Handmade Jewelry Blog by Cin~So

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:48:00 +0000

This is an invitation for those who own and sell their handmade jewelry online and are members at LinkedIn to join a discussion group that I started. If anyone is interested in joining, please send me an email request at service@cinsojewelry.com or find us at the Groups Directory, search keyword is handmade jewelry. Our group is called "Unique Handmade Jewelry."

Hope to see you there~

Selling Sites

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:04:00 +0000

I can think of three selling sites that are extremely popular right now. Being extremely popular doesn't necessarily mean that these sites are the best for you to be selling at. One very cute site has nearly 1.3 million jewelry listings. Not unless someone puts in a specific search description of one of your pieces, how do you expect to be found?

I received an invitation to list my items at a site called Main Street Mall Online (MSMO). It seems like a very nice site and at some time I will be looking at this site and others to list items. There's a better chance of being seen at the smaller sites as Main Street has a little over 500 listings for jewelry.

Just be sure that you check these sites out thoroughly for charges, security, etc. Also, be sure that you can cancel your site easily. I also want to point out that MSMO has a free mini-mall. You can list up to ten items for free and with all the regular features of their paid stores.

Until next time~

SALE!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:34:00 +0000

Cin~So is extending our end-of-the-year sale until the end of January 2010 at 25%. I am still recovering from major surgery and hope to add some new items and designs by the middle or end of February, we just need pictures taken.

It's really a hard time right now for business. I even considered closing the website and opening up a storefront at one of the free listing places. In fact, I've had a few invitations and will be posting about those sites for those of you who are interested.

In fact, the day after my last post, I received an offer I couldn't refuse. I was contacted by a small diamond jewelry site in London to advertise on my homepage. Thankfully, they sent me just a small description and Stefanie created a small box for them. They were pleased with it and I was extremely pleased, as the payment will help pay for another year of my shopping cart.

Since this was unexpected, I wasn't sure what to charge. I came across several sites suggesting $10 a month to advertise on a homepage. Well, $10 a month seemed a bit cheap to me. Then I came across a board where a poster said you have to look at your homepage as prime real estate. I worked a deal making a little over $15 a month since this is just a plain text advertisement. Now, if they wanted to put a banner on my homepage, the charge would have been $200 a month (negotiable) ~ I wish...

Also, it's a new year and another quest to find links.

Until next time~

Antiqued Brass Findings

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:48:00 +0000

By accident, my daughter found out that some of the finish on brass findings will wash off. One of the major companies that sells antiqued vintage looking brass findings says to care for the brass, wash it in mild soap and water. Well, if you do that expect to see the finish go down the drain. I suppose with time the antiqued look will return, but it was completely unexpected to see how easily it washes off. You'll need to use Renaissance Wax to seal the chains and findings.

I Knew It…

Back in January, I mentioned that the new trends would be copper, brass and gunmetal. I guess I should have also mentioned the “anonymous” base metal. I feel a bit vindicated of sorts because a few weeks ago I received a small catalog in the mail and didn’t get around to really looking at it until this weekend.

Without naming the catalog, I’m sure some of you can guess the company. It’s the one where an actor’s name is connected to it and if you ever order the jewelry you’ll find that it’s extremely small and sometimes not very well made; such as, open jump rings and sloppy wrapping techniques. Also, when you receive the jewelry you’ll first think, I can do better, and you’ve just spent four to five times the true value, let alone paying for the designer’s name.

Anyways, what do I find? Jewelry made with base metals. The down side is that you’ll still spend four to five times (and in some cases 10 times) the true value.

Until next time~

Long Time No See

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:27:00 +0000

I would like to announce that Cin~So Jewelry is having a 25% off sale on all jewelry until December 31, 2009. Next year all existing jewelry will be taken off the site and replaced by new designs.

