Google Adwords.

[Lucie]

Thank you for going to so much effort of looking at this for me. You have made some really great suggestions.
The prices will go on as soon as i've worked out all the gremlins. I'm doing the website myself (rather painfully), so it'll take a little while to work everything through.

Links from other sites are definitely something I need to address - just got to think of where to start with that one

Thanks again. I really appreciate the help - may be one day I can give up the night job (I can dream lol). x

[medusa]

I totally understand why people charge so much for web design. It takes forever and is soooo difficult! I just kept mine basic and simple, but then I'm in a pretty niche market, so for me it's just about making sure the pictures are accurate and look as good as possible. I have a friend who is a web designer and he keeps promising to re-do my 'vile' website, but no joy yet.

To get linked, when you are up and running, you could try contacting some of those wedding blogs, they might do a bit of an article on you and give you a link. And ask any friends as well who might have blogs.

I'm gritting my teeth for two more years and then I might make the leap and go half or full time on the jewellery. It drives me nuts not having the time to spend on it. Which reminds me, back to the grindstone...

[Lucie]

Completely understand where you're coming from with the website design - i'm starting to dread looking at it! Thanks for the tips about the wedding blogs - I might approach a few magazines too just in case.
At the moment i'm fighting to fit everthing in between working every night & looking after 3 little ones during the day - sometimes i'm amazed I have any hair left
Good luck tonight! I'm just off to work .....

[ShinyLauren]

Hi Lucie,

I would agree with basically everything Medusa (Liz?) has said. My old website required clicking through several different pages to get to where you could actually buy the item, and it ended up annoying me, so I dread to think what potential customers would have thought! Since redesigning my site (new one with Wordrpress, old one with Moonfruit) so the menu is visible on every page and things are searchable by category or collection, I've had an increase in traffic and orders from my site.

Definitely agree with the point about civil ceremony rings as well. It's still (weirdly) something that not a lot of jewellers who do wedding rings mention, so keywords and alt tags regarding this would be good.

Regarding the photography, I've been taking pictures of my jewellery for years and have had an ongoing learning curve with it! In the past year or so I've finally got myself a proper camera and fancy macro lens and it's really made a difference. I'm currently only an amateur photographer, but do have a look at my blog on my site (and older stuff on www.weloveshinythings.blogspot.com) for stuff that might help you with photography. I'm a bit swamped with work at the moment, but if you haven't had any photography joy in the next few months, email me and I'd be happy to shoot some pictures for you (no charge obvs.)