Name of your website?Perlina Jewellery
Your name?
Gemma Wild
Your Location (city, etc)
London
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Handmade glass bead and sterling silver jewellery crafted by Gemma Wild. Perfect for that special occasion, every day wear or as a unique gift for a loved one.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I came across a couple of hand crafted jewellery sites and fell in love with some of the creations. I though to myself 'Wow, I would love to give that a go!'
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first proper web site was www.pinkgarden.co.uk which I opened about 3 years ago. It first started out as a shopping directory full of affiliate links [yuk!], then I scrapped that and turned it into a personal blog which is still going strong today.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
For the jewellery site I was working with a lot of italian beads and I love the italian language so I looked up what the word for beads was in italian and 'perlina' was born.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
I haven't found many UK sites that make absolute hand made jewellery. I'm an individual, not a company and everything that is on the site has been crafted by my own fair hand, rather than mass produced. So people are purchasing a unique peice.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My goal is to bump in to someone who is wearing a peice of my jewellery and loving it. That would make me feel really proud.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
For now, Perlina Jewellery is a hobby. I don't rely on it for my sole income and I don't hound people to come and purchase from my site. I have sold a few peices and that has made me very happy.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would purchase a lot more materials and maybe a really sophisticated content management system that did amazing things for the site. Ooo, and maybe I would spend a little on advertising.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Send them my way and we shall see :-)
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
None, yet...
What has been your biggest challenge?
Trying to get listed in the search engines. Although saying that, I'm not doing at all bad. The jewellery site has only been up and running for a few months and I'm getting a lot of hits and I'm page rank 3, that's got to be good?
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Optimising my web site for search engines.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I thought I might get more visitors than I have, but that's just me being greedy!
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Perlina Jewellery opened in March 2007, so I have been running it for 6 months. I'm very passionate about making glass jewellery and really love making new things, I can't say what the future holds but I'm still buying new beads and making new items.
What is your website address?
Perlina Jewellery
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