15 Tips for Using Pinterest

I mentioned last week that I would write up a guide to Pinterest, it seems like my Timeline and Blogging articles were popular so I might as well continue imparting my nerdy skills. If you are at all involved with crafts/design you will probably have heard of Pinterest, that is if you are not already a member. It's a website  where people share their taste via virtual pin boards, basically it's like bookmarking with pictures in a shared community. For designers its an amazing resource for two reasons, one it's fantastic for research and information; I've learned tons of new techniques for both crafts and computers since joining. Secondly it's as a way of sharing your own creations, I pin most of my blog posts and some of my etsy listings so my followers (and virally millions of others) can see them.  Even though it has one twentieth the users as Twitter it generates nearly the same referrals, which just shows you the power it has to generate traffic for yourr brand/website. I've been addicted since before Christmas (go here if you would like to follow me) so I've learned a few things along the way:

1. Set up an account;

For some weird reason the site is still invite only, but you can either request one when you go to Pinterest, or if you leave your email in the comments section I can send you an invitation.

2. Don't just repin; 

There are two ways to pin; either by repinning an item that someone else has pinned or by pinning something new to the site. After you've been on the site a while you will see lots of the same tutorials floating around, the community depends on people adding fresh items or it's gets stale very fast. Some of the hardcore Pinners say that you should contribute 1 new pin for every 5 that you repin. But I'm gonna be realistic and say that I do 1 for every 10, I see way too many cool things not to. You can install the pin button on your tool bar that makes pinning cool stuff from the internet really easy.  

3. Pin with the correct link; 

After a while you will notice that not everyone knows how to use Pinterest properly and that some images don't link to the proper site, as a user this is insanely headwrecking!! Please don't be one of those users. for instance if you are on a blog and you see a great post, don't just pin the whole site and click the picture you like, you have to click into the link of that individual blog post and then click your 'pin it' button. Otherwise other people will be brought to the main site rather than that specific post. I hate it when I see a pin for a fantastic tutorial and then I can't find the page. Another thing that people do is pin images directly from Googe images, giving that as a referral link rather than the website, leading people to a dead end, which is also really annoying and breaks the rules of Pinterest.

4. Find a lost pin;

If you get stuck in the above situation but you really want to find the source there is a way. Right click on the pin, then 'open the image in new tab', right click on that and 'save as'. Open up Google Images an drop the file into the search bar, it will then give you a list of sites that this image has appeared on (this is also a good way to see is anyone stealing your images online without permission).

5. Organise your brain and your browsing;

I used to use bookmarks but I really hated them as I always lost sites or forgot what I named them. Pinterest is fantastic for sorting out this kind of information. I have a borad for loads of helpful articles for selling online that includes loads of marketing tips that I can refer back to when I need them. The same goes for card making, sewing tips and cookery. Now when I sit down to make cards I take a look at my board first and scan for inspiration (just like I do with my scrap booking magazines). I also keep a cookery board, so if I can't think of anything to make for dinner I can take a peek at my board and see if anything takes my fancy. I use Pinterest as a place to store ideas until I need them. 

6. Add text to your image;

This is something I haven't quite gotten in the habit of doing yet, but I see it used a lot to great effect. If you are doing a blog post that you intend to pin, or something useful that you would expect others to pin then add text to one of the images. For instance for my blogging article I made images to go with the piece and included the phrase '20 blogging tips' in the picture. There is a pin description, but sometimes people leave this blank, for these instances your pin will still have an explanation embedded into the image. Another tip I read was also to include your website address in the image. This has two benefits; 1. If the link gets lost along the way or someone pins it incorrectly then people can still find your site. 2. It creates brand awareness on Pinterest, if your posts get popular people will start to recognise that brand. 

7. The ins and outs of linking to FB and Twitter;

I have to raise my hand and say I learned this info the hard way. In my settings I linked my account to my Facebook timeline, thinking it would show on my page; not knowing that it would update all my friends about each pin (can I add that I'm addicted so that's a lot of pins). When pinning something it gives you the optiont o share on Facebook and Twitter, you can do this sporadically so you don't spam all your friends. At the start I was frustrated that I couldn't share my business page, but I figured out how to do it. After you pin something a box appears asking if you want to share your pin, click the Facebook one, then go to your page in the drop down menu. 

