I have been making jewelry for several years now and would like to start marketing on the internet. There is a store that is selling some of my items, but she sells it too expensive and only requests what works for her, what it is fine, but I would like to be able to market everything that I do because I have too many and I can't stop making it :) It has become a passion!!! I do pins and necklaces and also accesories if requested, I do my own art beads (not store bought) I buy some seed beads and cristals, but make most of the main pieces.
Can anybody help me with this? I would like to build a website in where I don't have to pay a monthly fee, I know how to buy a domain since I already have an other business but this is my passion. I am willing to sell my stuff in stores but even there they asked for a website to peak.
Thank you so much for any advice!
M. Abadie
So here I am with a free website!!!LOL, I am not sure if this is what I was looking for but it works for now. Thank you all so much, I still can't believe how many responses and suggestions I got! You are all amazing! I found a yahoo group for crafters to help each other and also a great place where you can build a website free and they don't even charge you when you sell something and it does not expire ever!!!! I am passing this information on to you know since many are crafters like me. Hope you can get to use it too and if you need any help feel free to contact me anytime. You have been so helful when I needed that I want to help too.
Here is the yahoo group:
Post message: ____@____.com
Subscribe: ____@____.com
And here is my website where you can also create yours: (I still have to decide the best method for payments but you can check it out in the baby steps and it's progress or make your own with this site)
http://maiacreations.ecrater.com
I welcome any suggestions!!! My husband said that I have to improve the quality of the pictures. I'll try! Thanks again!!!
Go join The Mom Pack at yahoo groups. It's a great bunch of moms helping each other and networking each other. Tell them S. w/S.'s Personalized Books sent you! :)
Hi Mariana-
My sister in law sell a lot of things on Etsy.com. The whole site is for people to sell only handmade items. It's free to sign up, but i think there's a fee when you sell something. She also has a blog page that she sells stuff from. Hope these ideas help!
Hi Mariana! When trying to sell anything it is best to list on several places. We have an online auction site and we would love to have you. We are reasonably new but are having great results. We have been written up in several areas, this being one of the articles: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5...tion_sites.html Here we offer free stores and you can "list until it sells" for free. We have a final fee of 2%. When you join you will receive $25 in credits to your account if you pay $1 to be verified. Read the above article for some great hints for a successful time on any site that you may choose. These credits then can be used on enhancements to draw attention to your auctions. Join the forums and mention MamaSource and we will do a write up in the newsletter to give you more exposure.
i also sell my jewelry thru etsy. http://meero.etsy.com
i actually found etsy thru mamasource. Everything is handmade except for vintage items and commerical supplies.
It's $0.20 to list one item and then they charge a % when an item sells. The buyer pays thru paypal. There is no monthly fee to be a seller.
There are forums to post in to get to know other sellers and ask questions.
Jewelry is the largest category on etsy so there is a lot of competition. you should list everyday to stay visible and promotion outside of the site is very important. it can take a while to see success.
if you have any other questions, i'd be happy to chat with you.
I have my own store through Etsy. I have really loved their site. The domain name is free www.yourname.etsy.com and the store is free. It costs .20 to list an item and 3% of the items total is billed under fees. You pay the bill on your own, it is not automatically taken from an account. The best way to get exposure is networking and getting involved in the forums there. I like to browse and mark people and my favorites and they return it and people find and purchase this way. There is also another site that I belong to which really helps with Etsy. www.swankymoms.com You must be approved as a member but they are mostly all moms who sell at Etsy and is a great support system. The address for my store is www.baublesandbits.etsy.com if you would like an idea of what your store would look like. Also another way to get some exposure is to blog about your products and your life. I have a blog through blogspot and I really like it. Hope this can help you.
