Unfortunately, I'm finding it is not that easy.. Of course it isn't or everyone would be doing it!
So my first entry is going to be dedicated to my journey so far on the road to selling my home crafted jewellery.
eBay is a good place to start.. I sold a few earrings on there, which is what got me hooked in the first place. I found that a simple listing with a good description and one photo (even though my pictures were not very good) worked quite well with very little effort other than the making and posting. But the problem I found on eBay is that, although the customers are there, they expect a bargain. Which means you have to sell your jewellery for really cheap and to make money you have to sell LOTS.. and selling a few earrings at 99p a week is not going to pay my mortgage. especially when, if you factor in the time it takes to make your items, you are probably paying yourself a very very low wage.. and since I work a full time job at the moment I dont have the time to put 100's of items on a week and hope that a percentage of them sell..
Which is why I joined Etsy.. I saw a few shops on Etsy and was blown away by how amazing all the stuff they sell is, how many sales they seem to make and how effortless and easy they make it all look..
Having been on there for 4 months and making only 6 sales I can tell you that it is not easy. Those few sales I have made though have been at a fair price for the time and effort that has gone into making the pieces. So I am happy with that. But I want to make more sales and the key to that is promoting my shop.
This is where I come undone. I can find the formula for a perfect picture, I can change my titles and tags and play with my descriptions until the cows come home, but self promotion is a thing that I have never been confident in.
I have found a great place to start is chatting to people when I am watching the Online Labs, especially the Newbie Chat..
Here is the guide to online labs..
The second biggest help has been the Teams on Etsy.. I am a member of a few and I find that they are an endless source of help and guidance and if you ask a question there will be someone there to help. Its always a good way to promote your items and you can ask them to critique your shop and give you pointers for improvement.
I have also made a Facebook page.. this is something that I dragged my feet about because I wasn't confident enough to show my stuff to my friends and family, but since I did make a page I have only had positive feedback. Which is lovely. Here is my page, drop in and say hi.
You can see that I have directly added a link to my Etsy shop so that everyone can see my items on there, here is the Etsy guide on that..
Now that I have started doing that I have begun this.. my blog.. my brother has been telling me to do it for ages, but I have dragged my feet. I have heard that it is a wonderful tool for promoting myself to the wider world. So this is me giving it a try..
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