Snowy, Sweet Saturday

When did the weather forecast snow here? Today? Ugh. This is what our sidewalk looked like after the blizzard of a couple days ago. I guess the question is...where is that sidewalk!?!

My son did shovel the sidewalk yesterday - just a tiny little path the width of the shovel. It's one of those cheap plastic shovels, so it doesn't really do the job all that well. We now have a path amongst snow that's over our knees in height. Ah, the joys of drifting snow. At least today's snow isn't drifting so much. It's actually quite pretty. It's the kind of snow that's real powdery and glittery; it almost looks fake.

I put up another tutorial on my All Thumbs Craft blog: how to make dessert looking soy tarts. I kinda wish they were edible - lol!

In other news, it looks like the linking party will be a go tomorrow. The coding still looks wonky in draft mode, and since I put the link party to begin tomorrow morning, it's not showing how it will look exactly. We shall see! At least Deb of Paxton Valley Folk Art made a pretty button for it - just as she did for the Sunburnt Cow.

Speaking of Deb...wow, what can I say! She made the sweetest post about me, which touched me tremendously. Thank you, Deb. You have been so sweet, kind, and supportive of me. :)

Trish over at Me 2 U Primitiveseven wrote about my blog, mentioning how helpful the seo tips have been. She's new to this blogging world, and I'm really excited at how enthused she is in getting her name out there.

Stay tuned tomorrow...hopefully this linky party will come along nicely!

Getting Exposure: My New Found Love of Link Parties

This week's installment of getting traffic for your blog is going to focus more about linking with others. I've briefly written about how writing comments on other blogs will get your blog noticed, as well as writing articles for other sources. Today I'm going to write about link parties - sometimes known as blog hopping.

I recently participated in a link party for my ragged flower tutorial, having no idea what to expect. Oh my, I LOVE link parties! They're soooo much fun. Not only do you get to see some awesome creative craft projects, diy projects, and recipes, you also get your blog noticed. Many of the participants also share the "linky love" by commenting on other participants' blogs, perhaps even becoming a follower.

How a link party works is you link up one of your specific blog posts on what you've created recently. There's a linking tool on these link parties where it's simply a matter of pasting your blog post url, naming your project/link, and then choosing a picture. (The link program gives you a choice of choosing a picture from your particular post or uploading a picture from your computer). And that's it! You do have to grab the website's button and place it on your blog post so as to share the linky love and give back to the host for doing the work to set up the party.

In less than a week, I've received well over 500 page views - a large part of the hits coming from link parties. With my new blog, All Thumbs Crafts, the sole traffic (aside from ten hits from this blog) has been all from link parties. (I've had around 150 views thus far). That's pretty good considering the blog is less than a week old! Now you can see why I'm so excited about these link parties and how they can get traffic. In order to have a successful website, you need to combine both SEO and linking with others.

All of the link parties I've seen don't have anything to do with prim, so I figured I'd start up a regular link party here. Once I figure out the backstage stuff, which doesn't look too hard, I'll begin! (The hard part will be creating a button for it). It'll probably be within the next few days - perhaps even this weekend. Each week will have a theme of some sort, like prim kitchen wooden utensils, enamelware, crocks, ornies, dolls, etc. Then we can all drool over each other's perfectly prim items!

SEO Tips, Part 5: Content is King

Please see Part One; Part Two; Part Three; and Part Four.

As they say in the blogging circles, content is king. Why? Because readers go to your blog to read...content! Of course, there are some blogs that mainly feature drool worthy pictures, but having a blog of mostly photos doesn’t help with search engines. Here are a few tips to help your blog get noticed by the search engines:

- Write often and regularly. A rule of thumb is to write at least two posts a day on your blog for a couple months. I know that sounds difficult, and indeed it is, but if you’re trying to jump start a new blog and get it noticed by those search engines, you have to work it. The mantra of "If I build it, they will come" is very naïve nowadays with so many selling sites and blogs. Perhaps ten years ago, you’d have more success with such a passive attitude, but it doesn’t help now when there are literally millions of sites and blogs on the web. After writing two posts a day for a couple months, you can decrease it to one post a day, thereafter decreasing it to a few times a week.

