10 Ways to Promote your Crochet Blog
Whether you own a retail business or a crochet blog the only way you are going to make money is to get known. These ten tips are what helped me to increase my blog traffic. Honestly I slack on most of them, and if I were more consistent I would have more consistent traffic. As it is, even with only doing some of these things some of the time I have increased my blog traffic tremendously in the 8 months I’ve been blogging for income.
1. Social media. You NEED to be involved in social networks in order to direct more traffic to your blog. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. More than just having these accounts you will benefit by sharing your posts on all the social media you belong to. However, don’t only share your posts, share other peoples content as well. Also, don’t only comment or post when you have written a blog post, be sure to engage with your audience, ask open ended questions, get them participating. You want your fans to be your friends, treat them as such. If you only called your friends when you had something you wanted them to do, then they wouldn’t stay your friends for very long. Be sure to keep it upbeat and positive. Nobody likes a negative Nelly.
2. Network/Stay Relevent– Along the same lines as social media you should stay involved in the crochet community. Comment on other blogs that you like or follow. I have commentluv on my blog which will automatically link the most recent post of anyone that comments on my blog. I try to always check out their blog.
3. Pattern directories– When you have a blog the goal is not only to post great patterns but to let everyone and their mother know about them. Posting them on Facebook and Twitter is important but it’s not the only way to go about advertising them. There are many pattern directories out there but my favorites are AllFreeCrochet, Crochet Pattern Central, Ravelry, The Yarn Box, Crochet Pattern Bonanza, Crochet At Play, Crochetville, The Daily Crocheter, Crochet Me, and Craftsy. The list is infinite on places you can share your patterns. There are also a ton of Facebook groups you can join where bloggers share their patterns.
4. Virtual pinboards. Pinterest, Indulgy, and LookBook are just a few. Be sure to pin every pattern you make and try to belong to as many boards as possible. The more followers you have the more your patterns will be seen. Also, the same as other social media… don’t only pin your creations. Pin all the patterns you like, help support other crochet blogs as well. There’s plenty of love to go around and it can only help you in the long run.
5. Post consistently. I am not very good at this one. I will post ten things in one week and then not post again for 5 days. But that’s just me… my readers ought to be used to it by now 🙂
6. Share the love. Have guest posts and feature other bloggers on your blog. In return you can do a guest post to be featured on someone else’s blog. I have made so many friends in the business by doing reciprocating guest blogs. It has led to lots of traffic being received and sent.
7. Ad/logo exchanges. A lot of my traffic has come from referrals from other blogs. There are hundreds of thousands of crochet and craft blogs out there and they all have different vistors. The more exposure to your blog the better. I have cold contacted people who have blogs I admire and asked if they would like to do a logo exchange. All have said yes and I currently have eight blogs that I do exchanges with. Some of them have approached me, but most of them were sought out by me.
8. Signature line in all emails– Be sure to put a signature line in all your emails linking to your blog and any social media you belong to, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. The more people see your name the more quickly you will come to mind when they are looking for a pattern. Many of your fans may not know that you have a Pinterest board, the only way for them to follow you on it is for them to know about it.
9. SEO. This is a BIG one. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Ideally you want most of your traffic to be new traffic. The way to achieve this is to be found easily on search engines. Good SEO is achieved by a variety of different ways, it would require an article (or ten) in itself to describe it all, but there are a few simple things you can easily do to optimize your search engine traffic. Use relevant tags. Try to use the same three keywords in your post at least three or four times (url, title, content and closing). Label all your pictures using the same keywords. Many blogs have plug ins that can help you increase your SEO.
10. Pretty pictures. I put this at the end but it may be one of the most important parts of having a successful blog. I have seen many fantastic patterns that had poor photos that did not do well compared to mediocre patterns that had amazing photos. Guess which one gets more attention and therefore traffic? The pretty one! Natural light (in the shade) works the best. Many libraries have books on improving your photography skills. You don’t need an expensive camera or costly editing software, just some basic knowledge. I personally hate having to take pictures so I worked out a deal with a local photographer who does my photos in exchange for props and advertising. You can even use stock images. But however you do it, good pictures drive traffic.
I took it easy the whole end of May and beginning of June and my traffic definitely reflected that. Not to mention that it is also summer and not as many people are crocheting or they are busy doing other outside activities instead of sitting on their computer. My views dropped from an average of 135,000 a month to only 92,000 in May and are at an all-time low of 75,000 this month. But that’s what happens when you don’t post interesting content and don’t use your social media tools to promote yourself.
My drop in traffic is what inspired me to write this article… it will serve as a little reminder to me to do these things as well. My ultimate goal is to be able to fully support my family with my blog so that my husband is able to follow his dream and start his own business. This article Bloggers Share Their Income from Work at Home Adventures shows me that with a little hard work and determination that my goal is possible.
Do you have any pointers for increasing traffic to your blog or any success stories? Please comment below and let me know! Maybe I’ll use your pointers in my next article.
If you like what you’ve read, please share it. Have fun, and as always…
happy hookin’
Tips:
There are many more social media sites other than what I mentioned, research them all and see what works besto for you. Others to look into are:
Vine, Instagram, Reddit, Stumble Upon and many many more… just Google it.
