Business Tip of the Week & Competition

This week's business tip is aimed at any small business, but naturally, me being a small business making handmade silver jewellery, it's also suitable for those people who handcraft their wares.

Pay per click advertising
Are you getting very few hits to your website?  Have you considered pay per click advertising?
Google Adwords or Bing Advertising offer these services.  As a small business, it can sometimes feel quite daunting paying out money daily for adverts with obviously very little guarantee of a return. 
So, start small!
You can set your budget on a daily basis and you can also set the budget for the cost of each click. Do bear in mind, that if you set the budgets too low, then a) you'll only get 1 or 2 hits to your website or b) your advert will be so far down the list that it won't be seen .

Make the most of the number of words for the script that you'd like the customers to see and choose your keywords carefully.  Broad keywords may well get lots of hits, but perhaps it's better to choose specific words in relation to your products - that way there's more of a chance tha a customer will purchase from you.

Competitions
Win with Handmade Silver Jewellery

Take a look at my website and try and solve the riddles!  Competitions are added on a regular basis and are being run through my facebook page:  Handmade Contemporary Silver Jewellery.  A £5 gift voucher is up for grabs to the person who gets the answer correct.  Solve the puzzle and work out from the clues which product I am referring to and you too could be a lucky winner.

Brightening up your Day....

It sure is pouring down with rain in the South West of England, so I decided to brighten things up a little this week with my choice of the ten artisans this week.  Again, going to be fairly obvious what my theme is - but I'm not sure if anything can brighten the floods down this way!

I do hope if you're a fellow artist you enjoy my choices and if you're a non crafty person can see the love and dedication which has gone into every piece that I have selected for my blog this week

Number 6 is particulaly apt at the moment and is absolutely gorgeous! So much so, that I've just bought it, ha, ha - I'm sure you'll find some other lovely things from Handmade by suqiz in the shop as I've amended this link so you can visit the main page for this artist.

1. Yellow Skies, Mixed Media  - Sue Coo Art
2. Yellow Finch, Paper - recycled found and purchased - Rae Welch
3. Yellow Rosette - Hand rolled Felt - Hooperhart
4. Yellow Flowers - Silver and Epoxy Resin - Handmade Jewellery
5. Yellow Rose - Sinamay and metal hair clip - The Millinery Studio
6. Yellow Duck - Card - Polymer Clay - Handmade by suziq
7. Yellow Peas - Linoprint  -LaLishDesign
8. Yellow Bear - Crocheted -  Monique Boutique
9. Yellow Light - limited edition print - Betty bay design
10. Yellow Shawl - Chrocheted - Pushek

Please be aware that all the rights to the designs belong with the artists.

The Colour of Summer

Having finished Dorset Art Weeks Open Studios (a 16 day long event), I finally have my life back and can continue with my weekly blog.
This week I'm sure the theme won't be at all hard to guess and I've found some stunning items on Folksy again for your delight.
I'll look forward to hearing from my fellow bloggers with their ideas and creativity.  There is some really amazing quality handmade and handcrafted items in the UK and I only wish I could bring them all to this page - but each week, I'll endeavour to bring just a few for you all to enjoy.

1. Handmade Tutu - Strawberry Annie's
2. Cardigan - Niftyneedles
3. Handcrafted Card -  Something Special by Mars x
4. Lace Gauntlet - Tricot Treats by Helen Dey
5. Felt Owl - Mousey Makes
6. Nu Baroque Mug - Russell Paige Ceramics
7. Handcrafted Earrings - Lesley H Phillips Handcrafted Silver Jewellery
8. Fibre Felt Purse - by sally
9. Personalised Face Cloth - K G Designs
10. Patchwork Handbag -  Handbags by Helen

Please do note that all the designs featured on this blog are the designers own work and as such they hold the Design Rights to them.  Any breach of these Design Rights can result in pursual by the artists concerned.

I'm sure you'll agree that this week's array is a wonderful example of the talent that we have in the United Kingdom and I'll wait to hear from you as to what you think the theme for this week is!