Tag-Archive for » craft site promotion «

Feb
09
Free Patterns Gone Paid = Missed Opportunity
Posted by Michele on February 9, 2010

As I talked about in one of my first blog posts – Free Patterns Lead to Sales, it’s a fairly common practice for crafters to offer free patterns on their blogs and websites. Freebies can lead to a multitude of free links and advertising for your site. And it’s not a technique for garnering links and traffic that is solely utilized by crafters.

Where site owners are shooting themselves in the foot is when they remove a previously free article or pattern from their website and add it to their shop or store, make it part of a paid ebook or private area. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why someone would want to make money from their work. But, as those folks who have linked to that page realize that it no longer exists, you are going to lose all of those wonderful links to your site. more…

Category: Being Web Savvy, Selling Crafts on the Internet, Selling Tips, Website Promotion  Tags: , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
Oct
12
Writing About Me Pages – Round II
Posted by Michele on October 12, 2009

Dear Blogger Without an Informative About Me Page,

You might have the greatest blog ever. Your posts might be witty, informative or otherwise link-worthy. You might have designed the bestest-ever tutorial to make something. People enjoy your blog and often return to read more. And yet, after all that effort, you failed to provide any information about who you are and make it easy for people to help promote your site.

who are youThink about someone blogging about cats. Are you more likely to trust information from someone who has three cats living with them or someone who is basing their comments on what other bloggers say about living with cats? Crafting is no different; particularly if you are selling what you make.

Most blogging software makes it really easy to create an About Me page. Yet, you either didn’t create an About Me page or you posted something meaningless.

May I offer a few suggestions to get you started…

While you do not have to say exactly how old you are, it would be nice to know if you are say under 30, a working mom or a much loved grandmother. Even having a vague idea of how old you are can help people get to know you and appreciate where you are coming from.

If you write a blog about sewing, while it is nice to know that you have a wonderful husband and the sex and number of children you have, prospective buyers of your items or people like me who want to exchange links would much rather see stuff about how long you have been sewing, what inspires you and perhaps from whom or how you learned to sew.

Large corporations create Press Kits so that when someone wishes to write a piece about their company they have some background information to draw from. While most bloggers will never need a full-blown press kit it would be nice if more of you thought more about promotion when it came to putting something on your About Me page.

Signed,

Michele

owner of

Crafty Tips Arts & Crafts Directory

Yes, today’s post is a bit of a rant. Drives me crazy when folks are so busy trying to avoid providing personal information that they fail to provide trade or professional info. It’s so much easier to add sites to Crafty Tips when the site owner has taken some time to provide some information about how they came to be making what they do.

Would you rather have a link with text that says,

Blog about knitting with both free patterns and patterns for sale.

or

This self-taught knitter has been creating custom knitwear for over 20 years. While she no longer makes sweaters for sale, she shares her knowledge and expertise on this informative blog about knitting techniques and provides a number of free patterns and patterns for purchase.

So, if you are blogging in cognito and particularly if you are trying to promote your online business, get serious information on your About Me page so other bloggers and people like me can help you!

To learn more about writing about me pages, please visit my earlier post which includes ideas and tips for what to include and what to leave out or you about me.

Category: Being Web Savvy, Internet Marketing, Selling Crafts on the Internet, Selling Tips, Website Promotion  Tags: , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
Jul
02
New Advertising Option for Crafters
Posted by Michele on July 2, 2009

Like this section of doily that is just about complete, a new advertising option for crafters is just about ready for its grand relaunch.

The Crafty Tipster, my free craft projects and patterns website, has undergone a major face-lift, change of software platform and is being updated with many new free craft projects and patterns.

The redesign isn’t quite finished as I still have to redo the logo. But, everything is working perfectly.

While I plan to continue adding my own free craft projects, free crochet patterns, free vintage knitting patterns and a myriad of other projects; I also hope to expand the site to include projects and tutorials from other crafters.

Save Geocities Websites!