8. Write good descriptions;
Writing a good description makes it easier for people to search for this item. Even though it's tempting to write 'amazeballs' as the descriptions, ''chocolate sponge with caramel glaze,they are totally amazeballs cookery# baking# cake# chocolate#' will mean that more people will find it. I must admit that when I'm repinning I don't always edit them to make them better for searching, but it's worth the effort. You can also use the @ and # symbols like you do on Twitter.

9. New profiles;
Pinterest just changed their profile layout recently, and you can now choose what image represents your board. Just click the main image and choose your cover image from your pins. Pinterest users are very visual so try to curate your profile like you would an Etsy treasury, I thought about what images and colours matched each other. Also make sure to add all of your relevant links to your profile, I've stated following lots of new blogs and Facebook pages because I've been interested in their taste of Pinterest. I also added my business name in brackets after my own name just in case people don't know me as Ruth.

10. Find out who is pinning you:
I pin quite a few of my blog posts, but other people pin them too, and it's nice too see what is popular. Just type in www.pinterest.com/source/yourwebsitehere/ and you will see all the pins that link to your site.

11. Be Seasonal;
Every time a new holiday/season rolls around Pinterest is flooded with pins for that event, so at Christmas and Valentines there are endless recipes, present ideas, craft tutorials and shopping guides. If you are trying to promote your own seasonal wares or articles make sure to post them early so that they have time to circulate. Or if you like writing craft how-to's then think about the seasons ahead of time and write up some tutorials geared towards these holidays.

12. Share your profile;
Add links to your Pinterest on your blog and business page. Promote it just as much as the other sites that you are part of, if someone finds you on one platform they will want to know where else you are. Make it easy for people to follow you. I even mention that I'm addicted to Pinterest in my twitter profile. You can also add a link to your account to your email signature. Recently I started using social networking icons on my business cards and labels, and on my latest batch I added the P to represent Pinterest.

13. Add the Pin It button to your posts
Sometimes you will see a little red Pin It button on blog posts, this is just like a facebook or twitter sharing button. You can go here to get your button and just paste the html into you post template so that it appears in each of your blog posts like a signature. You can find this in Settings, and then go to blog posts, and paste in the html.

14. Pinterest is a community
You are able to like and comment on pins just like on Facebook. To take part in the community more comment on other peoples pins to interact with them. You can also use the ' symbol to tag another user if you see something that you think they might like, or to let them know you are talking about them. I must admit that I'm guilty of not doing this, but I'm very excited when i do get a comment because it happens so rarely!

15. Set a timer/limit;
Be warned Pinterest is incredibly addictive, and time can easily fritter away. Because of the nature of the site it always leads you to more sites, with more cool stuff, with other links, and so on. They estimate that the average regular user spends 1 hr 17 minutes on it per day. To stop yourself whiling away the hours looking a pretty things set a deadline for yourself, trust me I've learned the hard way.

Helpful Links:
Pinterest deconstructed infographic
Guide to Pinterest infographic
Marketing tips for Pinterest
How to find the original source on Pinterest
7 Ways to use Pinterest
and saving the best til last...
The ultimate guide to Pinterest

Blogging Pt III: 12 Steps to More Traffic on Your Blog

This is the third and final part of the blogging series by Ruth from Nice Day Designs, these pieces were originally posted on her website and were republished here with permission. This installment is about increasing your traffic, make sure to follow the links to read part 1, blogging basics, and part 2, blog design.

I don't claim to be an expert in getting traffic to my site, to be honest it's probably the thing I'm weakest at. But I've made lots of mistakes along the way which means I've learned loads too. Here are some tips that I picked up:

1. Use Your Tags:
When writing a post make sure to use your tags, it will help people who are searching on Google. On blogger there isn't a categories option but I used tags as a way of making easily defined topics, each of my posts uses one of my 12 set tags. Try to think about your article and how a reader might describe it if they were trying to find it.

