Selling your handmade jewelry online can be extremely rewarding, has many benefits, but, can also be extremely frustrating. Selling handmade jewelry online can often feel like drowning as you realize the sea of handmade jewelry being sold in this ever-growing online market. I'd like to throw a life ring out to you and provide some tips from my experience that will hopefully make it a little less overwhelming.
Don't Use Keywords Like Crazy
I often fall into this trap, but finally discovered that while keywords are important, sounding natural is more important. You need to be able to work keywords into your titles and the first two lines of your descriptions (if you're selling on sites like Etsy, ArtFire, etc.) if you want to be found, that is a given. However, people are getting smarter, and so are search engines. Once people started listing things with 1200 keywords in the title, search engines became frustrated and started cracking down on this type of overload, and you will not be crawled by Google or found if you do it. Here is an example of a good way to work in keywords with your title, and a bad way.
Good way: "Butterfly Garden Pink and Orange Wire Wrapped Bracelet" (You could even add "handmade" at the end, but usually you don't need to.)
This way sounds natural: if someone asked you to describe your bracelet in a few words, you would probably use that sentence.
Bad way: "Butterfly Garden Romantic Pink Orange Handmade Wire Wrapped Bracelet Jewelry Mother's Day Vintage Inspired Victorian"
This is the quickest way to irritate your customers, frustrate the search engines, and not be found. Period. Even if I found this in a Google search, chances are I wouldn't purchase it or read too far into the description because I would be so put-off by the blatant overuse and cluttered nature of the title itself.
Main Point: Use keywords along with the title of the piece, but do so naturally, so as not to overwhelm the reader and sound "spammy".
Picture Perfect
In my experience, taking photos on a white background (or a neutral, solid-color background) is the best way to go. Some things like crystal jewelry (clear crystal with no color) does not show up well at all on white, obviously, but most things will show up wonderfully. If you have a niche or a style to your shop, like a shabby chic shop, it is fine to photograph your jewelry against neutral colored props, like scrapbook paper with faded flowers in the background. However, the jewelry should jump out at you, it should be the focal point, and it should be obvious what you're selling.
Also, take photos from a few angles. If you have your own website and aren't using an online marketplace and you are only allowed one photo, either make that photo very clear, link to other photos online, or make a photo collage featuring different angles of the piece (you can do this with Google's photo editor Picasa, which is free) and make a note that the customer can click on the photo for a larger view.
Additionally, don't over-edit your photos. Photos should be clean, crisp, and colorful, but not overly bright. And unless the colors truly aren't showing, try not to use the color enhancer on your photo editing system (often called saturation). In some cases, you have to use it to bring out the color, but it can often come across on some monitors as very unnaturally bright. A good way to tell if you have good photos is to upload your photos, and then have several friends with different monitor types look at the photos online. If everyone says they look ok, you're probably doing alright.
Tell Me A Story
People want a story, especially when they're buying handmade jewelry. Even if the story is how you made it, or what inspired you to create it, or an interesting compliment you received on the piece at a show, people love a story. Stories help you connect to your customers, they help you to set yourself apart from the big box companies that list stats alone for items, and you cater to the emotional side of buying (aka, the side that kicks-in right before a purchase).
I know, I know, you're sitting there staring at that beaded glass bracelet going "But ... it doesn't have a story...I strung the beads and added a clasp," right? It does have a story! Something made you make that piece. It reminded you of summer at your grandparents,' it made you smile because of the colors, it cheered up a friend you made one for, etc. It doesn't have to be an epic novel. Just let the customer know that something inspired you, something spurred you to make the piece.
Which leads me to my next point ...
Make What Inspires You
This may seem to have nothing to do with online selling, but it has everything to do with selling in general. If you're making items because you saw someone selling a ton of glass beaded bracelets at a booth at your last craft show, but you really don't like working with glass, or you really don't like the style, etc, stop right now. Stop making it.
Here's the thing. If you spend your entire jewelry career chasing after what you saw sell at a show, you'll be changing your brand every week. The customers at that ridiculously successful booth probably were not there just because of the style, or just because of the price, etc. They were there because something drew them there, and that something probably had a lot to do with the seller's connection to the piece.
You can think that's weird or strange all you want, but it's really true: when you make what inspires you and what you love, customers know it, it shows in your work, and ... voila ... you have a story. Trust me, I've tried making things just because I thought they would sell, and they didn't. Then I started making things because I adored them, because I was walking on the beach and just loved the colors, because it reminded me of my grandma's house, whatever it is, and things do sell.
Make what you love, tell the story, and you automatically connect with your customer as long as you're open about that inspiration and story.
Price For Worth
I know it seems like slashing prices is the best way to sell, and for certain, things will sell at low prices. However, I don't think pricing low is exactly a wonderful idea. This isn't to say charge astronomical fees, because that won't sell either. It simply means that you should price a little higher than Target and Wal-Mart because ... well ... your items are worth more than theirs. If you're competing with Big Box companies, your artisan business will most likely fail, because we individually create each piece, we select the materials for each piece, and we are working alone ... we're not machines, and we don't have tons of people working for low wages to create our items. That's why people love artisan jewelry!
If you've used pricing formulas in the past that you feel made your pieces extraordinarily high in price, I feel your pain; I've been there too. Fiddle with your prices a little and see what makes you the profit you need, but is fair to your customers too. That's the ticket.
But keep in mind... when you're selling online, there are more costs that go into it: you have to list, you have to package, you have to ship, you have to pay any website fees, etc. So don't undersell yourself. My prices are higher online than they are at craft shows, but people understand that.
I hope this has been helpful for you. Keep creating beautiful jewelry, and never give up!
