I use IndiePublic and am the moderator for the Jewelry group. I would
love to see some Orchidians there. I use another site trunkt.org too
as they have a publication in the NYC area during market weeks. I
sell things through Etsy.com because my website is not finished.
Elaine ~ Etsy has a supplies category so that might be an option
I’m on a bunch of social networking sites. I think they help, if
you sell work online somewhere like etsy, and you are able to network
with people from your target market.
It is true that there are so many that it is hard to keep up with
all of them. Of the ones I’m on, myspace has been the most useful,
but that is probably because I’ve been there longest & developed the
biggest network there. Quite a few of my sales in the last year have
been from people I “met” on myspace. You need to have a lot of
"friends" and spend a little time commenting on your friends’ pages
and things like that so that more and more people find you.
As with the jewelry market as a whole, there is a lot more
inexpensive beaded jewelry being marketed on these sites than
high-end work with karat gold, etc. No matter where you
fall in that range, it takes work to get noticed.
I have also been writing articles and submitting them to
approximately 40 article sites. eZines.com is my favorite because of
the ease of use and good traffic. 24 articles have resulted in 3,900
page views and over 140 articles picked up from other sites.
With the Christmas rush on me I can’t really get into my thoughts on
this, but this could be a good thread for next year. I realize that
there are internet sales and some people make money on the internet.
I would like us to have a little survey on how many of us make money
on the net. I have lost money so far. The question of social
networking really depends on who you sell to. When I opened my
gallery part of my advertising budget was going out to dinner at the
upscale restaurants and bars. We went to every wine tasting that we
could and any fundraising event. This paid off extremely well. This
would not work if you sell to galleries but you could call and keep
in touch with them on a regular basis, send them pictures of new
items etc etc etc. I may be entirely wrong about the internet and
blogs, but getting out with people and talking to people about what
you do is the best networking you can do. Sounds a little old
fashioned but it works. Not counting my customers who use my website
I have had sales of $1600.00 directly from the internet. Most
inquiries I get never turn out they are looking for the person that
will work the cheapest, that aint me. Granted my site does not lure
the average person to it, but that is what I want at this time. If
you look at the top 10 under art jewelry or fine art jewelry most of
these guys have been the top ten for years. How many jewelry sites
or there out on the net, most of us or just little fish in the big
ocean, I would rather be a big fish in the little ocean of my area.
Most of my customers that spend big money don’t play on the net,
they don’t have the time. That is all for now.