I did update some of them. Plus over the last few years there’s been lots of appropriate networking.

I now get a couple of sales a month although it took probably four months before I got my first one. I still do most sales in person though and enquiries for seeing the jewelry in person.

In the Same Boat Sorta
by: Patricia

I really understand your frustrations. My website (soon to undergo a redesign when I have some time) is static. It will remain static (mostly because it’s easier for me to code html rather than php). But I do have a wonderful free shopping cart. It’s from mal’s ecommerce (google that and you’ll find it easily) where you can choose between paid and free versions. The free version is just as secure and with a little coding eminently flaxible.

Beyond that I know that images are very important (I am still learning to adapt from having a really fine film SLR (Nikon F – weighs a tonne and it broke) to a point and shoot digital. I have been using my scanner to very good effect for medium sixed necklaces and larger earrings as long as they aren’t crystal, but larger pieces, smaller earrings, bracelets and crystal just don’t come out well with the scanner.

Apparently it also helps to word your pages correctly. That’s something I have to work on as well.

All of that aside, it is possible to have high end sales online. My Etsy shop though woefully inadaquate in sales did see a large purchase about 12 months ago. Heh.

Very Helpful
by: Elizabeth

All of you have done a wonderful job with your comments. Suddenly, I do not feel alone! This is brilliant. What I love about this site is that Rena is real, such that readers feel free to tell it like it is.

There is a ton of practical advice here. I am inspired to move forward by all of you who commented on this brilliant post.

Thank you, everyone. I am in a slump, but have some custom orders here and there. I am unable to walk or drive, so that puts a bit of a damper on things.

One thing I would love to offer everyone who reads this and relates: Woody Allen said that 80% of his business is showing up. There is something to be said about that!

Love you, Rena.

Best post ever…..

Elizabeth

Tips
by: Tammy from Oz

Hi Barbara

I have been a design director for 13 years for print and web with an interest to starting up a jewellery business too, so I was very interested in your plight. I understand how much effort you’ve already put into your website (and $) but the sad fact is, in this day and age, unfortunately you’ve only just done the basics! Shocking I know. But if you’re up for the challenge, I can offer the following.

Additional to Michelle’s SEO hints, I would also suggest you take a look at the stats of your visitors (through Google Analytics). Where are they coming from? What pages do they leave on? Do they put anything in the cart but then leave? If lots of people are coming but leaving quickly, its likely a website issue. If no-one is coming, its likely a promotional issue. If people are browsing extensively but not buying, its a conversion issue (might be price or trust). If you are new to this, check out YouTube for tutorial videos.

I see you have a ‘jewish’ range of jewellery – could this be a niche for you? At the least, I would include all the keywords you can think of relating to this – its another way in for people to find you. Would they be inclined to give this themed jewellery as gifts for religious occasions? If so, have a gift-wrapping option (prominately displayed) – presentation will be important for gifts. What about cards? I’d also search for opportunities with jewish publications (advertising, advertorials, editorials, sponsoring/donating a piece for fundraising or a competition).

Have you defined your target market? Who are the people who buy your pieces from the shows? Why are they there? What are they looking for? Buying for themselves or another? For an occasion? What questions do they ask you before purchasing? They may be concerned with allergies, quality, materials, the story behind the designer etc. These things should all be addressed on your website since you are not there to personally guide them.

I would also put on your “Satisfaction Guarantee” and “Fast 3-Day Shipping” on each page (maybe under the Featured Item). Perhaps these can be graphics linking to the details. Customers want to be sure about these things and it could push them over the line to purchase.

Definitely add in the dimensions of each piece and the metal and materials used (for allergies and quality purposes).

Lastly, from a design perspective, I would consider changing the website colour pink as it clashes with the majority of your work (and the backgrounds used in the photography). I don’t believe this is a difficult thing for your coder to do. Perhaps a soft blue-grey or warm beige would complement your work better.

Hope that help Barbara – good luck!

Tammy

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
by: Carol B

Photos are CRITICAL to on-line selling for two reasons. First, it is the only way to make the buyer feel as if they’ve seen the jewelry in person. Second, it is the decoration and the draw of your “storefront.” If you are walking down a shopping street in a new town, do you want to go into a store with a blah window or a store with an attractive window?

Invest in a good digital camera that has a macro feature and a white balance feature. Get a light tent. Learn how to use them. Take 4 or 5 photos of each item. The photos I saw on your site have a bit of glare that is distracting from the beauty of your pieces.

Study the jewelry photos that make it to Etsy’s front page. The photos have to be excellent to be on that page. Figure out what makes them work and which ones have a style you want for your shop. Experiment with your camera until you get the photos you think are awesome and make viewers
want to buy from you!