- Good writing. Make sure you proofread and correct any mistakes or typos. Having shorter paragraphs is also easier on your readers' eyes. It’s difficult reading a long entry when there’s only a couple paragraphs.

- Write about what you love or have an interest in. When I started Sunburnt Cow, I did it – and am doing it – as a labor of love. I love looking at the wares of the various artisans whom I’ve invited to take part in my SEO experiment over there. I have to say it’s difficult remembering to post twice a day, and soon I’ll be running out of content. After all, these talented ladies can only make so much product! So, I’m making an offer to my readers. I tried making this offer to a couple forums, but for some reason it was ignored. It may have had to do with the audience. You're reading this because you have an interest in getting your handmade shop noticed; therefore, I should've made this offer to those of you reading my SEO tips. :)

Thus, if you have an etsy or ebay shop and would like me to blog about your handmade items for sale on the Sunburnt Cow, please email me for more info. (My email addy is in my profile). All I would ask in return is a link back to the site on your blog. I certainly wouldn't require anything more than that. To do so would be onerous, even if I was bringing you 90% of your sales. (This offer will stand until probably April or May when I kick it up to the next level). If you make raggedies or teddies, you can be featured on Handmade Teddy Bears and Raggedies

Bottom line: writing about something you enjoy will help you get through the two posts a day guideline.

- Stand out from the crowd. Do something a little different from your peers. I hope to be adding more tutorials and some interviews on my blog. I’d also like to add some link parties, though I’m not sure how much those widget linky thingies cost.

- Write elsewhere in order to get your blog noticed. There are various sites online where you can submit articles, if you're a writer. In lieu of payment, you’ll get your blog noticed. This type of promoting will get “new blood” into your site or blog, and if you’re trying to sell something, you need a steady source of new traffic as much as possible. (I just may try to start writing for She Knows again, now that I have a mission to get my selling blogs noticed)!

- Be yourself. Don’t try to be like another blogger/writer. When you do, your readers will see right through you or, at the very least, sense something is amiss. That something is your trying to be someone you’re not. Plus, when you aren’t yourself when blogging, you’re not going to enjoy the writing experience, which will definitely show.

Most of the above tips are for SEO purposes only. SEO is important in gaining new traffic, but linking up with other bloggers who are in your niche can be just important. I'll be writing about that soon. It all boils down to work it, and you'll get results. Case in point: in the past few days, I've gotten over 500 page views alone. Work it, work it!

Helpful Ways to Build Your Blog's Traffic

For part one, please see Using SEO to get Your Selling Blog Noticed.
For part two, please see SEO and Links.
For part three, please see The Connection Between Blog Comments and SEO Link Building .

If you’re blogging, chances are you’re doing so to get readers, i.e., traffic. If you’re blogging to get business for your handmade shop, then you definitely need traffic. So how do you get followers and, by extension, potential customers?

For SEO purposes, start at the beginning. When thinking of a domain name for your blog, use a keyword or two in the title. Additionally, as I mentioned in previous parts of this series, include keywords – when possible – in the titles of all of your blog’s posts and a couple times throughout your blog entries. (Of course, the latter depends upon how long your blog post is, which I went in to previously).

Once you’ve gotten noticed, make sure you keep those readers by posting regularly and engagingly. Regular posts will entice readers to return. If you have a habit of irregular posting, they may soon stop checking your blog out and perhaps even no longer being a follower. I’ve actually found myself un-following some blogs because they rarely update. Plus, since my computer is sooooo slow and takes sometimes several minutes for a page to load, it gets very frustrating seeing the most previous post is still the same one written a month, or months, ago!

Another way to build up readership is to write posts that your readers will find useful. For instance, if you have any craft tips, share them. If you want to write up tutorials, that’s always a big draw. Since we’re a creative and crafty bunch here, we love seeing what other artisans are creating and any tips they may want to share.

