selling jewellery online

[Alexandra]

hi everyone, I'm new. I have been making jewellery for a few years and would really like to start selling jewellery online. I havedone a few craft fairs but am hoping that selling online would be more convenient and eventually more lucrative. Has anyone got any tips in this area? I have looked into website designers but ti didn't take me long to realise the prices are way beyond my means. Has anyone designed there own online shop? If so, how difficult was the process?

[Zebedee]

I'd be interested in this info too....

Trying to sell on ebay at the moment....I'm not sure how successful that will be though....

[minvera]

Hi i built my own site without ANY experience and found it relatively easy, but very time-consuming. I used Frontpage, but I've heard others say Dreamweaver is better. you can get free webspace - try www.lycos.co.uk, they also offer web templates but not that nice I dont think!
Finally, its not a case of having an online presence. you need to consider if you'll have an online shop. i use www.paypal.co.uk shopping basket and find it very straightforward. the main problem is getting traffic to your site - this can be expensive to get your name at the top of search engines. My advice to you is not to expect too much success from an online shop too soon. good luck with your venture.
Nicola

[Lou Lou's Bijouterie]

I created my own website from scratch without any previous knowledge whatsoever. If you are seriously interested in creating your own one, let me know and i'll be more than happy to give you assistance / help.

To see what i have done, feel free to click on the link in my signature below

[kaod55]

Hi just to say that a few months ago I started my own website. It is on www.freewebs.com it is really easy and does not cost anything, there is also a paypal link so you can sell stuff on there. They have good templates etc as well. Some products cost money and I pay $2 a month for multiple file uploads and some other stuff.
Also on that site they are really helpful with any problems or questions
I have also heard or a thing called traffic blazer which submits you the engines like google, aol etc for $30 which is bout £15 i think for a year. I have not used it yet but seems a good deal.
you can look at my site www.freewebs.com/kayleighscrafts if you want, you can get your own domain name for about £10 a year, but I havent done that yet either. Hope this helps, you don't need a really expensive package to do it!
Kayleigh

[Alexandra]

Thank you so much for your advice and I'm really impressed at the sites you have created and the jewellery you are selling! I run my "business" (I'm not sure it could quite be called that yet...) with a friend who is not keen on going online so hopefully your information will help to encourage her. At least you've given me some hope that it is a viable option for the future. Thank you!

[Tranquility80]

I also started out with a freewebs website and found it really good if you don't have any prior knowledge.
I now use instantestores as they are much more focused on creating a website to sell on.

[Emma Farnworth]

I haven't had many sales through my website but I haven't really promoted it and you probably wouldn't find it unless you were looking specifically for my stuff!

Using people like lycos etc isnt always an option if you want to sell your pieces, if you read the terms and conditions many have clauses forbidding the sale of goods and services unless you pay for a very expensive business type package. You could probably get away with it for a while but is it worth the risk? I bought space from streamlinenet.co.uk and i think you get a free .co.uk domain name with their home user package but you would need to use an ftp program like cute ftp to upload files to the server. I found a really good html tutorial site for kids which helped me to actually write the code.

Hmm that was a bit longer than I planned and reading back sounds really complicated!

[Breda Hogan]

My 19 yr old son was a big big help to me! The younger generation are so clued up on all things 'internet' So if you have a son/daughter, nephew/niece, or young neighbour it might be worth get ting help from them.:confused:

[Emma Farnworth]

the website i mentioned (for html help)was lissaexplains.com
its fairly easy to understand and you can copy and paste bits of code, thought it might help someone ?!?

[Trinity]

I do find it a problem getting the traffic to my site, I tend to try and promote my site on other websites but it can be time-consuming.

I am not sure how to add my site to search engines and don't want to spending out a whole heap of money on advertising if it isn't going to work.

I have got a few craft fairs booked from now until Christmas with the promise of more next year and this is the way that I make money and the more I do, hopefully it will spread the word around.

[0103media]

I do find it a problem getting the traffic to my site, I tend to try and promote my site on other websites but it can be time-consuming.


That's the point of the directory www.ukcraftwebistes.co.uk (http://www.ukcraftwebistes.co.uk)

The more people subscribe the bigger our advertising spend.. Simple as that..

One site that been listed has been sent just under 10,000 visitors in 2 years..

One thing with promoting your site is that you need to choose description of title of your site carefully ...

If the title of your site was "Beer" vs "Free beer here" which would you click on ?

Hope that helps..

