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2steps

Do you think this will work?

Following on from my thread about website software I opened a blog account - http://phoenixmoononline.blogspot.com/ do you think this could work? honestly?

I used to have a website, I spent ages working on and then never made a single sale through it because I couldn't afford to advertise it but selling on ebay I feel I am not getting the buyers/prices I could be. people just seem to want something as cheap as possible, reguardless of quality etc Sad I though the blog might be a useful way to bring in customers without me needing to put in an awful lot of work.

I used to quite enjoy web design, have done a few sites but I feel it's going to be a waste of effort and time if the same happens again
Pilsbury

I think it would work, the stuff looks good and it is well price and if selling throuhg Ebay makes it cheaper and easier than a dedicated web site then all the better.
Blacksmith

Looks good Very Happy
Have you ever tried doing a farmers market ? Or a table at a predominantly male orientated event ?
A lot of men at events spend far to much on their hobby (for themselves) and often want to buy some small item, (jewelery ?) to placate their other half when they return. Cool
RichardW

Re: Do you think this will work?

2steps wrote:
Following on from my thread about website software I opened a blog account - http://phoenixmoononline.blogspot.com/ do you think this could work? honestly?


Dunno about the blogg working or not but looking (I know with what you are selling its better to feel it to know the quailty but you are distance selling so are selling on looks only) at your items you can get the same sort of stuff of any market in the country for a couple of quid.

Sorry you wanted honest.

Justme

PS sorry if your stuff is high quaility but you site does not metion quality or even what metal (silver or not?) most of it (some say clasp or chain but not all of the item) is made of. One even looks like its got cheap plastic beads in it.

PPS, change the site coding so when they click on the image it opens a new window for the eBay item but they still have the home page open. Dont take customers away from your site.
2steps

Re: Do you think this will work?

Justme wrote:
2steps wrote:
Following on from my thread about website software I opened a blog account - http://phoenixmoononline.blogspot.com/ do you think this could work? honestly?


Dunno about the blogg working or not but looking (I know with what you are selling its better to feel it to know the quailty but you are distance selling so are selling on looks only) at your items you can get the same sort of stuff of any market in the country for a couple of quid.

Sorry you wanted honest.

Justme

PS sorry if your stuff is high quaility but you site does not metion quality or even what metal (silver or not?) most of it (some say clasp or chain but not all of the item) is made of. One even looks like its got cheap plastic beads in it.

PPS, change the site coding so when they click on the image it opens a new window for the eBay item but they still have the home page open. Dont take customers away from your site.


good point about the new window but materials are stated for each item eg - hematite beads, sliver plated studs... Confused

may sound curt but I wasn't interested in what you think of my work just the page and concept of selling through a blog. seen as though I have had hundreds of happy customers over the last 2 years it can't be that bad Smile everything is handmade and I rarely repeat a item exactly - if you can get that for a few £ in the market I may as well give up now Sad

Blacksmith - I'm fairly limited as I don't drive. The nearest market to us also already has a jewellery stall and currently aren't interested in another. We do have a market in town but the stalls are well out of my price range

keeping at it but feeling a bit fed up with the whole thing
gil

Blacksmith wrote:
Have you ever tried doing ..... a table at a predominantly male orientated event ?
A lot of men at events spend far to much on their hobby (for themselves) and often want to buy some small item, (jewelery ?) to placate their other half when they return. Cool


That sounds a very good idea, Blacksmith Laughing
Anyone on here tried that approach to a market for their product / service ?
Penny Outskirts

I think anything that get's your lovely product in front of more people has got to be a good thing. Don't see any problem with selling through the blog - but is there no way you can do it without going to ebay, or does that help people find you?

But the blog itself looks really good.
2steps

I could sell striaght from the blog using paypal but I thought that people may like the security of buying through ebay rather than from an unknow person. but I could be wrong. do you think it could put people off? maybe I should add a note about why I did it this way incase it does occur to people
RichardW

Offer both ways of selling covered all bases then.

