How can I start an online jewelry business?
I’ve been making jewelry for a long time. Currently I sell it to friends and family, but have been told many times that I should give online a shot. I have experience designing web pages and would have a lot of fun doing something like that. I just don’t know the business side of it, like how to receive payments, do I need a license, and things like that. Also, I have thought about ebay but I’m not sure that it would be a good idea. I put a lot of money and time into my jewelry, and would probably charge more than people would be willing to pay on ebay.
I looked up dreamweaver and it’s really expensive! What other web design software can I use?
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Depends on how far you want to go with it. The ideal thing would be for you to own your own website that accepts electronic payments. You could start with paypal, but if you wanted something more advanced, you would have to get a "merchant account" so that you can run credit cards. All of the web hosting companies now offer it as an inexpensive feature, and can also build the site for you. http://www.godaddy.com is a good one, you can buy a domain name (www.myjewerly.com or something) and then have them build out the whole site for you. Optionally, if you dont want the expense, you can list your jewerly on FREE sites like craigslist.org and http://www.whyabe.com Sites like whyabe.com allow you to upload your item ( a picture and description) and let people contact you through the site, but you will be on your own for arranging payment,,,,use paypal.
Yes you can! You might not make much profit, but all you can do is try.
Start off by buying a website domain
try http://doteasy.com they offer a good price for your own website domain. You can make your websites in dreamweaver and upload them using ws_ftp or you can use a website builder.
You should advertise around your town and other areas, put up flyers showing your link to your website.
And make sure you learn about web traffic and tags so that search engines can get your web site in their results
How to recieve payment from your customers: try using paypal,
http://paypal.com
and have a link to paypal for customers on your site.
And no, you don’t need a license.
First – contact your local chamber of commerce.
They will know about licenses, permits and whatnot.
Second – make sure you can spend the time for a webshop. You should consider that you will need to check your mail EVERY day for orders.
Third – make sure you can deliver products ordered within a reasonable time – and communicate that time on your website.
Fourth – payments. I think that PayPal is a nice option. Everyone knows it, and i think they have several options for sellers and shopowners.
Fifth – Make sure the webshop and the ordering pages are encrypted, and your website is as hackproof as you can make it. This is a serious issues many people forget, or do quickly as a last minute thing. Don`t get fooled, and robbed – prepare yourself.
As to ebay – i think you are right. too many scammers have found ebay already.
Tip : do not accept cashiers checks, especially from foreign countries (any country you are not) – and when in doubt – triple check, or deny order.
First start selling your items on ebay to show people your products due to ebay’s big exposure. Then create a website and set up ordering. Finally get vendors and there you go.
Getting on the web isn’t hard, simply build a website yourself or hiring a professional might be better. A professional will make sure your site is connect to a merchant account for your transactions. The most important thing is marketing!!!