Effective Blogging – 3 Blog Tips

Do you have a blog?  Need some advice from a pro?

We recently looked to Laura Bray, marketing guru for artists and crafters, for blogging tips and tricks.  Laura shared some excellent blogging advice with the HandmadeMarketing.org team!

“Whether you blog for fun or use it as a marketing tool, you want to see visitors and comments,” Laura writes in her website article “Three Techniques That Will Change the Way You Blog.”

Laura outlines three techniques every handmade seller who blogs can implement that will help you get bring more visitors.

“When you link to another blog or website, be sure to type out the name of the blog,” Laura explains.  “I’ve heard that search engines like to see blogs with links that do this. And you want search engines to like you, right?“

Laura tells bloggers to consider utilizing “anchor text” to help SEO efforts.  “Anchor Text” is the visible hyperlinked text on a web page.

As an example, Laura writes in her blog:

Don’t do this: “I just saw an awesome tutorial on this blog today.”

Do this: “I just saw an awesome tutorial at www.katydiddys.blogspot.com today.”

Even better, think about what users are searching for online.  It would help Laura’s blog for a blogger to call her blog the greatest marketing blog in the world because if a user were to type “the greatest marketing blog in the world” into a search engine, Laura’s blog would have a chance of being a search result!

You can learn more about anchor text on HandmadeMarketing.org by reading Anchor Text – Optimize Links to Your Site and Tara Gentile’s tips in her HiP Blogging Challenge.

Second, Laura suggests that bloggers create a system for getting the word out about their blog.  “Do it every time you blog,” Laura says.  “Whenever I blog, I immediately put up a static link to my blog on Twitter and Facebook. Then I upload at least one of the photos from the entry to my Flickr Photostream.”

Too much for busy handmade sellers?  Laura has a great tips for keeping it simple.  “I keep a little checklist of these tasks to make sure I follow through each time. There are tons of blogs out there and just waiting for people to find yours isn’t going to work,” she writes.  “Find places where your target audience hangs out and make sure you let them know each time you blog.”

Finally, Laura suggests bloggers always let other artists, crafters and companies know when they are mentioned in a blog entry.

“It might take a bit of investigating, but it’s worth it. Wouldn’t you want to know if you someone out there was singing your praises? I’ve had quite a few fantastic opportunities come up from doing this one step,” she tells bloggers.

To learn more about Laura and pick up more marketing tips, visit her blog.

Do you have suggestions for fellow bloggers?  How do you utilize anchor text?  How do you increase visitors and comments to your blog?

Tell HandmadeMarketing.org what works for you!  Comment on this article, or tell us more detail about why blogging helps your handmade business.  If we publish your ideas, we’ll link to your website, blog or shop as the source of the information!