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1) Receive a free link to your website

2) What's New at Home Jewelry Business Success Tips - super new articles

3) Featured Article: Jewelry Niche Market - Jewelry for Sentimental Occasions

4) Neat Jewelry Related Website: Crown Jewels of the British Royalty

5) New, Updated Search Feature

One of the best ways to boost your website's traffic is with incoming links. Here's an excellent opportunity for you to receive a free, on-topic link from the new and improved Jewelry Business Blog:

Send in a tip that's useful to jewelry artists - a good idea, handy hint, or helpful technique related to jewelry business or jewelry making. If your tip is published in the Jewelry Business Blog, your website link will accompany it.

If you send in more than one tip we can use, each tip will be published as an individual blog entry - and each will have your link. So more tips published = more links to you!

It's as easy as that!

Since our last issue, I have some great new articles for you.

First off, we have an inspiring new Jewelry Business Success Story:

Amy Peters' Studio
With her jewelry in over 600 shops and catalogs, worn by celebrities, and seen in magazines and on TV, designer Amy Peters of Amy Peters' Studio is a wonderful example of jewelry business success on a large scale. Here she shares tips for achieving your own jewelry business dreams.

Next, an article I wrote in response to a reader's question:

A Layaway Plan for Your Jewelry - should you consider this payment option?
A layaway plan can increase your jewelry sales by offering customers an installment payment option, but it requires extra time and paperwork from you. Layaway policy recommendations; example layaway forms.

I'm also excited to bring you these fascinating guest author articles:

From new guest author Lori Sandstedt of Linkage, here's a neat article about the synergy of jewelry buddies:

Midlife Collaboration Creates Symbolic, Authentic "Linkage"
How can two baby boomer jewelry artists make the year they both turn 50 into a spiritual milestone? By working together to create "Linkage," a fashion accessory that helps a charitable cause.

From returning guest author Cheryl Coccaro, author of "Easy Internet Selling", the definitive guide to selling jewelry and other items on eBay, here's how to start achieving your goals now:

Success Secret
What's the success secret for achieving your jewelry business dreams? Learn how to put aside perfectionism and "just get it going!" to accelerate your jewelry business success.

Turquoise jewelry is incredibly popular again this year, and this article by returning guest author Sherry Matsen of Estate Jewelry International covers some turquoise lore that's helpful to know when talking to your customers:

Turquoise Jewelry - lore and legend
Turquoise jewelry has been fashionable for over 6000 years. Its lore and legend make this beautiful, captivating stone a must-have item in beads, cabochons, and jewelry. Description of common turquoise treatments such as wax treatment, stabilizating, reconstituting.

Understanding as much as possible about retail jewelry pricing will help you set your own prices and discounts. Returning guest author Eugenia Bivines of Wholesale Jewelry Connection has another article on the secrets of retail jewelry pricing:

Understanding Jewelry Store Markups
Why are jewelry store markups often several hundred percent? Guest author Eugenia Bivines explains offline and online jewelry store markups and discounts, and how to get the best deal when buying jewelry from a retailer. Use this information in pricing your handcrafted jewelry.

Vintage jewelry pieces made from Bakelite and other early plastics are becoming a hot item. Guest author Sharon Lemell of Years After Ruby Lane shop sent in this interesting article:

Vintage Plastics
Vintage plastics such as bakelite, lucite, and celluloid are becoming increasingly valuable collectible items. Find out the fascinating variety of jewelry and household items that were made from vintage plastics - many of which you probably grew up with.

Guest author Janice Wee of Buy Bracelets expresses her lifelong love of bracelets:

Making Bracelets for Fun and Profit
Janice Wee began making bracelets as a child. Here she shares those early experiences along with two bracelet making tutorials.

And finally, from new guest author Vicky Therese Davis, A.J.P., of Indulgence Jewelry Corp., come some great jewelry sales tips:

How to Throw a Perfect Jewelry Sales Pitch
Polish your jewelry sales pitch and learn some of the basic sales techniques used by top-producing jewelry sales people. Adapt them to your own jewelry business and watch your sales increase.

I want to thank all these guest authors for sending in a diverse and informative group of jewelry business articles!

To become our next famous guest author, submit a jewelry business article and receive a free permanent link from Home Jewelry Business Success Tips to your website. Our guest authors report a significant flow of traffic coming from their article links on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips!

The sentimental-occasion jewelry market is HUGE, with lots of opportunities for enterprising jewelry artists.

People nearly always give gifts in celebration of life's milestones. And they want the gifts they give on these occasions to be extra-special, bearing sentimental significance. If you can supply lovely and meaningful jewelry gifts for these occasions, you should have no trouble developing a very prosperous jewelry niche business.