2. Share on Facebook and Twitter:
Make sure you share all of your new blog posts on your social networking sites. My facebook business page has been a massive help to my business and my website, it is a large source of my daily traffic. Some people prefer to comment on fb or Twitter on your posts rather than comment on your site, make sure to engage in these comments. I also like to share specific links with other users if their conversation is relevant to one of my older posts. For example if people are talking about good films they have watched recently I might comment with a link to a review I wrote. Be careful not to do this too much or in a spammy way, only post it if you genuinely think people will be interested.

3. Join Pinterest:
Pinterest is an amazing site where people 'pin' or bookmark images from sites, and create virtual mood boards that are catagorised by topic. It has been great for bringing new traffic to my site, from other members pinning my posts. I also pin some of my own posts too, like this series on blogging and other crafty how-to's. I will be doing an in depth post on the ins and outs of Pinterest in the next two weeks for those of you unfamiliar with the site.

4. Ditch Your Networked Blogs Feed:
I used to use Networked blogs as an automatic feed for my Facebook page, and I thought it was great as I didn't have to manually post the link. But I noticed that Facebook has started to group topics in the news feed, so all posts from Networked Blogs would come up as one single update. This means that if 10 people that I follow were using this tool had new blog posts in the same day I would just see one update in my news feed, something that could be easily missed. To avoid this just uninstall the tool, and go back to manually linking from your Facebook.

5. Guest Post on Other Blogs:
A great way of reaching a new audience is to do guest posts on other blogs. Lots of people that have never heard of you before will be able to see your site. I really enjoy writing for Etsy Ireland, and last year I was thrilled to guest on my favourite blog Lupin.

6. Add an RSS Option:
To be honest I've never used RSS, and didn't know what it was until recently, so I didn't pay any attention to it. But other people use it to follow blogs and find out about new updates, so you need to add the option to your site. Blogger have a gadget which you can add to the sidebar. I noticed that Wordpress sites have welcome box that can be added to each post with invites people to follow via RSS. I tried to get a posh one online but it wouldn't work, so I just added a basic text one. A simple bit of text can be added to the body of each of your posts by going to Settings-Posts and Comments- Post Template, in there just enter your html for your RSS welcome message.

(Note: I created my html by going to New Post, typing in 'Did you find this post helpful or interesting? To follow my other posts here is my RSS feed'. I changed the background colour to blue, and changed the text colour to white to make it stand out. I then highlighted RSS and added the link to my RSS feed. I then switched to html view and copied this text over to the Post Template. Here is the code you will need for the atom feed, just make sure to replace your own address in the text)
 http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
(Also note that RSS feeds do not work for Google Chrome)


7. Do Featured Posts:
I regularly do posts based on a theme usually around something that is trendy at the moment, like beards, alternative weddings, or tattoos. I usually feature lots of images from Etsy shops or crafty how-to's. I make sure to link to these shops, and then I let them know via a convo to their Etsy shop. I normally say that there is no need to reply but a comment on the blog or sharing on the fb or Twiiter would be greatly appreciated. I prefer to do these posts than make treasuries on Etsy, as I think they get seen by more people. They also help traffic to the site as people will find them in Google searches, I still get lots of traffic from my post about weddings.

8. Host a Giveaway:
I haven't done a giveaway in ages but it really helped me at the start to get some followers. Make it a condition of entry to become a follower, and give bonus entries for sharing on Facebook or Twitter. If your prize is from your Etsy shop make sure to post it on Etsy Giveaways to let people know about it. Or alternatively you could host another persons goods as a guest giveaway, Ruby Clover did this with great success, and even hosted one of my own giveaways many moons ago.

9. Add Your URL to Your Email:
It's such a simple thing but lots of people forget to do it. Create an email signature with links to your site and your shops. Also when ever you send a convo  on Etsy make sure to have a link to your website, fb and Twitter, it's annoying that you have to type it out each time, but it's worth the effort. Here is a great article on creating an email signature.

