Thursday 11 August 2011

Zambia citrine

August 2011
We returned from France with an order for citrine and dioptase. The dioptase mine belongs to us. We have marked the coordinates in the Zambian mining authority and have permission from the local chief to mine in the area. This process takes a couple of months. So the mine belongs to us. You will only be able to get these exotic stones through Silver Hills Gems

We decided to go by truck and trailer because we were in a hurry to get our goods. Early Tuesday morning we set off for Zambia. It is actually only as far as Cape Town but you have to pass through two borders on the way up and drive through Zimbabwe.

We got to Beitbridge border post by midday and it took only minutes to pass through the borderpost on the South African side. On the Zimbabwean side we got our first hick-up. The line was about 3 hours long and we decided to use 'agents' to help us speed up the process. This is a mistake, listen to me, never use these touts. They will cheat and rob you. We quickly found this out. Fall in the back of the line and wait your turn and smile at everybody and say yes sir, thank you sir.

Buying banannas
We only took one and half to pass through but we were minus R1700. They robbed us blind. We quickly found out that the promised insurance document was also missing in the papers. So we set off for Zambia with no vehicle insurance. We just prayed that we will not be stopped and asked for it. We decided to sleep in Masvingo. Once we reached Masvingo we pushed on to Harare. We reached Harare around 11 o'clock at night and started looking for fuel, food and bed. $300 US later we had all 3. The hotel belongs to a well known chain and was fine but a bit jaded around the edges. It is a fact that everybody is still waiting to see what happens in Zimbabwe before investing more money there. They are exchanging the Rand at 1 to 10 to the US dollar there. It is better to have a stash of small denominations of US$ in your pocket when travelling there.

The next morning we set of early for Zambia and stopped on the way to have a look at the Chinhoyi caves. The Chinhoyi Caves are a group of caves near the town of Chinhoyi in Zimbabwe. They are situated about 8 km north of Chinhoyi itself, and 128 km north-west of the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. The caves are named after a local chief who used them as a refuge from Ndebele raiders.
The cave system is composed of limestone and dolomite, and the descent to the main cave with its pool of cobalt blue water is very impressive. This pool is popularly called Sleeping Pool or Chirorodzira (Pool of the Fallen).
Divers have discovered a submarine passage leading from the Bat Cave, a subchamber of the Dark Cave to another room known as the Blind Cave. Diving is fantastic in the Caves all year round, with temperatures never below or above the 22 - 24 Degrees Celsius marks with zero thermocline. Visibility is fantastic too, 50 metres and above is not unusual.
These caves are the most extensive cave system in Zimbabwe that the public can access. The caves were designated a National Park in 1955 and as such are managed by the Department of National Parks. There is a campsite run by the National Parks and a quiet hotel located there.
 The caves are 345 meters deep and extemely blue. Yes it is the correct colour on the photo. Our legs were very sore for 2 days afterwards due to the steps down and up to the waterhole.

Sitting at the border post taking random photos
At the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia we discovered that we lacked the neccesary paper work to enter Zambia. We have now travelled 1300 km and  we needed a police clearance paper for the vehicle and a letter from the trust saying that we are allowed to use the bakkie. The letter was faxed to me by my office but we had to bribe the corrupt officials to allow us entry into Zambia. We came so far and decided that it is worth the bribe just to be able to buy our stones.

In Zambia we encountered the worst potholes. If you think that the South African potholes are bad you should see the Zambian ones. A vehicle can loose itself in one of these holes. We made it to Lusaka by nightfall. Lusaka was designed with 200 000 cars in mind and now there is 800 000. It is one of the most congested cities in Africa. The infrastructure is not designed for the amount of cars and taxis.

At the Ministry of Mines
It took us a full day to get export papers for the stone. This was done in record time. It can take up to two weeks to get your papers. The person doing your papers must have all their money paid up and taxes up to date otherwise you will not get your papers. My Zambian partner was up to date. This is one of the things that makes it difficult to do business in Zambia. It is just getting the stuff out of the country. It is easy to buy material but very difficult to get it out of the country. It will cost you. In the end our cost were R25 000 to Zambia and back. This has to be added to your goods before you calculate your prices. In many ways it is easier to go to a trade show and buy your goods. You never know if there is stock available in Africa. It is like a huge gamble. You just go and hope for the best.

We were shocked to find out that the diopside mine had a fire and almost 2 tons of specimens were destroyed by fire. This placed great stress on us and we had to mine new stock in a hurry.

The last day we went to town to buy drums. In the centre of town we picked up someone to show us the way to where we can buy drums. We then went back to town to drop the guy and that is when it all happened. Someone opened the drivers door and slammed it shut a couple of times. At the same time they opened the back door and stole our rucksack. Luckily Geran saw it from the corner of his eye and jumped out after the thief. They set off down the street and half a block further the thief saw that he was going to be caught. He dropped the bag and we were fortunate to get our bag back. Our export papers and original vehicle papers were in the bag. This was very stressful.

We bought 960 kg of citrine and stored this at a house in the suburbs of Lusaka. When we weighed the citrine at home we discovered there was only 800 kg. That is Africa. They stole 160 kg at the place where we stored the material.

The citrine will be a new line for wholesale from Silver Hills Gems. We negotiated with the mine owner to buy all his production every month. The next consignment of crystals and citrine will be here at the end of September.

Serious conversation with a miner. Gerdus himself
Going back was uneventful. But I must tell you it is a long and arduous trip to Zambia and back. At every border they will test you to the limits. In Zambia itself you have to know your prices. They will take your money and laugh at your stupidity if you do not know your prices.

We have already sold all 800 kg of the citrine and the diopside we brought along. Thank you for all of you that bought from us wholesale. Please enquire in time and place your order for the new stock before they come. We have been doing some marketing to customers overseas and I can tell you that many of them have placed orders already.

Blessings
Gerdus

Friday 1 July 2011

June 2011 visit to the Gemshow at Sainte Marie Aux Mines

We had the privilege to take part in the Sainte Marie Aux Mines mineral show in France. It was a last minute decision to go. And boy are we glad that we went. I was washing our new diopside from Zambia when I came accross a stunning specimen. I walked through our office and made a declaration. I am going to take these specimens to Sainte MArie Aux Mines. It was an inpromptu decision. I went down to town and bought two tickets for me and Geran my son. We then went in to Johannesburg and applied for the Visums for Europe. The Visums were issued on the last day before we were suppose to leave for Europe. This was rather scary.

We landed in Amsterdam and spend the day there.



We took along 30 kg of specimens and had to pay R700 at the airport for excess babage. This I did not like.
In France we had no problem at the airport and breezed through customs.

I hired a small Renault Twingo. Driving on the 'wrong side' of the road at night with scanty map details is scary. We lost about 1 hour of aimless driving through the backstreets of Strasbourg.



The next day we reached Sainte Marie Aux Mines after visiting the postcard towns of Riquewihr and Ribeauville. Visiting these places is like food for the soul. It is sooo pretty.

At the show we set up our banner and packed out our 'new find' stones.
It was great watching the buyers and their reaction to the stones. Competition at this shos is fierce. There are 1100 exhibitors. It is the 3rd largest mineral show of it's kind. Literally everybody with something to show is at this market. It is a feast for the eyes. You can see the type of specimens I brought back on our website. http://www.bronnrocks.com/


We picked up a few substantial orders but realised that the material is more commercial in nature. We are now selling the diopside in lots of 100 kg at $1000 per lot. You will get a mixed parcel for this price. This is dirt cheap. I have stacks of enquiries that I need to follow up. This translates to around $2 to $3 per specimen. You can make a huge profit on this. Please write to us as soon as you read this to place an order. Stocks are limited.