[yellowzub]

hi.. me n my friend also made our site from scratch.. actually doing it urself is not that difficult.. what u need is a webhosting, a domain name and a merchant account.. u only have to pay for only these 3 things which is not that expensive. when we started we paid less than Malaysian Ringgit 500 (i guess the U.K pound will be much cheaper as 1 Pound = RM6 more or less)..
most of the webhosting today has many security features and other application for webmasters that are easy to use.. u can view how many people enters ur site, how many hits per entry and monitor band width usage to ur site. as for merchant account u may want to use paypal but in our case we use 2collect.com.. these 2 doesn't cost u much as they only charge u per year..
u can design ur site using frontpage because it is the easiest software to use for designing websites..

hope i've helped u in a way or so... feel free to browse my site anytime..

[Photo Jewelry]

A lot of people on a forum I visit use ecrater.com to sell their jewelry and crafts. I am not positive but I think it gives you an online store free.

[Bex1403]

Hi
I have designed sucessfull websites in the past and would be happy to do one for you too. I can put together proposals for you to take a look at then you can choose your favourite, just graphical ones of course.

Unfortunatly I can only provide you with the look for your website as I cannot as yet built one - we had to out source a web designer to build the actual site, but I start a web design course next week and would be happy to use yours as my live project. (May take a little white though)

If you would rather, you could get someone else to build it for you as soon as you have the art work...

Have a think
hope I've explained myself clearly:rolleyes:
Good Luck anyway
Bex1403

[Silver Ruby]

Hi Alexandra,

I have just launched my own online jewellery shop!

I did the website myself for free and I'm happy with it!

So far I've been spending my time trying to get noticed by getting links from craft sites and I am currently selling on eBay and I will also be attending craft fairs.

If I can help, please let me know.

Fiona
Silver Ruby

[manwanis]

Thank you so much for your advice and I'm really impressed at the sites you have created and the jewellery you are selling! I run my "business" (I'm not sure it could quite be called that yet...) with a friend who is not keen on going online so hopefully your information will help to encourage her. At least you've given me some hope that it is a viable option for the future. Thank you!

[Ballerinacaz]

I recommend using topcities.com for webhosting, its free and your webaddress would be something like yournamehere.topcities.com I think. lissaexplains.com is really good if you want to learn how to do html or you could use something like microsoft Frontpage (this is really easy to use) or dreamweaver (never used it myself but have heard that its good) hth

[Anne]

Hi, I also designed my own website to sell my jewellery & glass giftware. I think it's already been covered, but to begin with you need your domain name & someone to host your website. I use nameroute.co.uk which cost £10 a year for the domain name. I get my hosting from Hostroute.co.uk. Prices go from £24 - £149 a year depending what size package you go for. (I notice that prices can vary alot from different companies)

I used dreamweaver to design my website with. I got the software free from a website ages ago. I've not looked recently, but I bet you'll find a free application online for making websites.

Good luck with your site :)

[Chris W]

I have designed websites in the past with Front Page however not a shopping cart site, if you want to make a living trading online I would recommend you look into it carefully and consider getting professional help.
I have only just gone live with my website but I have taken the whole thing very seriously as I have been recently widowed and can't continue running my retail shop without help. I don't have a pension and am hoping to make a living trading online and working from home, I have no idea whether it will work but I am willing to do whatever it takes to give it the best possible chance.
So I remortgaged my home to raise the money to finance it. It was designed by me but built by an expert on search engine ranking so it is set up to be search engine friendly, which is very important. When I have built it up more I am thinking of paying for Google Adverts, apparently you can set the budget for this so it doesn't cost too much.
It has taken a lot of hard work to put the site together but it has been very enjoyable too and I have learned and am still learning a great deal.

[Beadservice]

Another suggestion....I know a lot of people use a template package called 'Mr Site' and it can be bought through Amazon.

From what I've seen it gives a good basic site, which is PayPal compatible

Maybe worth a look

Debbie

[Heidihi74]

Hi Alexandra

I have only recently made a website. We used Mr Site which we bought for about £25. We get the first year free and I think after that there's a small charge per month. Payments are through Paypal also on it.

Its very very straightforward to use which was good as I have NO patience whatsoever for things like that.

Good luck.
Heidi

[Heidihi74]

Another suggestion....I know a lot of people use a template package called 'Mr Site' and it can be bought through Amazon.

From what I've seen it gives a good basic site, which is PayPal compatible

Maybe worth a look

Debbie

Oops.. see my post! I only read the first 2 pages of this thread before I posted ha.

I must be psychic or something.

