1. Question from My E-Mail Bag:
   How can I get the holes in my handmade earring cards straight?

2. What's New at Home Jewelry Business Success Tips - Selling Your Jewelry Through Catalogs and other new articles

3. Featured Article - Write Super-Effective Jewelry Salescopy

4. Neat Jewelry Related Website: Yumi Uemo

5. Submit a Tip and Get a Valuable Link to Your Website

Q: Argh! How can I get the holes in my handmade earring cards straight? They always seem to wind up uneven, so one earring hangs a little higher than the other.

A:
On my old earring cards I printed two small dots (periods) right where the punches went, and then I just poked an awl through each dot. Perfect alignment every time - and far quicker than a hole punch! If you're mounting leverbacks, you could make four periods (two above and two below) to accommodate pushing the lever back through to the back and bringing it forward to the front again.

If you need a bigger hole for larger earwires, you can just push the awl into the card a little farther since it gets fatter farther from the sharp tip. I used to put the earring card on top of an old magazine before using the awl, so nothing important but the card could get pierced! :o)

On my new cards, I use the same cards for all my other jewelry, so I didn't want printed dots for earwire holes. But I discovered that if I line up the top edge of the card with the edge of my computer desk, there's a little channel in my desk that's in the perfect spot for me to poke the awl through (and it doesn't leave holes in the desk!).

I'm pleased to bring you some excellent jewelry business reads today.

First up (and very hot off the press!) is an article many readers have requested:

Selling Jewelry Through Catalogs
By selling jewelry through catalogs, a home jewelry business with the right product can quickly rack up huge sales. However, there are many pitfalls and several things you must be prepared for. Here's what you need to know.

Next, returning guest author John Stancliffe of Infinity Stamps, whose previous article covered making metal jewelry tags, brings us a neat new technique for those tags:

Blackening and Polishing Kit
You can highlight the designs you've stamped onto your metal jewelry tags with a blackening and polishing kit. Guest author John Stancliffe describes this technique, and how it makes your tags more eye-catching and easier to read.

Guest author David Foard F.G.A.A. of Online Jewelry Appraisal Center returns with fascinating info on jewelry hallmarks:

A Quick Look at Hallmarks
Hallmarks are official marks that are stamped, incised, or punched on gold or silver to show quality and metal purity according to carat or sterling standard. Guest author David Foard discusses British hallmarks, considered one of the world's leading hallmarking systems.

And new guest author Dvora Schleffer of Dvora Schleffer Designs discusses specializing versus diversifying in your jewelry designs and materials:

Develop Your Own Jewelry Style
Having a unique jewelry style is one of the factors of a successful jewelry business. Should you specialize or diversify in your jewelry designs and materials? Guest author Dvora Schleffer discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Do you have some unique experiences of your own in the world of jewelry art? Share them and get your jewelry business and your website known! Just submit a jewelry business article and you'll 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!

You know that your jewelry website and online auctions need great photos if you want them to sell your jewelry. But did you also know that the wording you use on your website and other promotional materials can make - or kill - your jewelry sales?

After your pictures, the text on your website and other literature - known as "salescopy" or just "copy" - is the single most important element in determining the level of sales you achieve online.

As jewelry artists, we tend to get wrapped up in the tricky endeavor of getting really good, sharp photos of our jewelry - and rightly so! But that emphasis on photography can make it easy for us to run out of time before we craft some really effective text to accompany those pictures.

Copywriting is part art and part science, and expert copywriters have spent decades creating and testing promotional text and analyzing the most effective ways to communicate with customers. Here are a few easy tips from top copywriters for writing the magic words that make jewelry sales:

A headline jumps off the page at your visitor.

As the first words a potential customer reads on the page, your headline needs to grab their attention and interest immediately. If the headline isn't compelling, why would they read anything else on the page? The reader's "Back" button is always a quick click away if the headline doesn't draw them in.

Shoppers browse with "Yes, but what's in it for me?" foremost in their minds. So a powerful headline technique is to briefly and compellingly state a key benefit or solution that summarizes everything your jewelry has to offer your customer.

It should also arouse their curiosity. Pique their interest with a well-crafted headline, and now they want to know - and see - more!

Every page should have a headline. And you'll sell more jewelry if each piece has its own compelling, headline (product title) too.

Another technique that really pulls customers into reading the rest of the page is a headline that asks a question. Which headline captures your curiosity and makes you want to read into the copy below it? -

"Boulder Opal from Australia"

OR

"Where in the World is this Opal from?"

Humans have a strong sense of curiosity. Write a headline that tempts them into your page or product description with a promise of interesting information below.

Use question headlines where you especially want to draw readers into the rest of the page or jewelry product writeup. However, this technique is most effective when not over-used. If you start every page of your site with a question headline, your customer may feel like she has just stepped into a questionnaire.