Best of luck.

http://carolbradley.etsy.com

Photo Editing
by: Carol B

I forgot to mention to also do a bit of photo editing to make sure your colors look accurate. Picasa is a free, easy-to-use photo editing software.

I feel your pain
by: Skybye

I to have the same problem with my website not selling any jewelry and it has been up for a couple months now. Not only has the website I put up not sod anything but neither has my etsy site and I have gotten beyond frustrated with it all. All I can say is hang in thereyou aren’t alone.

To Carol B
by: Elizabeth

Wow, Carol!

You really have your photography together. I have enjoyed reading your advice! Now as to digital cameras, what do you think of the Kodak EZSHARE? Which version do you like best if you like this camera? Which digital camera would you purchase?

I sure could use your photography skills! I can not thank you enough for your practical advice. I am planning on doing nothing but upgrading my photos especially the birthday pearls and the ones that drown and melt into the background for the rest of the summer . Please do let us know more tips for successful photography! Thanks!

We really could use your unbiased expertise. You are a FABULOUS asset to Rena’s site. You rock.

Elizabeth
www.stonesinharmony.com

get yourself out there
by: Anonymous

you have gotten some very good comments here.

Photography is no. 1 when selling on the net. That photo of whatever your selling has to make someone want that item, to show it in its best light. Background can also be appealing or distracting and can be used in many creative ways when photographing jewelry.

One way to do that to look around online places like Etsy and search through jewelry and find items that appeal to you and notice the photography. There are some fantastic photos of items there also some not so fantastic examples. Since jewelry is a touch and try kind of item and over the net that?s not always possible you have to use the photograph to your best advantage to communicate to the buyer the beauty of your item.

Having a consistent look in photography can also be your signature as much as the jewelry itself. It will help create a mood on the page that says a lot about who you are as a designer. I would also not photograph things on that jewelry display black velvet, the camera’s eye will pick up way more minute lint than your eye will.

And many times jewelry reflects light, the light we are using to take photos, check out Harbor Freight.com and type in photo in the search bar. They have a great little photo studio, reasonably priced, that helps to soften the light and reflections when photographing jewelry.

Then work to find a look that works for your style and your designs.

Second I would say get out there as much as you can. With all that goes on on the internet you have to get your name out there anyway you can. Linking where ever you can, using social media like twitter and facebook, even having your items in an online venue like Etsy or Artfire or 1000 Markets, along with your website all help bring exposure. Many are low cost.

Also finding a niche and using it to bring traffic to your site. For instance I do inspirational leather cuffs, I also make some items from shotgun shells and bullets. I also design other things but this little niches tends to work for me and bring me traffic.I have searched my stats and find that these key items and words bring me lots of traffic and then allow me to show the buyer my other items as well when they reach my shop.

My sales are steady right now. But I will say that it did take a few months after developing this line to get noticed and make regular sales. But I do spend a good deal of time getting my name out there when ever I can.

I had a shopping cart once and decided paypal works just as good and cost alot less. Unless you have a free cart like mals.

Finding success online can be challenging and it means you have to wear several hats and constantly work at it. Its no different than a storefront where you have to do things and have product that brings people in. Get the word out about who you are. We have to work at the same things to get out there online.

Michelle V

Keep working at it
by: Debbie-TheBrassHussy

I do have minimal traffic to my site I just set up this year. Besides spending money on building a site, I found you need to spend money to advertise it. Have you spent time/money doing some SEO improvement?

You can also contact some well known blogs or sites to see about being featured. This will help bring some traffic to your website.

To sell jewelry full time, you really have to be everywhere it seems!

A website – an excellent tool
by: Natasha

Don’t be discouraged. Not all of us get millions of orders through on the internet everyday. I just use it as an extra tool. I think you are right, woman do like to feel and try on jewellery but that doesn’t mean no one will purchase from your website.

Although I don’t get a huge amount of business from my website I find a lot of my local customers like to use it as a catelogue then ring me and order. Also it is good to look at the site whilst a customer is on the phone looking at your pieces. It really is very handy. I have started to get a few more “random” internet orders this year but this is 4 years after having it set up. I give out cards and leaflets all the time with my website plastered all over it.

COST
I live in the UK and we have some companies that sell DIY websites. You pay £35 a year, your domain name is included in the price as well as a paypal cart. The soft ware is all on line and you can do a simple website and choose from templates or set up all the background etc using your own images. It is quite cheap and easy to use. I have found it very helpful as I don’t want to pay too much right now. The one I use is here: www.mrsite.co.uk

I hope this helps.

www.natashafraser.com

About SEO
by: Rita

If you need to understand Search Engine Optimization, Google has a section on that at:
googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html You can do a search for it if you don’t like to cut and paste.