Justme

PS wasnt dissing your work as it does look ok its just with jewlery its easy for pictures to lie. How offten have we all bought some thing only to think its not the same thing when it arrives. Try to hype / jazz / give more info about each item & how its made. Make it special.
ros

2steps, I think the jewellry looks great and was tempted to buy a pair of earings then and there!

a few comments though

i) it would be nice to actually see a bloggy bit first before being sold to it could be construed that you couldn't be bothered with a website---or that this isn't a long term thing, maybe a quick few bucks and you're off??? a website might give a moer permanent feeel?

ii) personally I don't like ebay ! I've never registered and don't dare to, I could shop too much. It's also a banned site on my works system and perhaps on others too.

iii)when you had a website, were you linked from here as a trader and how many members were there then?

good luck!
MarkS

I dont like blogspot because it has the blog stuff at the top of the page - its obviously a blog. wordpress doesnt do that and you can easily make it look like a 'real' website. so you can buy a cheap domain name for a few quid/year, set up redirection so that it look just like a website
phoenixmoon.co.uk is already registered though. careful about trademarks.

I think you need to put more context in. people like stuff about the materials, why you make certain pieces, how they relate, etc. links to external sites about stuff is fine, but put a summary on your own.

I think the photos are not very good. They dont show the work to best advantage.I think you should experiment so that you can get the best out of your camera. Reflective backgrounds are a no-no.

I was interested to see this because my cousin owns a business in canada which makes similar sort of stuff in bulk as a wholesaler. She says that her stuff is high quality (and she is the biggest maker in her area) and sells at retail from $10-$100 but is having real problems because of the amount of cheap chinese stuff being imported that looks fine but uses very poor quality materials.

I would guess then that the same applies in the uk - people need to know that the quality is top notch - its fine if they have seen your stuff before in the flesh, but to a web buyer its all the same. - so better photos and blurb to build confidence. Im not much of an expert - someone will be though. I think indirect light (reflected off white card is cheap/easy) and a background that lets the piece stand out, maybe a few bits of different coloured cloth - black velvet perhaps?
2steps

ros wrote:


ii) personally I don't like ebay ! I've never registered and don't dare to, I could shop too much. It's also a banned site on my works system and perhaps on others too.


to true! very easy to spend on there and a good point, people probably won't be bothered with going back later

ros wrote:

iii)when you had a website, were you linked from here as a trader and how many members were there then?

good luck!


I wasn't. could someone tell me how to do that?

I'm starting to think a website would be better despite the extra work. your point about perminance reinforces that too.

thank you MarkS, I'm going to have another look at wordpress, I could work it out yesterday Embarassed I did have a domain name for the old site but its expired now but having checked is still avaliablewhich is good. I agree about the cheap imports. there all over ebay and at the moment it seems that people, generally, don't seem interested in quality and wheather an item has been handmade or mass produced by 5 year olds as long as they get it cheap Sad another reason I think selling away from ebay would be better - get away from that market/boot sale feel and enviroment. not that its a bad thing it just doesn't work for me as a seller - great when I need to buy Laughing Wink
jema

I certainly think there is a lot of scope to talk up the product and hence the price.
sally_in_wales

2steps wrote:


I'm starting to think a website would be better despite the extra work. your point about perminance reinforces that too.:


I had the same dilemma as you when I got my online shop going last year. (www.sallypointer.com/shop) I havent regretted it for a moment, though I won't pretend sale rates are high (I think thats mostly because I deliberately don't advertise much, trying to balance available time with keeping the business going at the moment). Anyway, my shop uses free oscommerce software, and as an indication I havent messed with the default setup of the shop at all, so the way my shop looks is the no frills version that could, possibly, be a useful starting point for something for you. Course, you can make thses shops look any way you want, I just didnt want to fiddle around with it too much on mine.

I won't pretend that it didnt drive me potty for about a week wilst I got it set up, but once I got a decent webhost with a friendly support line who kindly installed it for me, actually tweaking the settings and putting in the stock was easy.

I think its worth getting a website of your own, then having a proper online shop on it. People will be able to find you much more easily, and if in time you grow and want to stop using paypal to use other payment methods, you just switch over when you are ready and it doesnt upset the way the shop works for the customer.
2steps

I like the layout of your shop. It's very simular to the sort of thing I was looking at doing. this was a draft design I'd come up with



If I download their software do I create all the files on my pc and then upload them or do it all online? when I'm looking for a host, will any be ok or will only some support it?
Blacksmith

I used Freewebs for my sites (never sold anything) think the secret mut be getting enough prople to look at your site.............
I can't seem to post any pictures or hyperlinks ? is it me ?
2steps

I use freewebs and haven't had a problem Confused are you using there editor?
sally_in_wales

2steps wrote:

If I download their software do I create all the files on my pc and then upload them or do it all online? when I'm looking for a host, will any be ok or will only some support it?


