How do you distinguish yourself from the hundreds of jewelry stores online? By becoming an authority in your specific niche of jewelry, your customers will be more likely to trust in your advice and trust in your products. By creating a blog where you present quality content about your niche of jewelry, more people will come to you for both research and shopping. By encouraging a dialogue, you can add value by listening to your customers and using this research to adjust your business model.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Start a blog under your existing domain name.

Contact your webmaster and ask about options to place a blog within the same domain as your business. For example, if your website sells topaz is called jewel-jewel.com, then the domain of the blog should be something like jewel-jewel.com/topaz-blog.

I recommend: From my experience having used many blogging platforms, I am partial to the Wordpress platform. Wordpress gives you many useful plug-ins allowing you to integrate various tools, for example it lets you upload your photos directly from flickr onto the blog, and well as many useful search engine optimization plug ins which will help to improve the visibility of the blog.

Carefully craft your blogging style using an honest approach.

People will never trust you if your blog is all about self-promotion. You need to have an honest approach to your blog including information from and linking to a wide variety of resources. When writing use a natural tone and remember to prioritize interesting topics over topics which simply suit your store. The blog should stand on its own merit, and only link to your products where natural and appropriate. Don't be afraid to write about other bloggers and start a relationship with them to further increase visibility of your blog and create interaction in your blogging community.

I recommend: To find other existing blogs about your topic, or view other blogs for examples Technorati is a great resource:

I also recommend setting up "google alerts" to keep track of who is writing about you. You can set the alert for any term (for example your brand name) to notify you any time the term is used. This is a good way to track the publicity about your brand and make sure that your blogging interaction is on track.

Increase interest, increase traffic.

Increasing interest in your blog will ultimately lead to more traffic through both referrals and through search engines. Most bloggers find it difficult to consistently develop fresh and interesting content. Be creative! Maybe your supplier has a unique or interesting experience, or you found an article in the news that you can editorially comment about. Most importantly remember your audience and think about what interests them!

I recommend: A great place to find contributors to jewelry blogs are flickr's jewelry groups. Look for people who are designing or photographing jewelry. Most of them would be happy to contribute to your blog in exchange for some exposure to their designs. This is also a good place to find a business contributor, supplier etc!
One way to sidestep your writers block is to introduce guest contributors who share your passion for jewelry or publish interviews with designers.

Many jewelry forums are a good place to find examples of interesting topics and conversations.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When people post comments on your blog, make sure to respond and show that you appreciate that they took an interest.
• •  Make sure that people who subscribe to your blog have an incentive to visit your store. Think 10% off coupons to make them feel special. To keep track of your subscribers you may want to try Feedburner
• •  Link internally within your blog to keep your customers reading more. If you mention a story that you wrote a year ago, link back to that story within your blog.
• •  *Advertising is ok, but don't overdo it! Especially in the beginning, keep your advertising discreet to maintain credibility.