Google’s Webmaster’s Central Blog: and I quote – “covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types. Throughout the guide, we also worked in many illustrations, pitfalls to avoid, and links to other resources that help expand our explanation of the topics. We plan on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current.”

The blog is very helpful, you may want to check it out.

websiteswork.blogspot.com

web site means even MORE work… in a good way.
by: Arbie Goodfellow

I know that you have heard… there is no such thing as a overnight success… well it takes usually years to be that “overnight ” success.
If this is what you want to do than continue to learn new ways to get people to your site and hard work always pays off.
I usually will sit down once a month and just try to brainstorm new ideas to see who else my jewelry may be right for.
I mostly sell to Bridal shops and while I was in a airport my husband said he saw a shop that would be right for my jewelry.
I talked to the salesclerk and obtained the email of the owner and I am in the process of sending them photos and samples of my work.
As the story goes… I think I can… I think I can…
Go for it!
www.arbiegoodfellow.com

Overwhelming?
by: Patricia

So much to do it’s overwhelming. But it occurs to me that it might be best to just stop and instead of trying and failing to accomplish every single one of them all at the same time without any real leads (as applicable) or detailed procvess design is doomed to failure. A Plan (yes, with a capital P) is necessary and I really must sit down and devise a strategy that encompasses time lines and priorities. Especially, they can’t be realized all at once and yes some things will suffer while others get seen to. Hence prioritizing.

It’s amust for eveyone, especially if you don’t have in-house help or can’t affford to pay for it.

Very good advice, Patricia
by: Elizabeth

Patricia,

Your advice is critical. All too often we get lost in the larger scheme of things – only to cloud our brains with the very irrelevant material we had hoped to avoid. We do things out of haste, only to get even more stressed out as we lose VISION through desperate attempts to make everything “right”.

In business, in life, in relationships: nothing will ever be right or perfect all of the time. I say ride the tide (believe me, I wish it were that easy) and look at the horizon. Don’t paddle at every breath wondering when you will hit land. What happens when you DO hit land? What was the joy in getting there?

Focusing on one issue or disaster (in my case) at a time is a very smart and resourceful piece of advice. Thank you for that. Now I am more centered as I was able to focus on having actually one week of vacation in our dream home: I found an affordable cottage right on the ocean, which took me seven months of research. I plan to pick sea shells, use my meditation breathing to the sounds of the waves flowing in and out. I plan to try and cure myself of this chronic pain and disease, as the ocean is so healing. Then when I come back, I will worry about my next course of treatments.

After that (and of course all the while) I will be designing new things for my third year of jewelry making. I will chart the unhidden places that sell high end jewelry, that could very well be right in the towns next to me.

Yes, very good advice indeed. All it takes is one hit. I think of baseball. Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t worry about what others expect of you (once again, easy for me coming from a family of overachievers!), or how the crowds are distracting you. Look at the dividers where your home run will land. That is where I want to be, at that moment in time when we all share the same vision of success.

My best to everyone on this fabulous site.

Elizabeth
Stones in Harmony

One
by: Anonymous

One day at a time, one victory at a time.

No shortcuts to good pictures
by: Karl-Gunnar

Hi!

My wife and I own the jewelry firm Unicorn Design in Sweden. Of corse we have a web-site but we see it mainly as a display window. Since the customer has very much to say about the design, color of the stones and so on we have not invested in any shopping cart. It´s rare that any piece of jewelery is sold without at least 2 generations of photos so it´s very important that the photos really get right.

My wife is the true artist and designer in the family and I am the photgrapher and I have learnt a lot since we started.

I started out with a quite expensive Ricoh digital camera but soon found out that I got different colors depending on the time of the day, the color of my shirt and so on. The built-in flash was not strong enough to compensate the various color temperatures, so I invested in two studio flashes.

So now I got the right colors, but the quality of the pictures was still not good enough, the focus was often bad. There was a lot of megapixel in the Ricoh but the optics was not up to the task. The only way to solve this was to buy a real SLR camera, so now there is an Olympus with good optics on the shelf, and we get good pictures.

I have always used Photoshop to process my pictures. I suppose Photoshop Elements would do the job but I think it´s important to be able to work with the pictures on a quite detailed level. It´s also very nice to be able to add some effect or add a background to enhance the piece of jewelry.

So what is my message?

We have found that good pictures is one key to selling jewelry online, both from “home” and via Etsy (that we also use). There are no shortcuts to getting them, you need a good camera, you need to control the lighting to get the right colors and you must be able to make small adjustments and perhaps add some effects to them.

