Today is the start of my quest for visibility, and it's a tricky beast. I have been around the internet long enough to know SEO is a thing - implementing it (or REMEMBERING to implement) for my Silver Jewellery shop is another matter altogether. Thankfully, WIX has made it fairly simple for my site.

This morning has been spent on the Google SEO trail, faithfully adding ALT Text (which I thought I had done but obviously missed here and there) to images, setting site descriptions and metadata. I'm one chai latte, a flat white and a decaf latte with coconut milk in, and think I have completed the Google part... there's still a lot more fettling to do as the below image shows:

And this is before I delve into the murky conundrum of 'to Tiktok or not to TikTok'. To be honest, I am still wrapping my head around the process of using Instagram to advertise my fledgling business.

I asked my youngest whether I should advertise on TikTok or not and was met with a resounding "NO!". I was slightly taken aback and immediately, incorrectly, jumped to the conclusion that the thought of me being on the platform was too cringe for them to contemplate. Smiling, I asked them to elaborate and was initially surprised by the answer, thought he more I thought about, I realised I had probably failed to credit them with savvy they clearly had. Cringe had nothing to do with it (my kids are my biggest supporters) but rather they regarded anything being sold through TikTok as 99% probably a scam. I refrained from launching into questioning their ritual absorption of everything else being pumped out by the platform and focused on this nugget. I had assumed TikTok was the de facto platform for reaching anyone from the age of foetus upwards, but of course it has a shelf-life. Just as the internet and Social Media now is bound to change eventually (remember Bulletin Board Systems in the early 90's?) so do user preferences around how they shop and absorb media. It's mind-boggling but interesting to keep tabs on.

Anyway, my journey in advertising my shop continues and as a parallel job I currently feel no pressure for instant success. It's a new hobby that is the long looked for artistic outlet that I love and, if I can sell my creations to spread a little bit of wearable art in the world, then all the better. Now, if I can just get my main job to calm down a bit... that would be lovely.

Are you embarking on a parallel career? How have you found different apps perform in helping advertise your site? Feel free to comment and good luck if you are embarking on creation yourself.

#jewellery #sterlingsilver #costumejewellery #seo #parallelcareer