As a military veteran, and a veteran of 33 years in the manufacturing sector, I have learned a few things over the years. Not the least of which is how things get made. However, as to marketing and selling these products I had very little exposure to the process. Now in retirement, when I have found that I possess a talent for cutting, shaping and polishing stones for jewelry, I find I lack a total understanding of how to market and sell the darn things. I am not alone in my hobby turned small time business. My daughter has the dexterity and craftiness to take my finished products (polished rocks) and weave them into some really cool pendants, necklaces and earrings. Okay, now eBay has been an excellent outlet and I have actually made a few sales, but from everything I have read, I need my own website and a marketing plan to make any real money, right? Right. So, I have made my own website store and am waiting to be discovered. This might be a long wait if my research is any indication.
I have read that one must have connections on Facebook and Twitter. Okay. That in itself can be a full time endeavor when trying to promote a business instead of just connecting with friends and family. But wait, there’s more, as the ad says. You also need to Blog, as a verb, not a noun. That too can be time consuming unless you simply have the gift of gab and can spew forth words that seem to make me sound anything like an authority on any subject, let alone my chosen craft. Besides, who would want to read anything I wrote anyway.
Moving right along, there are other tasks that must be complete and relationships nurtured in order to have even a minimal chance as surviving in the online ether. You need to get your site ranked and noticed by the big boys at Google, Bing and Yahoo. How can I do that, to date they have not taken any of my calls? Ah ha, I find there are a gaggle of services out there who will get your website submitted to these folks, by submitting a site map. Site map? What the heck is that? More research and I find there are yet others out there selling you their service to make a site map so they or others can submit it to the big 3. I’m starting to get a headache. Ok, where was I, Facebook and Twitter, Google, Bing and Yahoo, site map and submission. Where are all of my customers?
Now another monster rears his head, I need not only to be indexed by the search engines, but I must somehow get ranked by them. Actually, this is all starting to sound pretty rank to me right now. How do I get ranked. Easy I am told, I need to hire experts in SEO whatever that is, and hire other experts to help me get back links. Sounds more like back pains to me. At this point I have forgotten all about what I started to do, which was sell some handmade jewelry. Whatever happened to building a better mousetrap and having the world beat a path to my door? Those were the days my friends. Dose everyone have to go through this? Surly I am not alone.
For whomever finds any value in reading this I will hopefully make further updates in the future as I learn to navigate the world wide web. In the meantime, if you are simply looking for some really nice handmade jewelry please visit us at http://www.silkandsterling.com. We’re the little guys who will be waving at you at the end of the internet corner.
Roger Dougherty
Latest posts by Roger Dougherty (see all)
- Remarkable Handcrafted English Tudor Collection ! - July 26, 2014
- From 2 of the Biggest to Here - July 20, 2014
- What have I gotten myself into? - June 27, 2014
