Promoting My Online Business

Tropical Storm Clouds Sea Glass Necklace - One of my creations using an extremely rare color of sea glass. The flawless piece of gray sea glass has been wrapped with sterling silver wire and hangs on an 18" Venetian box-style sterling silver chain.
Gray sea glass falls into the extremely rare color category. The chances of finding a piece of gray sea glass is approx once in every 2,000 pieces found. Finding an authentic piece as flawless as this is much harder. This piece has not been altered in any way. This is how the piece looked when it was plucked from the surf in Puerto Rico, naturally tumbled by the sea and sand.
United States
February 3, 2009 9:25am CST
I sell handmade jewelry on a few sites that cater to the handmade community. One of these sites is very well known by crafters and those that prefer to buy handmade items. But a couple of the others are fairly new sites and buyer traffic is a bit slow. So I'm quickly becoming aware of the MANY ways to promote all of my items/shops on the internet...and quite frankly, I never imagined there would be so many sites available to do my promoting. The reason for the need to drive more traffic is basic. I have a few repeat customers, but like any other business, I need to advertise my creations...I need to get others to see what I create and by driving traffic to my sites, I increase my chances of more sales. Right now, I'm using a traffic site to advertise, along with a couple of blogs and promoting my items on sites such as StumbleUpon. I also use social networking sites to spread the word... even myLot allows me to promote my shop/items on my profile page. I'm learning all kinds of great little nuances like back-linking and finding inexpensive ways to promote my shops. Many times it feels like I'm spending hours promoting with nothing to show for it and then I'll sell something to a brand new member of one of the sites I sell on and it makes me wonder if they found me through one of my off-site promotions.... of course, this convinces me that all my promoting isn't going unnoticed. With hundreds...probably thousands of handmade jewelry makers, along with probably as many re-sellers of jewelry all trying to sell their items on the internet, it becomes clear that it's promote, promote and promote lots more or go unnoticed. Does anyone else sell goods of any kind on the internet? Do you have your own website or sell on an established site? How much, if any, promoting do you do to drive traffic to your items?
1 person likes this
1 response
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
3 Feb 09
When you promote your business is there a way to ask where the buyer saw your line of jewelry or how they got in touch with you? I'd be very curious to know what sites were promoting your jewelry line the most. Of shall I say which sites were most effective in helping you sell. I am still debating about promoting my items online. Just not sure exactly how or what I want to do. Some of my items aren't easy to ship since they are crazy shapes and sizes. I'd have to price boxes and postage and then add to the cost of the item. Some of my items have patterns I have bought that can't be resold as the finished product. I give them as gifts to friends instead of running the risk of getting into trouble with patents. My best gifts are Sesame Street characters but would have to contact the Muppets to see if I can make and sell using their initial pasuccess to you with your online ventures, carolbee ttern with their permission. I have tons and tons of completed items in our house and do craft fairs once in awhile but am not serious enough to make it a full time job. Much success to you with your online ventures, carolbee
1 person likes this
@carolbee (16230)
• United States
23 Apr 09
I'll have to check out the site. Thanks for the information.