Even if you dont sell your jewelry, its nice to have a professional presentation when giving jewelry as gifts. When I first started out selling my work, I made my own cards for earrings and hang tags for bracelets and necklaces. Eventually, I had them printed. Both making or buying your own jewelry cards have some pros and cons, so here are some ideas to help you decide which you’d like to do.
Business Cards. In the very beginning of my jewelry business, I started out my using my business cards. I actually just cut thick card stock into squares, glued business cards onto the top of this card, and used a straight needle to punch holes for earrings to go through. I’ve also seen folks just punch holes directly through their business cards and hanging the jewelry from them. This is an economical idea, and it helps get your name out there.
Rubber Stamps. Another option is to use rubber stamps and add designs on the blank side of a card. You can even use blank index cards for this. Then use a straight pin (a corsage pin is nice and heavy) to add holes for earrings. There are some very nice stamps that are designed like frames which can be used. One word of caution when using stamps to add designs to tags of any kind, many stamps today have copy right restrictions. But, there are also a lot with “Angel Policies” that allow you to use theirs stamps and sell whatever you make. Though youre not really “selling” the cards, they do go along with the merchandise. So, this is just something to be aware of. About.com has an excellent Scrapbooking site that you may want to check out if you’re interested in using stamps to create some jewelry cards.
Okay, first my disclaimer – I’m not a PR professional; however, I have done a good deal of professional blogging, and my article Promoting Your Jewelry Business via Blogs will answer some of these questions.
But first, the question of where to set one up – That depends. If you have no blogging experience and want to see how it goes, using a free site like blogger.com or wordpress.com is a good way to try it out with only the investment of your time. One jewelry maker who does a great job of including her blog at blogger.com with her web site where she sells her jewelry is Jennifer Perkins of the Naughty Secretary Club. She has the site that she sells her jewelry, and linked on that is her weblog.
Another option for “where” is to integrate it on the same site that you sell your jewelry so that users never really have to leave your site at all. An example of this is the Make It Mine blog. You’ll notice that when you go there, it is part of the same web site, so it doesn’t take you to a totally different URL. I’m doing some work on something like this myself for my own personal site as a way to promote my writing and designing. This is a little more technical, so I hired someone to help me with setting it up.
Your target market can be tricky. If you are creating a weblog, just like a web site, it’s on the World Wide Web, so this really relates back to SEO. What kinds of key words does your target audience tend to search for? Make sure you have these on your site/blog. Where do they web surf? Try to get links to these places. Like any kind of marketing, you need to figure out who you are targeting and then go where they go to hook up with them.
Finally, the third question about theme can be tough too, and this is also something I’ve been dealing with right now myself: What do you want to communicate to your audience? Fun? Serious? Sophisticated? Whimsical? Look around at what other jewelry bloggers are doing and determine what you like and don’t like – what you think might work for you and what might not. I literally sat down with the techie guy I hired to help update my site into more of an integrated blog/web site, and showed him blogs and pointed out what I liked. He was helpful and told me things like large headers will cause your readers to scroll too much. So, we worked together to decide on the template he will create for me.
Okay, so I’m turning this back over to you guys now. I’d love to hear from jewelry makers who have a web log. Is it hosted on your site, or did you go the freebie route? How did you come up with your theme? Are you managing to target your audience or is it still hit and miss out in the web world?
The Taser show is over, and I’m still tired. If it wasn’t for wanting to discuss the recent Bendel Open See, I wouldn’t be posting this morning. I’m still that tired.
How did Taser go? Taser went well. It was the first fashion show in which everything was on time, and we were prepared. It went fast, as fashion shows do, and we were hustling and bustling backstage to get everyone changed. I loved the venue though, and from what I hear, it looked fantastic. The only snafu was the very last outfit of course had issues–we were getting the model into the dress, and the zipper broke! There was a very long space between her and the model before her as the designer was safety-pinning the back together, but she got it, and the model made the last walk down the staircase.
The auction could have gone a little better, but those issues will be better handled next year I’m sure. Next year? Oh, yes. Apparently the Taser board members were pleased with the result, and the show will occur again next year, which was my first concern. I’m happy they were happy, and hope that they will ask me back next year.
I’m waiting on pictures to come back from the photographers that were there, but one of my friends brought her camera, and here is a group shot of us after the show. I’m on the left; my friend Jane is next; one of the male models, Alan, is third; and my spokesperson and good friend Liana is on the right.
On a slightly different note, I just found out that Bendel’s already had their Open See?! Why doesn’t this get more widespread attention on the Internet? I was reading about it in Cindy Edelstein’s e-newsletter. We jewelry bloggers need to get on the ball! Marketing opportunities in front of big name merchandisers don’t come along very often, and the Bendel’s Open See is a huge opportunity we need to share with each other.
Bright note of the day: I have 38 days until graduation!!!! Oh yeah, I’m seein’ the light!
Be BOLD.
Miachelle
Looks like Mike and I are staying in this Friday night. The place is a MESS! There is trash to be taken out, dishes to be washed, laundry to be done, and rooms to be cleaned.