SUCCESS (depending on your definition)

Ok ok, it's been 2 months, and I doubt by any measure my business can be called "successful".  But not to worry!  I am still going and have a clearer picture of how to proceed.

I think I said it before, but only selling jewelry online seems nearly impossible.  There is too much competition on Etsy to have a reasonable chance at showing up near the top of search results, and Etsy is just a microcosm of the entire Internet.  There is even more competition there.  I do think if I spent a load of money on advertising, I could get more traffic in my store and probably more sales, but right now I'd rather spend money on supplies (or myself!).

I think a more cost effective way to advertise is just staying local.  I'm going to be selling at a flea market with a couple friends in October.  My hope is that I'll have a better chance at gaining a repeat customer if people can actually see and hold my jewelry right there.  I can even lower my prices since I won't be paying Paypal or Etsy fees.  If the shoppers like what they see, maybe they will shop from me online when I'm not at their flea market.

Another project I took up this week was search engine optimization (SEO to those in the biz).  It was something I started to read about in July, but it seemed boring to do.  Basically, SEO is wording everything from your shop description to item titles just right so you are more likely to come up when someone uses a search engine to look for jewelry.  Etsy doesn't have a super stream-lined approach to editing listings, and at the time they started adding a bunch of questions to answer each time you listed or edited an item.  I was lazy, pretty much, and didn't want to edit everything I had already written or do the research into what keywords would be best for my store.  Anyway, I had lunch with a friend last week who hailed the benefits of SEO and even offered to help me out.  Well, if a friend supports this SEO, then I guess I can try it!  I did some more reading and researching, which didn't really take all that long, and started re-writing my shop.

Regarding actual product, I'm focused on this flea market.  I started making purse charms to sell.  They are small, inexpensive, and seem like good flea market merchandise.

One of the great things about making them is that it doesn't take much time to whip up a lot of very different and pretty decorations!  I'm also going to start making more jewelry to put out at the table.  It turns out this flea market and the fundraiser are on the same day (eeeek!).  Aside from the set I'm donating to the fundraiser, I'll also be showing, and the pieces have to be all set up a week before.  I'll need enough for both places then.  My Etsy shop will be closed that day, so I'll just use a lot of what I've already made.  Luckily, no one buys from it, so it's ok to take it off-line for one day :) HaHA!

And so, I continue on this long road to small business nirvana.  There is yet a great amount of work to do; I probably won't be setting anymore deadlines for success, and my only promise is I will keep my eyes on the prize.