Websites - Good Thing???

**Peaches** · 10-07-2009, 04:18 PM

guys, another good site to design and host a site on is yola.com. They are fantastic and it is really easy to do!!

**amazingbabe** · 10-07-2009, 05:11 PM

Hi, I did'nt quite know where to begin either when it came to having a website but then my husband discovered Mrsite.com where you can buy a package it cost £39.95 i think and pretty easy to use. I can't post my website for you to have a look so if you wish you can email me colemanwx@hotmail.com and i will send you a link.

**myke** · 16-07-2009, 06:15 PM

Hi I use a free website host called spanglefish its quite easy to use. good luck myke

**Ominicci** · 16-07-2009, 06:15 PM

I am using mrsite to do my web site and am happy with it at the moment - not finished yet but doing it slowly. My brother is a web programmer and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole - but that's because he knows what he is doing on the programming side. Mrsite is effectively a load of templates that you can customise yourself. Don't buy it through their site though, get it through Amazon for half the price - one off charge for a year. ou can get your own .co.uk or .com etc name and e-mail addresses, if it is not already taken too - that's one of the most effective marketing tools I think... looks more professional. The Pro package gives you the shop and you will need a paypal account to operate it. After the first year you go onto a pay monthly (£7.99) system, but you should know by then if it works for you or not.

Dano - Folksy is just the english version of Etsy (I agree with your comment

)

**lynnm** · 19-07-2009, 02:26 PM

I can promise you that www.simplyeddies.co.uk is the best! you can get a website on there from £39.99 a year (+ domain name)Paypal comes with it and if you should have a problem you actually get to speak to someone who is not only English but lives in this country! I know because the company I was with before 'did me down' and Simply Eddies saved me!

**EmmaRose** · 20-07-2009, 05:51 PM

research your fairs.....often its not you just not the right market....who do you want to sell your jewellery to? (what kind of person buys your jewellery...think age, sex, demographic), then where do they go......not just craft shows, consider exhibitions, specialist fairs, if you make for example dog jewellery how about dog shows. At homes at Xmas or open studios for your region. Can you wholesale? Local boutiques for example?
Em

**ben b** · 24-07-2009, 06:47 PM

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**AlexandraBuckle** · 24-07-2009, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by ben b

To have a successful online sales website, you will need to advertise it, either in printed media like you would a shop, or by electronic means, such as paying web listing sites, 'webmasters' and 'seo' agencies, to have it appear on searches, which can have great results...or..waste thousands.

I get phone calls all the time from SEO (search engine optimisation) companies who can guarantee to me that I'll be 'top of Google'.

My soon to be husband is a web developer and he says its a load of rubbish, which I'm sure it is.

Be very wary of EVER paying out for SEO.

I mean how can they guarantee it anyway and for what keywords? I am top of google if you type my name in and I didn't pay for that. Imagine being top for typing in silver jewellery - no amount of money can ever make that happen I'm sure!

**AlexandraBuckle** · 24-07-2009, 07:40 PM

If that last post comes accross as being angry - it wasn't directed at you Ben

I just hate getting sales calls!

**geti-titanium** · 26-08-2009, 11:11 PM

Websites are a necessary evil, time consuming and, if you get it wrong, a big drain on your finances.

Start off cheap with low expectations and then you won't be disappointed, especially when you realise that only 1% of websites are doing any business on the net - if you aren't on page 1 of google you are going to have very little traffic. Don't aim for popular single word search terms that everybody is fighting for, instead go for less popular search phrases and more of them.

Think about how you search for a subject - would you type in 'jewellery' or something like 'what jewellery can I wear to go with a toga' (random phrase there but hopefully you know what I mean

Unfortunately 99% of websites end up gathering virtual dust and many so called SEO expert cowboys will charge a fortune and make promises that they shouldn't.

Learn as much about SEO and website marketing as you can and do it yourself - the knowledge is pretty basic, but the doing is time consuming.

All in all though you pretty much need a website these days as your virtual business card.