Endorsement is Important - Online Startups

To all start ups I would advise you to seek endorsement where ever you can. It will make your new business look more official and reliable to potential customers. This is especially true for a start up business based solely online.

By endorsement, I mean joining an organisation that promotes your business. As a jewellery maker, I am in the crafting industry. Recently, I have been accepted as an Associate Member of the Crafts Council of Ireland. Just to be clear, this is an organisation formed to promote skilled craftsmanship, it is not a gathering of witches (yes, I had to explain this to a friend!). 

Needless to say, I am delighted with my membership. I had to submit a detailed application which then had to be assessed by a panel that only meets a limited number of times a year. This endorsement is a big deal to me. On top of obtaining a greater sense of pride for my work due to official recognition, there are also many practical benefits.

Benefits of Endorsements

• Improved SEO - Membership/Endorsement may include a bio about your business and a link to your website. If the organisation has a good website then they may rate highly with Google and a link from them to your site should improve your page ranking.

• Trust - Even if your potential customer has not heard of the organisation that 'endorsed' your business, it can help develop trust and faith in your company.

• Increased Awareness - By featuring on another page or becoming a member of an organisation, more people will immediately know about your business (even if it is just a handful, depending on the organisation).

• Learn from others -  By joining a good and relevant organisation, you should gain access to information that will be beneficial to helping your business specifically. 

• Support - You will be connecting with like minded people in similar situations, you never know, you might meet someone who can help and support you.

I hope you found this post helpful. If you are in the crafting industry based in Ireland, I would highly recommend you join the Crafts Council of Ireland. You will receive much useful information. www.ccoi.ie/

Author: Shen Wong

Maker of Fun Loving Jewellery at www.ShenWong.com

14 Steps to setting up an online business - Priorities

When setting up an online jewellery business, or any business for that matter, there seems to be an an infinite number of things to do. Once you have set up your business plan, it can be overwhelming to know what to do and in what order.

Today I will be sharing my list of priorities, hopefully it will be useful to someone else setting up their business.

Please note, this post is not an 'How To' post, it is just a list of what I do.

1. Decide on business name (research online to find minimum competition for those key words).
2. Register business name with your local office to check availability.
3. Register your domain name, do at same time as Step 2 to check availability.
4. Choose the keywords to optimise for e.g. Organic - Fruit - Dublin
5. Write a paragraph about the business & post on webpage, incorporating keywords.
6. Register your website with Webmaster tools so it comes up on Google search results. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
7. Set up social media pages and link them to your website for SEO. Try to use the same name for them all, incorporating business name. Write a bio for each, incorporating keywords. I write off the top of my head rather than using same copy as Google does not to like block duplicate content. It may not matter for short Bio's, but I also prefer original content. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en
8. Manage expectations by posting a goal launch date on all the sites & pages.
9. Start working on your products. Steps 1-8 was to lay the foundation for search engines to find your site.
10. Develop your website with a basic homepage and about us.
11. List your products. Make sure to use your keywords throughout product descriptions. Basically your keywords should be naturally placed on every page related to you.
12. Register your page with SEO optimising site such as https://www.attracta.com/. Do this after listing products as you will understand better what to say about them. Once registered, I don't think you can change the information submitted.
13. Make sure to update your social media pages minimum twice a week throughout the whole process.
14. Once you are happy for your site to get some traffic, announce on your launch on social media pages.

My list is not perfect, but it's what I do on a generic level. I am selling my products through Etsy at the moment, but still working on my own site, so not ready to go fully live yet. 

Leave a comment if you have any suggestions. I am always keen to learn.

by Shen Wong