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Assignment 2, Bootcamp #5 - Researching Blogging Community

iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« on: April 08, 2013, 02:58:18 am »

Craft blogs, maintained by crafters, like yourself, is probably the easiest sites for you to get links from. Please note, I didn't say easy or 100% guaranteed, but easier, compared to other sites! It is still a hard work getting links to your pages, so don't expect to gain a lot of links in a short time. It's not recommended anyway!

So this week's assignment will focus of identifying relevant connections in the blogging community and establishing new relationships.

As with any new relationship, it takes some time to develop it. So don't rush! Take your time, keep reading articles that we'll share on forum and focus on one thing at a time.

So what's relevant connections?
If you sell sea glass jewelry - other jewelry designers selling sea glass jewelry are actually very relevant to you, other jewelry designers are also relevant to you, fashion designers that blog a lot about jewelry (including sea glass) and especially those that feature jewelry designers are relevant as well.

Start by doing the search for your Keywords on Google and see which sites come up at the top. Use various long-tail Keywords - those with 2-3 words that have some search volumes (We did this in previous Bootcamp, so hopefully you still have your list of good Keywords handy!). Check those sites and start creating a spreadsheet of those blogs and crafters' sites that you like. Make a note what you like about them and ideas of how you could feature them in your blog and how they could feature you. This is just some ground work, so you don't need to act on any of those ideas just yet!

Imagine your customers looking for sea glass jewelry (or whatever your product is). Think if they'd like that site is well. Does it offer tips, tutorials, decorating ideas, trivia and fun content that could be of interest to your buyers (and not only to other jewelry designers!). Check how many comments their posts get and what those comments are about. Do they all sound like they were left by sellers? or buyers?

Use not only Google, but also your social media sites to discover worthwhile blogs and bloggers.

Add as many interesting blogs that you find this week with your notes in the spreadsheet.

You won't get far in your relationship-building efforts, if you just ask for things right away. Actually, the best way to get someone's attention is to give them some!  Wink

So be generous! Leave good comments on blogs you like, tweet, pin and share people's stories on your sites (blogs) - all keeping in mind that you only want to share Great (Amazing etc.) Content! You are not going to lose anything by spreading a word about something great.

Don't make this about getting links. Just get yourself out there and let others know who you are and what you do.

At the end of the week, please report how many new (Great!) relevant blogs you found and how many new connections you've made.  

Here is another good article for you to read to keep you busy (in case this assignment is not enough  Wink ) -How To Create A Sustainable Link Plan.

That's all for now. Please keep reporting throughout the week about your experiences and don't forget to ask questions. I love them, honestly!  Grin
« Last Edit: April 08, 2013, 03:03:29 am by iCraft Admin »
JaJeJems


Posts: 174


« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2013, 05:32:12 pm »

I hate to say that I am already discouraged!  Not really, it has been interesting so far.  The #1 site that I found when I googled sea glass jewellery was awful.  The whole site was written in capital letters!  I felt shouted at!   No questions yet but I a sure I will have  a few.
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2013, 06:23:06 pm »

Oh no, don't get discouraged!
It's actually good news. It means you can easily outrank them, with our help, of course.  Wink
« Last Edit: April 08, 2013, 06:28:19 pm by iCraft Admin »
JaJeJems


Posts: 174


« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2013, 06:57:14 pm »

Thanks admin for the encouragement and I am not really discouraged!  Are they ranking high because they have seaglass in their domain name?  They all have some variation of it in their name as well.
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2013, 08:16:40 pm »

Probably not. Most likely they have more backlinks.
Fairy Cardmaker


Posts: 1115


« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2013, 11:21:34 pm »

I tend to like sites that are like-minded with me - which are not sites I would expect to find my buyers at - just other crafters.  Is that okay?  Or should I look for more "complimentary" sites that would compliment my product rather than similar sites?
Jewelry by Kat


Posts: 182


« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2013, 11:28:38 pm »