Of all the copy you write, the most important is your headlines. Veteran copywriters say that well-written headlines pull in 80% of the orders.

So be sure to spend enough time writing and re-writing your headlines to have something good and strong to grab your potential customers and entice them to trust you and engage with the page or product description.

Once you get a good headline or product title written, it's time to craft some great salescopy below it. Depending on the page, the copy might be jewelry product descriptions, "about us" page info, ordering and shipping info, etc.

The best copy doesn't concentrate on product features. It emphasizes how your customer will benefit from the features. And this is more true of jewelry than many other products. Remember that jewelry is an emotional purchase, and benefits REALLY increase a customer's desire to buy jewelry.

Which is more compelling to you? -

The product description says:

"This pendant was crafted with 35.5 inches of 21-gauge sterling silver wire. Its 18mm x 13mm blue topaz stone has a Moh's hardness of 8. The pendant measures 1.4 inches high by 0.6 inches wide."

The customer thinks:

"Pretty jewelry, but what's in it for me? Yawn. This is just a laundry-list of features and facts."

OR

The product description says:

"Icy fire catches the light - and the eye - whenever you move. A brilliantly sparkling blue topaz, the stone of true love and successful endeavors, highlights this one-of-a-kind pendant. Lovely curves handcrafted from sterling silver wire capture the sky blue beauty of finely faceted topaz. Pendant measures 1.4 inches x 0.6 inches."

The customer thinks:

"Ooh, I want to wear a sparkly stone like that! I love that gorgeous color of sky blue topaz. I would love to wear a pendant that's not like anyone else's. And 'the stone of true love and successful endeavors' is so romantic and fascinating!"

(While the second example suggests the benefits of wearing this piece, it does also mention the features - what the stone is, what the metal is, that the stone is faceted, and the overall measurements of the pendant.)

Also notice the subtle use of "you" in the second example above. Not only does this make your writing more personal, but it also subconsciously starts the reader thinking of that pendant as already belonging to them!

Tell your customers directly what's in it for them.

Copywriting masters have extensively studied and tested the most effective words to use if you want to make sales. And here's what they've discovered.

Positive words promote positive feelings. Readers who feel good at your site will not only stay there awhile, but are likely to return later. Examples of words that excite readers' interest and motivate them to buy include:

love
natural
solution
safe/safely
now
your
fast
new
soft
guarantee
free
benefits
value
discover
precious
comfort/comfortable
save
right
succeed
proud
satisfaction

And words that are perceived as negative not only promote negative feelings, but they also tend to make people want to stop reading - and probably never return. Examples of words that turn readers off and kill sales include:

buy
loss/lose
fail
cheap
problems
objection
contract
no
wrong
hard
sign/signature
difficult
payments
cost
worry
sell
obligation

So be cautious of using such words as "buy" and "cost", and try to include things like "precious" and "comfortable". There really is a big difference in how it makes readers feel about the text - and about spending time on your website or auction listing!

The best photo captions never describe what viewers can easily see for themselves in the picture.

A photo of a freshwater pearl bracelet with a caption saying, "Pearl Bracelet" is sort of redundant, don't you think? Instead, you could make better use of that space with a caption that communicates a benefit or sentiment about the bracelet that can't be captured by a camera -

"Feel elegant with pearls glowing softly on your wrist."

Readers also appreciate captions that are clever or interesting.

Take a new look at your jewelry website or auction listings, and have fun with them. Try different, surprising headlines and product titles. Tell readers what's in your jewelry for them, and work in some of those words that make a sale! :o)

Today's neat site is Yumi Ueno's jewelry. I love her fantasy castles and spaceships, and the joyful almost-Dr.-Seuss quality of her designs.

I chose this as a neat site because of Yumi's originality - her wonderful fantasy designs - and for the stunning photography, which was done by her husband.

Yumi says her work is "an expression of the mysterious and primeval forces of nature, such as light, wind, space, and time." I know I felt transported to another world during the time I spent soaking in her beautiful jewelry, and I hope you do too. :o)

Do you have a good idea, handy hint, or helpful technique related to jewelry business or jewelry making? Send in a tip that's useful to jewelry artists and receive a free link to your website when your tip is published in the Jewelry Business Blog.

Looking for specific jewelry business information or the answer to a question? Try our "Search This Site" feature to scour both Home Jewelry Business Success Tips and Jewelry Business Blog for any keywords you enter.

A link to "Search This Site" is available at the bottom of the navigation bar at the left side of every page of Home Jewelry Business Success Tips. It's also in the top right corner of every page on the Jewelry Business Blog.

We have well over 230 articles on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips now, and new posts several days a week on the Jewelry Business Blog - plus lots more coming up - and sometimes knowing where to find specific information among so many articles can be tricky. But now you can search easily and find what you're seeking.

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