It is now November (as seen by the date on the computer today) - where has the time gone!
My last post was about a pamper evening I went to in March, by almost happy co-incidence, I was at a pamper evening type do on Thursday 1st November.
Again it was an evening where I expected not to sell anything while spending my time enthusing about my hand made jewellery to anyone that would stand still long enough for me to open my mouth. In the event, not only did I enthuse to a lot of lovely ladies, but many of them picked up a business card or a postcard (both with pretty pictures of my work and the website address on them) and one lovely lady bought a bracelet from me.
I enjoyed the evening apart from one factor - I had a hacking cough! I'm sure the other people in the room just loved the sound of it but everyone seemed happy to chat, or listen while I talked anyway.
It also pushed me into doing something with my White Oak Jewellery website that I've been meaning to do for the last 2 months.
As I mentioned a few posts ago (which makes it round about Jan 2012) I was looking at setting up a shop on Etsy. Well, I've done it. Very early on I had set up the banner, and the basics of the shop, e.g. terms and conditions, basic description of me etc. But, back in July 2012 I actually listed 5 items in my new Etsy shop! And people have been viewing those items too. No sales so far, but it's early days yet. As you might expect, my Etsy shop is called "White Oak Jewellery".
At the pamper evening on 1st November a number of people asked if I had a web site and having said "yes" I also pointed out that I have a recently opened Etsy shop too and that the web site links to the shop.
This link means that I only have to put the prices in one place, which will please the Etsy team as their conditions do say "don't list it elsewhere" and it means if the price needs to change for any reason (i.e. increases in the cost of materials) I only need to change one place. It does mean that the White Oak Jewellery website needs to have links to the listings on Etsy but it also means that I have to keep the listings on Etsy active - they are only listed for 3 months at a time. I'm hoping that this needing to keep listings in my Etsy shop active means I'll keep a more pro-active interest in the business.
Anyway, I started last Saturday by making active a set of listings on my Etsy shop for the items also listed on the web site (not everything being listed is available on both yet). Then I spent a few hours changing my White Oak Jewellery website to have links to the Etsy shop listings under "buy now" buttons. It was a very interesting exercise, and slightly nerve racking as I realised a few of the listings on my Etsy shop contained errors in the text, doh! So those errors got fixed and my White Oak Jewellery website now links to my White Oak Jewellery Etsy shop. Job done!
Now I just have to list everything I've made and have for sale on Etsy at least, and then link to as many of the listing from the web site as I can be persuaded to do.
I hope you'll drop into both the website and Etsy shop and have a look around.
Until next time
Anne
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Website development
Last December I bought myself two domain names. WhiteOakJewellery.co.uk and WhiteOakJewellery.com.
The intention was that within a few months of buying the domains I would have a website that show cases my jewellery up and running on the Web.
At that point I wasn't thinking in terms of selling the jewellery I put up photos of, but more of just having a place on the web where I could sent friends etc to see that kind of thing I make and what I'd been doing with my spare time recently. It would be a lot easier to put up a site of photos than lug the box of finished items around with me when visiting - especially given the weight involved - or at least, that's what I thought.
When I mentioned my plans to friends, more than one of them said "what's the point of the site then, you should be putting prices up in case people are interested". Which complicated the whole process of course 'cos it meant I had to find a way of quickly pricing everything I make so that I have a "reasonable" price on them.
So first, I made a spreadsheet of the list of things I'd made and started trying to put calculations in to generate the prices. This was slow work as such actions are not something I'm particularly good at. But I had some prices.
So I started building a website from scratch. In theory, the day job (computer programmer using Visual Studio 2008 and building browser based applications) would help enormously.
Of course, what really happened was I quickly found that my short period of exposure to Visual Studio etc (about 2 months at that point) really did not provide me with enough knowledge of basic HTML to create a page with photos on it.
I turned to a friend for help - luckily for me, he's patient enough to repeat answers to questions even when I've asked them multiple times over various days and to read the pages I put together.
With his help, the site has grown from a single page to a set of 8 pages including terms and conditions as well as the jewellery photos. All the sterling silver items shown on the site have a price attached and each description comes with a "contact me" button so people can email me if they wish.
The photos on the site are (in my opinion) not bad considering that photography is not one of my talents. The friend who helped with the website is a keen photographer (understatement really) who has helped me learn so much more about taking a photo than I ever thought I'd know, and introduced me to functions on my camera I've never heard of before, let alone used!