I can’t believe it’s been 10 months since I’ve posted anything. I haven’t forgotten this blog, as I was busy working on finishing Hunter’s blog about canine diabetes and Cushing’s disease. Unfortunately, I met a lot of people whose pets are going through what Hunter suffered with undiagnosed Cushing’s.

First, I want to say that Cin~So’s website has a new look. We’re unveiling it today. My oldest daughter, Stefanie, is the web designer. I loved our old site’s design, but she decided she wanted to change it. Our new design is how Stefanie always wanted the site to look like. It’s gorgeous too, and yes, she’s the boss.

Vivian took the beautiful picture of a cherry blossom branch from our tree.

Jewelry Tools

When I first started making jewelry I purchased a pretty good set of jewelry tools. A few months ago, I finally broke down and purchased a professional set at Rio Grande. I bought the set made by Swanstrom. If you want a set that fits nicely in your hand and isn’t too large, this set is for you.

Sitemap Maker

I had previously recommended a sitemap that was pretty easy to use. However, I ran into a problem and to be honest, it was probably something I did. Whenever I deleted a page, and went to my Google account, it would show that I had errors. I just wasn’t able to remedy the problem. So I went off searching for an even easier sitemap maker and came across http://www.inspyder.com/. Its pretty much idiot proof (and I’m happy for that). So far, I have had no errors. This sitemap is not free.

Until next time~

New Trends – Copper, Brass, Gunmetal

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:31:00 +0000

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything for over a month. Our beloved dog, Hunter, lost his battle with Cushing’s and Diabetes on December 28, 2008. It’s been very hard to be motivated to do anything. Hunter was adored by our family and is extremely missed.

So, as I’m trying to get back into things, I wanted to post about metals. For Cin~So’s creations, I love using silver. I’m attracted to silver more than I am gold. One reason I love using silver than gold, another reason, spiritually speaking, silver is more pure than gold.

However, you have to flow with trends and I see (prediction here) the new trend to be more towards copper, brass and gunmetal. First, they’re more economical and (most importantly) they’re really a good accent against natural gemstones.

For over a month, I’ve been buying copper and brass findings. I say the more unusual the better. I especially love brass findings in art deco themes. Also, gunmetal can give new beads an heirloom look and feel.

Until next time~

Learning Process

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:51:00 +0000

If I didn’t say it earlier, this has been a slow learning process. When I installed the sitemeter a few months ago, it was very helpful in learning what countries people came from who found our site. Also helpful were the search word(s) people used to find our site, and which directories they had come from. Traffic more than doubled from a few paid directories which I mentioned earlier.

However, probably one of the most important features of the sitemeter, which I hadn’t thought about until yesterday, is how long people are staying on the site. There have been less people staying on to actually click into the jewelry categories. They were popping in and out.

So, I went back and scrutinized our homepage. The first thing you saw when you entered our site, besides the top border of beautiful flowers, was print. You had to scroll down a little to find the categories and below that were some thumbnails of jewelry. That was the major problem, no jewelry pictures at the top. There was nothing there to capture anyone’s attention and make them want to look for more.

We did a little switchoroo yesterday. We left the top paragraph, moved the index to the left and to the right of that moved the jewelry pictures. We also added a “What’s New” category with a picture. You can also go to the jewelry by clicking onto the pictures. Below that we have a closing sentence.

We have a box below that which contains all the different links, such as customer service, privacy policy, etc. Below that box, we have our jewelry webring, then icons stating we’re registered with child safe surfing sites, and last the three advertisers for paid commission sales. At the very bottom, we have icons for Add This and Sitemeter.

When I checked the traffic on the sitemeter this morning, we had a few more people actually staying on and viewing other pages. That’s what it’s all about. Getting people to stay on your site and view more pages.

Now, all we need is buyers. We’ve had “free shipping” for a few months now and unfortunately no one has taken advantage of that. Also, no one has taken advantage of the payment plan. The “free shipping” will end December 31; however, the payment plan will stay.