Then you must take the time to learn how the camera works, learn about light and how to use the software.

Karl-Gunnar Hallgren
www.unicorndesign.se

Photos!
by: Patricia

Karl-Gunnar,

Until recently all of my images were created using my Microtek scanner and my graphics program, PhotoImpact 8 to erase the scanner background and insert mine. The scanner allows me to get excellent resolution (far better than needed for any monitor but perfect for print work), but of course can’t handle three dimensionality. So my brother and sister-in-law got me a digital point and shoot (a refurbished Samsung S85) and I bought a light box (after building my own which I did not find satisfactory) from Nile Corp. After many years of using a film SLR (Nikon F, now sadly broken) I find myself having a lot of trouble transitioning to digital. Mostly because manual is not as flexible as I am used to and – WOW! – does the thing eat up batteries like crazy!

I’ve got to get my pictures – especially earrings – done but the macro and super macro aren’t really as good as what I’ve been able to get with just a 35 mm or 50 mm regular lens, choosing macro or supermacro negates other manual operations, there’s no light meter so I can fudge lighting, there’s no real control over f-stop, etc, etc, etc. BUT, I will persevere and I will get some good free standing earring images. Thank goodness I don’t have to buy film. LOL

digital camera
by: Paul and Sandy

we bought a little digital camera by Kodak that
doesn’t use batteries. Its a kodak AF3x Optical Aspheric Lens 32mm_96mm ( Equiv )
When the lighting is correct, it takes fabulous pictures and then I use the charger to juice it up again. I used to have another gigital camera that needed batteries that constantly needed new batteries or we could use the rechargable ones and that got kind of frustrating. Now I’m looking for that ever perfect picture. Its fun!

lens-action
by: Patricia

Paula and Sandy,

That sounds fun! I’ll have to consider that when I have some free cash. 🙂

Picture Taking
by: Paul

A friend suggested ( I can hardly wait to set up my little portable studio ) to try photograghing a necklace using no flash, general picture taking as opposed to ( close-up and distant ) and have lighting filtered from the sides of the screen. Me being the partner of the artist, 60 years old with rapidly fading eyesight and in charge of photography…..it better work !

WISH ME LUCK …

For Paul (and Sandy)
by: Patricia

Good luck! I have always been an “available light” photographer. The diffusers should help get rid of coarse shadows.

Never stop believing
by: Lina

Barbara,
I am glad to hear i am not the only one not selling anything on the net. I did think it was because I was not doing something right.

I have read all the great advice people have left and it has also helped me. I think you just have to keep trying until you find something that works. Also you do need to keep promoting when ever you can and look for opportunities everywhere. And most of all never stop believing in your self and don’t give up the dream.

I sell most of my jewllery at markets as I think people do like to touch and try on jewellery before buying, I use my website to show case some of my designs. I also started another feel good blog for mind body and soul and linked to my jewellery.

Here to all of our successes- crafts people make the world go round.

Lina
www.zanildesign.blogspot.com

Selling at Markets
by: Patricia

Lina,

I agree that people love to touch the jewelry, hold it up, play with it, etc, before they buy. That said, however, I don’t generally do very well at the markets I’ve tried — mainly because they are the wrong markets! And I can’t afford the ones that are right. So I am going to have to depend on the internet and word of mouth.

Marketing art in general is not trivial and jewelry – especially on the ‘net – even more so. I am still working on the first step – great images and lots of them.

vener-art.com/beadblog/

Etsy!!!!!!!
by: Vicki

Etsy is fantastic! I have 2 jewelry stores, and have been able to not have to go back to work after being layed off. It is a dream come true!

Why 2 Etsy stores?
by: Patricia

Vicky, why 2 stores? I have only one, not yet successful enough to support me, but I’m working at it. I was thinking of putting my paintings and other fine art forms I do) in as well. I’ve gotten mixed advice about this. In any case, I don’t think I know of anyone else who has 2 different jewelry stoes. Are you focusing each one on a different market?

vener-art.com/beadblog/
Loving This
by: Elizabeth

Vicki, would you mind giving us a very general description of the two products you sell on Etsy? Price points? I have a friend who does well on Etsy, and she has items ranging from $40 to $60, usually chain necklaces.

Wow, you guys are GREAT! This is a great chat we have going on here! I looked into a new Kodak EZSHARE upgrade. Does anyone use that digital camera for their websites?

My best to all,

Elizabeth

Vicki’s Success Story
by: Anonymous

Ok, care to share your secret to your marketing success? What are you doing different than so many of the other 9500 (+ or-) Jewelry Esty stores that are not doing so well?

I think I can say you have our attention!