10. Business Cards:
If you are blogging for your business make sure you have a card, or even if it's a personal site it might be fun to have cards too. I hate when I meet bloggers in real life and we have a great nerd chat about blogs and neither of us have cards on us. Even though I have my flyer that I use for work with all my details on it, I still get Moo cards printed just so I can always have my business cards handy in my key ring. I also enclose my flyer in every online sale, and in the bag with every real life sale, you never know who will hang on to that info or pass it on to someone else.

11. Add Share Buttons:
Make sure to have share buttons on your posts, both Wordpress and Blogger have options for this, so there is no excuse not to have them. You want to make sharing your posts as easy as possible for readers.  To add the tool on blogger go to Template, and click the middle box that says Blog Posts, and you will see the option there. I also added a Pin It button to all of my posts since I became a Pinterest addict. This is a little bit of code I grabbed from the site and added below my RSS signature, so that it comes up in each post.

12. Use Images:
I talked about using images before and how important they are in breaking up the space and making your blog look prettier. But images are also great for searches too, a lot of people do Google searches through images instead of text. Getty Images is a good source of free images if you don't have your own graphic or photo. Always make sure to link back if you are using somebody else's image.

I hope this series has helped you all, I mostly did it for fun, and I must say I learned loads while researching it. If you have any more tips please leave them in the comments section, I certainly don't claim to know it all, and I'm always hungry for more information, so please share!

Helpful Links:
21 tips to increase blog traffic
25 tips for blogging
Creating an email signature
Hosting a blog giveaway

Pin It

Blogging Part Two: 10 Steps to Design

This is Part II of my blogging series, last week I gave you 20 basic blogging tips and today's post is about blog design, stay tuned for the last part next week on promotion. It can be a little daunting when you first set up you blog to decide on a look, especially if you've been reading blogs for a while.

1.Look at other blogs/websites;
This is a good place to start, go to your favourite sites, bookmark or make a pin board of the ones you feel work the best. Judge them on functionality and aesthetics, look at things like colour, layout, and what makes them unique. Finding what appeals to you is the first step in developing your own style. After all this is going to be your blog so you want it to represent you. You also need to figure out what your blog is for, is it crafts, technical, personal, or foodie? Knowing who your audience will be will help you direct the look of the site. The style needs to be appropriate to the topic; a technical one needs to be slick and professional, a craft blog should look textural and personal.

2.Keep your look Consistent:
If you are trying to brand yourself across multiple flat forms like facebook, etsy, blogspot make sure your aesthetic is the same for all your pages. People are visual creatures, and most readers will remember images more than a name. I read so many different blogs that I remember the banner and look of the site far more than the name. If you have your logo designed already make sure it's integral to the colour theme to your site.
In the past year I went through two big design overhauls on this site, to read about them go here and here.

3. Choosing a Template:
Since I'm working on blogspot that will be the focus of this discussion, but the ideas will still hold true for other platforms. Before you do anything you should choose your template. It's in your dashboard under 'template'. There will be an option to choose template, these are basic outlines, the colours and themes can be altered afterwards, so don't be put off by the palette. What you will be looking for is the way the tabs are laid out, are the corners rounded, are there floating transparent boxes? For this blog I used the second option on Picture Window.

4.Get Editing;
Now you can start getting rid of the ugly blogger preferences. Go down to 'backgrounds' and click the picture, this gives you the options to choose one of their images or to upload one of your own. It's nicer to get one of your own as it will make your site far more individual, I generated this polka dot one in Photoshop. You can also choose from endless free ones online like Shabby Blogs or Simply Fabulous (follow the sites instructions if it needs to be installed as a widget). After that go to 'adjust widths', this decides the proportions of your main window and your sidebar. I prefer a wide window as it looks less cluttered, but it's totally up to you. This is also related to 'layout' below, you need to decide if you want a three column or two column layout. Be careful not to have your site too fussy, this is why I go for a right aligned single sidebar, so that there are some gadgets but they don't over power my content. Work through the advanced section step by step picking your font's and colours, try to keep your palette consistent with your logo and background. click apply to blog to save all your changes.