Have a great weekend~

Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:22:00 +0000

Outside

Scanner

Photo Box

Above you can see the pictures that were taken of some earrings of carnelian and mother-of-pearl. The top picture was taken outside. You can see some heavy shadows from the sun being directly overhead. This picture was heavily edited, and the carnelian is still showing-up too dark.

The middle picture was taken using a scanner. Again, this picture was heavily edited due to it being too dark. As you can see the beads appear to be blurred and the colors are washed out.

The last picture was taken in our photo box. This picture was only lightly edited. The colors are not dull or washed out. In fact, these colors most represent the true color of the carnelian and mother-of-pearl beads.

Besides the pictures looking a lot prettier and using less editing, it’s a lot better taking the pictures indoor and not outside. Poor Vivian melted some days taking the pictures in 90+ degrees weather in the summer here in Georgia. You don’t have to wait for clear weather either!

Now that we’ve discussed how to start-up your website, link to others, photos, next we’ll start discussing gemstones…yeah! For us, this is the most exciting part. You can do a search looking for handmade jewelry with “tourmaline” and come up with thousands of sites. Tourmaline is a gorgeous gemstone and I’m sure I’ll most likely use it too, but I like the unusual. Do a search for handmade jewelry with “moss agate” and you’ll come up with a lot less sites. Moss agate is a gorgeous stone, with a lot of mystery. There are numerous gemstones out there, just as mysterious as moss agate, and we’ll be shedding light on them too.

Until next time~

Happy to Report

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Cin~So is now hovering between pages 3, 4 and 5 on Google, when using the search words of “handmade jewelry.” Since I installed the sitemeter on our store, it’s been interesting to see just where people live who find our place. I especially like it when they misspell “jewelry,” because then we are in position #2 on page one. Ha!

If you sell handmade crafts on your site, I highly recommend buying a position at these two directories; The Crafts Fair Online and Indie Collective. I know I said not to spend too much money, and so far I’ve done well; however, I splurged this once and I believe it’s been a very good payoff. I spent $25 at each site and so far I’ve been very pleased and surprised by the amount of traffic.

That’s one thing about adding the sitemeter to our store. I’ve been able to track just where all the traffic is coming from. I have spent some money on directories and I’m not getting any traffic from them. This is especially good to know since some of them will be asking for another year’s fee. I won’t be renewing on those.

Also, I played around a bit with Google advertising on our site. I have it here on the blog, but decided to take it off of our site. However, I was checking out a directory and came across an advertisement for commission sales affiliate marketing for Femail Creations. I’m very familiar with their home catalog. So, I became a member of Commission Junction and submitted our site to some stores. If anyone comes to our site and decides to click on the link and shop at the three stores I have listed, I get a percentage of the sales. There is no contract and if you decide not to participate to either one of all sites, just delete the code. Thanks to the sitemeter, I have seen that some visitors have clicked on those links. It’s something to consider.

Have a great weekend~

Finished ~ Photo Box

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:56:00 +0000

The above photo shows what the box looks like when Vivian is getting ready to take the pictures. Vivian has selected backgrounds (handmade paper), to go with the jewelry. We think using backgrounds instead of just white looks prettier with our site.

Next, we’ll show the difference between taking your pictures outside (which can be difficult, especially in hot weather), the pictures taken in our photo box, and pictures using a scanner.

Have a great weekend~

Photo Box

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Above are pictures of our photo box. We have it set-up on some tables we have in the garage. It's made with foam board that I bought at Michael's. I was lucky, they were having a sale and I got them for $1 each. We already had a digital camera, a Sony 7.2 mega pixels with a tripod. The most expensive items were the lamps. The lamps are full spectrum, simulating natural sunlight. I was able to find them for $25 each on the internet. Vivian put them together with masking tape.

As you can see from the pictures, it makes a very good seamless box inside.

New Tool Works!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:19:00 +0000

I talked about the new tool I found for detering bots from submitting info to your site on your forms yesterday. I have great news! No more Russian invasion.