Esty Business
by: Rita

Here’s a report on the numbers Esty recorded from the Etsy marketplace for June 2009.

The stats:

$12.8 million of goods were sold, roughly 4% lower than May’s $13.3 million

That represents 787,692 items sold for the month, 4% lower than May’s 817,070

1,315,547 new items were listed in the month, 0.1% lower than May’s 1,316,977

157,000 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, down 3,000, or 2% from May

484,227,357 page views were recorded on the site this month, a 2.7% decrease from May

Overall, June results were more or less comparable to May’s after factoring in that there are 30 days in June and 31 in May.

I know that this is more than Jewelry Sies, my point is that if you are going to be in Esty you need to stand out, use their resources and work hard.

www.websiteswork.blogspot.com: No Charge Tools Available to help you get traffic.

www.homebasedjewelers.blogspot.com: Get Listed!

www.privatestockjewelrystudio.blogspot.com
My best to All!

Multiple Sites?
by: Patricia C Vener

I am assuming at least one of those is a directory. Are we allowed to promote or list more than one website? Say etsy shop, 1000markets shop, one’s own regular website?

In any case I’m going to visit those now. 🙂

Multiples
by: Rita

Sure, you can use your comments section, list all you want!! Update, put your specials in, what every you would like!!
Thank you Rita!
by: Patricia

Awesome! Thank Rita.

🙂

Keep it up
by: Lynda

Your Website loads nice and is set up for easy use. You just need traffic. Don’t forget to pass out business cards and make up a flier or short news letter to all your contacts about you new site. Ask them to pass it along to friends or contacts that won’t mind looking at your jewelry.
Some of your pictures were blurry. It’s hard to see detail on some of your pieces. The suggestion earlier was to have more pictures of each item. That is always a good idea. Take a picture of it on a necklace display. Cheap on ebay. Don’t forget that getting your face book or what ever social group you belong to aware of your site. Keep it simple, but maybe have a sign in page and give a small gift away.

I do that at every show so I can get their contact info and send a news letter every month. I take lots of pictures of my new things and send them with an announcement of who won last months free earrings. It really works.
Etsy is great but you must put in the time to do google base and social networking. Find your niche and run with it.
Hope some of this is helpful. Good luck and don’t give up just yet. If you build it they will come.

It’s all in the photos
by: Sarah Goldberg-Mitzvah Jewelry

Hey Barbara,

I love buying jewelry so after reading your article I wanted to take a look at your website. Strictly from the buyer’s perspective you have two big problems on your website. First, and most importantly, is your photography. The photos you have up are way too blurry and distorted. The dark blue background is distracting and distorts the colors of your jewelry. I would tell anyone here who is looking to sell their jewelry online that your photos need to be top notch. And now, the secret to great photos…A LIGHTBOX!

A lightbox is exactly what it sounds like. Simply put it is a box that diffuses light, creating a completely seamless and professional atmosphere for photographing anything from flowers, to jewelry. You can make one easily in under half an hour using stuff you have at home (a box, some tracing paper, scissors and tape). Click here to learn how!
http://strobist.blogspot.com/search?q=DIY+Macro+photo+studio

The second thing I would suggest you change, Barbara is the rather Pepto Bismol pink color you have chosen as your background. The second I saw it my stomach turned a little. Now I love pink as much as any other girl, but it is not a good color for a website background. The pale shade makes everything look washed out, and because your logo is the exact same color it nearly disappears on the page. You want your logo to stand out, really pop of the page so that people remember it. To give your website an elegant and more vintage feel I would recommend a muted dark green. It would create a visual harmony that would make a potential buyer feel drawn in.

Lastly, I would recommend improving your write-ups. You need to assume that your customers know absolutely nothing about the jewelry they are buying so you need to entice them! Let them know that they are buying quality, handmade, one of a kind jewelry! Include things like, “made of the highest quality crystals and sterling silver”. You might also consider saying something like “This necklace, being 16″ in length, would go perfectly with a blouse or a v-neck shirt”. This gives the customer a mental image of how they would wear the piece.

I hope this helps! Good luck to you!

Sarah Goldberg
mitzvahjewelry.com

For SArah
by: Patricia

Your general comments are very pertinent insights. I am in the process of redesigning my website, http://vener-art.com/ and definitely need to keep your thoughts in mind too. I am planning on going to a dark background with lots of “white” space, better descriptions, make all images good ones, make my copy more positive and make some logistics changes as well.

It’s going to be a complete overhaul. I just haven’t had time to get into it yet and, since I code by hand and I made this site way back when, I need to also update my coding!

