Making your Blog Better!

We have quite a few team members that blog, and in the process of starting my own blog I have read and learned a lot about blogging in general.

I am currently reading the eBook "Grow your Blog: Proven ways to add followers every single day". It is written by The Simple Dude and for the most part I can say it seems to be a decent educational tool for bloggers to read,  and gives some tools for ways to progress your blog. It is a short eBook too, so give it a shot if you have a couple of hours.

I have also been turned on the Bloggers Blog of Note (BON). I think this featured blog listing is kind of like Etsy's featured seller. You go along in your little world and hope that someone notices, then things go haywire!

I have previously posted about the Ping-O-Matic feature that helps your blog come up in search engines, and that it can be a helpful tool to find your little corner of the vast internet.

I have also mentioned in facebook posts and other miscellaneous spaces about Arkansas Women Bloggers. There are a vast number of groups out there for bloggers that are geographically and demographically specific. These groups are great for helping to grow your own blog and get traffic to your various pages be it Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, or otherwise.

I think the additional information I want to add today, is the layout of blog pages, and what fancy features you have on your page.

There are widgets, and gadgets, and buttons and a massive array of things you can have on your site, and those things may or may not be helpful to you. Take a look at your blog page, do you have a bunch of stuff that really doesn't pertain to the way you want your blog to grow? If you are on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, or other sites do you have follow buttons? Do you have your various feeds on there too? Are those two things close together or far apart?

You can add almost anything you like to your blog, and those things are always personal choices, but the real questions you have to ask yourself (and I am asking them to myself as well) ...... What items do I want/need that will help promote myself and my internet adventure in the best possible ways?

Now let's go out there and do some blogging! I know I need to start with some rearranging and site review of my own personal blog.

Sharing the Joy!

We have some really amazing people in our team, and we have been doing featured sellers once a month in order to promote all of our team members to be more successful. We also are having a treasury contest, which we may do maybe every other month or so in order to be the featured seller. We have to have some type of prize, and I think that is a pretty good one!

We have Facebook and Twitter on top of this blog that we hope is keeping team members informed and up to date on a lot of things we and our team members are doing. I personally have followed all team members with Twitter, Liked all the Facebook pages, and followed all the blogs on blogger and Tumbrl. Each morning I try (TRY) to spend at least one hour reading any new blog entries, scanning the twitter feed, and looking at Facebook. I feel like a real geek during this time period, but it helps me stay informed about our team and the amazing things we are all doing.

Our leader Lybly has made her first quilt! It is lovely, see it here. Missy of the Graceful Little Honey Bee is doing a really neat thing with shampoo or I should say the avoidance of shampoo, plus she is expecting! The Twisted Purl is lamenting her lack of blogging, but she is twitterific for sure! We have so many amazing shops in our team, and I love keeping up with all of them, it really give me inspiration for the things we can feature and do as a team!

I have the February Featured Seller selected and her information has been forwarded, so we are excited about that, but she had a great idea! We need a team photographer that makes us all look younger and thinner! Cathryn, I have put the word out now we shall see what happens!

If you want to me March's Featured Seller post your treasury on the team discussion page (there is a thread for the contest) and we will be selecting the winner on the 30th.

Blogging: What's In It For Me?

Blogging is quite the buzzword lately. Everyone has a blog, even my mother has posted to a blog she shares with my sister... once. Blogs come in many different forms. You'll find diaries, instructional writings, hobby blogs, fashion blogs, housing decor, political, and so much more. You name it, there is a blog for it.

A type of blog that has become very popular in the Etsy community is a blog that is related to your craft and your Etsy shop. They serve not only as a place to keep your favorite customers updated with what you are doing, but also to promote your shop and wares to the world. Many people are skeptical as to if this is a useful tool when promoting your Etsy shop. Just like any type of promotion, you get from it what you put into it.

Laurie of Glassbead recently pointed me in the direction of a blogger, Peg Corwin, who recently blogged about, well, blogging. You can read the post here: All About Blogging for Small Biz. The points are good and I believe that yes, you can use your blog to promote and bring business to your shop just by maintaining a blog.

Many of our AREtsy members keep up with their blog. I'd love to list them but am deathly afraid that I will leave several, amazing bloggers out. So, go forward, AREtsy, and update your blogs (or start one if you don't already have one).

The lovely item pictured above is titled "At Least Once a Week" and can be found in DeniseFelton's shop. Do you update your blog at least once a week? You should!