I also want to tell you that I've created a new blog about our family dog Hunter. In July he was diagnosed with canine diabetes and just this past week (October 30), he was also diagnosed with cushing's disease. We've not been able to control his diabetes and cushing's seems to be the reason.

I know from looking around the internet that there are several sites that discuss canine diabetes. However, I've had to glean info from several places. I try to keep this blog and our jewelry store free of any personal information; however, if I can help one other family whose beloved pet now has diabetes and/or cushing's, then it is well worth it.

Have a great weekend~

New Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:26:00 +0000

I just added a new tool on our site and want to share it. I have a form for sites to submit to add their site to our link directory. Our site is hosted at Yahoo webhosting. We haven't been getting too many submissions and when I recently received a request through email, the person said I never replied to them. First of all, I state clearly that I won't reply if they are rejected; however, I decided to test our form. There was a code problem and I fixed it and then we started receiving submissions from RUSSIA...in Russian.

I went back and rewrote our page. I even bolded that sites submitting must be in English only. I'm still getting Russian submissions. I went online looking for the code for eliminating spam for forms. I came across a forum where they discussed the best system. Apparently, the one you mostly see are for inputting numbers, some even distort the images. The problem is that now bots are able to decipher those. I also read that these bots are mostly coming from Russia.

I then came across another site where they highly recommended a site called JustHumans. It's free to set-up an account. You just substitute the "send" part of your form's code with one they provide. The person will be provided with a word and they have to match it with the picture that they click onto. It just took me a few seconds to set the code up and test it. You'll also want to replace the < method="post" action="http=......"> code to < method="post"> (close space after <>) on your file manager page. You can go here: http://www.cinsojewelry.com/addsite.html to see how it looks.

You not only get an email after the form is submitted, but a copy is also sent to your account at JustHumans. I've tested the form a few times and it works perfectly. I'm hoping this will stop the Russian invasion at my site.

The link to JustHumans is http://www.justhumans.com/jh.

Good luck!

New Google Position

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:51:00 +0000

I said on October 5th that I was happy to be listed on page 36. Well....we are now listed on page 8! Since I've added the site meter, I know that we're getting hits from all over the world. We get a lot from eastern Europe, China, and India, as well as the US. On Wednesday, we had moved up to the bottom of page 26. I checked yesterday and overnight, we had moved up to page 8. We are very happy.

One trick I've done and I have to believe it's helped a bit is to look-up the page rank at this site: http://www.checkpageranking.com/
You can look-up your own site and it will show what links are associated with your site at Google, Yahoo and All The Web. I have looked at top sites and who they are linked with. You can click on the number you're shown and a list will pop-up in a new window. Then I've gone through and have submitted to the free site listings. If links is the biggest reason you can move your site up to a better position, why not look at sites that are already there?

I'm going to have Vivian take a picture of our photo box today. So, tomorrow I'll be able to show how easy it is.

Have a great weekend~

PS ~ This is something personal, I'm going to be starting a page at Cin~So under "About Me" about our dog, Hunter. Hunter will turn 11 in November and at his annual check-up in July he was diagnosed with diabetes. I know a lot of people have posted information about their journey and I feel it's too important not to also discuss our journey. I'm going to start today and I hope if anyone reads this that they'll be interested to read about our experiences, especially if you love animals. Thank you.

Set Back

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:04:00 +0000

We've been dealt a set back. So, the posting about our photo box will be delayed. Our pc where a lot of work had been kept crashed. Luckily a lot of our info has been saved at Yahoo; however, some wasn't. We had to go and purchase a new pc and it will take a little time to replace what we had stored.

