# How do you all advertise your business?



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I've just got my little shop up and am looking for ways to let the world know it exists. Would appreciate some ideas as to what has worked for others.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

My mistake, I see you do not have a store front.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

?? The URL to my store front is in the url under my signature.


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## Grumpy old man (Aug 6, 2013)

I think they were talking about an actual building storefront , That being said use e-bay and deal in volume lower priced items , A SS bracelet is not worth $300.00 and having an e-bay account with a store will bring many customers to your 'door' Higher priced items although nice will be a hard sell without using a major site such as e-bay or many of the auction sites . Shop your local pawn shops for deals to resell and take anything your not sure of the value and have them value it for you ,The bracelet 'yes it's nice' can be bought at a pawn shop for less than $75.00 they would only pay you $30-40 the ring maybe $10.00 sometimes things have too much emotional value rather than real true value. I wish you luck


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Oh, my mistake. I should have mentioned it is an internet store.

Grumpy, do not think I didn't do my homework. Not only have I had many of the items appraised by a professional jeweler, I've also taken many items around to a variety of jewelry stores in this area to find out what they thought about them...even to get some of my rings sized. 

I see no reason to pay e-bay and deal in a "volume of lower priced items", although I have considered setting up an e-Bay store...even a google. Attempting to sell at the local pawn shops is quite foolish as you and I both know they do not give anywhere near what the item is worth. Yes, the "charm" bracelet you see up on my site is "nice"; and I doubt you or anyone can find one like it anywhere now days. $75.00? I see you didn't do your homework before making a comment like that. Below are a few I found just today specifically FYI; and they are nothing as nice as the one I have up for sale.

I would appreciate comments from anyone else who is willing to let me know how they advertise their "online" shops.


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## joebill (Mar 2, 2013)

OK, First off, when I click your links, I get your farm website, not anything to do with jewelry. maybe repost the store link or tell me what I'm missing?

Secondly, I agree that trying to sell jewelry on ebay is a waste of time, unless it's nearly free. I used ebay for a while to introduce some of my tools and still run a few ads there on things nobody else makes because I don't have any competition for my stuff, but there must be thousands of pages of jewelry there. Even if you got a good following there, somebody prob'ly would rip off your designs.

Websites that are in competition with similar ones often find that some time OR money spent on SEO is quite valuable. It's "search engine optimization" that makes your site easier to find and turn up higher in the search results.

I'm not a lot of help in selling jewelry, but one can also advertise websites for free on Craigslist, with pictures and lot of text, and it's common, even though against the rules, to list in several different areas at once.

Once again, I really have not seen what it is you are selling except the few pics on this thread, but if you are selling silver charms along with the bracelts, I do have some experience with THAT which was very profitable.

I used to buy silver charms from Sun west silver in albuquerque, NM for about fifty cents per gram when we had our store up north, then dump several hundred grams into a display case and set a couple of gram scales on the table at the store, selling them for $2 per gram. That was a loot cheaper than the other shops sold them for, because they all wanted to mount each one on a card and get a fortune for it. You have to keep a good eye on the folks to prevent theft, but that strategy has worked well at all kinds of markets and shows for several of us.

I'm not a good website guy but I have had mine for so many years that I have accumulated a pretty good following. Fighting the SEO battle requires one to keep fighting it forever to keep the position you have gained. 

I wish you the best of good fortune.....Joe


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

A website, which you have, a Public Facebook, regularly posting CL ads, handing out business cards regularly, have also printed up colorful flyers and mailed them locally. Others pay for Google Adwords, buy advertising space in event schedules, flyers, handouts, get magnets for your car, sponsor local events, donate an item for a raffle, donate to charities (where they recognize the businesses), also include coupons for FREE shipping to repeat customers, offer special discounts only for repeat customers, etc...


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## Grumpy old man (Aug 6, 2013)

I'm sorry to say but I have been buying and selling everything from baby buggies to bulldozers for many many years and that SS bracelet can be purchased in just about any pawn shop for less than $75.00 there is a huge difference you can't compare jewelry store prices to real value the mark up on jewelry is huge in any of the actual store front or mall stores and to compete with just an online home business your prices need to be low to get those sales who an online shopper can find with the stroke of a key . higher prices are made by the impulse shopper standing in the store holding it in their hand .I never suggested selling to a pawn shop but rather buying there and reselling at a higher price online , many folks aren't aware of the savings that can be had by buying from a pawn shop and the days of the old seedy business have been replaced by corporations with 1000 stores nation wide with 30 day return policies and they will tell you what you are paying by the gram or pennyweight for the item which in most times will be half or less than a mall jewelry store . I also suggested that you take your pieces and have them VALUED by a pawn broker because just because blue nile is selling them for $100.00's does not mean they are worth the cost . Jewelery is a hard sell in a bad economy .Low cost and volume sales =$


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Joebill, thank you so much for trying to help. It means a great deal to me that others in these forums are so kind because what I'm doing now is so totally foreign to me.

Joe, if you'll look at my links, you'll see two of them. The first is to my "farmsales", which is my little store. It is the last one that is my website.

I'll look into that SEO. Thank you for telling me about it. Yes, I'll look at Craigslist too. Didn't know I could "advertise" there.

I'm only selling the sterling silver charms that are on the bracelet. Selling is not going to be a on-going thing for me. I just want to sell what I have and that is it.

