Google Me.

Owning a shop online is all about the Google rankings, are you aware of where your shop ranks?

Here is the first Etsy shop to appear under “handmade jewelry rings:”

http://www.etsy.com/shop/chrisparry

It is interesting to note that nothing on Etsy appeared on the first page under the search “handmade rings.”

Something to think about and stew on for sure…

Emma
aka:jewelrymakingtime

 

Featured Artist: GemsbyEllen

GemsbyEllen is a sweet new shop on Etsy! Her designs are beautiful and practical -  I can actually see myself wearing her bracelets out and about, refreshing for sure! She certainly has the real woman in mind as she designs. She’s just getting her start on Etsy, but I’ll be following her progress and am sure to see great things from GemsbyEllen!

 

Lollishops

Lollishops is a cute little boutique, handmade referral engine for “cottage style” crafts and supplies. The homepage consists of hand-picked cottagey, “frou frou” items chosen by the owner and creator of Lollishops, Sadie Lou. If you’re unsure of how to define “cottage style” a quick look at the homepage will likely key you in! Vendors sell sweet little birdhouses, pastel pink dolls, whimsicle prints of lambs and animals and, of course, beaded and cameo jewelry!

 Here is how Sadie Lou describes the style, “Our vendors and shoppers enjoy polka dots, pink, glitter, ruffles, crepe paper, scrapbooks, ephemera, fabric, candy stripes, luxury, rose gardens, tea time, bubble bathes, babies, whimsy, gingerbread, hair bows, lace, pretty-pretties, fuss, sea shells, sparkle, notions, nostalgia and more…”

To be a vendor on Lollishops, you must apply and be accepted. It is very possible that you might be rejected if your items don’t reflect the cottage-y feel that the site is trying to promote. Naturally, you can always apply again if you make a few changes in your product line-up!

What exactly will you be applying for? Lollishops has recently changed their direction from a stand-alone marketplace to a referral engine. What does that mean? Basically, if you own an Etsy, Artfire, Winkelf or 1000Markets shop and meet the “cottage” crtieria your item will be featured in your Lollishops shop but if a buyer wishes to purchase, they’ll be redirected to the third party marketplace. At roughly 10,000 visitors per month, I’m not sure this is a viable tool for sellers.

There is a monthly, flat fee for vendors for an undisclosed, unknown amount until you are accepted on Lollishops. For vendors that are accepted, I have to say that the fee should be extremely reasonable for the service Lollishops is(n’t) offering. I’m sure visitors will increase over time, at which point a substantial monthly fee might be more worthwhile.

Additionally, I would wait it out a bit until Lollishops determines what exactly they are. Reading through their Terms of Service, Application page, and Frequestly Asked Questions – they are very confused about their own service. I think its a matter of not all pages/blurbs being updated since their change to a referral engine. I find it hard to understand the payment structure, vendor process, and the shop as a whole. Heck, the main logo still says that Lollishops is “the frou frou friendly marketplace.”

Let’s check back on them, shall we?

Emma
aka: jewelrymakingtime

Featured Item of the Week!

This week, I’ve chosen to highlight the much under appreciated bead board. It works so hard to keep us happy, organized and sane and gets so little recognition!

Not only does the bead board help us jewelers lay out our designs it let’s us mull over whether that bead should be in front of that bead or visa versa… it doesn’t rush, it just waits. And once we’re done mulling for the time being we’re able to casually replace the lid, stack it on the shelf and pick up another one with last week’s unfinished design. So flexible, so patient, so under appreciated.

Here’s to you bead board!

$8.99 on Amazon

HMJewelryMaking on Twitter!

Follow us on Twitter under hmjewelrymaking! Stay tuned for special deals exclusive to Twitter followers for our shop on Etsy – jewelrymakingshop! Our Twitter fans just enjoyed our first Summer Sale and it was a great success! Thanks to all those loyal followers and customers that have stayed with us!

Twitter

“Like” us on Facebook

Emma
aka: jewelrymakingshop

Handmade Sellers: Outright Bookkeeping Online

Outright.com is a relatively new, free online bookkeeping system. Yes, its free and it always will be. Outright is specifically geared toward online retailers who use Paypal as their main source of income and expenses. Sound like you? Getting excited? I sure did!

I just started my own account for jewelrymakingshop and am loving it already! While it is designed for Paypal uploads, you’re also able to upload .csv files from your other important credit cards, bank accounts and selling venues. Once you create a free account with Outright, you can sign into Paypal and upload all your transactions from the last 90 days (anything older than that you’ll have to download into a csv file and upload into Outright). Going forward, Outright will keep records of all forthcoming transactions and you’ll accrue an ongoing accounting of your sales, shipping and expenses.