If giving tutorials isn’t your style, then how about writing posts that are uplifting. We all could use a smile in our day, and if your blog is usually filled with positive instead of negative, then they’ll want to return for their “feel good” read. Once in awhile we may want to vent on our blog about some frustrations in our lives, which is fine. We are human after all, and readers like to know that. But your blog does need to be filled with more positive posts instead of negative if you want people to return.

Encourage interaction with your followers by responding to any questions they may have posted, or simply join in the conversation of their comments. Another way of encouraging a dialog with your readers is to ask them for their opinion. (Oddly enough, I’m always doing this for the clients I write for, but I’ve forgotten to do that here)!

There are so many blogs nowadays, so if you want to build your blog’s traffic, you’re going to have to stand out from the rest. Some of the above will help you do so.

The Connection Between Blog Comments and SEO Link Building

For part one, please see Using SEO to get Your Selling Blog Noticed.
For part two, please see SEO and Links .

Did you know that there's a connection between leaving blog comments and SEO link building? Indeedy there is! Usually if yours is one of the first few comments, you’re more likely to get noticed simply because people often don’t have time to read through all of the comments. Commenting just to comment – like those silly “First” comments you see on various sites – doesn’t help. In fact, it will get people annoyed at you! But even if you're not one of the first few people to comment, you're at least getting your link out there, which is certainly a good thing, as I've mentioned in my previous posts about Blogging and SEO.

Additionally, if you leave your blog url in your comment, that’s oftentimes seen as the dreaded spam. Remember, when you comment, there’s a place to put your url, so if people want to find you, they can. The exception to the no spamming your url in the comments section is if you’ve actually written a blog post about the topic at hand. Rather than writing a whole blog post in the comments section, sharing your link to your particular blog post – as opposed to your general blog – isn’t seen as spam. But only do this when it’s germane to the particular topic you’re commenting on.

Also, when making comments, make sure you’re respectful to the blogger and his/her readers. You are, after all, in a person’s online “house,” and they’re allowing you in. Be courteous.

As to reading the comments people have left on your blog, be courteous right back! If any of the people who have commented on your blog ask a question, by all means, answer it! Blogging is kind of like a dialog with people around the country and the world. It’s a great way of meeting people and getting to know them. Treating those who visit your blog with respect will go a long way, and they’ll more likely want to return to read what you have to say.

Craft Supplies on Sale Blog

I decided to start up a blog that will list all of the sales or special offers (like free shipping) that I find on craft supplies. I get so many flyers in my email; plus, I just happen to see sales when I'm surfing around.

The blog is entitled Craft Supplies Sales and Resources

If you know of any sales, please email me or post a comment on the blog. Then I'll make a post about it, and link to your blog so you can get the credit for the find. I figure this not only helps us all find good sales, but it also gives you that important one way linking I wrote about on my SEO and Links post.

SEO and Links

For Part 1, please see Using SEO to get your Selling Blog Noticed.

Links to your blog naturally help in your SEO (search engine optimization) ranking. That’s because when a link to your site is on another site, it not only increases the chance of other people finding your blog (and perhaps becoming followers), but it also gets the search engines to take notice. Their little spyders will see that people are clicking on your site’s link, so they’ll “think” you must have a site of interest.

People linking to your site will come naturally if you write a blog entry that people want to refer to, if you’re having a giveaway, or if you’re just simply interesting! Your blog posts are what get people to return to your site, so make sure you have something interesting to say. Writing repeatedly that you don’t know what to write or you don’t know why anyone would want to read your blog will soon make people not want to even read your postings anymore. So post with confidence! Be interesting. People naturally want to read about other people’s slices of life. (But more on making your blog interesting in a later installment).

The thing about links, though, is if you want them to help you with your SEO ranking, they have to be one way links. It’s all well and good to have reciprocal links to your blogging friends’ blogs, and they in turn link to you, but that doesn’t help with SEO. Linking to each other doesn’t show the search engines that either one of your blogs is interesting. What makes search engines take notice is if you have one way linking; that tells them that website A thinks website B is awesome – so awesome that website A isn’t even requesting a reciprocal link from website B. In other words, the search engines see that there wasn’t any type of link trading going on; thus, your site must be interesting for others to link to you without anything in it for them. Additionally, putting your link on forums and social networks are also one way links.

