Category — blog challenge

building a repertoire of posts

You’ve got a blog, you’re written a mission statement, you know how to build a community, and now you’ve started making it easier for search engines to find you.

So what are you going to write about?

The next time you’re stuck for a post, consider one of these options:

• Photo – sometimes we forget that, often, simple can be beautiful! Post a picture of your last project, your studio, your inspiration/muse, or a work in progress.
• Tutorial – don’t think that by posting a how-to on an aspect of your work that you’ll be losing business. Quite the opposite! Your readers will gain a new appreciation of your process. You’ll gain readers by posting useful information. And you’ll inspire your readers to create themselves!
• Extend – pick up a previous post where you left off. Follow-up, offer new insights, and be sure to link back to your previous post (makes your blog sticky and boosts your search engine rankings!).
• Inspiration – choose a piece and tell everyone the background story. Where did you get the idea?
• Collection – choose a piece and put together a collection, outfit, or gallery of pieces from other sellers that have a similar style but don’t compete with your piece. Be sure to email/convo the other sellers so they can link back to you and help you promote the post! This is one of my favorite kinds of posts to do – takes a little time but well worth it for page views!
• Links – list links that you’ve found helpful in the last week.
• Host a Giveaway – giveaway one of your own products. There are some really helpful tips below!
• Events – let your readers know what events you’ll be vending at. They might also want to know where you’re taking classes.

Here’s more some help from Problogger on coming up with post ideas. And here’s another tip from Problogger about solving a reader’s problem. The post is concerned with more “information” problems but you can utilize the same techniques to identify the gap between search engine queries that point people to your blog & the actual merchandise in your shop.

Chris Brogan, a social media powerhouse, wrote this post detailing 40 ways to deliver killer blog content.

What types of posts do you come back to when you’re stuck?

tips for hosting a giveaway

Giveaways are, of course, a great way to boost traffic to your blog and to your shop. But how do you get the most from a giveaway?

Jessica from JessicaKnows.com offers tips on how to get more out of a blog giveaway: more traffic, more exposure, more buzz, more street cred, more sales!

Tsh from simple mom and Darn Good Blogging offers these tips for hosting a great giveaway and staying sane!

To boost traffic for giveaways here on Handmade in PA.net, I submit all giveaways to Etsy Giveaways, Mom Giveaways, and Everything Up Close. There are plenty more giveaway clearing house sites out there where you can list your giveaway for free – it’s generally not worth it to pay to list! – and they’ll help you promote your site.

I also use Facebook to promote giveaways. Of course, you can post the link to your profile. But have you considered creating an event? You can create an event from your profile page, business page, or group page. Then you can invite all your friends & fans and ask them to share the giveaway with their friends – it can go viral fast!

homework

Check out the list of post idea above. Which have you not written before? Which have you not written for awhile? Pick one that you don’t normally use and, well, use it! Be sure to leave a comment here with a link back to your post!

special announcement

As you know, Handmade Marketing.org has been sponsoring this series, cross-posting the HiP blog challenge to expand its audience to a whole new group of crafters! Well, since this series has become such a hit – they’ve asked me to partner with their design team, White Label Graphics, to offer web site marketing services to handmade sellers.

Interested in re-vamping your blog? Increasing your social media presence? Investing in a website to sell your handmade products? Contact me at tara@handmadeinpa.net or White Label Graphics at info@whitelabelgraphics.com for a free consultation for ideas to help boost your marketing efforts.

Thanks for following along with the HiP blog challenge! There’s so much more to say…so stay tuned for more information on improving your blog to sell more.

Episode One – Crafting a Mission Statement to Guide Your Blog
Episode Two – Creating a Community Around Your Blog
Episode Three – SEO Can Help You Write Better Posts
Episode Four – coming April 24!

SEO can help you write better posts

“Werd” hand-bound book by Emily from Subu, Inc.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the “art” of making your website easier for search engines easier to read. Which means… you get more random hits from people that are interested in your craft! SEO is a free and easy way to attract new customers – something that is normally difficult and expensive to do.

There are many technical ways to achieve this and I will discuss a few that I pretend to understand at the end of this post. Luckily there are also many effective techniques that require no technical knowledge and will actually improve your writing! [Read more →]

“The Office Dog” – photo by justamoment on Etsy

This week’s HiP blog challenge homework was to ask a question of your blog readers. So I figured I better take a little of my own medicine!

What crafty or DIY project are you working on now? Anything new in the works?

Feel free to link to your shop, Flickr photos, Facebook page, etc… I’m so excited to see what you’re doing!

creating a community with your blog

When I asked Jessica Smith, of Wish Pot & JessicaKnows fame (among many, many other things…), what one tip she would give someone just starting out in social media, she replied:

“Talking with people” may be easy to put into practice with sites like Facebook and Twitter. But you probably use your blog just to “talk to people.” It takes a bit more thought & a tiny bit of effort to turn your blog into a conversation – but it’s well worth it!

Community = Conversation = Comments

How do you feel when you receive a comment on a blog post? Pretty jazzed, right? Are you doing anything to encourage comments? [Read more →]

Welcome to the HiP blog challenge! This is the first part in a four part series – with a new post every Saturday in April. I want to thank ETSYmarketing.org for cross-posting this series – and give a special welcome to any of you joining the challenge from there!

While this blog may be geared towards Pennsylvania crafters and handmade lovers, this challenge is open to anyone interested in improving the effectiveness of their blog!

blogging your brand
and branding your blog

Knowing your brand is central to the way others perceive your work. Strong branding can make good work look great – and make a potential customer much more likely to return to your shop to make a purchase. [Read more →]

Don’t forget to enter this week’s giveaway for ceramic earrings by Jessica Sharrah!

Are you ready for a challenge? I’m proud to announce the spring HiP blog challenge! If you’re looking to make your blog a little HiPper, or at least make it reflect your business and gain readership, tune in every Saturday in April to learn about “blogging your brand,” blog networking, microblogging, search engine optimization, and what to write about.

Each post will have both basic & more advanced tips and a small homework assignment to take back to your blog.

If you’re up for the challenge, feel free to add this button to your blog! Just copy & paste the code below (the code makes the button smaller). And tune in for the first post this Saturday, April 4.

<a href=”http://handmadeinpa.net/category/blog-challenge” title=”the HiP blog challenge”/><img src=”http://handmadeinpa.net/images/blogchallengesm.jpg” alt=”i took the HiP blog challenge” /></a>

Or in Blogger, add a “Picture” gadget and enter “http://handmadeinpa.net/category/blog-challenge” as your link and “http://handmadeinpa.net/images/blogchallengesm.jpg” in the box labeled “from the web.”

If you participate in the challenge, be sure to shoot me a link to your blog (tara AT handmadeinpa DOT net) and I’ll add it to my sidebar under the blog challenge button!

this week’s @weeklyblogpost: TOOLS

Marissa Rojas’ tools – Check out her shops Yay For Fidget Art, MJ Rojas Photography, and Marissa Joanna Rojas.

Avocado Creations (on top) and Rosie’s Whimsy (on the bottom) shared their sewing tools. And yes, that’s FOUR sewing machines in Rosie’s picture!

Finally, Melissa Lobach, aka @theIllustrator, shared this gorgeous picture of her knitting needles! Melissa is a talented illustrator & graphic designer working out of Reading.

*Update*

A last minute submission from Erin over at RuJu! I couldn’t help but post this pic, which features a very special creative “tool!”

If you’re participating in this week’s @weeklyblogpost, be sure to post the link here!