We will be marketing this worldwide and will have no problem to sell such a well crystalized mineral at such a good wholesale price.

The secret to making a success selling wholesale is to give your customers such a good deal that they keep on coming back for more.

We are very excited about our prospects. A friend of mine in Zambia said that when you go and hunt the Impala and encounter the Kudu you are welcome to divert your attention to the Kudu. We are going to Zambia this week and hope to get a few more exciting things to add to our arsenal.

Monday 23 May 2011

Improve customer satisfaction

We all want to increase our turnover. This article will give you some tips on how to do ten simple things that will help you to increase your turnover.

1. Make your customers feel welcome right away. If possible greet them by hand. Learn their names and greet them by name. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Greet everybody even if they do not greet back. My local Woolworths has a doorman that greets people as they enter. I am sure this does not go unnoticed.

2. Conduct customer surveys. Ask the customers what they want, this shows customers that you care about what they think. If you pick up problems you must address them immediately. You may even get back lost customers by fixing the issues.

3, Follow up to inquire about satisfaction. When was the last time you just called a customer to follow up on his or her experience? This is not a sales call. Just call and ask them if they are happy with your service. If they bought an expensive item you might ask them if they are still happy with their purchase.

4. Learn to listen. It must be the most difficult thing in life. Listening. To truly listen is an art. You must listen to what they say because by connecting with you emotionally they become loyal. If you do not listen there will be no emotional connection and thus no loyalty.

5. Build on online presence. Open a Facebook page for your shop or start a blog. Many customers might hear about you and want to visit your store and will Google your name. If they fail to get a web presence you might miss out on their business. Also do not forget to be in online directories.

6. Keep in touch with E-Newsletters. Create a newsletter and send out a monthly newsletter. Do not bug the people too much or they will unsubscribe. If you keep in their thoughts they will come back to you again and again. You add value to their lives and this is important. Always ask yourself what you can do for your customers.

7. Make the purchasing process an experience. If you can you may give beading classes in store. Show people how to use your products. Give advice. Become an expert, read up as much as you can but remember not to crowd your customers give them advice if they need it.  The truth is that you must earn those customers by giving them an extraordinary experience every time. Just last week I went to Vodacom to sort out a new contract. They gave me a coffee voucher and a disc that flashes when it is your turn to see the customer representative. This was a good customer/client experience for me.

8. Offer Birthday specials. We give off R100 to every person that has a birthday. I am now going to extend this to be used any time in that year. What do you do for your customers on their birthday? Do you send them a card or do you phone them? My birthday wishes are send out with a cron job. Please ask me and I will show you how to do it.

9. Hold special events. Have a special exhibition and invite your customers with finger food and wine. Have a special sales night. Make a calendar of special events and tell your customers about it so that they can bookmark that day. Arrange a flea market and give out balloons with prizes.

10. Volunteer for a good cause. Do something in the community. Go to the old age home and give a free beading class. You'd be surprised by how many new customers you can gain by reaching out.

Good luck with your business and please use the comments section to give more tips on building customer satisfaction.

Gerdus

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Some ideas on buying

This article I will share some ideas on how to buy and what kind of markup will work for you.

I started off in manufacturing and ran my own pottery factory for 15 years. I was the designer, maker and marketer of the pottery. This taught me many skills of which I am grateful today. The limitations as manufacturer were many. Time was the biggest limitation. I only had 24 hours a day and I can only make so many pots a day. My kiln also limited the amount of items I could fire.

When I started a buying and selling business I was liberated from these limitations.

I realized that the the only limitations are the ones I set myself. It is like a farmer who goes out to sow a field. If the farmer sows a field of 1 hectare he will reap a harvest of 1 hectare. He can fertilize aggressively and get a slightly larger crop. On the other hand we get a farmer who plants 100 hectares. His returns can be 100 times bigger.

So the bottom line is in the size of your thinking. If you limit yourself by planting just a hectare you will reap what you have sown. We have a limit of R300 to avoid the low order fee of R150. Some customers complain about this and say that R300 is too much for them to spend. I have often wondered about this statement. If you use a markup of 100% you will sell this stock for R600. If you use a 200% mark-up you will sell the items for R900. I do not recommend such a high mark-up. It will be detrimental for future business. Customers are clever and they know how to look up information. If they buy something for a high price and later discover they could buy it for much cheaper elsewhere they will feel cheated and avoid your store in the future.

I recently shopped around for a remote control. I found one priced at R150. I decided to look further and found the same remote control for R59.00 at the steel merchant. I needed 4 remotes. This is a savings of R396.00. I have very negative feelings about the store where I saw the more expensive remote. I have told about 4 people of my findings and they are also negative about this store.

So how do I avoid this negativity. Use a standard mark-up. If you buy an item cheaply you must mark it up cheaply. We often make the mistake to think that an item has an unlimited price. To give you an example. We sell a single pearl bracelet for around R10 plus VAT. The same item was seen at a market for R120.00. Imagine where the people will buy next time. You have to keep close records on your best sellers and buy these all the time. Many of us get caught up in buying from reps that pressurize us into buying. And so our cash flow goes out into dead stock that sits on our shelves. I keep very precise reports on sales and know at any given time how many of each items sells per month. If it sells well I make sure that I stock it again. Money is made between supply and demand. If an item is in demand you will make money when you can get supply. We just struggle because our supply period might sometimes be too long apart. I stock up every 3 months. We try and buy only items that we know moves fast.

So let us get back to some predictions. If I need an income of R30 000 per month I need to buy R60 000 worth of goods if I have a mark-up of 100%. This means I will get in R60 000 and I will make a profit of R30 000 and still have R30 000 to buy more items. If I only bought items worth R10 000 and have a mark up of 100% I will only make R10 000 and be short R20000 to pay all my bills and have quality of life. You must spend money to make money. Set a larger target and get enough funds to make your business healthy.

So let us summarize.
  • Buy enough quick sellers
  • Use a low mark-up
  • Set yourself targets on how much to buy
  • Force yourself to buy enough to make the business viable
  • Say no to the wrong products
  • Source your own products from suppliers with a good track record
  • Work on turnover rather than profit to avoid long term harm

Good luck.
Gerdus

PS: Avoid buying one of a sort. Buyers do not take you serious when you only have one of an item on the shelve. Discount all items that gets to ones and twos. Rather stock less but stock deeper. (buy more of each item)

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Zambia: buying tourmaline

I decide to renew my contacts in Zambia and invest in our own rough there. Zambia is mineral rich and setting up a mining concern in Zambia is pretty straightforward.

I decided to go and see a closed tourmaline mine to look at possibilities to open the mine myself. This meant a quick trip to an area that I have not visited before.

We decided to buy some tourmaline that we could lay our hands on to test the market before we open our own mine. There are 3 areas that are well known for tourmaline. We decided to go to the Eastern Province in Zambia.

We started off in Lusaka and visited some crowded markets and landed up on the third story of a ramshackled building. This office was manned by Senegalese. The prices started at $2 per gram and after heavy negotiations we manged to get a better price. The parcel contained stones in many colours. See the photo below

This parcel is going to make stunning colourful beads. We then set off to Nyimba in the east of Zambia. The rental car was only good for the tar roads and not for offroad driving to the mine. Our Zambian partner told us it is only 200 km that turned into 320 km. We stopped on the way to look at the fish stands at the Luangwa river. 
This was real Africa.

One of the roads we travelled
The juke boxes were at full blast and the happy half drunken souls were dancing in the tar road. The basket sellers were ever hopeful that they were going to make a sale. We bought a few bags of dried smelly fish for the miners. The smell was something.