It was the same friend who looked over my shoulder at my pricing spreadsheet and started asking questions that started with the words "why don't you...." - at which point I gratefully asked for his help and the resulting pricing spreadsheet was born. A spreadsheet into which I type a few simple pieces of information, e.g. how long it took to make, how many of each size and material of jump ring was involved and a few other bits. And then the spreadsheet produces me either a trade or retail price depending on my input. It makes my life so much simpler now when it comes to pricing everything even if I do have to keep it all up to date myself.
Anyway, the point of this blog post is, that 9 months after I bought my two domain names I am on the verge of uploading my first ever website. I'm currently waiting until on/after 1st October to organise a company to host the site - that way the relevant monthly direct debit payments are due shortly after pay day from the day job so I can afford to pay it.
So, hopefully in the next week or two I'll be able to announce the launch of my site. Here is a glimpse of the home page I'll be loading up.
Then the hard work of getting it known by search engines starts, which will be a whole new learning curve.
Until next time
Anne
The intention was that within a few months of buying the domains I would have a website that show cases my jewellery up and running on the Web.
At that point I wasn't thinking in terms of selling the jewellery I put up photos of, but more of just having a place on the web where I could sent friends etc to see that kind of thing I make and what I'd been doing with my spare time recently. It would be a lot easier to put up a site of photos than lug the box of finished items around with me when visiting - especially given the weight involved - or at least, that's what I thought.
When I mentioned my plans to friends, more than one of them said "what's the point of the site then, you should be putting prices up in case people are interested". Which complicated the whole process of course 'cos it meant I had to find a way of quickly pricing everything I make so that I have a "reasonable" price on them.
So first, I made a spreadsheet of the list of things I'd made and started trying to put calculations in to generate the prices. This was slow work as such actions are not something I'm particularly good at. But I had some prices.
So I started building a website from scratch. In theory, the day job (computer programmer using Visual Studio 2008 and building browser based applications) would help enormously.
Of course, what really happened was I quickly found that my short period of exposure to Visual Studio etc (about 2 months at that point) really did not provide me with enough knowledge of basic HTML to create a page with photos on it.
I turned to a friend for help - luckily for me, he's patient enough to repeat answers to questions even when I've asked them multiple times over various days and to read the pages I put together.
With his help, the site has grown from a single page to a set of 8 pages including terms and conditions as well as the jewellery photos. All the sterling silver items shown on the site have a price attached and each description comes with a "contact me" button so people can email me if they wish.
The photos on the site are (in my opinion) not bad considering that photography is not one of my talents. The friend who helped with the website is a keen photographer (understatement really) who has helped me learn so much more about taking a photo than I ever thought I'd know, and introduced me to functions on my camera I've never heard of before, let alone used!
It was the same friend who looked over my shoulder at my pricing spreadsheet and started asking questions that started with the words "why don't you...." - at which point I gratefully asked for his help and the resulting pricing spreadsheet was born. A spreadsheet into which I type a few simple pieces of information, e.g. how long it took to make, how many of each size and material of jump ring was involved and a few other bits. And then the spreadsheet produces me either a trade or retail price depending on my input. It makes my life so much simpler now when it comes to pricing everything even if I do have to keep it all up to date myself.
Anyway, the point of this blog post is, that 9 months after I bought my two domain names I am on the verge of uploading my first ever website. I'm currently waiting until on/after 1st October to organise a company to host the site - that way the relevant monthly direct debit payments are due shortly after pay day from the day job so I can afford to pay it.
So, hopefully in the next week or two I'll be able to announce the launch of my site. Here is a glimpse of the home page I'll be loading up.
 |
| Screen print of my home page |
Until next time
Anne
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Holiday over!
I've just had a weeks holiday from work - but now that I'm back I feel like all my work related knowledge has been blown away along with the cobwebs. Ah well, I'm sure it'll all come dribbling back over time.
Why is it that going away for a holiday leaves me feeling like I need a break? I know, rhetorical question that one.
Anyway, while I was away I visited family and friends in various places and showed them some of the jewellery I've been making recently.
So far the responses have all be positive, with a couple of very useful questions being posed to, which was great.
Mental note to self - finish the website and get it up and running! That's the plan for the next month and so I'll see how it goes. Just got to finish the terms and conditions section of the site.
More another time
Anne
Why is it that going away for a holiday leaves me feeling like I need a break? I know, rhetorical question that one.
Anyway, while I was away I visited family and friends in various places and showed them some of the jewellery I've been making recently.
So far the responses have all be positive, with a couple of very useful questions being posed to, which was great.
Mental note to self - finish the website and get it up and running! That's the plan for the next month and so I'll see how it goes. Just got to finish the terms and conditions section of the site.
More another time
Anne
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)