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1) Quick Jewelry Tip: Untangling chains

2) What's New at Home Jewelry Business Success Tips -
A new look and new articles.

3) Featured Article: A Unique Idea for Attracting New Jewelry Customers

4) Interesting Jewelry Related Website: Buttermilk Lane Pressed Flower Jewelry

Quick Jewelry Tip:
Untangling Chains

Aaaaaaargh! The chain you want to wear with your newest pendant is hopelessly knotted, and you're in a hurry. What can you do?

Try this cool tip: Under good lighting, lay the chain on a flat surface. Use a headpin, sewing needle, or other stiff straight pin to gently pull out the knots or tangles without damaging the chain. Add a drop of olive oil or baby oil to make it untangle more easily.

What's new at
Home Jewelry Business Success Tips

Our pages have an updated look - a new darker blue and deeper purple. It seems to give the pages a sharper feel. You can check it out while you read our newest articles:

I'm excited to bring you these three great new articles from our guest authors. (And I invite you to join them - send in an article of your own!) :o)

First up, from Ellen Leonard, who recently wrote the insightful article on creating your own home jewelry studio:

Art Fairs - Preparation or Procrastination?
Guest author Ellen Leonard of Prophecy Girl Designs offers great tips for successful art fairs and planning ahead to make shows easier and more enjoyable.

Next, from new guest author Olga Brycht, a helpful article detailing a way to boost your jewelry website traffic:

5 Reasons Why Blogging is Great for Your Jewelry Business
Guest author Olga Brycht of Chearrings discusses how blogging (creating a regularly updated web log) can bring more customers to your jewelry business website.

From new guest author G.L. Bycz, a tribute to one of the most treasured gems of all time:

The Emerald: One of Nature's Precious Wonders
Guest author G.L. Bycz of Fine Jewelry Designs paints a loving portrait of the emerald, that entrancing green gemstone of legend and lore.

And a newly updated article by me:

Jewelry Magazines and Bead Magazines
Updated and expanded recommendations for the best periodicals for jewelry making.

More great new articles are coming soon! :o)

Submit an article and receive a free, permanent link to your website. Guest author Ellen Leonard emailed me to say that her website traffic tripled due to the links pointing to her site from her first article here. While I can't guarantee yours will triple too, I do believe that you'll receive a noticeable flow of traffic from your article page!

A Unique Idea for
Attracting New Jewelry Customers

This business-building idea is inspired by the article, "Driving Traffic", published in the April 2004 Professional Jeweler magazine.

The magazine article describes how full-fledged jewelry stores are bringing in lots of new customers by participating in a special marketing program.

In this program, the jewelry stores "contact local employers and provide free distribution of a catalog of jewelry gift ideas along with a gift certificate that includes the employers’ names. The employer looks like a hero and the jeweler benefits from increased traffic."

Although this concept is being used on a large scale by full-fledged jewelry stores, I think it can be adapted successfully for individual jewelry artists too.

You can make your own customized gift certificates as mentioned in the magazine article, but in smaller denominations (perhaps $10 - whatever works for your business). A nice flyer showing photos of some of your jewelry can take the place of the more expensive catalog the magazine discusses.

Then you can offer your gift certificates for free to targeted businesses, so that they can then give them to their employees or clients as holiday gifts. You can personalize the gift certificates by printing the name of the business on the "from" line.

I suggest that you aim this technique at businesses that have employees or clients with a fair amount of disposable income. That should increase the percentage of gift certificate recipients who come to redeem their gift and purchase additional jewelry to go with it.

Here are some potential businesses you might offer your gift certificates to, just to help you get your ideas rolling:

- Cosmetics consultant - Do you know a Mary Kay lady? She may want to send your gift certificates to a few of her top customers, tucked inside a Christmas card. Luckily for you, women who purchase this type of cosmetics tend to purchase jewelry also.

- Hairdresser or manicurist at an upscale salon - Same thing; he or she probably has some top customers who would be thrilled to receive this gift from their stylist / nail artist, and equally thrilled to purchase your jewelry.

- Attorney - He or she may have staff including paralegals and legal secretaries who would love a gift certificate toward your jewelry.

- Owner of a pricey clothing boutique - He or she has customers who appreciate fine clothing, and certainly would appreciate well-made jewelry too.

- Clubs and professional organizations - These groups always need to give awards for various achievements; wouldn't they love to give your gift certificate as an award?

And it costs the Mary Kay lady, hairdresser, and other professionals nothing to send your lovely jewelry gift certificate to their customers. Most businesses you approach should appreciate the opportunity to give this great gift for free.

It's also a good deal for you. You stand to gain some excellent jewelry customers, without expensive advertising. Even if no one redeemed the gift certificates, all it cost you was the paper and ink you used to print them up. And everyone who does come to redeem their gift certificate will be a new customer to you, who will likely spend more than the $10 certificate amount on your jewelry - so you'll gain extra sales.

For your best success with this idea, decide how much of a discount you can afford to offer. Then consider the maximum number of new customers you could handle if they all redeemed their certificates.

If you think about it, this marketing strategy is just a fancy way of distributing $10 coupons to a targeted audience. And the audience you're looking for:

- likes jewelry - has money to spend - is connected to some type of employer or professional who can give them your gift certificate.

Of course, you can use this idea year round. Businesses always need to give gifts - think of Secretaries' Day, awards events, customer appreciation days, and so on.

Make it even easier for businesses to give your gift certificates, and you'll have a real winner. Consider offering to send the certificates and flyers directly to the intended giftees in pretty envelopes, so the company doesn't have to do anything at all to give your lovely gift certificates. Offering the solution to a company's problems (in this case, gift-giving) will win you a lot of business.

You have time to tailor and implement this neat marketing idea to your own jewelry business for the 2004 holiday season!

For tips on creating and keeping track of gift certificates, see Tips for Gift Certificates.

Neat Jewelry Related Site

Our neat site this time is Buttermilk Lane, delightfully unique jewelry handcrafted from real flowers. Artist Ruth Wales uses her native Maine wildflowers and cultivated flowers to create two-sided pendants, pins, earrings, and other exquisite pieces. What I think is especially inspiring about Buttermilk Lane is that Ruth came up with her unusual and beautiful craft by combining three of her favorite things: flowers, gardening, and glass art.

Visit the Jewelry Business Blog

Stop by the Jewelry Business Blog for the latest tips and information about the business of jewelry art! And feel free to post any questions or tips of your own - just use the form at the bottom of the blog to post your comments; I'll add them when I do the next blog update.

Find Specific Jewelry Business Info

Looking for specific jewelry business information or the answer to a question? Try our "Search This Site" feature to scour Home Jewelry Business Success Tips for any keywords you enter. A link to Search This Site is available from the bottom of the navigation bar at the left side of every page.

We have well over 130 articles now, plus lots more coming up - and sometimes knowing where to find specific information among so many articles can be tricky. But now you should be able to search easily and find what you're seeking.

If your search doesn't turn up any results for our site, then you've discovered a topic we need to add - please let me know the info or tips that are missing from our site.