About 10 km further we hit a large pothole but survived. This was the beginning of 50 km's of potholes. Some fairly large. Ouch! We stopped on the way to look at an abondoned mine that has produced gem quality tourmaline before. We want to open up the mine again. Aparently the bulk of the material from here was all gem quality. Even some Paribas blues. Wow! We will keep you updated when we open the mine. Maybe we can get a contact for a National Geographic video when we start opening up the mine. It sure is pretty in that area. The only hassle are Elephants, lions and Hyena. And Malaria.



We stopped to look at another deposit of tourmalated quartz. These are also worth mining. Our final destination was Nyimba. Let me warn you about potential scams. We connected with some locals and asked them to arrange some showings the next morning. We parted with around R360 for travelling expenses etc.
Breakfast was a typical Zambian meal. The fish was Tilapia. Delicious!

The next morning our new 'friends' told us that there were some Senegalese buyers the day before and that he failed to get any material for us to buy because of these buyers. Imagine the disapointment after having traveled so far. We just had one mediocre parcel to look at that turned out to be almost just black tourmaline.

We turned our vehicle and started heading back to Lusaka in the late afternoon. Enroute we decided to confirm the 'friends' story at a roadside stand. It turned out to be all lies. The miners were eagerly awaiting us. We ended up buying 31 kg of gem quality tourmaline. It was hectic. Negotiating and pleading*&^%$# At one stage we came to a deadlock and after climbing in the car and turning our vehicle towards Lusaka we broke the deadlock when they saw that the money is leaving. It was such fun.


The goods are on the way to China now and will be made into beads soon. It was quite a capital outlay with some material costing almost $1 per gram.

It was dark when we left. This turned out to be a mistake. The potholes were waiting for us. I forgot about the monster pothole and when I hit it I knew we were in trouble. We have just spend all our Zambian money and here we were with 2 flat tyres on the side of a malaria infested road. Well we limped into Lusaka the next morning totally beat but satisfied. I had some tyres to fix. A visit to the Ministry of Mines was neccesary to clear the gems. The process is not easy but I know my way around the place and we managed just in time to get the plane back to South Africa.

Future plans is to open our own Rose quartz, Sodalite and amazonite mines.

Have fun and leave us a note when you have read this.

Gerdus





Tuesday 5 April 2011

Nickel or nickel free findings

Silver Hills Gems will be changing to nickel free and lead free findings during 2011.

What does this process involve? All findings are made from either copper or zink alloys. We need to change the way that the findings are plated. Most metal articles are plated after manufacturing. Zinc plating is both durable and easy. You just pop the article in the plating solution and before your eyes the item turn to a bright silver colour. It is like magic.

Plating with zinc free solutions is a bit more complicated. Zinc will plate any metal but not all metals can be plated by the same zinc free plating. The process demand more time and is more expensive. Some plating needs 3-4 different coatings to get the same shiny result.

The discomfort is that nothing can be bought off the shelve. All the findings have to be ordered and I will have to buy larger minimum quantities to get them to make and plate them in nickel free. I now need you to write to me on the basic items you need that we will need to stock.

I plan to start off with headpins, jumprings, clasps, chain, earhooks, wire guardians and such items.

We can't change an item that is already plated by nickel to a nickel free item. So we have to sell out our current range.

Why would we like to change to nickel free? It is already a requirement in all of Europe and the UK. If they require it we want to find out why and follow suite.

Is nickel dangerous? Not really. It gives an alergic reaction to some people. Small amounts of metal can build up in your body over time but studies are not conclusive enough to give a total ban on nickel. Remember that we are behind on some things and it usually takes around 3 years and then our goverment follow suite.

See what one of my customers wrote this week.

Wow, Nickel free findings would be GREAT?!!! I have been making beaded jewellery for 7 years, I only use nickel findings as I have searced high and low for Nickel Free findings and so far havent been able to find a supplier locally. I would definately buy all my nickel free from you.  I have had offers to sell my jewellery abroad but due to my findings not being nickel free I  was turned down.  Nickel free is much better quality too (found some clasps only from a supplier) and looks much better too.  I commonly use toggle clasps, split rings, wire guardians, eye pins, head pins etc.

Let me add some links here to usefull articles to read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroless_nickel_plating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0xFlIQ9MhQ Nickel plating video

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plating A general article on plating.

Hear what Ted Mooney had to say on this subject.
I have seen in print that 40 percent of adult women under 30 are sensitive to nickel, and that 30 percent of women 30 to 40 years old are sensitive, etc.
Once you have the allergy you have it for life, so it is imperative that this not be read as an indication that sensitivity goes down with age, but rather that exposure has gone up among younger women (probably primarily due to piercings).
Whether the survey numbers are exactly accurate, though, isn't the salient point. The point is that the numbers are skyrocketing, the allergy is acquired, and is strongly proportional to exposure. It is not impossible that virtually all of us would acquire the allergy if we wore nickel plated piercings for years. It is urgent that we do everything we reasonably can to get nickel out of jewelry as rapidly as possible.

http://www.tanury.com/tech5.htm Another interesting article on the challenges facing anyone going nickel free.

What materials can be used to plate nickel free jewwellery. Copper, tin alloy or rhodium or 925 silver. Each plating method has it's own challenges.

It is also important to buy from a reputable source because some people might say that their items are nickel free just to corner the market. We use a nickel testing kit to make sure that all the items are truly nickel free. Also make sure that the coatings are plated to the right thickness. You do not want the plating to come off after cleaning it the just a few times. We use a plating company that has years of experience when it comes to plating in nickel free plating.

Buy from Silver Hills Gems with confidence.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Buying beads close to the source

Buying beads close to the source

At Silver Hills Gems we are continiously looking at ways to be unique. Gerdus went on a fact finding trip to establish his own small gemstone factory in Ketang, China.

I traveled to Guangzhou and took a taxi from the train station to the Eastbound bus to Ketang. This was quite a tricky business. I phoned my friend in Ketang who told me to give the phone to a Chinese national. This person wrote down the name of the town after some deliberation over the phone. I went to a second person and phoned my friend again. The second person told me that the address was incorrect. Imagine the doubts in my mind when it took over 30 minutes by taxi to reach the bus station.

At the bus station I was just in time to catch the 14h00 bus. They pulled out of the station immediately after I boarded the bus. All the Chinese sat close to the bus TV in front of the bus. I had the whole backside for myself. Halfway to Ketang we had a quick stop for refreshments. None of the goods in the freezers looked familiar. I ended buying a tub of strawberries and a chickenwing heated over a charcoal stove.

Just before we reached Haifeng my blackberry's battery died on me. Does this sound familiar? I reached the final stop and found nobody to welcome me. This caused me 5 minutes of stress until I noticed a red telephone in the convenience kiosk. I indicated with sign langauge that I need to use the phone. I gave the shopkeeper the number who dialed it for me. My friend was frantic with worry. He has been trying to reach me for the last 20 minutes and he was waiting at the wrong station. After around 10 minutes he arrived and we set of for Ketang.

Ketang and surrounding area has the largest concentration of gemstone bead factories in China. It is the heartland where most of the manufacturing in gemstones takes place. I slept in the only Hotel in the town. The cost was only about R125 per night for a bed. The bed was rock hard. All Chinese sleep on hard matresses and they expect us to do the same. The cushions are also very hard and round. The toilet is a hole in the ground and it shares the same space as the shower.

The lift had a spelling mistake.

