Rose of Sharon Jewelry

Our free newsletter/marketing tool – the Rose of Sharon Jewelry Birthday Club – was a small success its first year. When several freebie sites posted a link 3 weeks ago, we were hit with over 2,000 subscribers in 3 days! Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be “mined” and shared like this.

The Birthday Club was created to encourage interested Rose of Sharon Jewelry blog readers and handmade jewelry lovers to keep in touch. Our web site is clear about what the club is – a marketing newsletter.

As a thank you to members, we give you a free (shipping included) pair of handmade earrings or,  if you prefer, a generous jewelry discount coupon during your birthday month. The only requirement is you must return to the site, “buy” the earrings (the coupon covers all costs) and provide us with a mailing address. This is pretty standard practice for any type of email marketing. We do not sell, share or otherwise use the info provided except for our basic marketing emails and you can unsubscribe immediately at any time.

We are a small partnership of women working together to market our handmade jewelry so supplying over 2,000 pairs of earrings will be beyond our budget. However, I decided that we are honorable so we should do our best to fulfill our promise. But after this weekend, I’m having some serious second thoughts.

Traffic – Yes.  Marketing Value – No?

While I do love having the traffic and many people sent thanks and wonderful comments about our jewelry, there is a dark side to this goodwill marketing effort.You see I have several Google alerts which forward me whenever Rose of Sharon Jewelry is mentioned. That’s  when I started reading less than positive messages about our club and free jewelry offering. I also started noticing that a mathematically impossible number of April birthdays were supplied by subscribers.

The word of mouth in freebie forums has been a bit ugly. I have read posts where people set up fathers and brothers and anyone else so they could get free jewelry every month. Many people thought this offer was a scam and would only receive the earring after a purchase or would require expensive postage – all untrue if they had actually read our Birthday Club enrollment message.

I’m a freebie participant too but I think I will rethink this as frankly, I’m really conflicted and upset. I am proceeding with setting up the subscriber base. There is some significant manual data entry required as our Constant Contact form was not fully implemented.

The purpose of this post is to share the important lesson of “be careful what you wish for.” Hopefully, you’ll be able to avoid the pitfalls of offering freebies as a marketing incentive.

 

Any thoughts? I’d love to hear some feedback.

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Social networking is hot for businesses – at least that’s what we’ve been told. So I’ve devoted my waking hours to promoting Rose of Sharon Jewelry via Facebook, Twitter and this lonely blog for months.  We’ve been blessed with Rose of Sharon fans and personal Sharon Fullen friends and store traffic is growing rapidly. I’m loving connecting with everyone and sharing a love of handmade arts and crafts BUT

where are the sales?

I’m not a newbie marketer but social networking as a marketing tool is still pretty new. There are tons of “experts” telling us what to do and how sites like Twitter and Facebook can level the playing field for small businesses like Rose of Sharon Jewelry.

What I’d like to know is how well Social Networking is working for your business? How much time to do spend every day in keeping up with tweets and wall posts?

I’m spending so much time talking to everyone online that my studio time is really an afterthought. And that’s not why I launched Rose of Sharon Jewelry.

I’d love to hear from everyone about their real-world experiences and thoughts about their marketing via the Internet.

 

Thanks,

Am posing this question to those marketing their handmade jewelry - Do you give away product samples in exchange for P.R.? Your experience and feedback, please. Leave your comments below or leave a message on the Rose of Sharon Jewelry Facebook Fan Page

As a professional business person, I would never want to compete with my customers so it seems strange that jewelry suppliers market and sell finished jewelry.  Would you run your business that way?

To keep costs low and quality high, I am always searching for trusted suppliers. This means I am always searching the Web for “wholesalers” and suppliers. So many sites advertise that they offer “wholesale to the public”. I’ve worked in several different industries as a marketing professional and I find simply false advertising. Either you are a legitimate wholesaler or you are just a company offering a progressive discount system for anyone with a credit card.

But it is the companies that sell beading supplies at “wholesale” and imported finished jewelry that offend me. As a handmade jewelry artist and managing partner of Rose of Sharon Jewelry, I spend a lot of my time establishing our brand and our perceived value. This is a critical action for anyone creating a craft/art/design that value is set by desire and what the market will bear more than commodity items.

