[Jewelry making - Article 00053] - Re: [Orchid] Independent Jeweler in Today's Market

[Jan McClellan]

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>     I WILL NOT (as I said before) scarifice price points to get my
>     pieces out there. So big question.....websites.....I have heard
>     good and bad...........Answers, suggestions?

    I think you need to realize that a website is not a panacea - I
    started my website 11 years ago when shows were beginning to be too
    much for me to do both physically and mentally. I was 63, a widow,
    fortunately with retirement income, and it has been extremely hard.
    It took me 2 months full time just to learn html and to build a
    halfway decent website - then came a lot more study to learn how to
    get good listings on the search engines. Now the internet has
    expanded way beyond my ability to count such things and it is harder
    than ever to get good listings. 

    I did begin to attract customers right away and I have only had one
    month in all that time when the site did not do enough business to
    pay its expenses. It still does not do well enough that I could live
    on what I make from it and it is still a lot of hard work. I love
    making jewelry, and I love working on the computer, but I spend a
    great of time working on the site (which includes the paper work
    that the business entails) each day. Also, I rarely get to make what
    I want to make, because people want me to do custom work for them.
    That sounds negative, I don't mean to be - I do love working with
    people on the designs, that is one of the joys of doing jewelry for
    people, I feel as though I am making wonderful friends in the
    process, but I have all these stones calling to me and ideas swirling
    around about how to set them so sometimes it is a frustration. 

    I'm only relating my own experience, I'm sure there are those whose
    sites bring in all kinds of business and they do just fine - also,
    if you have the means, you can hire someone to do the website
    business for you. Having limited means and also wanting to have
    control over the thing, I choose to do everything myself. 

    I've now reached the point in my life that I think its time to cut
    some slack - I'm going to try to cut way back on the custom work and
    answer the "songs of the stones." Its scary, because I have
    commitments for the money that the custom work brings in each month,
    but I know I will not be able to keep on producing forever. Its time
    for some fun! 

Jan
www.designjewel.com

 
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