IF YOU BUILD IT...

Will they come? I know there is a movie that says so.


After you create wonderful products into which you pour our heart, skill, capital and time...

After you take fabulous photographs because you know that great PHOTOS are THE most, if not most important element to online success...

After you work on SEO (search engine optimization), descriptions, eye catching titles...

After you work further on branding, banners, avatars, shop policies, artist's bio's, etc...

Do you just sit there and wait?

Ha, if only it were that easy!

The single biggest surprise I had in starting an online jewelry business Beadin By The Sea was the startling realization that the "If you build it, they will come" mentality is simply not true! You can have the most awesome products, great photos, slick website but if no one sees it, you are doomed!

After a year and a half of selling online I am still (and always will be I suspect) trying to figure out how to draw customers to my shop. Of course there are the traditional ways to promote a business that work, like advertising (web based or traditional), passing out business cards, promotions, give aways and networking with other artists and business owners. And then there is the whole mysterious social realm of marketing of which I'm still exploring. Yes, I am twittering, facebooking, blogging, and, participating in forums.

Whew! This all reinforces the fact that, after we build it, we need to promote it, maintain it, tweak it, add to it and promote it some more!

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be a "how to" market your online business, because I'm no expert! I would, however, appreciate your thoughts how you attract customers to your shop, or how you get noticed in the World Wide Web and maybe we can help each other.

Credits: I must give thanks to this spider which I found yesterday morning spinning his web along our front driveway. I was mesmerized by the way he worked, so deftly spinning his silk, determined to finish the task at hand, totally oblivious of my camera flashes. Of course, I would be this focused too, if I depended on my web for my food supply. Oh, maybe there's a lesson in there too!

CLEAN YOUR WINDOWS...

Because you never know what you'll see wander in your backyard. Yep, my husband cleaned the windows last weekend and I was glad because I wouldn't have been able to snap this crystal clear photo. Click on the photo to make it large. As soon as I opened the sliding glass door to take another, off the deer bounded to hide.

We've had such beautiful weather the past few days and I've seen lots of wildlife activity in the woods behind me from squirrels, hummingbirds, various others birds and now deer. Back to drizzle and clouds today. Such is living in the Pacific Northwest. Are you seeing signs of Spring in your part of the world?

Oh, and have you cleaned your windows lately? The world seems so much brighter and sunnier when you can see through them.

COLORFUL SEATTLE

I'm being a little flip with my title because our last weekend excursion there seemed to be anything but colorful. Recently, we bid on and won tickets at a local charity auction, to the Seattle Symphony and a nights stay at the downtown Seattle Sheraton Hotel. I can't remember the last time I've spent an extended time in Seattle even though we live only an hour and a half north of the city. The traffic congestion usually scares us away. Well, we went a couple of weekends ago and it pretty much rained the whole time and the wind blew. The weather did exactly what everyone says it does in Seattle! Our course we are used to it, having lived in this area for years and we know when the sun shines it is a glorious day!

Being from such a small town, I was amazed at all the crowds of people that were outside despite the icky weather. Northwesterners are a hardy lot! If we stayed inside and waited for the sun to shine we would never get out. As we went about and visited the local tourist areas I sought out to find some color. By the way, the symphony was outstanding!

My most colorful photo. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, a feast for the eyes on a dreary day.

They still throw the fish up to be wrapped and the guys sing a song at this fresh seafood stand.

Oh, this isn't very clear, but it was great to see Nemo, Dory and Marlin together... but I thought they rescued Nemo from the fish tank?!

Just as we were leaving the aquarium to go home, the sun did make a quick appearance as this state ferry cruised into the harbor.

How, I wish I had taken pictures of the fresh flowers, so many of those. We'll have to go back in July or August when we can take our time and enjoy the summer sun!

THERE IS A WORLD OUT THERE NECKLACE GIVEAWAY CONTEST #2

My first giveaway/contest was so much fun last month, I've finally gathered my thoughts and put together another one. This one will be drawn April 11th, 2009 at 12 noon and it is open worldwide.

"Island Girl"

This fine silver pendant is handmade from Precious Metal Clay. I use a paper pattern I've drawn, roll out the clay and cut around the shape. The piece is left to dry, sanded and then fired to be 99.9% pure silver. I then give it a patina and polish the high spots. Click on the photo for more details in my shop.

Here are the contest rules to win this beautiful "Island Girl" necklace from my shop Beadin By The Sea :
1. Leave your name and email address or a link to your blog along with a wild guess of where the "Where in the world" photo was taken (shown below).

You don't have to be correct to win! Click on "comments" at the bottom of this post to see the comment box.

2. Come back on the day before Easter, April 11th to see if you've won. You will have 3 days to claim your prize.

Keep those guesses coming and don't be afraid to take a stab at it.

WHERE IN THE WORLD PHOTO:

Have fun guessing and try to get outside to enjoy all the beautiful spots in your part of the world!

By the way, if you can't wait for the contest to end, this necklace is available for purchase. Just click on the necklace photo to go to my shop. I'll just have to make another one for the lucky winner!

UPDATE: April 11th
Thanks to everyone for entering my contest. I've picked the lucky winner!
You can read about it by clicking here.

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER

Yup, that's me. I attempted to take a photo of the full moon last night with my little point and shoot camera. We had a rare clear sky and I could see it poking through an opening in the trees. This photo really doesn't do it justice, because well, I'm an amateur. The funnier picture may have been me in my PJ's and slippers standing out on the snow covered deck at 10:30 PM in below freezing weather! Brrr...

Random Thoughts, Knitting and a New Lightbox

As of Christmas morning, I am a proud new owner of a lightbox and 2 studio lights, compliments of my darling husband. Since this is the last day of 2008, I was thinking that this time last year I had no idea what a lightbox was! I have learned a lot about taking good pictures of very small objects since I started selling my jewelry online. The important things you need are a good camera with macro zoom (already had that, also compliments of my husband), good lighting and a lightbox which eliminates nasty shadows and glare.

Since moving to the Pacific Northwest, where there isn't a lot of sunshine, I have taken my photography outdoors and have had great results. The cloudy days here are perfect for giving just enough light without a lot of glare, and editing is kept to a minimum. However, we do get a lot of rain here and I really would like to take pictures anytime of the day and not have to wait for the rain to stop! A couple of weeks ago, I was even outside taking pictures in the snow during our bout with cold weather in temperatures of 20 degrees F. Brrrr....

Here's a few pictures I thought I'd share of my first experiments with it. Granted I shouldn't be taking pictures in a red dining room (I've since moved it)! Here's some beautiful yarn, I bought at our local yarn shop, and a sweater I'm knitting. Oh, how I love knitting but haven't found the time since I really should be making more jewelry. Look at this gorgeous sweater, from Nora Gaughan Collection Vol. 3 in Berocco yarn. I bought the pattern book last August and now I finally got around to getting the yarn. But I digress!

The last photo shows a comparison of two necklaces, the left is a photo I took outside (in the cold) and on the right, a picture I took last night in the lightbox with the lights. I think I'm pretty satisfied, but I'll try taking some more in the daylight where I'll have just a little more natural light to add.

I also wanted to say, thanks for reading my blog this year. My goal is to post more often next year. It has been fulfilling, challenging and discouraging all at the same time to try to think up things that people will actually want to read. Your comments make it all worthwhile and I'm excited when I discover that a new one is added. I am so flattered by all of you who are following and that have signed up for email updates, thank you.

So with that I think I'll go back to my knitting and wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Take care everyone!

Debora