If you’ve ever heard “I could make that for half that price”, you know that setting value can be tough. And many crafters/artists/designers tend to cave in and lower their prices. The last thing we need is to have the suppliers we do business with contributing to this obstacle.

These magnificent faceted honey quartz beads were posted by a Flickr friend - Gemsbeads. They post tons of pics every week and I can never resist the feelings of lust. If only I really were a bead millionaire. . .

Is Etsy "peddling" false hopes for women? That's the question posed by Sara Mosle at DoubleX.com in her June 10th essay - Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy. I love a good controversy and this a real thought-provoker for the handmade community. So is this essay merely a smear job of Etsy or are there some valuable lessons to be learned?

As a new Etsy seller and online marketer of handmade jewelry, I'm one of millions of women around the world seeking financial security based on our hand-made efforts. I'm also a card-carrying feminist dedicated to supporting women.

Amelia McDonell-Parry of The Frisky.com also weighs in on the "female ghetto" aspect of craft-related careers in her discussion of this essay.

There are plenty  of jobs that are "feminine ghettos" where the majority of workers are women and the wages and benefits aren't equal to similar work in male dominated industries. Ever since our mothers started entering the work-force in large numbers, women have struggled for parity. Combine that with our significant domestic burdens and you’re looking at women who searching for creative economic solutions.

The ability to operate a home-based business between diaper-changes, Girl Scout meetings and bedtime stories has a tremendous appeal. You can set your own hours (finally have a few minutes after midnight - great get that new scarf posted in the store before you crash); work part-time (even though you may have a full-time "out of the home" job) to help support your family; or you always wanted to make dozens of handmade coasters (just like the ones you made for Mom in art class).

For the readers following my Starting a Handmade Business series, you know that I'm not a fan of the overly optimistic message "you too can be a craft millionaire" often found in the handmade community - including on Etsy. I believe that "pie-in-the-sky" (I'm running out of clichés here. Ha!) outlooks aren't as supportive as they appear on the surface.

I personally think that a portion of this controversy arises from the way society values creative endeavors and how we rank their worthiness. The word “crafter” isn’t nearly as socially worthy as “artist”. 

I'd love to have you read the two articles linked above (they'll open in a new browser tab/window) then return here to comment, share, rant or weep as you see fit. This blog is a great community to really discuss how we can work together to ensure that Etsy, ArtFire and the growing number of reseller-oriented sites aren't the only ones making money from our talents. Many handmade artists/crafters/designers (choose your favorite name) - but sadly not all - will be able to reach the financial goals. But as these articles warn, the road will certainly be longer and more winding than we were lead to believe.

Please forward and share this post to your friends within the handmade community. You'll find all the social networking links below to help you get the message out.

And don't forget installment #3 of my business series will continue the conversation on Are you an Entrepreneur? Have you taken some time to mull over the questions? Are you afraid to? Share your thoughts and we'll collectively hold your hand.

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Have you been wandering if you could become a a successful entrepreneur? What defines an entrepreneur? Is there a test to know whether you are 0ne? The word sounds so daunting and scary - plus it’s tough to spell. An entrepreneur is simply a person who takes an idea, creates a way to make that idea “real”, sets up a business structure to develop and market that idea and assumes the associated risks and rewards.

In future installments, I’ll discuss developing your idea and how  to analyze its potential profitability and success.

If you have a marketable idea and know how (or can learn) to transform it into a sellable product (or service), you’ve satisfied 50% of the above definition. For example: In 2005, I had an idea that the world needed more beautiful handmade jewelry and I wanted to meet that need. So I bought a stash of beads and some books and started teaching myself how to make jewelry.

I enjoy taking pictures of my family and garden and I’ve got some great shots to prove it.  But I must confess I’m just an above average photographer when it comes to creating product shots of my handmade jewelry. I’ve invested in semi-pro equipment, spent time studying and am constantly experimenting with my studio shots.  But I’m still not satisfied and know I can do better.  The photos I have posted in the Rose of Sharon Jewelry store are pretty color accurate as I  want customers to make the right choices. But they just don’t pop and often have inconsistent background shading. As a former marketing director, I’ve hired photographers, accessed photo campaigns and selected lots of product shots so I know what the “right photo” is. But as a photographer, I’m missing the mark.