1. Exciting New Markets for Your Handcrafted Jewelry

2. New Jewelry Business Tips and Techniques:
   Five great new articles

3. Share Your Article, Project, Tip, or Photo -
   and Get a Valuable Link to Your Website

4. Your Profitable Jewelry Business:
   When Someone Asks,
   "Could You Sell Some of My Jewelry in Your Booth?"

5. Neat Jewelry-Related Website:
   Greenbelts

6. Sell More Jewelry at Shows, Fairs, and Festivals

Do you prefer to make one-of-a-kind jewelry? If so, I'll show you how to find people who want what you make - and who can afford to buy it.

Don't miss out on these prime opportunities to sell your jewelry to customers who are VERY willing to buy your unique handcrafted jewelry – again and again. It's the main way I sell my own jewelry now.

You'll find everything you need to get started selling your own jewelry this way, in my newest ebook Secrets of a Handcrafted Jewelry Shopping Service.

A reader named Paul says, "This book is everything I've come to expect from you. It's easy and fun to read, and full of unique and do-able tips."

Invest in this 115-page, easy-to-read guide now, and make this your best jewelry selling year ever:

1. Cool Jewelry Design Idea for 2008
   No matter what jewelry components or techniques you use, you can fashion a version of this universal symbol that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. By Rena Klingenberg.




2. The Key to Developing a Successful Online Jewelry Collection
   Fashion jewelry veteran Mark Sanders shares one of the most important strategies involved in developing popular jewelry lines. By Mark Sanders.




3. CD Rack Earring Display
   You can use very inexpensive metal CD racks for hanging your earring cards (see photo). You can also attach buttons, pins, magnets, rings, bracelets, and anything else to a hook and hang it from these racks. By Kerri Meier.




4. Hanging Jewelry Displays
   See this interesting, versatile idea for hanging jewelry busts and other displays, making a nice vertical element in your booth. By Luisa Subero.




5. Wow Them with More Colour
   Brighten up your jewelry lines with these bursting-with-color techniques. These ideas are especially useful if you're looking for ways to cut back on your use of precious metals that have been getting increasingly expensive. By Christine Gierer.

Share your own jewelry business story, tip, project, or advice - and build traffic to your website at the same time. You can also include any photos you have that illustrate your contribution.

When I publish your contribution, you'll receive a free permanent link to your website from my site - and your content will be read by thousands of people in the jewelry industry. My guest authors report a significant flow of traffic coming from their links on my sites!

If you sell your jewelry at shows, at some point another jewelry artist may ask you, "Could you sell some of my jewelry in your booth? I don't want to do a whole booth myself - I just want to sell a few things."

Before you answer this question, here are some things to consider:

• Using part of your booth to display someone else's jewelry is an opportunity cost for you, since your own jewelry could be selling from that space instead.
• Including other jewelry artists' work in your booth can interfere with your efforts to promote your own brand at the show. New customers may not know or care which jewelry was made by you, or remember later which brand was yours.
• Your returning customers may get confused when they see someone else's jewelry and packaging in part of your booth. Also, they may prefer to show their loyalty to you by purchasing only the jewelry made by you.
• The other artist's work may sell slowly or not at all in your booth.
• If you're selling the other artist's jewelry alongside your own work, their work reflects on you. By displaying it, you're telling the public you recommend the design and quality of each piece. Also, many people will assume you made all the jewelry in your booth yourself - which may or may not bother you.
• If someone who buys the other artist's jewelry at your booth has a problem with that jewelry later, they'll remember they bought it from you. You'll be the one they call to fix it, refund it, or do whatever is necessary. To preserve your own good business reputation, you'll have to make sure these customers get quick, high-quality service no matter who takes care of their problem.
• There's a chance the other artist's work could be damaged or stolen while it's in your care.
• You'll have to keep track of which items sell for the other artist.
• Unless you ring up their sales separately (which is awkward when a customer is buying pieces from both of you), you'll be responsible for reporting and paying the sales tax on the other artist's items. So be sure to figure that into your calculations after the show, when you pay the other artist for his jewelry you sold.
• Some shows stipulate that each booth may contain the work of only one artist. So be sure to check the literature you received from the show organizer (or contact the organizer to ask about this) before putting someone else's jewelry in your booth.

Overall, I think there are more reasons not to have other people's jewelry for sale in your booth.

However, there are also some good reasons why you may want to go ahead with it:

• If the other artist is compatible with you, fair-minded, and easy to work with.
• If the other artist is willing to work in your booth with you during the show (assuming you would be comfortable with them in your booth). Sometimes it's really helpful to have an extra person there, serving customers and packaging purchases.
• If the other artist has a group of their own customers, friends, and family who will be coming to your booth because of them - and who may buy from both of you.
• If the other artist's jewelry is complementary to yours, and fills a niche that makes your booth a better resource for your customers without competing with you.
• If the other artist is someone near and dear to you.

If you do decide to go ahead with including another artist's work in your booth, you may want to consider charging the artist to help compensate for your extra efforts and opportunity cost.

For example, you might charge them the percentage of your booth expenses that's equal to the percentage of booth space they fill. (So if their jewelry takes up 10% of your booth, you'd charge them 10% of your booth expenses.)

Also you might charge them a percentage of their jewelry's total earnings at the show - a commission of anywhere from 25% to 50% to you.

And finally, it's always best to have a written agreement signed by both of you ahead of time. It can prevent big headaches and unpleasant surprises later.

Your agreement should cover things like:

• A waiver of your responsibility should anything happen to the other artist's jewelry while it's in your care.
• A statement that you can't guarantee how much (if any) of their jewelry will sell at the show.
• A statement that the other artist is responsible for providing his own displays and packaging, which you must pre-approve before agreeing to use in your booth.
• A statement that the other artist must provide you with an itemized list and retail price of every piece of jewelry they are placing in your care, at the time they deliver their jewelry to you.
• They must also provide you with a list of all displays, packaging, and other items they're placing in your care.
• A specific statement of how much they will pay you (in advance) for their share of the booth expenses.
• A specific statement of what percentage you will keep (after the show) of their jewelry's total earnings in your booth.
• A statement of who is responsible for paying the sales tax on their earnings from the show.
• Anything else you can think of.

For more tips on working with other jewelry artists, see Can Jewelry-Making Friends Become Jewelry Business Colleagues?.

Our neat site this week is Greenbelts accessories with a conscience.

As the name of this Etsy shop suggests, artist Shannon Ritscher's products are handmade from recycled leather belts and other recycled items, such as bottle caps, buttons, and "various doohickeys".

I love artistic recycling and "green" products, and I really admire the wonderful designs Shannon creates from things that would otherwise languish in a landfill.

Sell more of your jewelry this year with the success secrets you'll learn in my downloadable ebook, Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth.

Don't wait to discover hundreds of things you can do to sell your jewelry like crazy at shows, fairs, and festivals. Invest in this 176-page, step-by-step resource before your next show:

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

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