Many top SEO bloggers offer what is called an a-b-c linking. Blog A links to Blog B, who then links to Blog C, who in turn links back to Blog A. Thus, there are no reciprocal links in that circle; it's all one way linking. If anyone is interested in putting together such a circle, please email me (email addy is in my profile), and we’ll make some circles!

For part three, please see The Connection Between Blog Comments and SEO Link Building.

Comments Now Moderated

Sorry, but I now have to moderate comments. Reading the instructions here, it doesn't appear as if those who have already commented will be affected, so your comments should immediately appear.

Anyhoo, I got my first spam comment today. Didn't really think it would happen, since this is a little known blog. But my post on SEO tips is on the radar somewhere, since somebody from India commented and left his url to his SEO services - lol. I suspect more will follow suit, so that's why I'm moderating comments now. Sorry about that!

Using SEO to Get Your Selling Blog Noticed

Using SEO (search engine optimization) to get your selling blog noticed by google isn’t rocket science, though it may seem like it at first. To put it simply, SEO is using keywords throughout your blog entries in order to get your blog noticed and indexed by google and other various search engines.

At this point, you may be wondering what a keyword is. Keywords are the words and phrases people type into a search engine in order to find more information about that particular topic. When they type in the subject they’re looking for into the search bar, they expect to get a list of websites that have mentioned that word or words.

For instance, if you want to find fabric on sale, you type into your search engine “fabric on sale.” Of course, that will bring up thousands of websites. These websites are listed in order of how many times they have written somewhere on their various pages “fabric on sale.” The age of a website or blog also helps with getting it higher up in the search engine, as well as one way links to that blog or site. (More on that later).

The first thing you need to do is to draw up a list of keywords for the items you sell on your blog. It’s always good to brainstorm with your family and friends on this list since we all think of differently and thus, may think of different words or phrases. You can also use this handy tool. Check the option “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms.” And my oh my, what a wealth of information that handy little bugger will give you!

Once you have a list of your keywords, you’ll then know what to write about on your blog. Don’t cram all the keywords into one entry, though. It’s best to concentrate on one or two keywords or keyword phrases and write specifically about them. For the clients I write for, I usually write between 150 to 200 word entries, using a couple of the keywords or keyword phrases twice throughout each entry. By the way, more is not better in this case. If you smother your blog post with that keyword several times, the search engines will consider you to be trying to unfairly get higher rankings and they’ll blacklist you. You definitely don’t want that!

Another way of getting your keywords out there – without it being counted against you by the search engines as being too much – is to take advantage of categories or labels. On the Blogspot platform, it is directly below the box you type your entry in – i.e., “Labels for this post: e.g., scooters, vacation, fall.” Type in your keywords in that box that your particular blog post revolves around.

Two other quick and handy ways of getting your keywords on your blog post, but without fear of being blacklisted, is putting your keyword or keyword phrase in the title of the blog entry and naming any photos with those keywords. When you save a picture on your computer, label it as the keyword or keyword phrases it revolves around. Then, when you upload it to your blogging platform, it will include that in the title; the spyders that crawl websites looking for keywords will index and add those use of keywords to your tally of keywords.

Seeing is believing, so right click on any picture on a blog. Go all the way down to “Properties,” and then check out the very end of the line that has “Location” on it. Sometimes this is a very long line, so simply highlight it and carry it all the way to the end of that line. Near the end of that long line – before the .jpg or .gif extension – is the name of the photo that the person who uploaded the picture named it on his/her computer. You might as well take advantage of that extra place to put your keyword in!

Before I continue on with any more tips, please post any comments or questions in the comments section. I’ll try to answer them as best I can. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll try to find out for you!

For Part 2, please see SEO and Links.