LTD Beads is on the Web!

I never would have dreamed this process could take so long – or be so hard. First I needed a business name, one I could use as a dot.com on the web. Well, guess what. Just about every name you can think of is already taken in the .com world. Even "Joan's Stones" (not that I wanted to use THAT as my business name) is already taken. When I found that LTD Beads was available, I grabbed it immediately. You can check it out at http//www.ltdbeads.com. People ask what LTD stands for, and I tell them that it's a bit like LTD in business – not that LTD Beads is a limited corporation – but that production of my designs is limited in number – sometimes one-of-a-kind.

Then I learned HTML and created my site, validated the coding, the works. Of course, HTML is no longer sufficient, so I also learned some CSS. Then I researched hosting services. Then I researched shopping carts. I finally decided ZenCart had all the features I wanted and signed up with a web host that supported it. At this point I thought I would have LTD Beads up, on the web, open for business, within a week or two. Boy was I ever wrong.

Now I've got to admit right about here that I took a good long break from fighting with the website and went to work for some friends of mine who had just purchased a local business. And this used enough time and energy that I set the whole website problem aside and just did a few craftshows and lots more jewelry designs. Oh, and I also taught some jewelry-making classes at a local craftstore.

Time, of course, marched right along until finally I knew I HAD to get moving on the website. So I changed to the PayPal shopping cart, which has none of the special features I wanted, but does let you simply insert the coding for the "add to cart" button into your HTML page wherever you want to put it. And http://www.ltdbeads.com is up and running and my first order on the web is complete.

I'd really love any and all feedback you might have on my website – and jewelry – design. I'll be adding new jewelry designs regularly.