I walked to my friends house after we booked in the suitcases and this was most interesting. There are no zoning and you can sleep in your own factory. So here is the typical scene. You pay around R500 for the streetfront space which measures 10x5 meters. You sleep in the back and manufacture your beads in the same space and you set aside the very front of this space as a small shop. Internet is aquired at R15 per month. Meals cost around R5 per meal. They work until 9 o'clock at night. Now you can work out why we will never be able to be price competitive when it comes to making the same things here in South Africa.



Every where we walked there were glass or stone on the pavement waiting to be made into beads. It amazes me that there is so much money just lying on the pavement. Theft does not exist here. You can just leave your goods outside and still find it there the next day.



There are small factories everywhere



I climbed on the back of my friends 125cc motorbike and we went down to the fresh produce market. Here they were selling fresh fish and vegetables. A large onion cost R1 and a bag of greens about R2. The calamari cost R8 and we had enough for a meal for 3 people. I made the calamari with the onions and some soyasauce and garlic. It turned out to be pretty good. This we consumed with rice. My friend had a rice cooker and a oneplate stove.

Here is the difference between us and them. Their little was a lot to them. My friend is such a happy person. In fact all the Chinese I met were contented. There is a lot to be learned from them. They are happy to be on the yourney to their dreams. Many of us think we will be happy when we have reached our goals. The yourney is usually an unhappy event. We never seem to arrive.

What struck me was how many people were involved in making beads. I was taken to small factories with 2 to 3 workers and larger ones with hundreds of workers. They become speciallist in one field and they can do this the rest of their lives. I visited a factory that works in rhodochrosite exclusively and another that only works in tourmaline and another that does schorl beads. Then we visited a small factory that only does lapis lazuli. I drank liters of bitter Chinese tea while doing deals. Here is how it works. The 'big boss' of the factory will take you through a quick tour through his factory and then whisk you to a meeting room that is usually overdone to impress you. They will then prepare tea. The status of the visitor determines the quality of the tea. The more expensive tea can be around R1000 per kg. All the teacups and containers are washed with the first batch of tea. You are then given a small cup of green tea without sugar or milk. You can down this in one go or sip it. The tea contains antioxidants and is rather refreshing when you get use to it. It is also very healthy and help with weight loss. Every factory will offer you tea.

See the garnets in the street. I bought us some.

I visted around 40 factories and had to drink tea at every one of them.

I learned that they are able to polish any stone. A stone that is too soft to take a polish is first stabilized. They stabilize the stone by boiling it in a plastic solution and then baking it in an oven. This is costly but any type of stone can thus be polished. The proces might be repeated 3 times. All stones with cracks are given this treatment.

I will look after your hemimorphite at night. Woof Woof!

Every factory has some dogs who guards the more expensive stone. This chap was still a puppy.

I also learned that there is a lot of outsourcing. I visisted a small second story factory with 10 machines that only make holes in beads. I noticed that there were few workers and was told that the economic crunch has caused a lot of problems with a lower demand.



These machines drill holes in the beads. They do not have work at the moment.

I was also told that workers are demanding salaries in excess of R2000 now. The margins are getting smaller and many factories refuse to work cheap stones because there is no profit in the stone. Stones like black lava are not being worked at the moment because the prices have dropped and profit margins dissapeared.

The more expensive stones are in high demand. It is a question of supply and demand. If any one of you have access to good tourmaline and kyanite and rose garnets. I am in the market to buy such rough

Families are still small. They usually only have one child per family. Children are raised in the small stone factory and play with the stones. They get used to gemstones and will also work with stone one day

After 3 days the little one accepted me.

There are so many small factories that needs stone and that needs a market. The feeling I got was that rumours will spread about the popularity of one or another stone and that everybody will start to chase that stone. This causes an oversupply and it will keep prices in tow.

I loved their transport vehicles

More stone in the background.

We plan to set up a small factory with less than 10 workers. I am now looking for high end rough that can be turned into beads.

So what are my final thoughts. Anybody can do this if you are willing to pay the school fees. It is not easy to get someone that will help you. Getting someone who can speak English is very difficult. In Ketang there are very few individuals who speaks English. Everybody wants to make money from you. Minimum order quantities can sometimes be high to get good prices. I had to buy 234 strings of one kind of garnet to get the best price. You need a big wallet. It is also difficult to ship goods from Ketang because you have to get the goods to a bigger centre to ship. The logistics can be a nightmare. The first two or three trips might be a total loss until you learn the ropes.

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Google is the biggest search engine in the world. More people use Google than any other search engine. They have developed many new tools to make your life easier.

I use two of these tools all the time. The one is Addwords and the other is Google Analytics.

When you do a search at Google.com you will notice some adds that are situated on the right hand side of the page and some on the top of the page. These are all paid adds. Anybody with a valid website can advertise on Addwords.

You have to to register yourself as a Google client first. Then you can create your first add. There are basic plans and more complicated plans. I suggest starting with a basic plan. There are lots of articles to read and videos to watch on YouTube about Addwords. It is best to take a couple of hours to learn as much as you can about making yourself as visible as possible.

Many people think that they can just create a website and everybody will see their website. There are millions of websites out there. Google rate your website on many criteria. Things that Google and other search engines look at is. How many people link to your website? Is the content valid? What are the ratio of pictures to text? What are your metatags? When did you last work on the page? How many people visit your site? If you score high on these points you might find yourself on the first page of the search. If you do not score high, you might find yourself on page ten or twenty. And we all know that people do not go past page two when they do a search.

If you use Google addwords they will make sure that you get on page one. How does this work. It all depends on the budget that you set. The higher the budget the bigger will be your visibility. See it as shop rent that you pay. Shop rent should not be more than 5% of turnover. So work on 5% of your turnover. Or projected turnover. You can tell Google what you are willing to spend on advertising. If you budget a small amount Google will limit the amount of adds that shows per day. Let us say you want to spend R30 per day on Addwords, Google will then calculate the cost of every click through. A click through occurs when someone clicks on your add. If the click through cost R1, you will have 30 chances that day for people to click on your add. After the 30 clicks your add will disappear from the Google search page until the next day.

Once your add is up and running you can get info on the appearance of the add by going to Google Analytics. Here you will see where your customers come from. You will also see what they have searched, eg what keywords were accessed most.

Now you can tweak your add. It is best to use specific words rather than general words. General words are words like property. Specific words are townhouse in Centurion. It will avoid someone clicking on your add and just exiting again. Remember you pay for every click through.

Does it pay to advertise on Addwords. For us it does. We may get one extra customer every two days but this is enough for us to justify the cost.

Please feel free to write to us if you have any questions on this.

gerdus@bronnrocks.com

I copied the following article from Wikipedia below.

AdWords is Google's main advertising product and main source of revenue. Google's total advertising revenues were USD$28 billion in 2010.[2] AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, cost-per-thousand (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution. Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of one headline and two additional text lines. Image ads can be one of several different Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard sizes.



Sales and Support for Google's AdWords division is based in Mountain View, California, with major secondary offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan,[3] the company's third-largest US facility behind its Mountain View, California, headquarters and New York City office.[4] Engineering for AdWords is based in Mountain View, California.