I’ve uploaded files from my PayPal, Amazon, Etsy and my bank account and I know EXACTLY what my profits are for the year in under 90 minutes and with minimal effort. I was shocked at how quickly I learned the super simple uploading process. Not only that, I was able to clean up my categories and accounts with just a few clicks to make sure everything uploaded into the correct place. I had been trying to develop an overcomplicated excel system so that I can tell what I’ve earned, spent and owe to the goverment but was never able to make it so quick and easy!

It is definitely a 10 out of 10 for the price, ease-of-use and functionality offered. Naturally, since I sell on Amazon, I’d like a few more automatic update agreements but I certainly can’t complain about the price!

See what others are saying about Outright:

Wall Street Journal Digital Network Blog

Tech Crunch

San Francisco Chronicle

Emma
aka: jewelrymakingtime

Contact Magazines About your Jewelry

So, I’ve been on the Etsy forums lately and have seen a chain of events occur that is really exciting and inspiring! Last month I saw a crafter post that they’d made Good Morning America. They’d just overnighted their craft to the show for the next morning’s airing and got on to post about it. It was so exciting to hear about and she even got other crafters thinking. Next thing you know, I see a post about another crafter who got the idea to write magazines about her work from the first artist and had subsequently made Better Homes and Gardens!

Just a reminder to all us jewelers to think outside of the box and to swallow your pride, overcome your nerves and just ask for it! Get your favorite magazine out, get their contact information and ask for a feature. Send them a sample of your work and you just might get it! If you need to work up the courage start with your jewelry supply wholesaler/seller – they’re always looking for customer art to show off and demonstrate. It helps them and you! Enter their competitions for best design and get your art out there!

What’s the worst that could happen? Nothing! But I have more faith in you than that…

Emma
aka: jewelrymakingtime

Featured Item of the Week!

Here it is! The Featured Item of the Week! The by far most comprehensive jeweler’s tool kit that we offer on Amazon.com. Each set of pliers has ergonomically designed handles, perfect for the full-time jewelry maker who uses their hands day in and day out! The kit contains:

• 1 Pair of Chain Nose Pliers – Tips are 1.2mm wide
• 1 Pair of Round Nose Pliers – Tips are 1mm wide
• 1 Pair of Side Cutters (not suitable for memory wire or other thick wire)
• 1 Nylon Jaw Flat Nose Plier – Tips are 8mm wide
• 1 Crimping Plier (regular size, ideal for 1×2 and 2×2 crimp beads)
• 1 fine point Knot Cutter for silk and other fabric thread. (not recommended for metal wire.)
• 1 pair of Knotting Tweezers
  1 Split Ring Tweezer
• 1 ScoopEEZ, a handy tool for scooping up beads and pouring them into small bags and containers
• PLUS 1 matching zipper case covered in Black faux leather.

$57.99 on Amazon.com

Featured Artist: VillageofOne on Etsy

VillageofOne is an eclectic Etsy shop run by the eternally creative Theresa Griffith. She’s created the beautifully quirky Life Bulbs shown below. Each bulb is created from collected treasures, beads, wire and ribbon to inspire the beholder. Her shop sells collected antiques and fine art but her jewelry is what truly stands out!

WinkElf

WinkElf.com is a whimsical handmade marketplace started in 2006 by Samantha, a crafter and a web developer who grew tired of selling her crafts elsewhere and designed her own site to meet her needs. WinkElf serves as a sort of online boutique craft mall where sellers can use WinkElf’s interface to sell either on their own www. domain or through a WinkElf storefront. It targets crafters who need an online store but aren’t prepared, willing or able to front the cost of developing their own clicks and mortar shop.

What does it cost?

WinkElf offers two payment packages – a monthly flat fee of $5.00 per month or a pay-as-you-sell fee structure with a 2.5% transaction fee. Having sold on Etsy for a while now I can tell you the $5.00 per month could be quite a deal if you’re a high volume seller! Not only is its payment structure reasonable, you can choose from more than one store design!

How does it Work?

As a seller your payments are handled either via “Direct Payments,” any method of the seller’s choosing (PayPal for example) or you can invoice the buyer and send instructions on how to complete the transaction. Additionally, buyers can buy the product, make of offer on your product or offer to trade your product for something they own. WinkElf’s goal is to provide sellers options on how they want to run their shops!

Recommendations?

The WinkElf homepage is very inviting, well-laid out and sharp. However, once you start to shop among the seller shops the item pages are a little strangely designed. The photo for the item appears alongside its title in a large banner across the top of the page, you have to scroll down to see a disembodied price/quantity/view box and scroll even further to see the additional photos and a description of the item. Not intuitive and a little cumbersome but I have faith based upon the elegant homepage that this can and will be fixed in future iterations of the site.

One amazing feature I think all sellers will enjoy is the listing scheduling feature! You can pre-schedule your items to list whenever you’d like! Perhaps…the most active time of day?

Overall, I think the WinkElf marketplace is a quaint little place to try.

Emma
aka: jewelrymakingtime