Inexpensive Jewelry Web Site Options
Thursday July 17, 2008
I received the following email from a reader recently: "I've been making jewelry for several years & sell some to friends, co-workers, & neighbors. I'm not very computer savvy but would like to start my own web site. Do you have any suggestions?"
I've been asked this before, so I thought I'd throw out a few ideas here for everyone. Here are some easy to start up and run web site ideas for those with little money and little technical expertise:
- Free Blog Networks: Wordpress.com and Blogger.com are just two of the many free networks on the web that will allow you to set up a blog and write about pretty much anything you want to. Plus, weblogging software is relatively easy to use. Nothing says you have to just blog on a blog site. You can also post new jewelry pieces you have made for sale.
- Free Web Sites: There are still a lot of places that allow you to set up a free web site like Geocities.com. Just make sure you check their rules about posting products for sale. Some have restrictions about this. While I don't think their software is as simple as most blogging software, much of it is not all the difficult to master pretty quickly.
- Etsy.com: Of course, most of you know I've been playing around over at Etsy.com, and I think that it is pretty easy to navigate for the most part. It is free to set up a shop, and the fees for listing items and selling items is fairly small.
- Ebay.com: This is another site where you can open a store. They allow you to create a shop that has "buy now" merchandise as well as auction abilities.
- Ruby Lane: You can also set up a site at Ruby Lane, and this has become pretty well-known. It specializes in arts, antiques, and vintage items for sale. So, hand-made jewelry would fit in fine over there.
Of course, I've just discussed the "set up" process here. Getting customers to come to your shop is a whole other issue to deal with.
Comments
Tammy, your suggestion are all verry good one’s, but one that many people overlook is that if you have an ISP they very often offer subscribers their own personal web space included in your monthly fee. Usually it’s only 5 or 10 meg. of space but having played with web sites and html code myself there’s alot you can do with that! Check into it.
Great tips Tammy! A couple places to open shop are Silkfair, which is free to open shop and list with small fee upon sale. For crafters, icraft.ca, both are international selling sites.
http://silkfair.com
http://icraft.ca
Martha Sanchez
http://amordeplata.etsy.com
Hi
I hope its ok to put a link here to our Free Jewelry Book.
We wrote this as a guide to marketing the small jewelry business and it outlines many ways that you can promote your business both online and offline.
Gary
Actually having an ecommerce website of your own is not expensive at all.
Some website hosting providers offer a website for $5/month. And you can have a free ecommerce website software with shopping cart, 100GB Web Storage and 10,000GB traffic.
Tina
http://www.youpearl.com
True, Tina, but if you read her email, she said she was not tech savvy. So, that’s why I suggested options that are inexpensive and easy.
Hello! I am from japan.
Its very very nice and wonderfull.
your work is so fantastic!
If you are looking for an easy, inexpensive way to market your jewelry online, Hyena Cart is the way to go. Hyena Cart is an awesome online “mall” that carries hand crafted items of all sorts, with over 31,500 registered shoppers. The monthly fee is just $5. That’s it, nothing extra. There is a bulletin board attached, and it is a good idea to become known on the forums before you even open your store, so that people know who you are. You can also make store opening announcements in the forums, and there is the option to do auctions and lotteries.
http://www.hyenacart.com
I am on iCraft.ca and really love that site and their friendly community. Here is my store http://www.icraft.ca/craft_boutique. They do automatic product submissions to Google Base, give you ways to submit your products to social shopping sites and use RSS Feeds. Their new fees are very affordable. See here http://www.icraft.ca/pr08-07-15.php I think it’s still less expensive to be a part of the bigger specialized site with all the tools that they offer and their quality traffic than try to establish your own ecommerce site.
Another suggestion would be to go to http://www.freewebs.com. I am not very knowledgeable in the ways of website design, but freewebs.com walked me through the set-up and it was very easy to follow. I have set up a website there and I have had alot of compliments on it. You can check my site out at http://www.giasdesigns.webs.com
I am on iCraft.ca and find the site easy to use and now even more affordable with the fees being reduced. Also it is more specialized – handmade products only. No resellers are allowed. See my store here http://www.icraft.ca/the_knitting_lady
When you register on icraft.ca enter my Referral Key: 0ce586cda7 on the registration page to receive 6-months of free unlimited product postings. It’s a good way for you to test-drive this site. See how it works here http://www.icraft.ca/pr08-07-28.php
The problem with ebay etc is that they take so much commission, you end up with nothing left. I set up my own site 3 years ago on a tight budget. After several false starts, I found a great team at Paintworkz. They charge NOTHING up front, and will set up a shop for a monthly fee of $100 (i have the $200 premium option which gives me unlimited pages, images, stats etc).
I actually Etsy and I truely believe thats the way to go. Ebay has slowly declined in the way it treats trades. Try Esty.
Inexpensive Jewelry Blog.
In fact, free shopping cart ecommerce software like Zen cart is also a good choice, is free and very easy to learn and use, you can build your online shop with little computer and web knowledge very soon.
Like famous jewelry wholesale website , it is also powered by zen cart, then you can know how good this free software.
Yeah, thats true, I am a fan of Zen Carts, love the interface and it’s also free.
I really hate having to pay for ebay’s payment…you pay for everything.