Jeweltastic: Jewelry of My Dreams

This is the jewelry making gadget of my dreams.  I can fire precious metal clay.  Which means I would be able to make sterling silver and gold jewelry. 



I can't wait until I'm able to make silver and gold jewelry.  I have so many design ideas and I can't do them yet. 

Jeweltastic: Brandtastic

As much as I love what I do, I'm not willing to get a tattoo over my brand.  The fact that I have two earring holes in each ear, a neck, two wrists,  two ankles, and if need be a waist is enough space to advertise what I do.  I'm not going to over do it.  There's a fine line between classy and tacky.

I do have non-electronic idea for branding.  I want to create t-shirts with our URL and a picture of some of our jewelry.  That will be nifty for those days we do community service and can't wear jewelry.  Jewelry can be a hazard in certain community service venues.

I'm coming up with ideas for business cards.  I really like the idea of sending earrings on my card.  I'm thinking ink pens.  How many people accidentally steal ink pens?  If they "stole" one of ours or I "forgot" my pen and people don't typically toss pens how many people could that ink pen potentially reach?

When I'm able to handle the potential traffic it could drive, I want to send jewelry to people who could boost my traffic, that means those who are celebrities and on national news shows.  I do have a branding/ marketing plan in action.

A good portion of it won't take place for another few months since we are going the way of the dot com.  I don't want to waste money on things like ink until we have that domain name.

I have a lot of plans for branding and I don't mind being a walking billboard for something I enjoy.  That tat just isn't going to happen.  I'm not a glutton for punishment and needles make me nervous besides.

Jeweltastic: Importance of Blogging For a Small Business Part 2

As previously mentioned, we don't have a huge budget.  What we do have is an ability to place our blog on several services.

BlogCatalog Is a service in which you can communicate and learn from other bloggers, find new blogs, and create friendships.  Like any other social networking site it has it's share of characters. 

Technorati  Search blogs by topic. 

Youtube I don't know very many people who don't know what Youtube is.  Youtube is a site in which you make a video, upload it and hope for traffic.  It has a large source of vloggers, advertisers, and more.

Facebook For me has been a great place to hold contests and converse with potential customers.  I can add extra content by being involved with a few other services that do connect to Facebook.

Digg  "A place for people to discover and share content from all over the web."  When you submit an article, preferably not your own, it hits Digg and has potential for extra traffic.

Stumbleupon  Is kind of fun before people begin to ask you to thumbs up an article you could care less about.

Mixx  "Mixx is your link to the web content that really matters. There's a lot of information out there and, let's face it, you don't have all day to find the good stuff (if you do, we're totally jealous). And who knows better than you what informs you, what makes you think, what makes you laugh? So why should some faceless editor get to decide what's important?"

Gather  "Gather is the place where millions and millions of people come for fresh perspective on what's happening now. Gather members can share their own views and join in conversation with others who share their interests."

Folkd "Using social bookmarks with folkd.com will enrich your web-surfing experience.
We provide a simple website and easy to use browser buttons which allow you to:

• Save your favorite links and bookmarks online and access them from anywhere at any time.

• Press our "star"-button to vote up the best links on the web with just one click.

• Search the most popular links and discover cool sites your friends liked.

• Easily recommend the best sites to your friends via email, facebook or twitter.

• Connect to interesting users to follow their latest links.

• post cool links yourself and increase your "reputation-rank".

• Search and organize your collection by tags and keep private things private!

MySpace  has gone through a redesign.  It seems  a little like Twitter and Facebook Mixed together.  It now has a discussion board as well.

These are services that have potential for developing your business further and they don't cost a thing.  If your a business on a budget, that is a wonderful thing. 

Read part 1 Which pinpoints blogging and micro-blogging sites

Jeweltastic: Things to Come

I envy my mom's talent for painting.  I am lucky enough to own one of her pieces and we are lucky enough to have acquired some of her paintings for sale.  Only a few of these pieces will be in our shop.  We're hoping to strike a deal with a store that sells home decor.  I'm hoping to convince her to start painting once more.

Jeweltastic: Awesome Necklace

I wanted to share with you this awesome necklace I made. It is made of silver plated maille, White and pink glass beads, silver plated beads and rose quartz.  This is one of my favorites that I've made.  If I could afford to, I would keep it.  I have put it up at my  Jeweltastic store for $40.00.  It took about three hours for me to make (with small kids running around.)    I'm pretty proud of this piece.