5. Making your Banner;
Your banner should represent the ethos and content of your blog. Look at it like your etsy banner, or facebook cover page. People landing on your site will decide in a couple of seconds if they are going to stay, so try to make an impression. Depending on how wide you have set your width will have determined the size of your banner,to get the pixel size just go back into 'adjust width' in templates and note down the figure. Be careful not to make it too tall, people should still be able to see the top part of your first post before scrolling down. If you are handy with Photoshop spend some time playing around with some designs. I found a great site last week that is giving away free Photoshop templates designed to be Facebook cover images, but these would work perfectly . Alternatively you can use Picasa, Pixlr, or Picnik to edit a photo you have and add some text. I found these pretty free banners that you can add your own text to. Musings of a house wife has a great step by step guide, and for some cool fonts head over to Dafont. If you reach a dead end and aren't happy with what you have done you can pay someone to do it, there are loads of very reasonably priced designers on Etsy, here is one lovely one. When you have your image finished and saved as a jpg go to 'layout', near the top you will see 'header', click this and it will open a window. Click the option for instead of title and description and also tick the box shrink to fit, then save.

6.The Importance of Pages:
Pages are the tabs at the top used for things like 'about me' and 'contact'. It's good to keep all this very important information in an obvious place that is easy to find. It also helps to clear out some unnecessary info from your sidebar. Pages are how people will navigate through your side, so if you have a cookery blog it might be an idea to have an index of recipes here to make navigation easier, same being true for craft tutorials. Try to limit it to about /76 pages so that you can keep them in just one line. If it goes over this go back into template editor and alter the font size of your tabs/pages. Pages come under posts in your dashboard, this is where you can add new pages, either as text or direct links to other websites(be careful with this second option though as you don't want to send traffic away from your site). I only recently discovered that you can publish pages that are not visible on your tabs this is a great way to have information on your blog that you want to link to, but don't want to be visible initially.

7.Make Buttons;
Design some buttons to divide up the space in your sidebar, and to add to the consistent look of your site. I really don't like the appearance of Twitter and Facebook plugins so instead I designed my own buttons in Photoshop and loaded them as a picture gadget. Go to 'layout', 'add gadget', look for the picture option, then add your image making sure to add your Facebook link. I made similar buttons to break up the rest of the space using a links, categories, and Youtube button. Here is a good tutorial on designing your own.

8.Your URL:
Changing your URL isn't essential but I felt it was a very important step to get rid of the .blogspot in my address. This can now be done very easily on blogger and it only cost €10 a year, and don't worry you won't lose all your old fans and followers the traffic is redirected. Go to settings and basic, under blog address their should be add a custom domain. It's been a while since I did mine so I can't really remember, but  I do know it brings you through step by step.

9.Add a Favicon:
This is only a little touch but I feel like it takes you another step to being more professional and not just another Blogspot blog. A favicon is the tiny image that appears at the very top tab above the website address bar, Facebook have their 'F' and Blogger their orange 'B'. Go to layout and above header on the left you will see the favicon loading option. Chose something very simple as this is going to be tiny, I picked my sun and cloud logo.

10.Gadgets;
I know I've talked lots about cluttering up the sidebar, but you still need to have some stuff in their, you just need to decide what is important to you, and what is your order of preference. A search tool needs to be very near the top, it's the default place that people go if they are looking for something. If you are an Etsy seller it's important to have an Etsy Mini so people can see what you make at a glance, at the end of the day that's a large part of why you are blogging. It's also important to have an archive, it saves people trolling through 'older posts' options, and also gives a gauge of how regularly you post. Again these are all decisions you will have to make yourself, but don't worry if you are not happy with them you can just get rid of them later.

I hope these tips helped, if you have any more tips please add them in the comments section, I don't claim to know it all, so I'm sure I've missed loads!

Helpful Advanced Links:
Making an image based nav bar on blogger
How to make seamless wallpaper
Building a better blog

Blogging Part One: 20 Basic Tips

This post was originally posted by Ruth Crean on her blog Nice Day Designs, and was republished here to help all the members with their blogs.

This will be a 3 part series dealing with basics of blogging, design, and promotion. Today I'll be doing the basics, I wrote an article last year on this for Etsy Ireland  ,some of the info is out of date because of the changes made this year to blogger, but there are still some helpful tips for total beginners. The following post will be published weekly each Monday, so stay tuned!

