I can hardly believe
that a full year has passed
since I've opened the virtual doors of
I have had many unanticipated challenges
having previously only shown my jewerly at artisan/craft shows.
I quickly realized that in addition to designing and making jewelry,
I would have to acquire a new camera as well as some photography skills
in order to be able to show detailed pictures
of my jewelry in this new virtual forum.
This is a new skill for me, and one that requires continual refinement.
This first picture is one of my photos taken at the beginning of my first year
This second and third pictures are some of my recent photos.
Although I have progressed, I'm aware my
photography skills are a work in progress!
I've also discovered that having an online business
is
more time consuming than I imagined it would be.
There are
many facets involved which I had not considered...
Designing and creating a piece of jewelry is just the first step
Next you
take photographs of it
Then you
tweak and crop your photos
Once this is complete you
list your item
which involves
creating an item description,
calculating costs and
pricing your piece,
tagging your jewelry and
itemizing materials used in your piece.
Once your jewelry item is listed, you need to
promote your item so it can be seen and found by potential buyers
and that's where
social media sites are used.
I now have this
blog, my
Facebook Fan page,
and my
Twitter page which I did not have
prior to opening up my
BeadedEmbellishments Etsy shop.
I still need education about how they work!
I won't even talk about SEO (search engine optimization)!!!
Etsy's Handmade Community, in my opinion, is fabulous.
It offers many ways for you to interact with other
members of the Handmade community.
I have joined 20 teams to connect with other members
and have been able to share experiences and ideas, and
have been able to promote my own shop as well as other members shops.
I have met many nice people through Etsy
who have come alongside me and have been supportive to me
and have helped me learn the ropes.
Jewelry is a very competitive and saturated online market and
it is very challenging to have your
products stand out from the rest and get noticed.
Despite this, I have been able to make some sales in this first year and
I hope to continue to
design and create jewelry
because it is my
passion.
To sum up, I am not measuring my success
in numbers of sales per se, but rather in the
pleasure I have derived
from my craft and by the
joy I have found in this journey.
Thank you for being a part of my journey!
(Some images in this post are courtesy of Google)
Your comments are welcome!
Denise
from
BeadedEmbellishments
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