Making a Jewelry Website

I am often asked about how my website CrystalsandJewelry.com is done and what I recommend for jewelry artists wanting to start their own sites. I have done my whole site on my own, and still do. I had an "unfair" advantage with getting my site together because I was a professional web and graphic designer when I started CrystalsandJewelry.com. So it wasn’t exactly a leap for me.  That’s not the case for most folks, though!  So here are some tips on things I use and recommend for starting your own jewelry site.

The single most important tip I can give you is this: Once you start doing jewelry as a business, in many ways, it’s a job, not an adventure. The making jewelry is still an adventure, but so many other things are business, that sometimes the fun of making jewelry can get lost in it all. Consider what that means before you take the leap. Consider it again. Consider it yet again. Then, if you’re still interested, have at it! 

I’m not saying that to discourage you from starting a jewelry website, by any means. I don’t  worry about competition from other jewelry artists because we each have our own unique style and personality that we bring to our jewelry and our websites.  I do, though, want you to realize what a large undertaking a successful jewelry website is. I’ve seen many excellent jewelry artists become discouraged and even stop making jewelry altogether because they thought doing a website would be an easy way to make a buck, but found it wasn’t. I don’t want that to happen to you. It’s not easy to have a successful website of any sort. It can, however, be a great way to do business and get your jewelry recognized.

All that said, let’s have at some of the basics of actually putting a site together.

Gotta Have Photos

It’s fairly obvious that if you want to sell jewelry on the web, you have to have decent photos of the jewelry.  The best resource I’ve ever found for photographing jewelry photos is here. But here’s my two cents worth also.

• Camera – I use an old Olympus 740C with ultra zoom (macro) and 3.1 megapixels and it’s more than enough for web photos. The features it has include all these things below that are either necessary or just really helpful.
• Macro capability is a must for any camera for photographing jewelry.
• Megapixels, not so much if you’re only going to be putting photos on the web.
• Other features that are super-handy are white balance control, auto focus, and color balance control.
• Lighting – Cloud Domes, Photo Tents, and photography lights all help. Rather than go into them all here, check Rena’s site for tips.
• Photo Editing Software
• The cream of the crop is Adobe Photoshop, but it’s also overkill if you’re just doing photos for the web, in my opinion.  If you have the $700+, nab it, it’s the best. If you don’t, try one of these:
• Photoshop Elements which is essentially Photoshop Lite. I’ve heard really good things about it, although I’ve not tried it. Cost: Around $100
• GIMP or GIMPShop – Two open source photo editing softwares with great reputations. And the price can’t be beat. Cost: FREE
  Personally, I use Photoshop because I already had it when I was doing professional web and graphic design. If I were starting out now, though, I’d go with GIMP or GIMPShop.

Gotta Have a Way to Get Your Site Out There

One thing  to think about before you go making your own site is whether you really need a site all of its own, or whether a blog format would do. Since I’m talking about websites as opposed to blogs, my info here is assuming you want to do a website. 

• Pay someone to do it.
  If you have a lot of money and not a lot of time, this is the way to go.  Be aware, though, that there are inherent communication issues between the geek-minded and the art-minded. Plus, you may have to wait in line behind other customers to get things on your site updated or changed.
• Do It Yourself the Website Way
  Time-consuming, and there are a lot of things involved, but you have total creative and content control and it’s less expensive in cash.
• Web Design Software
  WYSIWYG web design software is the easiest for most artists to use. WYSIWYG is What You See is What You Get. It’s not exactly true, but it’s relatively close. And it’s easy for the non-programming-minded compared to learning to code by hand. Trust me on that one. My first website was done in 1995 and I coded it by hand.
  
• Coffecup HTML Editor – It does HTML code AND WYSIWYG! If you go with a year prepaid at LunarPages.com , they give you this free. If you buy it yourself, it’s only $49 — Cheap for what you get.
• Dreamweaver – The Rolls Royce of WYSIWYG by far. This is what I use because I love the Library and Template Features and it updates links for me all over the site. The downside is that it has a jillion features you’ll probably never use, it runs like poop on an older pc, and it’s around $700.
• Another option is canned site designers offered by web hosts. I’ve never found one I liked, so I’m not keen on this option. It is one, though, so you might want to look into it.
• Domain Name
  You’ve GOT to have your own domain name. They’re so cheap now that it’s ludicrous to even consider not  having one. You can get one for $8.95 a year for .com domains, or less, at Godaddy.com. I’ve been using them for several years now as a domain name registrar and have never had a problem, which I can’t say for the other folks I’ve used in the past, including Network Solutions.
• Web Hosting
  Without reservation, I recommend LunarPages.com, where I host CrystalsandJewelry.com. They are rock solid, and you have to have that to do business online. I made the mistake of moving away from them once, and within 2 months I was back. No more of that.  I’m back and don’t expect I’ll go anywhere for the forseeable future.  And if you don’t trust my affiliate link above, just go straight to their home page at LunarPages.com. I don’t need the couple of bucks from affiliate sales nearly as much as you need good web hosting.

Are you
tired of reading yet? hehehe This is just the tip of the jewelry website iceberg. I’ll be doing articles on your site’s theme or niche, e-commerce choices, marketing your website, and other tips on making jewelry websites for you in the near future. Join my newsletter email list or just pop back occasionally to find out when they’re available.

by Robyn