Tuesday 19 November 2013

 

 
We have a brand new responsive website (http://www.chain-me-up.com.au)
 
It has been customised for viewing on mobile phones and tablets as well as on computer screens.
 
What a lot of work to redesign the site from the ground up, but what a great result for those hundreds of hours.
 
Love to hear your comments on our new design,
 
Cheers
 
Ross

Friday 25 October 2013

Christmas Competition

We are giving away an 18ct gold padlock bracelet valued over $1000 to one lucky person.

Like and share this page on Facebook to go in the draw to win this stunning 18ct yellow gold belcher bracelet with a 9ct rose gold filigree padlock.

The winner will be drawn on the 15th of December 2013 and receive the bracelet in time for Christmas.

Photo: Like and share this page to go in the draw to win this stunning 18ct yellow gold belcher bracelet with a 9ct rose gold filigree padlock. The winner will be drawn on the 15th of December 2013 and receive the bracelet in time for Christmas.

Good luck and don't forget you must like AND share the page.

Cheers

Ross

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Bad Photos

One of the biggest issues we have is the quality of our charm photos from one of our manufacturers. They have been in business for 30 years and are very well respected in the industry. As they have been selling directly to jewellers, the quality of the images in their catalogue is not an issue because the jewellers have come to know what to expect, great quality charms.

However as an online retailer, the images I have to work with are what my customers have as a guide. People buying from retail stores actually see the real thing. This gives them a great advantage. You'll see what I mean when you look at the images below.

We have around 3000 charms available, but obviously we don't want to have to have one of each in stock. So how do we get better photos? The manufacturer isn't willing to have their range professionally photographed as it would be of little benefit to them, at a substantial cost.

So we have come up with an idea. Discount them to the point of losing money on a sale in an attempt to convince our customers to show a little faith that the charms will meet their expectations. It gives up the chance to take new photos which we add to our website without having to buy the full range.

You can see some of the before and after photos below:

 
 
As stated, we lose money on each sale, but we gain the benefit of fixing our photos and the customer may be tempted to buy a gold chain that will offset the cost of getting better images.
 
http://www.chainmeup.com.au/new_charm_photos.asp is the page we are using to advise our customers of this promotion.
 

Friday 27 September 2013

Driving with two eyes

Driving with two eyes


A long time ago I wrote a booklet for learner drivers and their parents.

Covering many basic concepts that driving schools don't have the time to discuss but make a huge difference to how safe you are on the roads. I have finally gotten around to finishing it (well for now) and have published the full article on my website. http://www.chain-me-up.com.au/driving.asp

If you are learning to drive, or teaching someone else how to, please take a look.

I would love to hear your feedback on the content, and your experiences in learning to drive or teaching others how to drive.

I started riding a motorbike about three years ago, which was about the same time as I taught my daughter how to drive and found the concepts in the book relevent to both.

I will add a new section for motorcycles when I get a moment or 50, as there are quite a few new things to consider when you are on two wheels.

Cheers

Ross

Thursday 19 September 2013

New Videos

Last Friday, Catherine (who runs Beloved Treasures) came over to meet the new cat and go over some of the new ideas she had for marketing and updates to our websites (and polish off a couple of wines.)

One of the things I hadn't seen before is a site called Animoto, where you can create videos from your own pictures, videos and music. In a few minutes she had mocked up a simple but visually pleasing video from a few of my photos and using the themes and music at Animoto. I was pretty impressed.

Tonight I had a spare couple of hours and made two new videos of my own. Most of the time was taken up in polishing the photos I wanted to use in Corel Photo Paint, removing dust, colour correcting etc. As the videos are web quality, I didn't have to be overly fussy. There are quite a few themes to choose from and plenty of available music tracks. It's easy to waste time checking them all out, so I used the first ones I liked the look of without trying them all.

The first video is a range of two and tri-tone gold chains with about 15 different images. Adding and ordering the photos took a couple of minutes and creating the video and uploading it to YouTube took another 2 or 3. It's not going to win an Emmy, but it is much more interesting than a page of photos in columns.


 

It was easy to link these videos from YouTube to my Facebook page and embed them on my website. For $30 a year I think the ability to quickly create videos is great value.

The downside is, I have so many charm photos to add, its going to take some time.

Cheers All

Ross

Thursday 12 September 2013

Promotions and Advertising

As a small business, it is always hard to know where to invest time and effort into marketing and advertising. Businesses will promise the earth in terms of the service and outreach they will provide, but no-one will give a measurable promise in terms of the ROI. The best they will usually offer is a vague assurance that it would be a good decision to use their services.

We are constantly harassed by emails promising to get us onto the first page of Google or post thousands of likes on Facebook. Generally using these services will create issues with Google SERPs and result in a fall in rankings rather than a rise.

In light of these problems and not wanting to throw money away for little or negative results I have decided to make the most of word of mouth referrals. The best way to achieve results in this area is simply to provide a better level of service to existing and new customers.

Asking for feedback and product reviews for the goods our customers have bought costs nothing other than time, and by providing quality products and great service, many people are willing to offer a positive review. Again, simply put, looking after your customers is not only the right thing to do, but can generate more sales because they like to deal with you.

When delivering the items they have purchased, include some promotional materials for them to share with friends and family. A flyer or a business card makes it easy for your happy customers to share your store with others. Make sure it contains your contact details!


Think outside the square and make your promotional materials memorable as well as informative.

Thursday 25 April 2013

Sports & Games Charms


Sports & Games Charms


Work Related Charms

Work Related Charms

Some of our Pendants


Thursday 18 April 2013

Random pieces of jewellery

Gold Animal Charms & Silver Animal Charms


Astrology Charms


Dragon Charm ~ 18 x 17mm (Z-CH05), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up

Rabbit Charm ~ 12 x 16mm (Z-CH04), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up

Ox Charm ~ 16 x 10mm (Z-CH02), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up

Rooster Charm ~ 17 x 16mm (Z-CH10), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up

Dog Charm ~ 19 x 16mm (Z-CH11), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up

Goat Charm ~ 15 x 14mm (Z-CH08), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up

Monkey Charm ~ 14 x 16mm (Z-CH09), Astrology Charms at Chain Me Up