In the meantime, I've been sending out invitations to other jewelry sites I've come across for a link exchange. I've sent out a few and have so far received two exchanges. One I invited to our webring and have not received a reply. I guess some people can't say "no thank you." I wouldn't be offended by that. However, the funny (or not so funny) thing is that on these sites, they promise to reply within a very short time. Some even say within 48 hours. Not so. It's been a bit disappointing. I know people are busy with their sites, but if they can't reply to emails, how fast are they to reply to customers? Whose to say that I may also be a customer as well? I have bought from others. Just because I'm asking to link sites does not necessarily mean that I wouldn't also be a customer.

I have emails that I've sent to sites, well over a month ago, and I've yet to receive a reply. It's just not jewelry items that I may buy, but some sites also make their own beads and findings. I've been very interested in some of their beads and findings and would have liked very much to start a business relationship with them. Some of these sites even boast of their customer service. If they can't reply to me for a link exchange or an invitation to join our webring, then I can't really expect them to reply to me if I ask questions about their products.

My last rant, if you don't want to be bothered with exchanging links with anyone anymore, why don't sites just remove the forms or the invitation? Just a thought.

I find it all a bit disheartening. Wish I had some readers and see how others feel about this....

Have a great week~

Removal of Blogring

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:32:00 +0000

I'm not getting any applications for the blogring, so I have deleted that ring.

However, the webring isn't doing too bad for just being a little over a month old. There are five sites, besides Cin~So. In the coming weeks, I'll be sending emails out to ask other sites to exchange links and to also invite them to our webring.

We finally got the additional background paper Vivian and I picked out. Vivian will be picking out which background looks best with each jewelry piece, and then she'll begin taking pictures.

Have a great week~

Google Search

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:16:00 +0000

Well, I'm happy to say that something must be working. We started our site up and running on April 28, 2008 and as of today, we are listed on page 36 on Google Search. Not bad out of 2.1 million sites that come up with the search term "handmade jewelry."

I'm still tweeking our description meta tag as we've added a new line of inspirational message jewelry. So far, we only have a necklace, which I had engraved. We'll be showing more of that when we get to our products later.

Also, progress is coming along in regards to our photo box. Vivian is working hard on experimenting on which photo setting on our digital camera works best. We have different background paper, so it's not one setting fits all.

Have a great week~

Tip Six

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:53:00 +0000

If you're like me, you don't have hundreds of dollars to spend each month on having a SEO company submit your site to different directories and come up with campaign's in getting your site "out there." So, us poor people have to do it ourselves.

When searching for directories, try to be picky. Before I even think about submitting to any place to link to, take a look around. If it's a directory, be sure that there are numerous other sites, like your's, that are listed. Same things goes for sites who are selling products like your's. Personally, I look at a lot of different things before I consider linking with someone. Be picky.

First, you need to keep track of the directories you submit to. Some sites will penalize you if you submit your site more than once. So to avoid that from happening, keep a list. I also have a list of pending sites and a list of ones where my site is listed. I recommend saving the page where your site is posted at. It makes it very easy to go back and check the links, especially if you opt to have a link to their directory on their site.

Budget is the second important item. There are some directories that will charge over $50 a year to list your site. For me, I don't even bother with those. Perhaps in the future I may change my mind, but just starting out, it's out of the question.

I try not to go over $15 a month to pay for being listed in a directory. There are many many directories that will list your site for $2, $3 and $5. There have been some months that I just primarily look for free sites.

However, there is drawback and I try to keep it in mind. Even though being listed in numerous directories is a great way to build your pagerank, do try to build more links with other sites that actually sell the item you are specializing in. I'm not sure of the formula that it used by search engines, but I have read the warning enough times to pay attention to it.

Another way to build links is to join a webring. After being very unhappy with a webring service, I decided to start two rings myself. I have started a webring for handmade jewelry sites and I started a blogring for those who write about jewelry. I'm hoping that these two rings will become successful.

Unique Handmade Jewelry

Next tip ~ photography

PS ~ I decided to update this tip on directories. I've been receiving emails from sites asking me to link to them recently. This morning I received one from a diamond company. Very nice and impressive store except there was no actual "resources" or "links" directory listed on their homepage. In fact, the link they provided went to an external link directory. How are their customers going to find my site if they can't locate a directory?
This is very deceptive and I hope everyone pays close attention to sites that do this.

