Planning a Jewelry Blog
Okay, first my disclaimer - I'm not a PR professional; however, I have done a good deal of professional blogging, and my article Promoting Your Jewelry Business via Blogs will answer some of these questions.
But first, the question of where to set one up - That depends. If you have no blogging experience and want to see how it goes, using a free site like blogger.com or wordpress.com is a good way to try it out with only the investment of your time. One jewelry maker who does a great job of including her blog at blogger.com with her web site where she sells her jewelry is Jennifer Perkins of the Naughty Secretary Club. She has the site that she sells her jewelry, and linked on that is her weblog.
Another option for "where" is to integrate it on the same site that you sell your jewelry so that users never really have to leave your site at all. An example of this is the Make It Mine blog. You'll notice that when you go there, it is part of the same web site, so it doesn't take you to a totally different URL. I'm doing some work on something like this myself for my own personal site as a way to promote my writing and designing. This is a little more technical, so I hired someone to help me with setting it up.
Your target market can be tricky. If you are creating a weblog, just like a web site, it's on the World Wide Web, so this really relates back to SEO. What kinds of key words does your target audience tend to search for? Make sure you have these on your site/blog. Where do they web surf? Try to get links to these places. Like any kind of marketing, you need to figure out who you are targeting and then go where they go to hook up with them.
Finally, the third question about theme can be tough too, and this is also something I've been dealing with right now myself: What do you want to communicate to your audience? Fun? Serious? Sophisticated? Whimsical? Look around at what other jewelry bloggers are doing and determine what you like and don't like - what you think might work for you and what might not. I literally sat down with the techie guy I hired to help update my site into more of an integrated blog/web site, and showed him blogs and pointed out what I liked. He was helpful and told me things like large headers will cause your readers to scroll too much. So, we worked together to decide on the template he will create for me.
Okay, so I'm turning this back over to you guys now. I'd love to hear from jewelry makers who have a web log. Is it hosted on your site, or did you go the freebie route? How did you come up with your theme? Are you managing to target your audience or is it still hit and miss out in the web world?
Comments
I use Blogger and love it for the most part, because I don’t know much HTML. So it is free. I link to it on my website, my etsy shop, my Flickr, my emails…everywhere I can!
I think its really important to link to other blogs and to comment on blogs you love. It’s a great way to interact and network. When commenting, try not to be too brief, but say something interesting, and don’t be spammy.
I think people are intimidated by the thought of a blog, like maybe it means they have to reveal all thier deep dark secrets. You don’t, you can make it as personal or professional as you like. But show what you are working on, what you are looking at, and what you are thinking, and that is usually interesting to others…
I use blogger too, and I like it. I try to write an entry every day. I started the blog when I first came back from shooting a book. It is important, I think, to have a purpose to your writing: whether it is because you are raising a family, thinking profound thoughts, are selling somethng…whatever. You do have to have a point! Sometimes I will get a response from a whole different group of people from writing a different style of entry. The variety never ceases to amaze me. However, keep in mind, if you don’t write, you will get NO response and you will build no following! And that is a waste of your time! Thanks for letting me share this!
I found when I started my blog that I told a lot of people about it. I put it on my signature line in my e-mails to help spread the word.
Also, when I am out and about town and people see my jewelry. Its nice to have a card to hand them and say here check out my work, it’s on my blog or my web site.
Once people start reading it, they want to keep coming back to see what’s new.
Thank you for the input you guys. I agree that being a real part of the blogosphere, as in actively talking via comments and linking to other bloggers and not spamming is important. And, a Jean mentioned, it is crucial to have something to really talk about. Not everyone feels comfortable writing a public diary of sorts, so for those who don’t, I say don’t. It will get old really fast!
I blog daily. Bloggers absolutely have to be consistent, pick a post frequency and stick to it. It’s not effective to post once a month and create five posts all at once. That’s annoying to your readers and it will drive your traffic down.
My blog is both informative and personal and it varies endlessly between the two. I have a wide variety of readers some of whom are jewelry/craft types and some who show up because they enjoy my writing. I post on Blogger and it works for me, they are getting ready to add some exciting new features in the near future.
