Assignment 2, Bootcamp #5 - Researching Blogging Community

[JaJeJems]

http://www.sensibleinternet.com/blogs/tom/link-building-guide-2013  3 easy to read articles on link building

[Jewelry by Kat]

Easy article to follow ....thanks ja je jems

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Kat,

This is in regard to your last comment:

I had the link to Icraft so people could see more photos and maybe like it better.  I removed it. 

I didn't mean removing iCraft link from your page. My point was - send people directly to the page, where you want them to be, when you create your backlinks. Don't send them to pages where you can lose them, as there is nothing for them to do.

On that page, I'd say something like this in bold "Shop on this site or my iCraft store at https://icraftgifts.com/jewelry-by-kat." - to give people options. Or even add our Store Widget to showcase a few of your products. People need to see those Calls-to-Action on your landing pages.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Red Rock Designs,

Those links called Trackbacks or Pingbacks. They are the links to other blogs, that mentioned your post on their pages, with or without additional comments.

You can find some advise online for using those for establishing blogger to blogger relationships, and even for seo. Though, personally, I don't see any value to you, as a blog owner, in those links.

If we analyze that link on your tumblr post - what do we see? A comment "Love it!" with the link back to this person's tumblr site.

So how does it help you?

It doesn't! The comment is very generic - could apply to any post really - a type of a comment that spammers leave, without reading posts. Those types of comments are not considered valuable, as they don't add much value to your readers.

The link that appears just below your post is the first link that people see on your page - and it will take your readers way from your site! Is that what you wanted? Probably not. So I would disable those links on your site, if I was you, but I would allow comments and moderate those.  Hope this helps.

[iCraft Admin]

Well, Marta from Delightful Suds just confirmed that she can't participate in the Bootcamp, as she's enrolled full time in a business program for the next 8 weeks. So.... since I was planning to pair you guys up for the next assignment, this is now a challenge for me to come up with good tasks that you could do independently... or maybe one group would have 3 people? ... unless we find one more seller to join. Hmmm..  What do you guys think? Any preferences?

[Jewelry by Kat]

does'nt matter to me  though 3 would prove interesting

[iCraft Admin]

Interesting, indeed! You see, I was going to ask you guys to do link building for your and your partner's store at the same time, so it's in a way, double work, but double benefit too!

Not sure if this will be too much work with 3 people in a group. Good to know that you don't mind extra work, Kat! Or maybe you didn't know there will be extra work? 

No, don't worry, I'll make sure it's manageable, even if we have to have 3 people in one group.

[iCraft Admin]

Hello Bootcampers,

So how are you all doing with this week's assignment? Please post at the end of the day tomorrow a report of how many good site you've found (nor URLs, just a number) and how many personal contacts you've made this week. Also, lessons learned from this week's rereplacement and reading that you've done.  Thanks!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Filtering for blogs did not help.  I don't like any of the sites that come up for the keywords.  I went only 3 pages deep in the replacement because I'm strapped for time.  I used (both in quotes and not):
- handmade greeting cards
- hand made greeting cards
- handmade cards
- hand made cards
- hand stamped cards
- scrapbooking
- paper craft

I have a LOT of blogs bookmarked that are card-making related, but I guess they don't rank well for the keywords.  Seems awfully strange, that.  Some are HUGELY popular forums and some of them are manufacturer's blogs that pay people to optimize them.  I don't get it.  It is not possible for these well known crafting sites to not come up on replacement.

Can I just use my existing list of favourites?  Or does it have to be sites that were returned by the keywords?

[iCraft Admin]

No problem, Fairy Cardmaker! I was looking for a mix of sites, but any good blog, related to your business, that you personally checked and liked is good for our next assignment.

[Jewelry by Kat]

I joined a beading forum.  I found 6 great blogs and joined and left comments on others.  I had a product reviewed and got views from this.  Had views to my store from 2 blog sites.  I wrote a blog.   I listed my online store on craigslist and had views from this. 
       I learned about backlinks and where to place them to get results.  I learned that commenting and joining blogs is a good way to get views to your store.  There are some pretty advanced blogs out there.  They have lots of followers and when you leave a comment, you give your url.
       I learned that the title of your blog is very important and some blogs are more than just words.  A couple sites exchanged beads with each other and challenged each other to make jewelry.  Then they blog about the results. Then there are sites where they send jewelry to another as a gift and it is reviewed and blogged about.  All of this is exciting and gets many followers many are stores.
       I have 3 favorite blogs and visit everyday because there is always something new and exciting.  They have their followers listed and I have been checking out related ones.

[Red Rock Designs]

Hi, I've had some hits and misses with my replacementes.  I found about 5 sites/blogs where chainmaille is made by an individual artist only. The other's I've found are wholesale websites selling supplies and tutorial kits.

The sites that are useful all seem to have blogs on Blogger, which I'm not apart of...so I can't leave comments on the actual blog, I've had to Like their Facebook pages and leave comments on FB.

Well I learned the difference between a backlink and Trackbacks!  I learned the difference between a genuine artist's blog and spammy sites. I also learned why leaving comments on other sites are beneficial.

[JaJeJems]

Better  late than never I guess!

I recorded 22 possibilities in my spreadsheet.  I have them divided into Seaglass, lampwork, other jewellery designers and fashion designers/other
Seaglass -7, really liked 3, left one comment and got a response
Lampwork - 6 , commented and got responses from 4
Other jewellery designers - 4, commented on 3 and got a response from one
Fashion designers /other - 5  commented on 1 and got a response

Out of the 22 I think that there are about 10  with potential, one site features designers and invites designers to be featured, the fashion designer features a lot of jewellery, I have had ongoing conversations with others, one offered me help with making beads, several others already have links to other designers on their sites.

I joined one forum and two more LinkedIn groups.  I clicked to link after one interesting blog and it is now on my blogspot blog.  I found lots of leads through my groups on LinkedIn which is kind of funny since I haven't really paid a lot of attention to LinkedIn until now.  One more funny thing - I shared a linkbuilding blog that I found on my LinkedIn jewellery group and it became this weeks "most popular discussion"!

I found a lot of webpages with no place to comment.  Several that I looked at had no comments on recent blogs, several had a lot of older blogs but nothing for a couple of years.

Well I actually had a great week and looking forward to next week!

[iCraft Admin]

wow, great job, guys! So impressed with everyone's results. A lot of good points and lessons learned. Congrats to JaJeJems for making it to the top of the "most popular discussions" on the LinkedIn jewellery group! That made me smile. 

We are going to build on this knowledge next week. However, this type of rereplacement you should try to incorporate into your regular promo activities. Keep adding good sites & contacts to that list. You'll see how useful it will be pretty soon.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi SilverDawnJewelry,

I didn't see messages from you this week. How did you do with your assignment? Could you please post your results in this thread? Thanks!