Contents [hide]

1 Pay-Per-Click advertisements (PPC)

2 AdWords Features

3 Placement targeted advertisements (formerly Site-Targeted Advertisements)

4 AdWords distribution

5 AdWords account management

6 Click-to-Call

7 History

8 Legal context

9 Technology

10 Ad Content Restrictions

10.1 Allowed keywords

11 See also

12 References

13 External links



[edit] Pay-Per-Click advertisements (PPC)Advertisers select the words that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they will pay per click. When a user searches on Google, ads (also known as creatives by Google) for relevant words are shown as "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results. Clickthrough rates (CTR) for the ads are about 8% for the first ad, 5% for the second one, and 2.5% for the third one. Search results can return from 0 to 12 ads.[5]



The ordering of the paid-for listings depends on other advertisers' bids (PPC) and the "quality score" of all ads shown for a given search. The quality score is calculated by historical click-through rates, relevance of an advertiser's ad text and keywords, an advertiser's account history, and other relevance factors as determined by Google. The quality score is also used by Google to set the minimum bids for an advertiser's keywords.[6] The minimum bid takes into consideration the quality of the landing page as well, which includes the relevancy and originality of content, navigability, and transparency into the nature of the business.[7] Though Google has released a list of full guidelines for sites,[8] the precise formula and meaning of relevance and its definition is in part secret to Google and the parameters used can change dynamically.



The auction mechanism that determines the order of the ads is a generalized second-price auction.[9][10] This is claimed to have the property that the participants do not necessarily fare best when they truthfully reveal any private information asked for by the auction mechanism (in this case, the value of the keyword to them, in the form of a "truthful" bid).



[edit] AdWords FeaturesIP Address Exclusion

In addition to controlling ad placements through methods such as location and language targeting, ad targeting can be refined with Internet Protocol (IP) address exclusion. This feature enables advertisers to specify IP address ranges where they don't want their ads to appear.

Up to 20 IP addresses, or ranges of addresses, can be excluded per campaign. All ads in the campaign are prevented from showing for users with the IP addresses specified.

Location-based exclusion is also offered as a method of narrowing targeted users.[11]

Frequency Capping

Frequency capping limits the number of times ads appear to the same unique user on the Google Content Network. It doesn't apply to the Search Network. If frequency capping is enabled for a campaign, a limit must be specified as to the number of impressions allowed per day, week, or month for an individual user. The cap can be configured to apply to each ad, ad group, or campaign.[12]

[edit] Placement targeted advertisements (formerly Site-Targeted Advertisements)In 2003 Google introduced site-targeted advertising. Using the AdWords control panel, advertisers can enter keywords, domain names, topics, and demographic targeting preferences, and Google places the ads on what they see as relevant sites within their content network. If domain names are targeted, Google also provides a list of related sites for placement. Advertisers may bid on a cost per impression (CPM) or cost per click (CPC) basis for site targeting.[13]



With placement targeting, it is possible for an ad to take up the entire ad block rather than have the ad block split into 2 to 4 ads, resulting in higher visibility for the advertiser.



The minimum cost-per-thousand impressions bid for placement targeted campaigns is 25 cents. There is no minimum CPC bid, however.



[edit] AdWords distributionAll AdWords ads are eligible to be shown on www.google.com. Advertisers also have the option of enabling their ads to show on Google's partner networks. The "search network" includes AOL search, Ask.com, and Netscape. Like www.google.com, these search engines show AdWords ads in response to user searches, but do not affect quality score.



The "Google Display Network" (formerly referred to as the "content network") shows AdWords ads on sites that are not search engines. These content network sites are those that use AdSense and DoubleClick, the other side of the Google advertising model. AdSense is used by website owners who wish to make money by displaying ads on their websites. Click through rates on the display network are typically much lower than those on the search network and are therefore ignored when calculating an advertiser's quality score.



Google automatically determines the subject of pages and displays relevant ads based on the advertisers' keyword lists. AdSense publishers may select channels to help direct Google's ad placements on their pages, to increase performance of their ad units. There are many different types of ads that can run across Google's network, including text ads, image ads (banner ads), mobile text ads, and in-page video ads.



Google AdWords' main competitors are Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.



[edit] AdWords account managementTo help clients with the complexity of building and managing AdWords accounts search engine marketing agencies and consultants offer account management as a business service. This has allowed organizations without advertising expertise to reach a global, online audience. Google has started the Google Advertising Professionals program to certify agencies and consultants who have met specific qualifications and passed an exam.[14] Google also provides account management software, called AdWords Editor.



Another useful feature is the My Client Center available to Google Professionals (even if not yet passed the exam or budget parameters) whereby a Google professional has access and a dashboard summary of several accounts and can move between those accounts without logging in to each account.



The Google Adwords Keyword Tool provides a list of related keywords for a specific website or keyword.[15]



[edit] Click-to-CallGoogle Click-to-Call was a service provided by Google which allows users to call advertisers from Google search results pages. Users enter their phone number, Google calls them back and connects to the advertiser. Calling charges are paid by Google. It was discontinued in 2007.[16] For some time similar click-to-call functionality was available for results in Google Maps. In the Froyo release of Google's Android operating system, in certain advertisements, there is a very similar functionality, where a user can easily call an advertiser.



[edit] History This section needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)



The original idea was invented by Bill Gross from Idealab who, in turn borrowed the idea from Yellow Pages. Google wanted to buy the idea but a deal could not be reached.[citation needed] Not wanting to give up on this form of advertisement, the company launched its own solution, AdWords in 2000.[17] AdWords followed a model that was significantly similar to Bill Gross' creation which led to legal action between the two parties. Eventually the dispute was settled out of court.[citation needed]



At first AdWords advertisers would pay a monthly amount, and Google would then set up and manage their campaign. To accommodate small businesses and those who wanted to manage their own campaigns, Google soon introduced the AdWords self-service portal. Starting in 2005 Google provided a campaign management service called Jumpstart[18] to assist advertisers in setting up their campaigns. However, this service is no longer available, so companies needing assistance must hire a third-party service provider.



In 2005, Google launched the Google Advertising Professional (GAP) Program to certify individuals and companies who completed AdWords training and passed an exam. Due to the complexity of AdWords and the amount of money at stake, some advertisers hire a consultant to manage their campaigns.



In 2008, Google launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge (http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/), an in-class academic exercise for tertiary students. Over 8,000 students from 47 countries participated in the 2008 Challenge and over 10,000 students from 58 countries took part in 2009. The Challenge runs annually, roughly from January to June. Registration is at the instructor rather than student level.



In 2009, Google revised the AdWords interface, introduced Local Business Ads for Google Maps and Video Ads.



[edit] Legal contextAdWords has generated lawsuits in the area of trademark law (see Google, Inc. v. Am. Blind & Wallpaper Factory and Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc.), fraud (see Goddard v. Google, Inc.), and click fraud. In 2006, Google settled a click fraud lawsuit for US$90 million.[19]



Overture Services, Inc. sued Google for patent infringement in April 2002 in relation to the AdWords service. Following Yahoo!'s acquisition of Overture, the suit was settled in 2004 with Google agreeing to issue 2.7 million shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license under the patent.[20]



[edit] TechnologyThe AdWords system was initially implemented on top of the MySQL database engine. After the system had been launched, management decided to use Oracle instead. The system became much slower, so eventually it was returned to MySQL [3]. The interface has also been revamped to offer better work flow with additional new features, such as Spreadsheet Editing, Search Query Reports, and better conversion metrics.



[edit] Ad Content RestrictionsAs of April 2008 Google AdWords no longer allows for the display URL to deviate from that of the destination URL. Prior to its introduction, Google paid advertisements could feature different landing page URLs to that of what was being displayed on the search network. Google expounds that the policy change stems from both user and advertiser feedback. The concern prompting the restriction change is believed to be the premise on which users clicked advertisements. Users were in some cases, being misled and further targeted by AdWords advertisers.[21]



As of December 2010 Google AdWords has decreased its restrictions over sales of Hard Alcohol.[22] It now allows ads that promote the sale of hard alcohol and liquor. This is an extension of a policy change that was made in December 2008, which permitted ads that promote the branding of hard alcohol and liquor.