Just a little 'funny' in my journey of finding blogs.  I found a blog to do with metal jewelry which I love and so I commented and joined, only later I realized that I joined a bootcamp to make metal jewelry!  Wow , one bootcamp at a time!!!!!!
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2013, 11:53:23 pm »

Ha ha.... That's hilarious!  Smiley
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2013, 11:53:59 pm »

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

We seek Backlinks for 2 reasons - to get some referral traffic and to strengthen the authority of the pages that we want to rank well in search engines.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic means that users are actually clicking on your links placed on other sites and landing on your pages. Great! Now the question is who are those people and what you want them to do on our site?

If you place links on the sites that are frequented by potential customers - then you'd want to place a link to your store on that site, as there is a chance that those visitors will actually convert into customers.

If you place links on the sites that, as you put it, are 'like-minded", that most likely visited by other crafters, like yourself, then point those links to your Blog. Your blog has links to your store, so in some way, you are still helping your store, by strengthening the authority of your blog by creating backlinks to it.

Search Results Ranking

All links from good sites that are close to your business thematically (Handmade Cards, Greeting Cards, Scrapbooking, Crafts - in your case) are good and will help you with rankings over time, but not all will bring you a referral traffic.

Ideally, we want our links to give us both - referral traffic and grow our rankings - but it's not easy to get those links and sometimes it's hard to predict which links will give us referral traffic. So what do we do then? We test and learn, adjust our strategies, and celebrate every good link we get!  Grin
Jewelry by Kat


Posts: 182


« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2013, 06:43:29 am »

So far I have joined a few jewelry bloggers and a forum.  Learning alot and meeting new people  I have had traffic from craigslist and a blogg on my website
« Last Edit: April 09, 2013, 06:45:14 am by Jewelry by Kat »
Red Rock Designs


Posts: 173


« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2013, 08:47:19 am »

I'm pretty impressed with the sites I've found so far when searching for 'chainmaille jewelry'.  The sites from individuals who handmake jewelry are professionally layed out, not overwhelming with info and the sites are easy to navigate through. Definitely great inspiration for my own website when I develop one!

The sites themselves don’t have an option for me to make comments, so I’ve liked their Facebook pages and left comments there…not sure if this counts…
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2013, 09:10:54 am »

That's great, Kat! And it's only Tuesday  Grin
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #12 on: April 09, 2013, 09:16:17 am »

Hi Red Rock Designs,
Yes, it all counts! Others interested in your type of jewelry see your comment on FB and might want to check you out. Site owner will remember you when you finally approach them about backlinks. So it's all good!
JaJeJems


Posts: 174


« Reply #13 on: April 09, 2013, 06:53:29 pm »

Today I have been looking at blogs about sea glass not websites (where some people also blog).  The last one I looked at was interesting, this person had a variety of topics not just all about herself!  (I think that you told us not to always promote ourselves). At the bottom of one blog that I commented on there is a button that says something like Click here to link.  When I did it gave me a link to put on my own blog.  would I want to do that?
Second question:
When I went to her website she had rewritten a couple of her blog topics there but on several pages she referred people to her actual blog which is not part of her page.  I have had a blogspot blog for a while and have written a few blogs.  I also can have a blog on my website.  Now I am wondering what would be best?  Not sure how I feel about having them separate.  This person has much better blog topics than others who happen to blog on their websites but maybe they are just not good bloggers!
iCraft Admin


Administrator
Posts: 1693


« Reply #14 on: April 09, 2013, 10:32:44 pm »

Hi JaJeJems,

To the first question - absolutely yes! Her blog is about sea glass jewelry and you sell sea glass jewelry. So it's very relevant to your business. You may get some referral traffic from that comment, and it will be a good link for you to have in your link profile, even if its a "nofollow" comment link.

I am not quite clear what you are asking in the second question though.   Embarrassed
Could you please re-phrase it? Thanks!
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