In today's electronic focused society, perhaps the best option is to have an online presence. Having a website will allow you to appear on search engines and get attention from potential customers around the world who otherwise may not get a chance to find out about your jams and jelly.
If you are going to set up an online presence, the first thing you need to do is find a web host and create an account. For more professionalism, you should consider purchasing your own domain name if you can afford it before building your website. Remember I said you do need to come up with a name for your brand, and I also suggested that you should buy the domain name of that brand so if your business takes off, you can have a full blown online business and establish your brand name on the world wide web.
It only cost around $10-$12/year to buy a domain name. You can buy domain names from www.Name.com, www.godaddy.com, www.Register.com or any other online domain registrar. You can always purchase the domain name and open your online store later, buying a domain does not force you to open an online retail store.
Even without HTML knowledge, you can still build a decent website with the templates most web hosts offer, or you can hire a freelancer designer to put one together for you. We hired our web designer from www.upwork.com, and it cost us around $650 to get the site up and running.
Once you have your website up, you should make sure you provide information on the products you offer and include a portfolio of your jam, jelly, pickles and any other related products that you make so people can get a good idea of what you have to offer. Then you'll be ready to set up for accepting online sales.
An Online Store
With websites such as eBay and Etsy, it is easier than ever to sell homemade jam, jelly, and pickles online. However, many of these options will deduct a percentage of the total sales so you may have to set your prices accordingly. Another option is to set up an online store on your website and sell directly to customers. One big downside to this is to let customers know that your site exists. For that, you may have to spend a lot of money on online advertising with Google PPC (Pay per Click), and other social media ads.
A Mailing List
Once you have a website and start developing an online presence, you may want to consider starting a mailing list. This is a great way to get repeat customers since interested individuals can sign up for a mailing list. About once a month you can send out a newsletter showing your newest products and potentially a special discount to increase the incentive to purchase.
Networking Sites
Customers want a way to contact sellers directly as well as a place where they can publicly express their shopping experiences. If you provide this, you will not only draw attention to your business, but you can also potentially increase sales. Keep in contact with your customers through networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Just remember to always include a link back to your website so people can find you easily.
PPC Advertising
If simply having your items listed for sale online isn't doing enough, you can consider increasing some attention by buying PPC or pay per click advertising. You can do this through Google or other search engines. As it sounds, this type of advertising means you only pay when someone actually comes to your website through a PPC link. You can often determine how much you pay and set a daily limit. This option isn't for everyone, but it is another online advertising option.