Lori, thank you for the information. I did try to set up a "facebook" and discovered someone else was using my name; so I didn't go any farther. I'm going to do the CL (I guess you mean Craigslist.) as Joe mentioned as well. I can create a sticker for my old van and plaster it onto the side. ROFL Never even considered this; but sure worth a try. Have created "flyers" regarding spiritual matters and handed them out. Never thought about doing it for selling stuff; but certainly am not opposed to it. As for "Google", I'm already over there. (Saw one of our wonderful HTers does blogging over there for a living and thought I'ld give it a try with regards to selling stuff. Got started; but it is a bit confusing; so will need to study it more. However, apparently I'm considered a "google plus" already.) I doubt I'll get any "repeat" customers because my little store is not meant to be on-going. I'm just trying to make a little money off of what I never use anymore. Then the store will be next to nothing. Lori, I sure appreciate your help.

Grumpy, thank you for the clarification. I'm really not interested in buying & selling anything. I'm not even interested in making a lot of money. I simply want what I can get out of the few items I never use anymore. I have no interest in a continual store.


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## Grumpy old man (Aug 6, 2013)

If all you want is to sell a few items list them on craigslist but be aware the craigslist shoppers are only looking for a steal.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Grumpy, I know people are looking for nice things as cheaply as possible. That is why I set up my little store. I'm in no hurry.


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## joebill (Mar 2, 2013)

Just as an add-on, I have known a few folks who wanted a nitche business over the years and I suggested jewelry repair.........two tried it and did well.

It consisted of going to pawn shops and buying broken jewelry that had good content like silver, turquoise, etc. and repairing or rebuilding it, then selling. Often, a large earring might turn into a brooch or pin of some sort, or a pin with mulitple stones might make several earrings.

If one makes a little money on each deal, and learns more and more about jewelry repair, they are gaining in skills, which is never a losing proposition. Ultimately, one can establish a route of jewelry stores that take in repairs, pick up the repairs and do them and deliver back to the stores. The stores will mark the work up and show a profit, which makes them inclined to do it again.

Best part is that there is so little competition that it hardly matters, and the better one gets at repairs, the better the money flows, AND if you buy the broken stuff from the pawnshops at good prices, It's hard to lose money.

To the OP, i still have not seen your jewelry, and it's much too hard to find. Not complainig, because I really don't want to buy any, but you can't make it this tough and expect anybody else to find and buy it. They simply will not bother......Joe


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

Not sure why there are posts saying her site is hard to find, as it is in her signature in the original thread post:

http://motdaugrnds.com/motdaugrnds/farmsales/


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## joebill (Mar 2, 2013)

Odd, both links work for me now......only the farm one did before....Joe


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## FarmerRuss (Jun 19, 2013)

Greetings motdaugrnds,

I won't comment on the perceived value of your jewelry or what items to sell on your site.
But what I will try to do is answer your original question:
How do you advertise your business?

Tier 1 traffic comes from search engines, everybody strives to be on the top three pages.
Search engine traffic really is golden.
The term, jewelry you're up against some very stiff competition.
It may not be worth your while to to worrying too much about search engine traffic.

Tier 2 traffic comes from links.
Whether this is links that you have cultivated yourself or
put in a tagline like you did here on this forum.
These types of links can bring you a tremendous amount of traffic also.

Tier 3 traffic comes from your Facebook page your eBay page and other such media.
I'm not big fan of Facebook in order for me to see a link to your site I have to have a Facebook page.
And not everybody has Facebook.

And tier 4 traffic is your spam traffic.
This is the worst traffic there there possibly is..
In spam comes in many forms e-mail Craig's list this is not very good traffic.

Looking at your site I think a link exchange with other bloggers would be your best bet.
Ask bloggers and and other site owners for either a nice posting or a simple link.
This will require you to add one more page to your site, a links page.
The proper etiquette is for you to add the link before you ask.
I went ahead and added a nice little posting on one of my blogs for you.
You can check it out at Astro Nut

remember traffic is King.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

OMG Russ, what a gem you are!! Thank you so much for that nice plug you gave my site.

Also, that type of information is exactly what I've been needing. 

I've already gone over to Craigslist, as suggested above, and created a post there. (I'm disappointed in it in that, when the ad showed up, it had the picture well enough but then I had to scroll 1/4 down the page just to see the text that went with that picture. I sent Craigslist an email asking them how I can correct that.) As for FaceBook, I don't even want on it since my real name was taken already by a lady whose character is totally different from mine.

Now, I will be creating a "links page" referenceing everyone who wants to be added. (My site is so unprofessional, I hope others are as kind as you in linking to it.) Ummm I'm thinking the "links" should be on the right side of my farmsales index page OR mayby it would look better at the bottom, which would probably require a 2nd table being created....not real sure how to get this all done; but rest assured, it will get done. Linking to others would be a privilege!

I was successful in setting up a "links area" at the bottom of that php file. WOW I amazed myself. It isn't pretty because I don't know how to change that green coloring; but it's there. 

Grumpy, I just rechecked the appraisals I had done back in 1990. I found the very item you've been talking about appraised back then for $315; and we all know precious metal has risen since then; so I raised my asking price from $300 to $400, which is still a bargain.


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## LoonyK (Dec 12, 2009)

Craigslist is bad at answering emails, don't have the manpower for that, so consider yourself lucky if you get anything beyond a canned response. When I looked at the stuff, maybe something like having a shop on Etsy would help, but I guess it depends how much of a hurry you are in to get money and if you want the full profit out of it. 
Is your site going to be more recreational or business? if business, I would look into easier, different domain too.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

LoonyK, I hope you're wrong about Craigslist. All that space in one advert seems wasted space. Haven't really looked over Craigslist so really don't know...maybe all adverts have a lot of space between the picture and the text.

My little store is neither business nor recreational. I simply have some stuff I no longer use and thought I'ld offer it to others. I'm in no hurry and am rather enjoying playing around with html, although it sure gets frustrating sometimes.

At the present time I'm busy creating a PayPal buynow button for each and every item....OMG It is easy but boring.


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