[edit] Allowed keywordsGoogle has also come under fire for allowing AdWords advertisers to bid on trademarked keywords. In 2004, Google started allowing advertisers to bid on a wide variety of search terms in the US and Canada, including the trademarks of their competitors[23] and in May 2008 expanded this policy to the UK and Ireland. Advertisers are restricted from using other companies' trademarks in their advertisement text if the trademark has been registered with Advertising Legal Support team. Google does, however, require certification to run regulated keywords, such as those related to pharmaceuticals keywords, and some keywords, such as those related to hacking, are not allowed at all. These restrictions may vary by location.[24] From June 2007, Google banned AdWords adverts for student essay writing services, a move which was welcomed by universities.[25]



Google has other restrictions, for example the advertising of a book related to Facebook was restricted from advertising on AdWords because it contained the word "Facebook" in its title - the rationale being that it was prohibited from advertising a book which used a trademarked name in its title.[26]

Earrings

Before starting to make your own earrings, first decide on the type of earrings you want to make. This will help you know the specific charms, beads, tools and materials you will need.

If you make earrings, you will need to have tweezers, round-nosed pliers, nail clippers, wire cutters and a bead board (this is to avoid beads from spilling or rolling). You also have to have headpins, ear wires and beads.

It would also help if you have patience, a tad of creativity and the passion to make your own jewelry earring:

1 First step is to collect two head pins (these look a lot like thin long nails) and two ear wires (this would serve as the drop earring’s hook part which will then go through the ear hole).

2 You also have to have at least six or eight beads and spacer beads (these are small beads which look plain enough to offset the showy beads).

3 Place your beads on two pin heads. At this point, allow your creativity to go wild as you select the colors and designs you want to see. As much as possible, do not be afraid to try something new in terms of placing beads and charms on the head pins. Play around with the various beads on the head pin. Combining various patterns, colors, textures and sizes could help create a truly unique design. Do remember that whatever pattern you select, these have to have matching beads for each earring piece.

4 Also, leave at least a space that is large enough for a bead atop the head pin. This ensures that you have enough room to close it off. You can leave as much as a 1.5cm

5 Using the pliers, bend the end of the pin head to a loop. But primarily, make sure to bend the wire out towards a right angle from the section of the beads. After which, bend the wire in order to make a small loop. Do not forget that the wire end must be in contact with the top bead. Also, a small space must be left so you could easily insert the beaded head pin to the ear wires.

6 After which, you can now close the headpin. This could be done by making a loop with the use of a round nosed plier and twisting the wire.

7 Then, connect the headpin with the ear wire by closing the premade loop with the help of tweezers.

Voila! Your very own personally made earring to brag, wear and show off. Who knows, you can even sell them yourself.

NOTE: Prior to using the earrings, they need to be sterlized with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab.

You can use 925 silver if you have alergies.

Zambia November 2010

Zambia November 2010

My job takes me all over the world and this November I was in Zambia rockhounding. Africa is such an exciting place to visit. In the past I used to travel to Africa Central all the time but it has been a while since I was there last.

I had to go and inspect the production at the mine and this was why I went up.

I do not know if you know but Silver Hills Gems still has a share in some quartz mines in Zambia. Some of the mines I discovered myself through prospecting up in Zambia but not all of them turned out to be feasable mines.

This time I was pressed for time and I only had two days to finish what I went to do.

I took a flight from OR Tambo to Ndola International airport and hired a vehicle through Europecar. The inspection cart of the car rental company said. Many small scratches around the car. This will give you an indication of the driving skills of the average Zambian driver. My first stretch took me through Ndola to the Kitwe road. I was not sure if I was on the right road and asked at the nearest filling station. When I rolled down my window the guy said "sorry no fuel" I was glad that I did not need fuel. They confirmed that I was on the right road.

It is a very scenic drive to Kitwe. The road follows the contour of the land. It is a kind of a highway. Why I say kind of is because the road is double lane but has a myriad of side roads entering at any time. And there is a stack of heavy vehicles on this road. This is the main artery from the Congo to Botswana and Zimbabwe. So any and all is carried by truck. A lot of the truck drivers are driving without shirts due to the heat. It is an experience just sitting next to the road and hearing the roar of these big machines as the pass by.

There are 2 road blocks between Ndola and Kitwe, these are manned by the Police. They flag you down and then ask you where you are going. Sometimes they want to see your paperwork. I remeber the one time when I received a fine because I did not have a T on the back of the trailer. I stopped at the first garage and bought some reflective tape and made the biggest T that you will see on any trailer.

You realize that you are entering Kitwe when the buildings get more dense. But what strucks you immediately is the lack of paint on any building. Everything looks run down. The vehicles are dented. SO by the way, the car I was driving had hardly any shocks. It was rocking like a ship. I took it dead slow. The roads are shot. The further you get out of town the worst it gets. In one road that we travelled there were a tar road once. But the tar road is now riddled with potholes. And not just any potholes. It was raining the past few days and this complicated driving. I was crawling along. Large trucks was passing ignoring the potholes. That is driving African style.

In Kitwe I took a room at the Shelbourne lodge. The room cost me around $100 per night. I was sheer luxury. The bed was comfortable and the cushions was good. There were ample hot water and even DSTV in the room. The Guest house was a conferted old house with high ceilings and slasto floors with a stoep in front. The owner loves plants and the place was a veritable nursery or shall I say paradise. If you are willing to pay you will find these gems all over Africa. The contrast to this is the mosquito invested YMCA I stayed in the last time. Here music keeps you awake all night while you are sweating in the dirty bed with the hard cushion and no hot water.

We left for the mine the next day and traveled around 200 km on passable roads. The roads gets smaller and smaller and eventually it is just a 2 track road into the bush. There are cash crops even in the remotest areas. They plant beans and maize.

At the mine there is a huge open pit with 10 workers who are mining with pick and shovel. To mine specimens is slow work and you can not rush it. I love the bush but time did not allow me to stay there long

I discovered rutile specimens in the same area. I am just waiting for 300 specimens to come. These have not yet been seen in the market.



At the miners house I sorted through the specimens. Africa is hot. Gerdus

The problem with specimen hunting these days is that the miners browse the internet and think that the prices they see there is the prices they should get.

But if you do not travel you will not get any stones. We remain leaders in our area because we are willing to travel into Africa.

We needed some tools for the mine and this took us back to town. In most towns in Zambia you will get a freemarket system where anybody can sell anything at any price. The market at Kitwe is such a market. I attach some pictures. Paper is not available everywhere and we had to buy a bale of paper to wrap our crystals.



You can find litterally everything in such a market. I imagine stands selling missiles and others selling dried animal medicine. I noticed that evrybody is busy. There are very few beggars. Money changes hands all the time. Nothing gets thrown away. Everything gets recycled again in such a market. We had to dwaddle through muddy backallies. It rained the whole night before and this released all the interesting smells of such a market. At every step you get a different smell. Everybody greets you along the way and expect you to greet back.



The car that I drove brought me safely back to the airport. Please look out for our new specimens that will be listed in early 2011.



We will charge your phone for you!



Buying tools can turn into an interesting exercise!



We are buying paper to wrap the specimens with

How to sell your beads on Ebay

How to sell your beads on Ebay

This article was written by by Kandice Seeber Air & Earth Designs

These are my own personal tips for success as a beadmaker on ebay. Please keep in mind that my intent here is just to let people know what works for me, in case they need some help and want some advice. This kind of thing tends to change over time, so please use what you can from this and feel free to toss the rest.

