Ok guys I have gotten my web site up with the web store open!!!

[Robyn66]

Its just started and there isnt much in there yet. (its going to take a while to get all the jewelry on the site but I would love to get some feed back on how it looks so far!!!

http://www.delightfully-different.com

[crunch60]

1. Ok, your presentation looks very professional.. a couple

of things I found distracting : the table that holds the black jewelry displays, not very attractive. Also would get rid of the blue wall. (a solid color background maybe)
Some of the jewelry lighting is kind of bright and has glare, want to be able to see the beautiful stones etc. Make sure the zoom feature allows close enough views to see the stones up close, and lighting is very important for color saturation of all the elements in your pieces.

Might be good to go on some jewelry sites and check out their jewelry backgrounds and lighting.
I love your 20,000 leagues and Mermaid ribbon. The lighting seems much better on these two pieces. When I zoomed in, the went very large, so zoom feature is not consistent with all the pieces.
These are all things I notices on your Web Store page. I think the most important thing is to be able to see good detail/color in the zoom/close up feature.

I especially like you steampunk necklace. fabulous! I used to make jewelry and now do mosaic art, so I notice these things when looking at jewelry.

You are doing great, much farther along than I am in creating a website.

[Robyn66]

4. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

The photography has been really hard. I am using my digital camera and the photos have been terrible and it has been miserable trying to get the light right. I think I will re-do the photos today. That was why I didn't want to put too much up yet because I wanted to know what other people saw! This has been extremely helpful!

[KurtNYC]

13. You might try poster board (or foam core). Just white foam core works well because

there is no texture or creases (like fabric would have). Also a lot of foam core is white on one side and a color on the other so you quickly have the option to put pieces on a color background if they have a lot of white or translucent in them.

Shoot outdoors on an overcast day. Shoot as close as you can get to the pieces. Use the macro setting.

Also I would make the option to buy stuff more visible on the site. People who shop online are in a hurry (in my experience). Also, if you haven't already done so, try Etsy and eBay. It is very hard to get traffic on individual sites so it can be worth all the miriad of fees that eBay charges to get the volume of traffic. And there are permissable ways to use eBay to get more traffic on your site (host the pictures on your site and link from eBay and you will get better Google position).

Consider making a brief YouTube video and embedding it. Google owns YouTube and you can get tons of traffic that way. Also YouTube is often easier to see on a smart phone than a website is. The video can be very brief and just show the jewelry and be sure to put a link to your website in the description on YouTube.

ETA: You might graphically highlight your spelling of "delightfuly" so that people remember it is without the double "L"

Conventional wisdom for online selling says you should show a physical address and list a phone number because there thing inspire confidence in shoppers. Also list a return policy or a guarantee to overcome hesitation on the buyer's part.

I love that you describe the different style you do. Eventually maybe each style could have it's own page within the site.

It is a great start! Good luck!

[HopeHoops]

2. The site looks great, but I have three comments...

1) The "Web Store" button appears twice in the menu bar (second in and last positions). I couldn't find difference between them.

2) There's no mention of payment methods or processing time for purchases that I could locate. If you take credit/PayPal transactions, it should say something like "orders are processed within X days of purchase" and if you only take cash, something like "orders are processed within X days of check clearing".

3) I also didn't see any shipping information. For example, if I purchase "Eye Was Framed", how much would the total be?

I'm glad you posted the link (bookmarked it). With Christmas coming up, I suspect I'll be spending a bit of time lurking there.

[Robyn66]

5. Thank you so much for the input!!!

This has been extremely helpful!!! I am so grateful to have people like you to help beta test this site!!!!!

[cyberswede]

3. Bookmarked!

Looks really interesting! (and beautiful)

[Robyn66]

6. Wait till I put the good stuff up!

Thank you so much!

[Robyn66]

7. AARRGGHHH!! Just accidently deleted the entire webstore!!!

Oh well probably best anyway!!!!! I have a teenager helping me with this I probably should have waited for him!!!!! LOL!

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Nice. I think you need more close-ups of the individual items.

[crunch60]

9. check out the lighting/ views/ close up details in this jewelry link from Etsy

Very beautiful presentation of gorgeous jewelry. Love the background and the slight reflection of the stones.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62054604/color-block-cuff-in-bronze-green-sharona?ref=v1_other_2

[RebelOne]

10. Looks great, but there are no prices. n/t

[Robyn66]

11. Yes I accidently deleted the store this morning when I tried to fix something

Plus I need to take the photos again because they didnt come out right and my camera was being wierd. So the store its self will be back up in a few days but thank you!

[bluesbassman]

12. Very nice Robyn!

I would echo the critique on the photos. Your pieces are really good and they need to pop more in the photos. Solid dark background will help. Good luck with the site, I'm sure it'll be a winner.

[corksean]

14. Looks very well Robyn.

I realise it's early days for you but as a web designer myself I have a few tips that might help.

1. The layout and navigation (menu) at the moment is quite simple and straightforward and you should aim to keep it like that even as you add more to the site. Keep your pages short so that you don't have a lot of scrolling to do.

2. Keep text to a minimum, a paragraph or two at most and spell check regularly. The web is mostly visual so keep the emphasis on the photos. As you mentioned it can be very difficult to photograph small items. The best tip I can give is to use a Light Tent which can be bought at any camera store (or you can make your own, see http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent . This makes a huge difference in the quality of the photos.

3. Having said that about the photo quality it is critical that the physical size of the photos is kept to an absolute minimum. Having to wait too long for a page to load is one of the main reasons people leave sites and not everyone has a fast internet connection.

4. Put a physical address in the Contact section, especially if you intend to sell online. I for one would never purchase from a site that didn't include one.

Enough of the technical stuff. The jewelry itself looks very interesting, I'll bookmark and check back when you have more product loaded. I've also learned that "jewelry" is another of those words that are spelt differently in the US and over here (Ireland) as I've always spelt it "jewellery".

Best of luck with your venture. If I can help any more let me know.