As a way of connecting more with my followers and readers that have been fans of Gem Gossip over the past 8 years, I decided to start a new kind of newsletter. Sure, newsletters aren’t a new concept for bloggers…but after neglecting to add one to my roster after all these years, I thought that I better start somewhere! How to make it different?! That’s where my ideas and input started flowing and your feedback has helped tremendously. Last week I sent out my first Gem Gossip Newsletter (a quick peek of it above) and had a slight panic attack after hitting “SEND.” It went out to thousands of people, all of whom I’ve had correspondence with since the day I started. Some I’ve connected with recently and still have been emailing back and forth with, others I haven’t talked to in years! The subject line read, “Hi. It’s been awhile.” Couldn’t have formulated truer words.
I won’t reveal too much about the newsletter since you have to sign up to get the full experience, but there will be things in there that won’t be shared anywhere else! A different angle…new perspective…with the idea of this being like my pen pal letter to each and every one of you! Most important concept of the whole newsletter? I want to hear from YOU! So hit “REPLY” and let me know your thoughts, reactions and converse with me! That’s why I started Gem Gossip in the first place! To connect with others out there that are just as obsessed with jewelry as me! It all goes back to the beginning.
We’ve also had a website makeover! Nothing too fancy, but we’ve made some “face lifts” to become even prettier than before. We’ve dropped our tagline, “Endless Talk of All Things Sparkly” because back when we started blogging in 2008, it seemed to be that you couldn’t have a blog without having a tagline. I think my readers know what I’m writing about, so we’ll leave it at Gem Gossip. We’ve also been officially Trademarked, so Gem Gossip cannot be stolen from us. That’s exciting news because our photos can’t seem to get stolen enough! We will continue to hone-in on what blog posts you’re reading most and eliminate some that aren’t getting traction. We’ve eliminated Watches entirely from our website as a category, as well as other smaller categories like Ebay Pick of the Week and Family Heirlooms. The main categories are now in photo-format, being a visual person that I am, wanted to bring each category to life. They are scrolling along the top part of the website now, along with the social media icons up top. Our footer was designed by myself and will keep track of our numbers in terms of outreach, our latest tweet, and some other pertinent information. We are teetering on reaching over 200k people from all our social media channels and website traffic, which is very exciting!
Again, with any changes, I’d love to know your feedback! Have a new category you think I should add? What is your favorite feature? What should I do more of? Feel free to either leave a comment or email me!
Here’s to many more years and a happy 2017!
