Yes, I said bead news. ?
A secret of many thriving Internet jewelry and craft sellers is called RSS. Use it to keep up on trends and grow your business!
RSS means “really simple syndication”. Actually, that doesn’t mean very much, does it… It boils down to getting news sent straight to your computer desktop. With RSS, you don’t have to remember all those websites that you like, or fumble through a huge Bookmarks or Favorites list.
Instead, at a website that offers RSS, you just click on the snazzy orange icon…
…and it installs a news folder right on your browser’s toolbar. Now, every time you sit down at your computer, you can just click on that toolbar folder to see the newest headlines pop out. Here’s what that looks like (*if you’re a maniac like me, who has dozens of feeds) :
Each of these headlines is clickable, and takes you into that website for full information. Why is this a competitive edge for your craft jewelry business?
Because RSS is such an easy way to keep up with multiple sites and pages. Especially ones that are updated a lot. Sites like Rings & Things provide several examples of this “newsy” material (you can click “RSS” here to check out our news feeds):
- blog posts (RSS) and the comments posted to them (RSS)
- new-item alerts (RSS)
- bead-show schedules (RSS for our visits to your town)
- new jewelry design projects (RSS)
- valuable information–about gemstones for example (RSS)
If you’re on Twitter, you can use the Search feature to locate favorite artisans or suppliers, and set up a custom RSS feed of their “tweets”. And if you blog, you might even provide an RSS feed for your readers. These are just a sampling of the possiblities!
You’ll figure out for yourself which RSS feeds are the most useful. You may be amazed how much you’ll start relying on them to point out great new beads and findings, styles, and more.
How do you use RSS? Share your experiences by posting a Reply!
Exciting news: every month, we’re going to hold a lottery right here on the Rings & Things blog. Here’s how it will work:
*At the beginning of each month, I’ll announce a new lottery.
*You enter by leaving Replies, also known as blog comments. Comment on any post(s) this month.
*At the end of the month, I’ll randomly draw 2 names to receive surprise goodie packs!
4 Comments
I love RSS – and i love getting the design ideas from you guys via RSS! Thank goodness for Twitter or else i’d never have found y’all! 😉
I use Google Reader instead of putting feeds in the browser toolbar – I used to do that, but I”m finding the reader is really convenient for me to keep up with all my feeds.
Google Reader and My Yahoo! do make this very easy. We offer both of these kinds of feeds wherever we have RSS on our website!
Hey, check out Rings & Things’ new page of “Grow your craft business” tips! You can be part of it–click the link there to send us your own suggested business tips!