[ArtMyriad]

I think if you are building your own site from scratch without any knowledge, the site will never look very professional. There is a lot to know about site building - design, usability, site promotion etc. I'd use professionals for that reason. :confused:

[aurrida]

who will your customers be? how will they find your site? what will they expect your site to look like?

knowing who your customers will be will guide you how to design your site as well as where they will look on the net to find you.

the big thing all of us here find difficult is getting people to our site and then getting them to spend money.

the most interest for my work has come from:

my stuff in our shop in nürnberg.

from a fountain pen forum.

google ads.

art and craft fares.

what hasn't been so good has been:

google search, and the like. google seems to have ignored to a greater extent that i make pens. i have a simple information page on woods buried somewhere in my site. it has decided in its wisdom to list me as an authority on exotic woods. i get referrals everyday from the most bizarre searches regarding wood. unfortunately they are not interested in buying.

directories, who actually uses them?

etsy, dewanda, artflock (slightly better), gozabo, goolge products (froogle), ebay. i consider these free or relatively free, unfortunately so do tens of thousands of other people. its too competitive. the right person finding your product seems completely down to luck on some of these sites! your average person on the street has never heard of them, except ebay of course.

unfortunately, experience from the shop shows that paid marketing that is directed at your targeted market is the only marketing that gets results. the problem is i just cant afford to spend the tens of thousand of euros that is needed to sell my pens.

as for the site, it will make the difference as to whether someone decides to buy from you. so aim to get it right even if it cost money.

i guess like myself and many here one muddles through and picks things up as you go along and made improvements on the way diy as such. its not a bad way, i have found it fun. just see a sale from a developing site as a bonus!

perhaps other people will share there experience with blogs, wholesale , article submissions, good old advertising in mags and no doubt many other ways of promoting ourselves.

[aurrida]

woops didn't realise it was that long, sorry!

[steffifab]

I spoke nicely to my brother in law and he set up my website for me, it's been live for about 6 weeks now and I got my 1st order on Thursday, thought i'd never get an order, but it was worth waiting for.

I've given out loads of flyers, in letterboxes, local shops etc. but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end!! It's all about self promotion, no one else is going to do it for you!

cheers

steph:playball:

[Aviya Glass]

Hi,
I have only just set up my website - very daunting - and it still needs work!!! But after looking at so many packages I went with doyourownsite. I paid £55 for the year and £15 for my .com domain name - don't have a lot to spend unfortunately.
I found it very easy to use and although I think my website looks basic it is easy to navigate and use. You will have to submit to search engines etc but I found loads of help on this forum and surrounding ads. :):):)

Wishing you all the best
Terry

[MuranoSilver]

Try one and one internet...their prices are resonable & they're doing a "Free" offer at the moment that means you can get a website up and running for under £20 (there's even free Dreamweaver software which is IMO one of the best packages for writing the site).

Hope that helps
Nicola xx

[Kiamyka]

I built my site myself using Zencart which is free software but not for the fainthearted- it is marvellous though and runs a database which keeps track of orders. customers, stock etc. You can set up discount coupons, newsletters and email form the software and theres a range of free templates too. You need a host which also offers you a MySQL database and I used to pay £20 a month for the host but decided to move to a cheaper option and now use Bravenet which is about £6 a month and allows you to host 10 domains. It took me a week to build and stock.
If you are considering it then you need a wide range of IT skills but the forums are great and the set up guides are a must too
You can see it here
www.kiamyka.co.uk/shop

[Rhiannon]

Try one and one internet...their prices are resonable & they're doing a "Free" offer at the moment that means you can get a website up and running for under £20 (there's even free Dreamweaver software which is IMO one of the best packages for writing the site).

Hope that helps
Nicola xx

I can second this, I have been dealing with 1and1 internet for a few years now for hobby websites. We only use them for hosting information type websites, not selling anything through them but I can't fault them.

Rhiannon x

[LunarraStar Jewellery]

I think our hosting is about £60 a year and the software we use it freeware!

Its called MAGENTO and its new, the finished product was released in march, its amazing. My partner who designed my site has already had 2 people ask him if he can make similiar sites for them :).

www.lunarrastar.com

[LunarraStar Jewellery]

I think if you are building your own site from scratch without any knowledge, the site will never look very professional. There is a lot to know about site building - design, usability, site promotion etc. I'd use professionals for that reason. :confused:

I'd have to agree with that and you wont make sales from an unprofessional looking website because people wont trust paying for something through it.

If i go to a site and photos are dark/blurry, flashing graphics and it looks homemade i move straight on.

My partner works with sites for a living otherwise i would have paid for one because you really need a professional looking site.

[LunarraStar Jewellery]

I have designed websites in the past with Front Page however not a shopping cart site, if you want to make a living trading online I would recommend you look into it carefully and consider getting professional help.

I like your site :)

[woodtattoos]

I chose to use Mr Site for my new website as I wanted to be in full control of it myself and the package is quite comprehensive for the price. Hopefully my site will improve with time... it is a slow process!

Si.