My Blog has had a Spring Clean !
I know, its not Spring yet , but I'm getting ready for this brilliant year ahead.
I took a good hard look at my blog over the Christmas period and decided it needed a major overhaul. If I wanted the crafting world to take me seriously then I needed to blog writing seriously (yes some humour may slip in, lol).
So over the last week, I have taken each of my blog posting, stuffed them in to the washing machine, let them whizz round for an hour and then hung them out to dry.
And when each and everyone of them was dry I have put them away in to my new set of drawers with clearly defined labels. Some blog postings have put away in to charity bags but in the majority of cases my old blog postings will be used alongside new ones!
The thing about blog postings is that they are available on your blog for ever! I have some going back to 2011 and I wanted to find a way to bring them to the forefront again; to make sure that if someone wanted to read them then they could easily get to them, hence the new drawers and labels.
You can see my drawers at the top of my blog - Business Tips / Etsy Shop Preview / My Product Gallery / European Sellers / DIY (for free) / Personal Stuff.
With some extra drawers , that you can drill down in to (right hand side column) - My Web Site / Clearance Sale / My Knitting Patterns / Thursdays Colourways.
And each drawer will either take you to another web site (my own for example) or to a stand alone blog page. On each blog page , you will find tables of photos with links to the appropriate blog postings.
So if you click on the "Personal Stuff" drawer you will be taken to a new page that shows you some of my more personal photos, linked to my personal blog postings.
Go on try it , click on this Personal Stuff link or the image and take a look at my new page.
Or what about this one ? click on "Business Tips" and it will be soon full of some great tips for you and your crafty business.
I feel so much happier about my blog now , happy to promote it and I can see where it is going. I can see what blog postings I need to write to fill my new drawers.
Do you think your blog needs a Spring Clean; needs a little revitalising to bring old postings to the top again? needs a little organising to help you decide what to blog about next?
Please tell us your stories, your revitalising tips in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.
Over the next few weeks , I plan to write about blog postings in general, how you can write postings that people will be interested enough to read , that should be fun. See you then.........
I had been talking to one of my knitting colleagues about the success of her web site, and she told me of an instance where all of a sudden she stopped getting visitors to her web site. Before that day she was getting at least one order a day from her web site and then nothing. So what did she do?
She contacted her web site account manager and asked for advise. They looked around and found something had been changed which affected the whole thing......... it got me thinking.
You see , even though I had a web site, I have only had one enquiry from it and when I checked through Google Analytics the number of visits my little web site was having was abysmal :(
So I thought, I need to contact my account manager, see if they can see what I'm doing wrong with my web site.
The reply was really helpful and made me wish I had contacted them earlier.
I'll break it down into blocks
1. SEO - metatagging
I can see that you have worked on your SEO, however it can take a minimum of 6 months to make an impact with your SEO and climb the
rankings of search engines. Therefore for some more advice on your SEO I'd suggest taking a look at our fantastic guides.
I can see that you have filled out some meta information, but more
could be added to help improve your search ranking. Just looking at
your page Meta Info, not all of the fields have been filled in. Make
sure to fill in <TITLE> Tag:, and the Metatag Description: and not
just the Metatag Keywords.
If you had a shop set up within your website, then you could set
up metatags for each of your products, which again helps for SEO purposes.
So what have I done? - set up products in my shop, currently about 40. I have also completed ALL the meta data , Title , Tags and Description for all my products and all the web pages.
2. Social media
I would also advise using social media to build a more public personality for your business. This way you can reach a wider audience and connect with other businesses who can help you grow. Why not take a look at our guides below on how to include Facebook in your site, as well as Twitter and maybe even Pinterest!
So what have I done? I have added twitter , facebook and pinterest widgets to my web site side bar so they get seen on all pages. I have also added some of my pinterest style guide boards to the home page.
3. Blog
A good way to keep people coming back is perhaps setting up a blog
within your website. Maybe post something one a week, to keep your
readers interested and coming back to see what you have been up too.
I see that you have one with blogspot, but you can create your own
blog within Create. That way the numbers being directed to your
website thefemininetouch.org.uk should increase.
So what have I done ? nothing for now. I blog on a regular basis anyway here, maybe I need to make my web site more prominant on here.
4. Professional image banner
Maybe you could add a professional image banner to your homepage?
This creates a nice motion banner on your page, which gives
customers something interesting to look at, as it is not static. If
you would be interested in adding this, please see the guide.
So what have I done? I have set up a banner , taken some of my products and re-photographed them , added some text and made them the size they needed to be for the banner.
5. Side bar images
Your images on the side column, which links you to your Etsy
store. Instead of it being red, I may make the purple to go with the
rest of the theme on your website, as it looks a little out of
place.
So what have I done? completely the opposite , I have added a red theme into my banner so it blends in more.
In my next blog I'll tell you about other features I have added to my web site. In the meantime, please browse away.
I'm so impressed by the beautiful collages that can be created via Polyvore. Its an easy way that you can pull together wonderful coordinated fashion items into one picture , incorporating your own work and that of others , even high street or designer items.
I found this piece of software by accident and been fascinated by it ever since. Its great for showing off ALL my products , from the woolly accessories I make for the home..... to the chunky or lace scarves etc that I make for the modern woman.
I was a little hesitant about having yet another social media to worry about and I was adamant that it would not take over my life. Already I have established that this piece of software could become very addictive, it records number of people viewing and liking the collages (sets they call them) you make. Which means that you could get over anxious trying to find ways to get your collages seen by loads of people on Polyvore. You can join groups and share your collages with group members , hoping they will like them. You can follow others and they can follow you AND ...... you can join in the competitions , even perhaps winning a prize for the best themed collage.
See how you could spend hours and days , lost in this minefield of collages.
So I have made myself a little list, just so I stick to my first initial thoughts on how this software could benefit my business.
1. Collages will be made to show off my items. When its appropriate (and not all the time so people get sick of them) these will be promoted via twitter , pinterest, facebook , tumblr and blogger.
THIS IS MY MAIN AIM - I really see the advantage of my potential customers seeing my goods alongside something they could buy on the high street for example.
2. When I get notified of someone else on Polyvore using one of my items in their very own collage , then I will actively promote too.
I think this is a good starting point for me to ensure I don't spend too much time with this great piece of software.
And just so you know , this blog post was created straight from Polyvore , the picture at the top of the blog post and the brilliant list underneath was created automatically , with direct links to each Etsy shop included in the picture , how cool is that.
