Diving Designs - Fine Sea Life Jewelry for your Aquatic Lifestyle

by Nikki Gross
(Napa, CA, USA)

Pearl and Sand Dollar Necklace in 14k gold

My husband and I are passionate about diving. We love to SCUBAdive and freedive as often as we can.

We are fortunate to live in California and experience the beautiful and bountiful cold Pacific waters.

Brian, my husband, has been a jeweler for many years and has spent the last 6 years producing custom waxes for other jewelers.

He uses sophisticated CAD/CAM software to draw 3D models and then cuts the waxes on tabletop CNC machines.

A few years back we decided to channel our passion for the ocean and her wonderful sea life through our own jewelry line.

We started Diving Designs, an online retail store which sells fine sea life jewelry. We offer gold jewelry, silver jewelry, diamond jewelry, and pearl jewelry.

To get started, Brian and I worked with his sister to design and build a website. We are lucky enough to have a family member who has done this for a living.

For the past year I have been teaching myself how to use the website software, and have been maintaining the site myself since then.

In the beginning, I had no idea how to start marketing an online-only business. Like most new businesses the cash flow is null, so I needed to find ways to get the word out about without buying expensive advertising. I heard about search engine optimization techniques and social networking, but really knew nothing about either of these subjects.

I started my online research and quickly became overwhelmed with the different bits of information and trying to put it all together.

In addition to this, I had to learn a new language of the internet and websites i.e. SEO, meta tags, html, etc. I often felt paralyzed and could not figure out where to start since it all seemed equally urgent.

I eventually found a Rena Klingenberg "how to" article through my online research. I found the information to be valuable, and signed up to receive "Jewelry Business Success News". I have always looked forward to receiving each newsletter which is always informative and inspiring.

I also purchased Rena's book called Social Networking: Sell Your Jewelry Online the New Way. This book is great! It helped me prioritize my tasks, and understand what social networking is and how to use it.

I have since learned what customers want in a retail website, how to blog, and how to use Facebook.

Through other sources, I have also learned basic html, learned how to maintain and update my website, and add an online shopping cart.

Thank you Rena for all your great information.

Nikki and Brian Gross
Diving Designs - fine sea life jewelry
Diving Designs blog