Huh. Maybe in a way it’s easier to start from scratch? LOL

Market yourself
by: Dawn

You all have fantastic comments that I am learning from – thank you!! I am also feeling relief about hearing other artisans going through the same growing pains that I am. I have my own site – www.sunshineindustries.ca – and it has undergone some major changes this last year, including adding a shopping cart $$. I’ve spent some $ on a web designer (I found a web design student on Twitter that would work for less and still do great things!) and together we are improving it bit by bit. Now I’m working on improving photography and exposure on google traffic.

One important thing that has increased traffic for me is starting to blog. I use blogger.com.
http://sunshineindustries.blogspot.com/
The blog allows me to put numerous photos of a product up whereas my free web cart (www.zencart.com) will not. The blog also allows me to talk about how a design came about, which customers appear to like. I also blog about tips on how to create, which has opened up opportunities for me blogging for www.artbeads.com and www.emmalinebride.com.

I also use www.mailchimp.com to send weekly emails to my newsletter subscribers on my website. Mail Chimp is free and it’s AMAZING. It takes my weekly blog and converts it to an html email message. It sends these out automatically every week for me. I do nothing other than blog. Easy, right? If I can do it, you can!! The emails direct traffic to both the blog and the website. I get sales about every two weeks from customers who saw something on the weekly email.

I also joined Twitter. (SINjewely) Admittedly, I haven’t been on there lately, but when I am and I share with other designers, I learn a lot AND get exposure to my website. Twitter has led to winning prizes, meeting celebrities and connecting with other great designers out there for advise, networking and camaraderie. I never feel alone once I log in there.

Hope these tips help. Don’t give up!!
Dawn

Happy New Year and Onward to Success
by: Patricia C Vener

2010 is my year. My photos have improved as I learn more ways to manipulate my camera’s reality. I did get a recharger but I’m now thinking of trying lithium batteries as well since the batteries still don’t last as long as I’d like and the loss is ridiculous!

I am about to embark on the website redesign with an April 1st launch scheduled (at the latest). I am also going to start listing myself in as many places as possible (see the posts up toward the middle). Lots to do but I’ve got a better feel for it I think and I am working out routines/schemas/processes to accomplish these.

I wish us all success in the coming year.

Selling Online
by: Barbara

All the comments were helpful and insightful-2009 was an interesting year for me -internet wise & in person. First-my website last year was an “experiment” – in that I set it up with a shopping cart/SSL -all very expensive – which did not net any (ok – 2) sales – not enough to cover the costs! It could be my photos or it could be that in my mind – jewelry is a “touchy-feely” type of product – and to be honest I am in awe and maybe a certain amount of disbelief of those who proclaim to be selling SO much on the internet. Second – I am in the process of re-vamping it back to more of a gallery site with less pieces on it -more varied type of work -more glass “accessories” -and that will direct customers on how to purchase or inquire about other pieces.

Now that being said – the in person year was a good one – people perhaps spending a bit less – but more people spending so overall I had a good show year -So to sum up – I congratulate those who so sell “lots” on line but it just has not turned out to be my main source of sales.

Happy 2010 to all

Same Dang Darn Boat
by: Ashley

I’ve recently started selling my jewelry online about 5 months now and haven’t sold a thing, but this hasn’t discouraged me a bit. I started off with a website that I made with help from a website building software. After about a month I decided to sell on Etsy too, didn’t sell anything but at least I was getting some views and favorites here and there. Fast forward to today I haven’t sold anything still but I have learned loads! I decided until I get a following I would use my website as advertising and I also put up a blog which I own the url to. I’m looking forward to whats to come. I hope you hang in there and beautiful peace by the way. ~Ashley~

(http://dazzlemegems.com/blog1/)

Love your site Rena!

Welling Online in 2010
by: Patricia C Vener

Etsy: I did some research on the biggest selling bead weaving jewelry makers. Their most often sold pieces were not pieces but tutorials! So I’m going to write some more of these (I have three up already).

Exposure: I’m going to be writing not only my blog but now guest posting on Indie Smiles blog.

Website: Plan for upheaval is done, preliminary research is done. Page planning is in process. I’ve committed myself to an April 1st launch date for this and for my first tutorial bead weaving ebook. I wonder if I need to get an ISBN for this…

Competitions and challenges: Working on these!

I figure the more I’m out there the more valuable a commodity I and my work will be and then hopefully sales will follow!

Sounds like a Plan!
by: Rita Juhlin

Hey Patricia, Good for you!! You go girl!!

Update constantly
by: Paul Lynn

Hi there.

Photography is key, as has been said. Megapix size is not that important for the web. Lighting and lens choice is. Choose a good manufacturer with extensive manual and macro controls. You can also build a lightbox yourself and use ‘daylight’ bulbs to illuminate the objects within.

