How to setup a Squidoo lens to market your jewelry

Web 2 is very 'hot', and Squidoo is a major part of it.
If you haven't yet used it to market your jewelry, you're losing money big time!

Currently there is a big love affair between Google and Squidoo, which means:
your Squidoo pages will be higher ranking in the Google search engines ->> more people will see your page ->> people will visit your page ->> people will BUY YOUR JEWELRY!

Let's face it. Cruising the jewelry forums and showing off your jewelry is great for uplifting your ego and gaining more trust in your work, but not that great for targeting people to buy your jewelry, since there is competition. Everybody is trying to sell their jewelry in the 'Show and Tell' threads (having your signature in your post, etc).
But the Search Engines are full of people WANTING TO BUY. So cater to them!

Setting up a page in Squidoo is completely free, very quick and you can add links in your Squidoo page to your main jewelry site.

I've found a great video tutorial on how to set up your Squidoo lens. Just tailor it to your jewelry, add links to your online store, put pictures of your jewelry there, make it interesting for visitors to read your lens from beginning to the end, so not only Search Engines, but also other Squidoo users might become potential customers, and you're off to a good start.

Enjoy.



If you are looking into integrating advertising your jewelry on Web 2 social media, which includes much more than Squidoo, Rena Klingenberg has the best book around. I have reviewed her book here. And yes, in case you are wondering, I did purchase her book, it was worth every penny (or cent) :)

How to make and add a 'Buy' Paypal button to your Blogspot blog - video tutorial

Ever since I've added a Paypal button on my blog for selling my jewelry - that was moons ago -, I was asked how to add this button, since others wanted to follow suit as well. I've helped several people on various jewelry forums, but I was always lazy to write a tutorial - or god forbit, record one :)
I've just come across a VERY GOOD Youtube video tutorial on teaching you to do just that, so I'd like to share it with you. No matter what you are selling on your blog, the steps are the same.



To continue from where the video left off, which is actually placing your newly created Paypal button to your blog post, this is what you further need to do (very easy and quick steps).

1. You've already copied the html code as instructed in the video, right?

2. You are on your blog post with the picture of your jewelry and the description added. Now click on Edit HMTL (this is the tab right next to Compose, at the right handside top corner of your blog screen).
Now this is your html view of your text. If you also added a picture to your post, showing off your jewelry, you will find also stuff like 'img src'...etc. This is normal.

3. Go to the very end of your post, and simply paste your code there, as the last thing at the bottom. That's all.

4. Now to preview your new cute Paypal button, simply switch back to 'Compose', scroll down to the end of your post and there you have it.

5. Publish your post as usual, and click on it, as you want to test that it actually works. It should take you to Paypal, and you will see a screen asking you to login, and at the top of the screen you will see the amount you have entered in one of the steps shown in the video.
This means that you have done everything right, and the next person who will want to buy directy from your blog, will not have any troubles in doing so.

The whole Paypal button process should not take you longer than 3 minutes. I do it all the time.
In one of my next posts I will show you how to add the Paypal button to your Wordpress blog.

I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, or you have any questions, please leave me a comment :)

Cool free tool on domain search

When you start up your jewelry business, you most probably start with Etsy.com. However unless you're really 'making it' (which rather few of them do), you'll end up being one of the many thousand of sellers there, who have to struggle being noticed by people. Plus you might realise that Etsy is one of those sites that might live forever, or close shop tomorrow. Plainly put, it's not yours. Those who want to get out of the Etsy anonymity, they decide to open their shop under their own name, or website.

Having your own website to sell jewellery is a big plus, because you are the sole owner of it, you can do anything you want with it, you don't have to respond to anyone else, but you. If you don't post items 5 times a day, you won't go to the 250th page buried down the line, but you'll still be there for anyone who cares to visit your site. You no longer depend on anyone else.
Plus you can advertise your site much more efficiently, unlike on Etsy (or Dawanda, or any other shop front), where you can't do any SEO management.

If you decide to take the plunge and get out of anonymity, the first thing you need is a domain. A domain is plainly put the name of your site that comes after the http:// part. It is very important that your domain is relevant to what you are doing online, so that Google can index your site fast, and people who are searching for say 'jewelry' will find you right away. Of course, there is more to it, but that is the first step.
If you are selling your handcrafted jewelry, and your domain name is www.discountshoes'.com, well you'll only be seen in Google searches if somebody is looking for 'discount shoes', i.e. shoes on the cheap.

So how do you find a good domain name, relevant to what your business will be, and how you go about actually getting that domain name?

First thing first, you need to search for a domain.
I've found a pretty cool (heck, extremely cool!) free tool that does it all: searches for available domain names based on the keywords (simply put the relevant words that you are interested in, such as jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, artisan jewelry, you get the gist) you enter and it searches the internet for a domain name that is actually free for you to register. For example, you can't just go ahead and get www.jewelry.com, because that is a very sought after word, and that is 110% already taken (haven't actually checked if it's taken, but I am totally confident that it is).
The cool tool is called BustAName, and I urge you to go ahead and just play with it. It's free.

Now, how do you use that tool?
There are two ways to use it.

1. Word Combiner - here you simply enter one at a time your keywords and after each one press Add. As soon as the search program finds an available name based on the words you input, it will list it for you. If you don't like it, add some more words, it will find something.

2. Quick domain check - if you already have some names that you'd want to take, but are not sure if they're available, just type them one at a time, and again, the software will search automatically the internet and let you know instantly if it's available or not. Hm, just tried something, jewelryniche, and the .com domain is gone, but the .org and .info are still available...(hint hint). Make sure that you enter at least 2 or more words that go well together, because you will simply not find any longer domains with 1 word only (say jewelry.com), they're all taken. That's why I said before that I won't even look, coz I know it's long not available anymore.

Now after you've found the domain that you want your website to be located at, next step is to register your domain. I have a domain registered with Godaddy. To be honest, I find it's the best. However, if you've heard of others that you'd like to try, at the bottom right handside of the screen, where it says 'buy domain through', just pull the drop-down menu and you'll see each domain registrar with their prices. Note that the prices are per year. This is how much you will pay per year for your domain.
I already have my Godaddy domain, and I'm sorry I didn't find earlier this tool, because I would have saved myself about $4. If you go to the Godaddy website and register a .com domain, for example, it's about $10 per year. Not much, granted. But if you can save $3 or $4 in the process, why not take action immediately?

Tip: once you get the domain, you need to also host it somewhere. Since it's something you have to do, no way around it, you might as well buy a package of domain name + hosting, it's cheaper than if you go shopping around on the net finding the best deal. Plus if both are done at the same place, it's easier to get support. Afterall, you want the domain to be yours for a while, since you're in it in the long run, no?

So once again, since this post got pretty long, here is the link to BustAName. Go ahead and play with it :) Did I already say it's free? :)