Firstly you have to decide if blogging for you, lots of crafts people feel that they have to have one because everyone else does, or that it's hurting their business not to have a blog. Now that we have things like Facebook and Twitter there is really no need to start blogging if it would feel like a chore. It's just as easy to share your new creations on FB/Twitter, and there is not as much pressure to write. So if you like writing, would enjoy getting involved in the community of bloggers, and don't mind putting in lots of work for free then you have found your calling as a blogger. I've been blogging for nearly 5 years now, and I started it because I missed writing. In my day to day life there is no reason for me to write, and between the years of finishing college and starting Nice Day Designs the only things I composed were emails. I don't claim to be a great writer, but it's a hobby that makes me happy, so starting my own blog seemed like a perfect forum for my ramblings.

So now you need to choose who to go with. Most web designers and bloggers will say Wordpress , as it has more potential down the line to make it feel more like a website rather than a blog. I went through a phase of being very frustrated with Blogger, but I've stuck with it over the years. With all the developments they have made in the past 6 months it's an incredibly easy to use site, and might be preferable to beginners. I've tried Wordpress and I wasn't really a fan. but that's probably because I'm so used to Blogger. There is a handy table here to show you the comparison between the two to help you decide. Most established blogs seem to switch over at some point to Wordpress, and to be honest I'm still toying with the idea, but it can be expensive to hire someone to do it. I just found this ebook that came highly recommended to help guide you through the switch over process if it looks like your blog turns from a hobby to a more committed thing.

Tips:
1. Think about your content, but don't stress over it. When starting your blog think about what you are trying to say overall and who your readers might be. This will help you come up with new posts when you are having an off day. Example this is a craft blog and I wanted to keep my own personal voice. Which means I have a mostly female readership, which in turn will be interested in things like fashion and handsome men! Hence the addition of things like my 'What I'm Wearing' series and 'Hotty but Notty'. Content is key, you will not keep readers if they feel you are writing it as a chore to help promote your business. I've seen an endless raft of blogs like this and I never go back to them.

2. Post regularly and consistently. If you are a once a week blogger then choose a particular day. Don't have 10 posts in 5 days and then nothing for a month.

3. Choosing themed days might help you with get over any writers block. We used this to great effect on the Etsy Ireland Team blog, there was how-to tuesday, and fab 5 friday. You don't need to catagorise your whole week but it's handy to have an old reliable, and it's also nice for readers too as they know what to expect. I'm a particular fan of mags Pretty Boy/Girl Friday.

4. Link as much as you can when you are talking about something. People who read blogs want information. If you are writing about crafts link to your shop, where you got your supplies, and what craft books you are reading. This is done by highlighting the word in question and clicking the link option.

4. When linking always have the option 'open this link in a new window', that means that you are not sending your reader away from your site. It's very easy for a reader to get distracted in that new site and not go back to yours, whereas if they still have your site open in a window they will most likely go back to it.

5. Refer back to old articles on your blog when you are writing, like above I mentioned yesterday's post and also the article I wrote for Etsy Ireland. This will get people interested in your back catalogue.

6. Another handy tool for this is Link Within, that's the little pictures you see at the end of each blog post show you older and related posts. As a blog reader find these really helpful and have often spent a half hour on someone's site reading their older posts. It's really easy to install with their step by step guide.

7. Please turn off the Captcha if you are on blogger! Loads of people hate them and it puts them off commenting. If you are concerned about security then moderate your comments, or what I do is moderate on comments older than 14 days. I have had spam bots post tonnes of comments, but after I made the older posts moderation I haven't had any trouble.

8. Scheduling your posts is a great way to get posts written for the week when you have spare time. Monday is usually my blogging day and i space them out over the week.

9.Interact with other blogs, when you read an interesting article, don't be silent, leave a comment. The blogger will appreciate it and other readers will click your link and go to your blog. Try to do this a much as possible.