Have a great week~

Tip Five

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:33:00 +0000

When you go to search on Google, I wanted my products to be listed. It used to be called 'Froogle.' It's now called 'Google Product Search.' You'll need to open an account at Google Base. Very easy to do; however, searching for how to list my products was a little bit complicated. As I've stated before, I have 'zero' knowledge of anything techie. Although my daughter Stefanie designed our website, didn't know anything about this, as she has her own sites for anime.

It was a bit confusing, but I finally did figure it out. After starting your account, when you sign-in, go to 'Webmaster Tools.' On the Dashboard, add your website. You'll be given codes to put on your index page of your site. The instructions for this part were pretty good and easy to follow.

Next, add your products. The easiest is to use the data feed, especially if you have a lot of items. However, the instructions were a bit complicated for moi. Google left out a few columns that you will need. I had to go to a blog for help and after reading answers to other people's questions and asking a few questions myself, I finally figured it out.

You'll need to open an Excel file to list your products also called a 'tab-delimited data feed'. Like I said, there are a few categories or 'attributes' that are missing from the instructions. I've just checked and they still only list four attributes: title, description, price, link. You'll get an error everytime if you just list these four. You have to really search to find the required attributes which are: title, description, price, link and id. When I came across this, I sent Google an email that they needed to change data feed instructions. Didn't happen.

You can also add other attributes. The instructions for these are pretty good. The best way is to test your data feed with one product. If it listed successfully, then put the rest of your items.

You can also go to Yahoo. Now, I don't have my products listed at Yahoo because they aren't free. However, I do generate a sitemap for Yahoo.

So to recap, your website is designed with all products listed. You have a shopping cart up and ready. You have your checkout up and running. You've created meta tags and have added them on each page, you've also created a sitemap, and you've added your products to Google Product Search using a data feed. Don't forget to update your data feed each time you add products, and also update it every 30 days.

Next tip ~ adding your site to directories

Have a great week ~

Tip Four

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:15:00 +0000

SiteMaps ~ I don't know much about them except for the fact that your site needs to have one so search engines can crawl your site.

In a nutshell, I found the easiest place that generates sitemaps. The instructions were very easy to follow. Did I mention it's FREE? However, even though it's free, I decided to donate money since I update my sitemap each time I make changes to my site.

GSiteCrawler: Google Sitemap Generator for Windows

You won't be disappointed.

Have a great week~

Tip Three

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:51:00 +0000

Meta tags! I don't even remember how I came across that I needed meta tags. You will find that there are some sites and boards who say you don't need them, not true. You do. Meta tags help search engines rank your website. Search engines also use the description you write and that will be the description that shows up next to your site's name. The keywords are used to help find your site when someone types them in a search box.

The biggest thing I learned is to keep your site's description concise. I only use 28 words to describe my site. It's also a good idea to have two other shorter versions. I have come across many directories where they want a very short description.

For your keywords, the best way is to use words that are in your description. Here again, don't overload with a lot of words. Some search engines penalize you for this. I only use 19 words for my site. I also have a list of 5 keywords for those directories that want just a few keywords.

Robot, I have it set for index and follow. I also list Cin~So Jewelry as the author. Also, be sure you have this < equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> (be sure space is closed afer < >). Apparently, it helps language translators capture the correct spellings, phrasings, and meanings of your site. I have listed all my meta tags on every page, especially the one listed above.

I recommend using the link to SEOCentro on the left bar. They have a lot of free tools for you to use for your site.

When you use the meta tag analyzer, you can play around with your tags for title, description and keywords. I can't stress this enough, the best way to ensure that the relevancy to page content is at 100% is to use sentences and words that are on the specific page.