I have a friend who is very creative and she is venturing out and you should contact her and see what she can do for you. I work at a Real Estate office and she was doing all of the marketing for our office and another one in Dallas and she does wonderful work. Her email address is ____@____.com. I know her personally and she is a great person. Just let her know what you want and she will quote you a price.
my husband does websites for a living at a pretty low cost. you can contact him at ____@____.com and/or visit his website at www.orange151.com
I have a friend that builds websites - his name is David Board, his website is www.dacoto.com. He has a lot of information on that site. Good luck
My fiancé runs a computer consulting and repair business and has experience setting up websites. You can check out his website if your interested. www.BCsPCsOnline.com Or contact me if you'd like some more information.
Try Etsy.com There are no monthly fees and they charge just .20 cents to list an item. They take very very minimal once it sells. For example I sold a tote for $25 and with the listing fee and their commission it only cost $1.08 to sell using their site. Check out my store at www.emjdesign.etsy.com Hope that helps-I have a passion for sewing so I know what you mean about not being able to stop!
In my opinion website building and upkeep stink! My husband and I have one for our business, but everytime he says, "Let's change. . ." I dread it. When I sit down to make the changes, something didn't save where I wanted it to, and now I need text boxes to move the pictures.
Anyway, that's been my experience - oh and we needed the right software to edit the site, which to purchase is like $500. And we bought the site for like $150 for 2 years from GoDaddy.com.
Anyway, it's been a pain, so much so that I finally suggested we hire someone to redo it in the format she's comfortable with and just pay her to keep it updated. She's working on it now, and I can concentrate on the other stuff of running a business that I love,plus the other things in my life. She charges $40/hour, and once the site is changed from frontpage to whatever she's using, it won't cost much a month for her to make the changes. Or if you're comfortable, you can make the changes yourself. If you want her info, let me know. She's a full time working mom who's looking to stay home with her web design business.
Hi there,
Have you ever checked out www.etsy.com? This is a great website for those of us wanting to sell our handmade items.
Good luck!
H.
Hi,
I've had a website before for my own business, but you might want to check out this site instead of trying to buy your own domain. I buy jewelry through this site occasionally, and they seem to have created a good presence on the internet for their sellers. They "come up" when you type in jewelry or blown glass or beads or earrings, or whatever. I have no interest in them personally - just think that it might be easier on you to focus on putting your own jewelry up, and not worrying too much about having to market the site. Sounds like you already have your hands full anyway, between kids, two businesses, etc.
Good luck!
You might be able to set one up at www.freewebs.com I don't know what their regulations are about selling stuff but you might check into that site.
Depending on the type and style of the jewelry you make I may be able to help. I run a very active website for police wives (5k plus visitors a day). We wouldn't mind promoting jewelry that was aimed at law enforcement, and/or blue roses. You can send me a personal message here if that's something you could offer.
Do you want people to be able to buy the jewelry on your site? If yea, you might want to look at foxycart.com. Apparently it is a much easier to use cart program than a lot of the others. (A friend of mine's husband made it. Apparently shopping cart programs are usually very difficult. Otherwise I know very little about website production.)
do you have a junior college nearby or regular college? A lot of them have students who do web pages for a minimum charge. You or your husband might think about taking web page lessons at the college. Anyway, this is how some college kids earn their way through college. Then there is e-bay.
Hi Mariana,
Do you still have a child with ezcema, too? I saw an older posting from last year baout the struggle you were having and we went through all of that with our daughter, too. She completely cleared up using a procedure called NAET. We found a doctor online that used the technique- check out www.naet.com to find a practitioner.
Hope this helps, and good luck on your jewelry business!
E.
I have a website I've been paying for, trying to get it off the ground, but no time. If you are good at that sort of thing, maybe we can exchange-- if you'll set the rest of it up for me, you can have a page or two of it for your jewelry and marketing, if you'd like... What do you think? Part of the reason I got the site is that I have friends who are amazing artists, and I wanted to be able to market their work. Doh!
www.etsy.com is an awesome!! place to market home-made items. I just opened an account there to sell my own home-made soaps. www.soapscentsations.etsy.com
Have you thought about setting up a store through ebay? I think that would be a good way to get started - and then you could always expand later. Having your own website is great - but could be hard to advertise since different search engines turn up so many results. Have you thought about targeting wedding parties etc.?