I was quite shocked when I heard that Yahoo! was discontinuing Geocities as we know it. While it seemed predictable under the current financial situation; it does seem a bit like they are shooting themselves in the foot. After all, all those Geocities sites are plastered with advertising that must be providing Yahoo! with more income than most of those small, and often abandoned sites cost to run.

more…

Category: Crafty Tips, Great Websites, Reusable Art, Website Promotion  Tags: , , , , , , ,  4 Comments
Aug
21
Yahoo! Launches New Social Networking Program
Posted by Michele on August 21, 2008

Yahoo! is jumping into the social networking game with Yahoo! Buzz. Bloggers across the Internet are sharing their thoughts and wondering if this is indeed a competitor for Digg.

Many are asking if Buzz will be another place to promote their blogs and others wonder if it just another copycat site of the hugely popular Digg.

What’s Hot

This is where I see bloggers getting the most benefit from Buzz. It seems like this site has attracted members similar to Digg. Of all of the categories that I looked at, only about two of the articles displayed were not from major news sites, huge information portal sites, or otherwise well-known sites. This would provide bloggers with information about what people are talking about RIGHT NOW.

Personally, I would rather use Google Trends which is purely based upon the number of searches being made for up to 100 phrases.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Yahoo! and much of what they stand for as a company. But, using current searches as a basis for what’s hot just seems more reliable than what members have Dugg or Buzzed.

Though I must admit when I looked at both sites while writing this blog post, they both listed Stephanie Tubbs Jones (the poor woman who suffered a brain aneurysm earlier today) in the number one position. Number two on Google was “aneurysm” and Yahoo! Buzz had “Christina Applegate”. Which of the number twos do you think more people are actually talking about today?

Small Bloggers

It would seem from my looksee today that lesser-known bloggers would be unlikely to rank well on Yahoo! Buzz. The focus on “news” makes Buzz more about what is coming off the AP and Reuters’ news wires than actual conversations about that news. Seems Buzz, like Digg, is more about who can find the latest news off the wire services first rather than what people are actually finding interesting.

I have twice managed to write posts on Blog About Crafts that vaulted to the front page of Digg and hopefully the overwhelming predominance of sites like the New York Times, Yahoo!’s own news pages, and huge sites carrying household names will level out as more bloggers find the site. I suspect there will be those exceptionally written and thoughtful everyman blog posts that will do well on the site and I hope that as the site matures there will be more opportunity for those posts to be recognized.

Social Networking?

If I want to know the news, I go to Yahoo! or any of the other news outlets directly. What I’m looking for on blogging sites and social networking sites is how bloggers think a particular news item could impact their personal or business life; not a reprint of the original news story. It’s the opinions that make blogs so very interesting.

The top Buzzed story while I was writing this post had over 160 Buzz Ups and not a single comment. Not much social about that.

Category: Great Websites, Internet Marketing  Tags:  One Comment
Jun
29
Free Artist Profiles
Posted by Michele on June 29, 2008

I was looking at someone’s blog today and noticed a conversation on how to advertise a crafting business on the cheap. One of the things mentioned was to ask bloggers if they would be willing to interview artists or review their sites.

I’ve toyed with the idea to review each of the sites submitted and accepted to Crafty Tips Arts & Crafts Directory but my concern was trying to be fair and impartial. I mean, let’s face it not all sites are created equal. Some directory sites have started adding blog entries for sites being submitted but it would seem that could become a real black hole of time and frustration.

In the past, I’ve offered free profiles on several forums. I did ask for a link to this site or one of my other craft-related sites and was disappointed when only two artists took me up on that offer. My thought was that since my blog is not on the fast lane that it was simply a matter of not being popular enough to attract interested folks. The blog I was reading happened to have a comment from one of the editor’s in the jewelry section of a very popular crafting site. She too lamented that she could not find folks who wanted to participate and receive free reviews and profile pieces.

So, rather than try another round in the forums, I thought I would make the offer again here on the site where the profile would reside. Do take heed, that this is free advertising for your business and I take that very seriously. Your site or shop must offer something of value for sale or offer information and project tutorials that would be of interest to crafters.

Participants might also receive a bit of free business consulting advice along the way and when combined with a bit of free advertising both will hopefully bring a some new visitors/customers to your site.

Just let me know if you are interested. The profiles/reviews are free.

Category: Being Web Savvy, Internet Marketing  Tags: , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
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