Examples: I use a sentence taken from my homepage on the index pages meta tag. Same thing for descriptions that I use for jewelry. On a page for a bracelet, I'll use almost all of the bracelet's description for the meta tag description.

It makes it very easy to use the meta tag analyzer on each page until you get the hang of it.

Good luck!

Have a great week~

Tip Two

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Shopping carts, who knew they could be so complicated? Not me. If anyone was like me, I just thought I would go to the most popular payment site on the web, sign-up and presto, I would have my shopping cart. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. I sell one-of-a-kind items and this shopping cart didn't work out for me. There was no way around using their cart. They even admitted there was no inventory control on their blog. So I had to go on the search for a easy cart that I could install and control. I did come across some carts that had html coding, but they were so complicated, I gave up. Cost was another issue, starting a store out with zero balance, I don't have the money to spend a couple of hundred dollars each month to have someone configure my cart and add it to my site.

Then I did a search for "easy html shopping cart." That's when I found Romancart. Extremely easy to add to your site. They even have screencasts for you to watch and take you step by step in setting-up your cart. You can upgrade your account to the level that best suits you. For under $300 (yearly), I have all the features I need. Like I said earlier, most importantly is having inventory control. I have that and more. For someone like me, who is a novice, it took me two days to set the cart up and load my inventory. There's even a special feature "up sell/cross sell." I sell earrings, bracelets and necklaces. I don't list them as sets, as some people will only buy say earrings. However, on their way to check-out, they have an opportunity to see that I also have a matching bracelet. It's a one last try to sell before they reach checkout.

Besides having complete control over the inventory, to change prices, all you have to do is go into your product manager and make the changes there. No prices show-up on your view source coding. I have checked this out against other stores and I couldn't believe there was their prices listed on the view source code. To me, this is just an extra security that no-one has access to your pricing.

I can't express how glad I was to find them. Almost every step of the way in setting up your cart, you can watch a screencast. If for some reason, you have questions, they have a great forum. They are located in England, but I asked a question about shipping charges, and I received a reply by the next morning.

https://secure.romancart.com/

Now for checkout. I opted to use Google because the credit card charge was lower and that was important to me when starting out. I'm sure that in sometime in the future I will look at adding Paypal as an option as well.

Next lesson, meta tags.

Have a great week~

Tip One

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:21:00 +0000

This is a blog or diary about the starting of our on-line jewelry store. I'm sure there are people out there who don't have an unlimited budget in getting started. Then these tips are for you.

First lesson, I was lucky that my oldest daughter, Stefanie, has designed websites. She's the "HTML Queen" of our family. I was also lucky that my youngest daughter, Vivian, took art & design and put together our flower graphic. (Be sure that you have your graphics copyrighted for your website.)

Stefanie was able to have our website up and ready in a few hours. Our website is very simple, but also very elegant. As you can see from our front page at Cin~So Jewelry you don't have to go searching around for our link buttons.

I've seen quite a few websites in the years that I've been on the internet. Some have been too complicated to navigate that I just ended up leaving. The other thing you'll notice is that so far we've opted out of advertising. It's very tempting when you first start out to try and get more customers to your site through ads. I get annoyed when I see ads all over the place on other sites and I don't want people to feel the same about our site.

So remember, 'less is better' in designing your site, and try to avoid advertising.

Next Lesson Two ~ Shopping Cart

Have a great week~

Welcome to Cin~So

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:29:00 +0000

My daughter Vivian and I have decided to start a blog and talk about our love for handcrafted jewelry.

You know, the rage today is using natural gemstones in jewelry. At our on-line jewelry store, we have brought together the unique qualities that only natural gemstones can give, along with the beauty of beads made by the Karen Hill Tribes of northern Thailand.

In the coming days, we'll be writing about starting our on-line business. We'll also talk about using natural gemstones; such as, what makes their attributes stand out, to what their spiritual meanings are. We'll also be going into greater detail about the exquisite craftsmenship of the Karen Hill Tribes.