General Tips

I have been making beads for about 3 years now. I have been a member on ebay for something like 7 years - and before I sold beads on ebay, I sold handmade jewelry. Those of you who sell jewelry on ebay now have a much tougher road ahead than when I did. There is so much competition in the Designer/Artisan jewelry section on ebay, that even unique, gorgeous jewelry is hard to sell at decent prices. These tips may work well for beadmakers but may not work for anyone else.

I sell only my best beads. I constantly work to improve my technique and designs so that what I put up for sale is my best work. If I have beads that are not my best work ("seconds"), I label them as such, so my customers do not get confused when they see something selling at a much lower price. But for the most part, all my beads are of the highest quality I can possibly make. That means even dot placement, even shapes, smooth, puckered holes, matching sizes (as much as I can, anyway) and all that.

Art is of course subjective, but I find that the better my technique is, the more my beads will sell for, and the happier my customers are. Plus, I feel good and proud of the accomplishment. If you're new or haven't mastered certain techniques, you cannot assume you are going to get high prices. If you're okay with that, then great. However, I have seen some beads posted on ebay that have crooked bumps, pointy holes, lumpy shapes, etc, and then the seller will post complaints about how their beads are not selling. Look at your work. Are the flowers smeared? Is the encasing uneven? Is your raised work melted in enough to keep it from popping off later? Do your bumps have under-cuts? Do your beads have sharp, pointy ends that may cut a designer's stringing material? These are just some things lampwork bead buyers look for when buying beads to go in their designs.

So basically, the very first thing you need to look at when sales are not going well is your own quality and workmanship. Work to improve that while working to improve other aspects such as auction layout. A good way to check quality is to do a search on ebay for the highest priced "annealed lampwork" (make sure the title and description box is checked). Look at these beads in terms of quality and workmanship. I am not talking about design or artistic expression - purely about craftsmanship. There are quite a few sellers whose quality and technique are top notch. Not all of them are getting high prices, but you can see some examples in the high price search.

Lampworkers are getting better and better at technique as time goes by. The competition is almost staggering, and more and more people are making beads these days. Keep that in mind when listing on ebay - you are listing beads with hundreds of other lampworkers, so you need to find something that makes you stand out in the crowd. On any given day there are over 5000 listings in the Handmade Lampwork category. Do something unique - pick unique colors, try a new shape, do anything that will make you stand out when people are looking.

Photography

One main thing I think needs to be addressed here is auction photography. First off, I recommend that you do not use ebay's picture uploading as your sole picture host. They compress and resize pictures when you upload them, and this tends to distort your images. Find another photo host and use HTML to reference the pics in your auction description. A number of hosts can be found by searching Google. I use my web host (netfirms.com) - I get 1000MB of space for my website, and that is more than enough, so I use some of the space for auction pics. I pay $10 per month for hosting services, but you can likely find something much cheaper if you're just looking for picture hosting.

Learn to take decent pictures. If you use a scanner and that works for you, great. But by and large, most of the auctions I see that use digital images look much better in my opinion. I use a digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 4100 - I upgraded last year) that I bought for about $300. I know that seems like a lot, but it's so worth it. The pics are clear, crisp and detailed, and show true color. There are tips and tricks on photography everywhere - google.com is a great place to search. There are threads in many forums - go look at them as well. Also, the ebay community web boards have tons of information on photography and other things. Don't take your pics with a regular camera that has no macro - these are not close enough or true enough to see your artwork unless you are a professional.

Get picture enhancing software and use it. I know people who use Photoshop and various other programs to touch up photos. I use Paint Shop Pro 7. I have no idea what a lot of the features do, but what I do know works really well. I can get completely true color when I enhance a pic with PSP. No, I don't make the beads look more colorful or better than they look in person. I make the pics look more realistic. For instance, Moretti/Effetre Ink Blue photographs much bluer than it really is under normal lighting even with a digital camera. PSP can make it look much more like it does in person by using the Hue Map, Color Balance, and Levels features on the Color Menu.

There are quite a few tutorials for photo software on the web. Make use of Google and you'll find them easily. I also have a few resources for photography help on my Links List. Also, WetCanvas and other forums have tons of threads devoted to photography.

If you'd like a more professional approach to photography, I would recommend looking at some of the new photo set-ups on ebay that are made specifically for taking pictures of small items, including beads and jewelry. This particular ebay store has a nice selection, and the prices look good: Tabletop Studio LLC. I have not bought from them, but I am considering it, because I have seen recommendations from other beadmakers.

Describing Your Beads

When you list your beads for sale anywhere, including ebay, there are a few things you should always have in the description. Buyers often won't buy from you if you're missing some of these things, so it's important to be thorough in your descriptions. Here's a list:

Bead Size - this is a biggie. In the bead world, people utilize both inches and millimeters. I personally use millimeters in my description, because most of the components my customers use with the beads they buy are listed in millimeters by the manufacturers. (for example - crystal bicones, sterling silver beads, jump rings, etc.) Some buyers also like a size reference picture - a penny, a ruler, a hand, etc. There's much debate over what people like for size reference, so you can use what's most convenient for you, as long as you have some reference to size in your description. For many, size in millimeters (mm) is enough, so that's what I use.

Hole Size - Also important enough for its own place on this list is the size of the hole in your bead. Since most beadmakers (at least here in the US) are making beads on mandrels which are sized by the inch, it makes sense to put that in your description for people who need to know. Buyers will often need this so can determine what size of stringing material or findings to use. Again, measurements for findings do vary, so use whatever measurement unit is more convenient for you. I use inches, because my beads are most often made on 1/16" mandrels, a 1/16" mandrel is somewhere between 1mm and 2mm - not very exact. If you're in a country that uses the metric system for mandrels, it's no problem to use mm in your description. Whew - long winded, aren't I?

Number of Beads/Extras - This may seem like a no brainer, but if you have more than one photo of your beads, some people might be confused as to what's actually included in the auction. Be clear about the number of beads included, and whether the buyer also gets what's shown in the picture - are the beads strung with crystals, silver spacers or other beads? Are they included in the auction? Does the buyer get that quarter? (LOL It may seem silly, but some people do ask).

Type/Brand of Glass - Many buyers don't care, but some do, so it's nice to list what kind of glass you're using in your beads. Whether it's German made Lauscha, Italian Effetre or some kind of borosilicate made here in the US - a lot of buyers do like to know. And if you're using premium hand-pulled colors that are scarce or more expensive, saying so can attract customers. I also like to list the colors I use, because monitors don't always show true colors, and the buyers who are familiar with certain glass will know what they're getting and can plan ahead.

Annealed or Not? - This is perhaps your most important descriptive term. If your beads are kiln annealed, say so. People who buy handmade lampwork really want beads which are annealed properly, because they won't break nearly as easily as beads which are cooled in vermiculite or a fiber blanket. If you're not annealing your beads in a kiln, you should definitely say so. Not saying so is misleading to your customers. Many people do search the terms "annealed", "kiln annealed" or "kiln-annealed" when looking on ebay for lampwork beads.

Shipping and Payment Terms - Be clear about your terms. Always state what payments you accept, what the shipping costs are, and how long it will take for you to ship out beads. State clearly any return policies and any time restrictions on payment (payment due within 7 days or whatever). Also state whether you ship worldwide, what the restrictions are on that, or whether you ship to your own country only.

The next issue at hand is using ebay's features to your advantage. Always, always use the gallery pic option. It's only 25 cents, and most people in the Handmade Lampwork category use it, so if you don't you may be skipped over. Many customers have posted everywhere that they only look at the gallery view on auctions. If you don't use this option, you are missing out on a lot of customer traffic, and that means fewer bids and lower sales.

Sometimes, it may bring more traffic if you use the Featured Plus on one auction and then have several other auctions going at the same time. Using the subtitle feature on a couple of auctions, or the bold feature can also help. Use sparingly, though, because those get pricey if you do them all the time.