Keep adding to the site. That way, the search engines recognise new changes. Write some articles. Get some of your previous customers to write a testimonial and publish it on your site. Start a blog. There’s plenty of ways for you to keep active.

We’re just starting out with our site (www.sofiagaver.dk) and there’s just not enough hours in the day.
Best of luck and hang in there.

In My Experience
by: Doug Kelly

In my experience of brick & mortar and Internet marketing (20 yrs) I have to say that there is a lot of evidence to shun the notion of “touchy feely required.”

Think about the shoe industry for a moment. Here’s a product that you need to know the size to get the right fit and each shoe brand/style fits a little different. Online shoe stores (of which I work for one)take that to an all new height. They try and make it as effortless as possible and at the same time keep returns due to incorrect size down to a minimum. Returns are bad – say that 10 times each morning.

How do they succeed? Well, first, most provide a shoe/foot sizing chart so that you can narrow it down to your current size (feet change year to year and in the morning they are smaller than in the evening, which is why you should buy or size between 2pm and 6pm).

Secondly they provide copious amounts of information, especially about the style running a half size bigger, small or true to size.

So, in the jewelry business we can use the same model; take good pictures and provide as may views as you can, provide as much useful detail as possible, and treat your customers the way you want to be treated. It costs 3 times more in acquisition dollars to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.

The other part of my experience is doing SEO (13 years) (organic) so the search engines index you properly, which allows people to be able to find you for the search terms they enter. Then getting to rank on page 1 (Top10) is tantamount to success.

Using shopping comparison engines (NexTag, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, etc.) is a great filler to use until your organic kicks in. I prefer it to Adwords. It is still pay-per-click (PPC) but it is so much more targeted to getting the right type of visitor/buyer to your site – Adwords cannot match the ROI. We typically experience 300% or greater.

Even after your organic kicks in, shopping sites can be a great way to keep or increase the sales volume.

I have no problem with the technical aspect of my new career, it’s the subtleties. How’s that saying go, “We can do the impossible in no time at all, the simple stuff takes a little longer!”

Doug Kelly
www.jdkellyjewelry.com

You might try it!
by: Vicki Noll Corwin

I know all the feelings you are having. Did my own site and two years later still not one sale from it! On the other hand, I have been very succesful on etsy. I just can’t say enough good abougt it. However it is not an over night sucess either. I have spent many hours, but the key is renew, and relist, and heart everyone there is, and never give up your dream.

3 etsy shops now
by: Vicki Noll Corwin

To the answer of some of your questions. I have three etsy shops now. I have one that is strictly my wire wrapped jewelry,and upcycled vintage. I have another, that is a vintage jewelry shop, and the third is just for fun, and it is a recycled repurpose, anything goes shop! I am very moderatly priced,I sell items in my wire shop, from Rings at $9.00 dollars, that take me 7 minutes to make, and $1.75 tops for supplies. I really keep my prices know higher than $45.00. I guess you would say, I would rather make a nickel a day, than wait and make a dime on saturday. If you get my drift? lol Any way average items sell best from 9 to 25.00.

My review of selling sites
by: Marilyn

As a jewelry artisan, I would like to comment on the various sites from a sellers point of view. I have been on the following sites: 1000Markets, Artfire, Bonanzle, Zibbett, Etsy, Ruby Lane and Ruby Plaza. After several months with no sales, I dropped out of the first 4. I am still on the last 3, but I am rethinking them as well.

There is over 1.5 million jewelry listings on Etsy as of 9/9/10. If you don’t continually relist (at 20 cents each) you will not be seen. Prices are very low, in part because there are a lot of kids and inexperienced young people throwing things together. Etsy does not market for you. They expect you to do your own. Any promotion they do is to get more sellers, which is where they make their money. Sales are almost non-existant, at least lately for me.

Ruby Lane is juried and the minimum sale price for artisan jewelry is $20. They do advertise and charge each seller an advertising fee of $20 a month. They also charge a maintainance fee of 30 cents on the first of each month for each item you have listed in addition to the 30 cents to list an item. My monthly costs run $60 – $70. My sales do not cover it.

Ruby Plaza is a new site by Ruby Lane. No sales yet. They just charge a monthly fee. What I don’t like is that they put all jewelry together – artisan, antique, junk, you name it. There is no restrictions on price or anything being handcrafted.

BTW, I have been making jewelry for 25 years and have sold both at shows and wholesale. I’m using dichroic fused glass as my medium.

www.elionessdesigns.rubylane.com
www.hotstuffstudio.etsy.com

Update!
by: Patricia C Vener

Nice to see this topic is still live.