First of all, what constitutes a sentimental occasion? Generally it's a milestone event in someone's life, a day worthy of celebration. Here are just a few examples of sentimental occasions that often involve gift-giving:

• baby showers
  
• birthdays
  
• graduation
  
• reunions
  
• driver's license / first car
  
• engagement
  
• bridal showers
  
• wedding
  
• anniversaries
  
• prom
  
• new job
  
• professional achievements
  
• retirement
  
• Mother's Day
  
• Father's Day
  
• moving away
  
• joining an organization
  
• leaving for or returning from military duty
  
• taking a special vacation
  
• sweet sixteen
  
• quinceanera
  
• christening
  
• bar mitzvah / bat mitzvah
  
• confirmation
  
• first communion
  
• other religious ceremonies

Because jewelry is considered to be a valuable and personal item, it's one of the most popular gifts given on many of these special occasions. And jewelry gifts are often passed down through families as treasured heirlooms. Let's look at the elements of an ideal sentimental-occasion jewelry gift:

Often the jewelry itself wouldn't hold emotional significance without a tag or packaging that expresses the gift's sentiment or meaning. Here are two examples:

1. For several years one of my best-selling sentimental jewelry items was a simple necklace made from small white freshwater pearls, adjustable from 14" to 16" by an extender chain ending in a tiny pearl dangle.

   Why would such a plain necklace be a sentimental best-seller? Because of the message on its pink tag, printed in a lovely script font, which I phrased to appeal to grandmothers, aunties, and godmothers.

   The tag names the piece "Grow Up With Me Necklace", and expresses how a girl can wear this same pearl necklace for all her important occasions, from childhood through womanhood, by adjusting the necklace length as she grows up.

   By combining the emotional tug of watching a beloved child grow up, along with a special keepsake that will be worn at all her special milestones, this simple pearl necklace design makes a lovely sentimental gift and eventual family heirloom.

   But - notice that it's the message on the tag that gives this necklace its sentimental value. Without the tag, it's just an ordinary adjustable necklace.

2. Here's another example. I attended a baby shower recently where the most emotion-laden gift was a baby bonnet made from a pretty lace handkerchief. Although the bonnet itself was sweet, it was not sentimentally significant - until the mom-to-be read aloud the bonnet's gift tag.

   The tag bore a poem telling the story of the new baby wearing the bonnet home from the hospital, and then the mother storing the bonnet carefully away, to be taken out at the baby's wedding sometime in the future - when, with a few snips of thread, the bonnet will be turned back into a hankie for the bride to carry as her special "something old" in the wedding.

   After the poem was read, I don't think there was anyone in the room without a lump in her throat, and the handkerchief bonnet was passed carefully around to be ooh-ed and aah-ed over.

   But, again, it was the tag that gave the gift its significance. Without it, the gift was just a lace hankie baby bonnet.

So if you create jewelry to be given on sentimental occasions, it's well worth your time to write and polish a phrase or verse that expresses the emotion felt by the gift-giver, explaining why the gift is one to be cherished. Type the message in a font that helps set the mood. A tag like this can make the item a very big seller, and often can help it command a higher price because of the perceived value it adds to the gift.

Gifts need to be wrapped - and offering an extra-special jewelry gift wrap for sentimental gifts can really boost your sales and increase the perception of the jewelry's value. People who receive a jewelry gift often keep the packaging for storing it, so be sure your packaging is worthy of storing a special treasure.

Another feature that can enhance sentimental-occasion jewelry is personalization. Any way you can make the piece unique to the person receiving it (and sometimes unique to the person giving it) increases its sentimental value.

Things you might use to personalize jewelry include

• initials
  
• names
  
• dates
  
• birthstones or other significant stones
  
• significant colors (favorite colors, school colors, colors of a professional membership, etc.)
  
• photos
  
• jewelry made as commemorative favors for people attending the special event
  
• an heirloom or keepsake preserved within the jewelry
  
• a scrap of special fabric included in the jewelry (from a wedding dress, christening gown, etc.)
  
• things related to something the person collects
  
• things related to special pets or favorite animals
  
• an entire jewelry set created for the occasion
  
• matching jewelry created for other loved ones, and so on.

Customers love uniqueness and personalization, especially in an important gift.

You're providing lovely, unique, well-crafted keepsakes that people will give to celebrate their loved ones' lives. It's a major role for your jewelry to play, and this type of jewelry is worthy of your very best materials and craftsmanship.

Most customers expect that, along with the uniqueness and high quality of a handcrafted keepsake, there will come a higher price tag. So don't be afraid to set your jewelry pricing to ensure that you're being paid fairly for any costly materials and extra time you invest in creating special occasion gifts. It's particularly time consuming for you to personalize jewelry or create custom pieces, so it's important to include the cost of your time in your pricing. In return, give your customers good value for their money.

And remember that charging too little may give customers the perception that your jewelry isn't worthy of being a treasured keepsake.

Our neat site this time is The Crown Jewels section of Mandy's British Royalty site. With great photos and interesting commentary, webmistress Mandy provides a fascinating tour of famous pieces, such as The Soverign's Orb (created for Charles II's coronation in 1661 and used at all coronations since then), the Queen Mother's crown, and others. Also don't miss Mandy's tour of The Jewels of Queen Elizabeth II, including the queen's tiara collection, the fabulous Lahore diamond necklace and earring set (which she often wears in public, including in her portrait on British coins), the Cullinan diamond, and lots of other historical treasures.

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