If you haven't created your own auction layout, use one of ebay's. They aren't bad, and having some sort of visual layout is a huge plus. Or, learn HTML to create your own layout. However, don't go overboard. The customer is there to see your beads, not all the bells and whistles of your auction layout. Go easy on the images, and stay away from java-scripts as much as possible. Some of that stuff can actually crash a customer's system, and then you can be sure they will never come back. Commonly used unnecessary features to stay away from are:

Huge, bright text

Trailing cursors

Blinking or animated images and text

Music

Marquee lines (text moving on the screen)

Screen fading scripts (they make the screen change in odd ways when someone leaves the auction)

Slideshows (auction lister programs like Andale and Vendio provide these)

Keep any images that are not your beads small and fast loading. If you have a logo, make it small or short so that the customer does not have to scroll a huge long way to get to your bead pics. This is what works for me, and what I am drawn to when looking at auctions.

Reputation

When you first start at ebay, you're starting at the very bottom. You'll have low or no feedback - no one will know you. You have to build a positive reputation to attract buyers, and that's no small task on ebay these days. Your feedback rating is really very important to potential buyers. Start by making some small purchases to get a few positive feedbacks and to get your feet wet on ebay. Buying is the best way to get to know the climate. Leave feedback for the transactions you take part in, and hopefully you will get some good feedback in return. Then, start listing a few smaller things here and there, and follow the rest of the advice here to get a good start. At first, keep your expectations low. You will sell things at a lower price at first - almost everyone goes through this at the beginning. It takes time to build a good feedback rating, and even more time to build up a good customer base. Be patient and keep trying.

Know Your Market

The next issue is a touchy subject for many of us. But one that really needs to be addressed, IMO. Market Research and understanding your target audience. In this case, you are looking for people to buy your beads on ebay. So you need to listen to what people want. There's a happy medium between total artistic individuality and giving the customer what they want. Here's a trade secret for you. I make what I like. But I also pay a lot of attention to what the customer likes. If pink is in, I incorporate the color into my work. I pair it with colors I think look great with pink. I experiment with colors I might not normally put with pink just to see what's cookin'.

Research, all the time!! If your market is the jewelry artist/designer, check and see what people are wearing on TV. Check to see what your friends and family like to wear. Look at bead - craft - art magazines, fashion ads, awards shows. If your main market is the bead collector, check to see what shapes and colors are hot right now for the collector. Then, incorporate that knowledge into your own artistic expression. For instance, I don't like making lentils. But they are hot hot hot right now (still!). But I only make them every so often. So I check to see what other shapes might be hot, and go with those. Shapes in general are doing well right now. I love to make cubes and square tabs, so I stick with those!

Hang out where your customers hang out. Get to know them. You'll gain knowledge and friendship at the same time.

Here are a couple of examples:

The ebay community jewelry category board. I read there from time to time, to check the current "pulse". Most lampworkers don't post there, so I post on occasion just to let them know I am around. We post auctions in the Jewelry category - doesn't it make sense to see what people are up to there? There are a surprising number of potential customers who read and post to that board. It's main discussions are about gemstones, but a lot of them seem to really like pretty sparkly things, and when they notice what I do, they comment about it!

The ebay community bead groups. These are new, and right now there are three that I know of: BeadHive, Beads, Beads and More Beads, and Lampworked Beads. There are a lot of members on each board, and each has its own culture. I don't have time for all three, so I stick with one of them. I have gotten to know the people in BeadHive, and they've gotten to know me and my work. They are a fun group of people!

Also, the rec.crafts.beads newsgroup. This is a public group and is **hugely** populated with people who adore beads. And they will let you know what they like in a heartbeat (and what they don't like!). If ever you needed opinions from a customer's point of view, that's the place to get them. Don't have a newsgroup reader? Go to Google Groups and enter rec.crafts.beads into the search. Who knows - you may make a few more friends while you're at it. But please, please get to know what newsgroups are about before posting. Read for a day or two to get a feel for the group. It's fast paced and has its own etiquette and culture.

I know a lot of people frown on making beads that other people want you to make, and instead wish to make only what you like. This is fine. But please don't complain about sales if you aren't willing to consider your customers' desires. There is a happy medium. You can do what you want *and* do what they want. You can take risks and still have high sales.

Targeting your Audience

Once you know who your audience is, it's time to get in touch with them when you have beads available for sale! The best way to do this is to start a mailing list. (But please, be sure that people give you permission before adding them to any list or you can get kicked off ebay.) You can do this by putting a link on your About Me page on ebay or on your website. Link to a Yahoo group or other kind of email list that you control. There are lots of places to create a mailing list - perhaps the easiest is just to start one in your emailing program. Do some research on Google if you are unfamiliar with how mailing lists work. Then, when you have items available, you'll have a pool of people to email. You can create weekly or monthly newsletters, specials, promotions, whatever you like.

Another great way to get people to look at your items is to create business cards with your ebay ID and email address (as well as any other info you wish) printed on them. Pass them out to friends, and mail them out with your beads to customers. I get mine from Vista Print - they have very good prices and high quality cards. They will even let you upload your own artwork - if you can figure out the little card creating program on their website. It's a bit klunky, but does the job.

Having a website is another way to get in touch with your buyers. Do lots of research, learn HTML and create your own, or if you have the means, pay for someone to create one for you. (My friend and mentor Paulette does fabulous web design for artists.) As an alternative, look to ebay's About Me page creation for a small simple place to promote your ebay auctions.

Basically, marketing is very time consuming and can be difficult to do. However, the more you market, the more buyers you will have - period. So it's in your best interest to try a few of these things. It's a pain - it's my least favorite part of selling beads! But it's worth the time and effort, I promise. Ebay may bring some traffic to your auctions, but your own marketing activities will create the all important "word of mouth" that you need to succeed.

A Few Last Thoughts

Another touchy subject is that of talent and design. These cannot be taught, in my opinion. They have to already be there. You can bring them out by observing your surroundings and finding beauty. But if you have no eye for color or design, you may not be able to make a whole lot of money in this business. Of course, this art is not always about business or making money. You have to really love what you're doing. If you're totally in love with glass, fire and color, it will show in your work and you will have higher sales. If you are just doing it for money, I don't believe you will really succeed. Move on to something you love. Life is too short!

Be prepared to pay money for some of the things I have mentioned above. I pay for premium glass colors, tools, equipment, web hosting, a decent digital camera, lighting, photo software, gallery pics in the auctions, etc. You don't have to spend a fortune, but spending a little can be really worth it in the end. If you aren't willing or cannot spend a little money on your business, you will probably not do as well. If you can't afford the necessary tools to do this art safely and properly, I don't think you should really be doing it.

One last and very important point - Ebay is not impossible. But *be prepared* to work very, very hard, and for long hours - especially at first. Don't expect immediate success - it will take some time. And try to keep a positive attitude! You cannot go into this with the attitude that you can make quick and easy money, and then when you don't succeed, get down on yourself for it. It doesn't work that way, and if you look at ebay often, you will see tons of evidence of that. As a matter of fact, you *should* look at ebay often if you are trying to sell there. Look at your competition. Of course, don't copy their beads, but look at what sells and more importantly, look at what does *not* sell. Think about why some sellers continuously have a hard time. Think about why some sellers seem to have unlimited success.

Does any of this make any sense? I hope so. Am I giving you trade secrets? Well, no. This is all common sense, and came from reading everything I possibly could on the subject, and from my own experiences. My auctions do well. Almost every time. The above is why. I hope some of these things will work for you.