How to Create an Online Shop that Actually Gets Visitors (and Buyers!)

People often ask me how to get started building an online home-based jewelry business. If you want to know the answer to this question too, you'll be excited to learn that it really is easier than it looks from the outset!

What do you need for a jewelry business? 

Let's take a look first at what you really need for a successful jewelry business.

A jewelry business (and any business!) needs these things to be successful

1. Products that people want.

The trick here is figuring out what people actually want!  There are a number of ways to do this.  My favorite is called "keyword research".  A keyword or keyword phrase is what someone will type into a search box to find something.  You could have the most interesting and well made product in the world, but if nobody needs it or sees the point of it you'll have trouble selling it. 

2. A Way to Get Lots of Interested Eyeballs in Front of Those Products.

Once you find something that people want, you need to figure out how to get those people to see it.  In other words, you need to somehow generate traffic to it.  There are dozens of ways to do this.  Some traditional ways are through advertising, flyers, giving out business cards, and word-of-mouth.

Other than word-of-mouth, the best way to get traffic online (because it's free!) is through the search engines.  Hence the keyword research mentioned above!

3. A relationship-building system so your targeted people trust you enough to even consider seriously looking at your products

Trust is huge.  It's no secret that people buy from those they know, like, and trust.  So your job is to get people to trust you once they get in front of you.  How do you build trust?  You build a relationship with them through your website. 

Be personable and genuine.  People like that.  Don't be salesy in any way shape or form.  People are naturally resistant ot being "sold" so never try to "sell".  Ever. 

That's not to say you can't ask them to buy at some point.  But it has to be done gradually.  The best way is to think of it like dating.  Imagine you've just met someone you might be interested in dating.  You don't want to be propositioned as soon as they say hello.  You want to be courted.  You want to get to know them.  You want to be taken out and made to feel like you're interesting and that they are genuinely interested in you.  You don't want them to just talk incessantly about themselves, or trying to grope you up like some kind of obnoxious jerk, right?

It's the same with selling.  Your customer wants to be wooed over time until they trust you and like you.  They want to feel like you have their best interest at heart.  Only sell people things that actually add value to their lives.  Don't sell them crap just so you can make a buck.  (Of course I know you never would - this is really put in there for those other people!)  If you don't have what they are looking for, try to refer them elsewhere.  Your generosity will always pay off down the road.

4. A follow-up system so you can remind your potential customers to come back and revisit you.

Do you know what the biggest secret of all is?  It's the 80-20 rule.  In every business, at least 80% of yoursales will come from 20% of your customers.  And that happens only when you have repeat customers.

How doyou get repeat customers?  You follow up with them.  You remind them you exist and give them a reason to come back.

5. A system for giving them enough information to decide whether or not the product is right for them. 

People who shop on the internet can't touch or feel or try on a product.  So you need to recreqate that as much as possible so they can imagine it themselves.  The way you do this is through words and pictures on a website. The key to pictures is putting enough pictures but still make the page fast loading. 

How to Get All These Systems into Place (Without Losing Your Mind)

It's no secret that I love my webhost, SIteBuildit (a.k.a. SBI!).  You can read about my experience with SBI! here

Here's how SBI! covers all of the bases I discuss above:

1. "Products that people want."

• SBI! helps you figure out what people actually want using their BrainstormIT! keyword research tool

2. "A system for getting lots of targeted (i.e. interested) people in front of those products"

• SBI! teaches you how to quickly and easily get search engine traffic and how to get traffic from other sources too.

3. "A relationship-building system so your targeted people trust you enough to even consider seriously looking at your products"

• SBI! teaches you how to write so that people will actually be interested in you and what you have to offer.  You can get a free netwriting e-book from them explaining how to pre-sell your visitors here.

4." A follow-up system so you can remind your potential customers to come back and revisit you."

• SBI! has a built in double-opt-in autoresponder (a double opt-in ensures that you get permission from people before you send them email) email newsletter system so you can send email to interested people to remind them to come back - without being blocked by the spam filters)

5. "A system for giving them enough information to decide whether or not the product is right for them". 

• Your SBI! built website of course!  All hosting and domain name costs are covered in your SBI! package.

SBI! helps you out will all of those areas.  Not only that, but SBI! helps you with dozens of other tools to optimize your site for search engines, to see who your competitors are and how their sites compare to yours, and more.  You can read more about other people selling physical goods here on the SBI! page about selling hard goods.

Want to ask me a question about Sitebuildit?  I love sharing my experiences with others.  (I think everyone should have a job they love!)  Contact me here and I'd be happy to answer any questions!

Best as always,

Return from How to Create an Online Shop to My Work from Home Story

Return from How to Create an Online Shop to the How-to-Make-Jewelry Home Page