Monday, December 15, 2008

Madeitmyself.com, Another place to sell your handcrafted jewelry!

Madeitmyself.com is a site for selling all things handmade. I have begun my test of this site so I can give you a full review. Madeitmyself.com isn't as big as etsy.com. This may be a bonus for those of you that are having a hard time being found on etsy.com. The biggest plus of madeitmyself.com is that there is not listing fee ( as of this posting). They do charge a 3% final sales fee. That is really affordable compared to the other sites out there.

I have signed up and listed one item for sale. Setting up your account is simple. Before you can list an item for sale you have to fill in how you would like to be paid. You can choose personal check, money order or paypal. After that you can go into the listing area. Filling in your listing information is easy and the site takes you through step by step.

If you are looking for an affordable place to list your handcrafted jewelry, madeitmyself.com is worth checking out.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Another way to build your online presence

Take the 30 day challenge! The 30 day challenge is all about teaching you how to use social networking and more to earn money online. I have signed up to take the challenge. I will be posting my progress here, so you can follow along. I encourage everyone to check it out. It is free to sign up and can teach you tools to have a more successful business. www.thirtydaychallenge.com

If you choose to sign up tells us about it. If you have already taken this challenge, share with us how it went.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Are you building residual income with your jewelry biz?

If you are just starting selling your handmade jewelry, you may not have thought about creating residual income yet. The idea of creating residual income is one of those if I knew then what I know now, I would have done this years ago, kinda things. That is one of the great things about this blog. I can share with you what I have learned over the years and you can get a better start than I did.

If you are relying only on the sales of your finished jewelry, how can you keep earning when you can't work? You can't. To keep money coming in, you have to keep creating new pieces of jewelry and selling them. You need to add multiple streams of income to your handcrafted jewelry business. These streams need to be able to earn money everyday no matter what.

How do you add more streams of income to your handmade jewelry business?

Start a blog. If you have a business you should have a blog. A blog allows you to connect with customers. It will help drive traffic to your store and let customers get to know you. Your blog is a great place to talk about your jewelry, how you make, what supplies you use, and so on. You can promote your newsletter, craft fairs, sales, contests, and new finished pieces. The best thing is your blog can earn you money through ads and affiliate marketing. Adding jewelry related affiliate marketing (like you see on this blog) will give you a stream of residual income. This is a stream that you set and forget.

Create jewelry tutorials. That's right, share what you know and get paid for it. You create the tutorial once, and it will earn your money over and over again. Your tutorials can be sold individually or grouped together and sold as ebooks.

Building income this way does take time. You won't earn thousands or even hundreds right away. However, it does add up and can grow to larger amounts over time. This is why is it so important to get started right away.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Building your own light box

Using a light box will really improve the look of your jewelry photos. The light box will help you clear bright photos. With you light box set up right, you can also cut a lot of glare out of your photos and give your jewelry just the right amount of sparkle. If you have ever shopped for a light box or tent you know the can coast over $100.00. That can be a huge and unaffordable expense for your new jewelry business. I have searched the net and found some good simple and cheap solutions.

Check out these links below for ideas on building your own light box. Please share with us your ideas and experiences with building your own light box.

Jen Weaver's Do it yourself light box

How to build a light tent

Other suggestions are milk jugs, totes, or other opaque plastic containers.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Cool site for Indie artists

IndieBizChicks.com is loaded with helpful information for all indie artists. This site is all about helping you get your business going and keeping it going. They have articles, teleclasses, podcasts and more. It is not jewelry specific, but everything can be applied to your jewelry biz. So, surf on over and check them out!


Learn How To Market Your Craft Business

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Let's Ets, Cool Etsy Tool

Let's Ets has a really great tool for all etsy.com sellers. This tool lets you get your items from your etsy shop listing in Google Shopping! It is very simple to use if you follow the the directions. To use this tool you must have a google account. This tool works with google base to get photos and descriptions of your etsy items listed in google shopping. Click Here to go to Let's Ets.

If you use this tool, tell us about it!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Flickr as an online portfolio

For those jewelry makers without galleries built into there websites, flickr.com may be just the thing they need. Flickr is free and lets you upload a ton of photos. You get your own photo stream page and added into searches. Flickr will also provide you with links to direct your customers too. Below is my flickr slide show. I use this on the main page of my jewelry website.


If you haven't tried flickr.com for hosting your photos online, check it out. If you have used or tried filckr, tell us about it.