Ok, well I got my website redesigned. It’s gorgeous and, though not finished, it is coming along nicely. I have not yet set up sales pages except for the kits page (which I’d like to phase out because it’s not much fun counting out seed beads for the kits). I’ve started with information pages in the hopes that sooner rather than later collectors will commission work from me.

I am blogging with posts scheduled 2 to 3 times a week. I am not listing nearly enough nor announcing nearly often enough in my mall shops (Etsy, 1kM, Smashing Darling) and I have not begun to do licensing art at Zazzle (I am also a fine artist).

I have desinged a new line (Bubbe Pins™ – a couple of which are shown here on Rena’s site) and have entered one of these into the Etsy Beadweavers September challenge (voting from now to the 15 on their website – http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/) and upon which I will be doing a lot of focusing.

My work is relatively pricey for etsy as I am not so much a jewelry designer as I am an artist whose media happen to also include bead woven jewelry as well as more traditional paint, pen, and pencil.

My sales everywhere could be better. But the vagaries of sales include getting known and getting found by those with whom my work resonates as well as the conventional making sure folks understand the value of my art.

In the same boat
by: Eclecticpixie

It feels good to know that I am not alone in this.I started making jewelry 4 years ago, and about 2 years I thought I have enough jewelry to start my web site.Unfortunately,that was a failure but I had some luck on Etsy.This summer I received what looked like a bill in the mail to renew my web domain and I send in the money. It turned out the bill was a fraud, and now my domain is in redemption period.I was told that if I wanted to purchased back it will be $150.00. I was outraged to find that copyrights does not apply to a website.At this point I am disappointed and I might just let them have MY domain because I never sold anything from there.As you all can relate that is a bit expensive when you consider the fact that it is cheaper to just start another web site.
Due to time constraints I just tried to sell only on Etsy but for the past 6 months had no luck.I updated the pictures revised my prices and tried to set myself apart. That did not work also.I am a bit illiterate when it comes to blogging.I’ve read all the comments but because the lack of a website I don’t think that I can do an SEO.I’ve also tried Twitter and Facebook.I feel very overwhelmed knowing that I have to make the jewelry’s also.I don’t know how to split myself when everything becomes so time consuming. Any advice will be appreciated.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/EclecticPixie?ga_search_query=eclecticpixie&ga_search_type=seller_usernames&view_type=gallery

the reality
by: Anonymous

Jewelry designs need to have mass appeal or they lose steam.

If you are getting site visits but thats not converting to sales – there’s your answer.

People ooh and aah at cupcakes, it doesn’t mean they buy one.

Mass Appeal vs. Niche Appeal
by: Rena

Regarding mass appeal vs. niche appeal, I had the opposite experience.

When selling my jewelry online, I found that it was my “niche appeal” pieces that sold best and fastest, while my more “mass appeal” pieces sat around (sometimes forever!).

In Accord with Rena…
by: Patricia C Vener

I agree with Rena. Mass appeal implies trying to sell to everyone. Like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, JCPennys, etc. But that is NOT what most of us want. Or at least I don’t. I’m an artist who happens to use bead weaving and jewelry as one of her media. My target market is: mainly urban, independent minded, free thinking, people who follow their own fashion style and don’t mind standing out in a crowd.

I am not selling to the people who go to Wal-Mart looking for the best deal nor the people who buy a diamond pendant because it’s in style or some “celebrity” name designed it.

Right on, Patricia!
by: Rena

Yes – the folks who want to purchase and wear (or give) something distinctive and different. I’ve found these customers to be true gems. Often even their clothes are distinctive and different, so they can be easy to single out and target! 🙂

Rena’s camp
by: Rita Juhlin

I have to say I’m in Rena’s camp too. My best selling experiences are not just the one of a kind but usually very spontaneous and different enough I doubt the piece will sell. Ha, shows ya what I know.

Seriously, I do believe the creative pieces that aren’t for the masses are much more desirable to the “other” mass that is always on the lookout for something different and unique.

I get tired of seeing the same thing “designed” over and over and over again. It is very uninspiring to see the same tutorial based designs done by so many artists.

Yes, Distinctive!
by: Patricia C Vener

That’s the word I’ve been looking for!

Thank you Rena!

One Word – Ebay
by: Anonymous

Seriously, if you want more leads, go with eBay. There are more resources to help you with it, you can put up pricing, dimensions, pictures, etc. Also try Amazon’s FBA, program. The FBA program should really help you rake in the cash. Ebay is a lot of work, but it does work. Plus you can put up your web address in your About me section and put your email address in your listing. When people email you, don’t forget to direct them to your site! Good luck.