I went with nativespace.co.uk, partly because they were recommended by another Downsizer, partly because they were really very cheap compared to others I'd looked at. Havent regretted it for a moment especially as their helpline (by emal) is really fast, utterly friendly and has sorted out every question I have had within minutes. They load up the shop software for you (its part of the package) so all you have to do is set it how you want and load up the stock, which is really easy to do. Just have the pics on your computer, open a shop interface page, and away you go.
2steps

excellent. thank you
Blacksmith

Tried both "sorts" (BTW, I hit things with a hammer for a living, I get confused very easily with websites and stuff)
One I(my son Embarassed )needed to do in HTML the other just following their format.
My old fantasy Ironwork site was advertised on Informed consent, the largest BDSM site in the UK had over 1200 hits but no orders, very competitive market out there !
Going to put some of my chairs on e bay when I have built up a decent amount of positive feedback
2steps

Confused what file format did you save in?

hitting things with hammers is good, very theraputic Laughing not so good if said things aren't meant to be hit though.....
Tittch

Claire, you know the hematite beads you have, would you happen to have a heart shaped one? I had a pair of earrings and lost one, but the original maker couldn't find hearts again to replace it.
MarkS

and while you're at it, update the blog!

Last entry nearly a year ago.
2steps

Blog? Confused

Tittch, I have Hematite stars, hearts, crescents, triangles, drums, fans, tubes, cubes, chips, ovals...... Laughing what can I say? I love Hematite Wink there 4mm
n

Have you thought of etsy instead of ebay?

Same concept but all artisan produced stuff, cards, yarn, jewellery, woodwork ... all sorts of stuff. It's essentially a craftsperson's ebay.
The main difference however is crucial... these are not auctions. The seller fixes the price and that's it.

Here's the link.

etsy

I know I go on about blogs, but if you are crafting you need one.

Look at this site. u-handbag

It has a blog at u-handblog with lots of tutorials for using the bag making stuff she sells. If you look at the address you can see it's a typepad blogging platform.

She also has a business blog at Craft Boom

And if you look at todays blog entry on u-handblog you can see she practices what she preaches, today's post is all about non-arriving carpet fitters and networking. She has linked to my blog, and used a photo from it, with my permission. I mentioned her site on my blog a couple of days ago. She's not a competitor, we are in different fields, but I like her site, and lots of knitters also sew. I didn't ask for anything back but this is great publicity for me. She also wants to interview me for the Craft Boom site as another crafts-person.
I suspect our businesses are the same sort of size, not huge but growing.
This is networking and this is why you need a blog!

n
2steps

Hi

I already use etsy too but haven't had much luck Sad

far too much lovely stuff to buy there! Embarassed
goldy1

have you tryed http://de.dawanda.com/?lang=en_EN llike ETSY but eroup based.
hedgewitch

2steps wrote:
Hi

I already use etsy too but haven't had much luck Sad

far too much lovely stuff to buy there! Embarassed


I agree on the lovely stuff. Rolling Eyes Laughing

I think etsy is a community, and blogging about what you do craft-wise seems to help people get noticed and promoted within the community.

I am a huge fan of blogging - though I know on-one would ever've guessed. Embarassed Laughing
n

goldy1 wrote:
have you tryed http://de.dawanda.com/?lang=en_EN llike ETSY but eroup based.


Ooooh I like this. Thank you for posting about it.

n
2steps

hedgewitch wrote:
2steps wrote:
Hi

I already use etsy too but haven't had much luck Sad

far too much lovely stuff to buy there! Embarassed


I agree on the lovely stuff. Rolling Eyes Laughing

I think etsy is a community, and blogging about what you do craft-wise seems to help people get noticed and promoted within the community.

I am a huge fan of blogging - though I know on-one would ever've guessed. Embarassed Laughing


I have a blog just not a crafty one. SO maybe I need one Question

I joined dawanda account but the pages are all in german Neutral
MarkS

Re: Do you think this will work?

2steps wrote:
Blog?


Yes - this one -

2steps wrote:
Following on from my thread about website software I opened a blog account - http://phoenixmoononline.blogspot.com/ do you think this could work? honestly?
2steps

oh dear Embarassed I completely forgot about that Confused Embarassed
goldy1

2steps wrote:



I joined dawanda account but the pages are all in german Neutral



top of page click on union jack. Then scroll to bottom of page and find link to uk site.
2steps

I knew there had to be something, else I wouldn't of joined Embarassed
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