It’s important to reach out to others by creating a dialog, joining blogging coalitions, leaving comments on other blogs, responding to comments thoughtfully and to keep looking for new ways to get your blog out there for the spiders to find you. (Not real spiders though!)
RSS Feeds, Technorati, Digg It, Stumble Upon…find out what these are and use them. Also…make sure you use key words, they will drive a ton of blog traffic.
Blogging is the number one tool that drives traffic to my website. It’s well worth the time.
Yours,
Margot
Thank you, Margot. You always have great jewelry and life advice on your blog. I appreciate you taking the time to toss a little my way over here.
Thanks for mentioning our blog and site, Tammy. As for it’s structure, we have IT guys who built it into the site for us, so if you really want to have one that works that way, I’d suggest getting someone to do it. But I think a lot of bloggers have it so closely tied to their site that I don’t personally notice that I’ve left their site and gone to their blogger, typepad, or whatever site.
I went to a seminar a year ago about blogging and the community aspect was a big emphasis. In the same way that manners prevail, you want to comment sincerely on other people’s blogs to build community. But it does take time, to comment, to build your blog, and to get the word out, so be prepared and plan do dedicate a block of time to it on a regular basis.
Regarding the personal aspect: Since our blog is so tightly linked to the magazine and website, I err on the side of caution when it comes to sharing personal information. I’m a private person, for the most part, and my friends and family didn’t sign on to be part of the blog-o-sphere. So I’m careful about including personal info about others, and about myself, except where it’s related to my inspiration for projects. IMO, our visitors come for the stories, for the projects, for the links, and for the ideas and inspiration. And Tea and I do our best to keep it authentic, sharing projects that we created or stories from our experience in our own voice, letting our personalities show through. I think people enjoy that aspect as well, as they’re getting to know us while we get to know them. My family and friends will tell me that they hear me telling them the story as they read the blog, so I try to write my posts that way. But I still stick to my personal adage–never do anything (or blog about anything) that you wouldn’t want your Dad to hear second-hand (because invariably, he will).
And while we do try to blog 3 to 5 times a week, sometimes it’s just a quick link to something cool and sometimes it’s an entire project. I like having that flexibility. It does help that we use the blog as a way to let people know things. Every Tuesday we announce our new video of the week. We do Fun Stuff Friday every week to feature something new. So those regular features, that can be done a few days ahead of time, are nice to depend on and a great way to get people visiting on a certain day.
Great topic!
Linda
Thanks for sharing the great information Tammy, the comments here are very helpful.
I would encourage those who feel intimidated by the idea of writing a blog to imagine you are inviting someone into your studio. Share with them the creative process and your inspirations. The blogs I love to read share the behind the scene story of what they create.
A great way to get visitors to your blog is to join in online creativity challenges. Project Spectrum, Inspire Me Thursday and the Art Bead Scene’s Monthly challenge all come to mind. Write about it on your blog, share your creations and link and participate in the communities.
Also when blogging, write about things that will attract your target market. You need to know who buys your type of jewelry and what would appeal to them. I try to write blog posts that would appeal to jewelry designers, since I sell beads. So I’ve written about photography, booth displays, selling on etsy, etc. This will be different based on what kind of jewelry you sell.
Blogging is a great marketing tool, it’s easy and free so why not give it a try!
Linda - You are so right about having some technical help. Some of the techie stuff I can figure out, but who has the time? I’d rather spend time making jewelry and blogging then try to figure out why something doesn’t work right, so that’s why I went ahead and hired someone to help with that.
Heather & Linda - Right on with being part of the blogging community. That is so important, and it is really what makes blogging so much fun any way.
I started blogging just a few months ago. I use my blog to let people know I have an etsy store. My etsy mini is at the top of my blog. A mini is a collection of photos from my store. I also promote other etsy artists. It’s great for the community, I ‘ve made some friends, and it gives me topics for my blog when I can’t think of any.
Great thread! Lost of helpful comments so far. I’ve just started my blog and have so far made it more personal than “professional” though each entry includes a picture of a jewelry piece and its story. I started with Yahoo 360. It is free. I can see some downsides since it is not very adaptable. One size picture etc. But for right now it is fine.
Bev