10. Respond to comments left on your blog. I don't respond to every single one, but when a few have build up I leave one comment responding to a few people at once. If you notice a new commenter visit their site and leave a comment on their blog about something they have written, it's only polite.

11.Give credit. If you are not using your own photos, or if you found a great crafting tutorial make sure to link to the original site, otherwise you are stealing the image/how-to. Most bloggers don't mind if you link to their work without asking permission first as it will drive traffic to their site. Again it's about being polite.

12. Please don't have music on your blog, or if you really want it let it be optional. A lot of people read blogs in the office(when they meant to be working) so the last thing they want is an announcement to other satff that they are skiving off. Even though I work from home I find it annoying and distracting, most of the time I click out of the site.

13. Share your skills. Lots of my favourite blogs are informative by either doing craft how-to's, marketing tips or cookery suggestions. If you have a hidden skill people want to know about it. Do you have an amazing recipe for chili, or a genius list of uses for vinegar? Let the world know about it by writing a how-to/guide.Be careful not to spill all your business secrets though, if you teach people how to make all the products that you sell they might not buy from you. Lupin Handsmade balances this line very well.

14. Don't obsess over you visitors numbers, it can take a long time to get established. It's only in the past year that I'm getting a decent amount of hits per day, and even at that they are fairly small compared to other craft site. Remember to be patient, but also remember to enjoy it and not stress over the figures. In later articles I'll give tips on driving traffic9although I'm no expert!)

15. Use lots of photos, number one they serve to break up the text, at heart we are all children who love picture books. I like to upload my pictures as extra large and centred, this avoids tricky formatting trying to integrate them into the text.

16. Link your images where possible, most blog readers expect this(I know I do). For example when I doing an etsy finds post I link the image to the item(by highlighting the photo and clicking link) I also type in a description and price underneath, and I also link this. I tried using the add caption option and linking this but that means that when you click the image you get an error notice. I prefer to put in the extra effort and link both separately.

17. I prefer having a long list of posts rather than having to click older posts repeatedly. It's totally your preference, but I get get bored if the whole rage has to reload every time I want to read an older article. I limit mine to 15 posts.

18. Intersperse weightier more time consuming posts, like this one, with lighter quick posts like my beardy post last week. Otherwise you will be a slave to your computer and not have a life.

19. Mix things up, don't just blog about one thing. If i just blogged about the crafts that I make I would bore myself and my readers to tears. I have other interests so I share them here, it gives a more personal and fuller perspective about who i am. You never know what will appeal to readers, my most popular post of all time is how hot Dave Grohl is.

20. Don't over share. I'm all for letting people in and showing my vulnerable side, but I still treat this site as a face for my business. I don't talk about my sex life, or bitch about people I have issue with. Your blog, especially  business blog, is about putting your best foot forward.

Most importantly have fun!

Stay tuned next week for part two on the importance of design.

Useful Links:
Blogging Your Passion 
Get a more professional looking blog.
The Backlight-loads of blogging tips
Blogging Myths
50 tips to battle writers block
The Art of the Article

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How-To:Tackling Facebook Timeline

This post was originally posted by Ruth on her Blog Nice Day Designs, and was republished here to help all the team members get to grips with the few format for Facebook business pages.

Those of you who run business pages on facebook will have noticed that they are phasing in Timeline for pages. You have till the end of the month until it's mandatory, so that gives you a bit of time to figure it out and play with your page design before it goes live. At this stage I'm a bit of a business page expert, for anyone looking for tips on setting up a page I wrote this article last year on 'Facebook Pages:An Idiot Guide'. Whereas today's article is a bit more advanced for those with established pages who know the basic ins and outs already.

Firstly I cannot overestimate the amount that Facebook has helped my business, it may be time consuming but at the end of the day it's free, and it's a form of advertising that customers actively opt into and pay attention to, you just can't buy that kind of press. I've had my page for about 2 years and it has brought me lots of new customers, real and online sales, and helped me build a personal relationship with the people who buy from me. They get to put a face to my business and I get invaluable feedback, it's a win win situation.

In the past few months facebook have been making lots of little changes that at first seemed very limiting to pages, but now that they have unveiled Timeline most of it gels together very well. The most obvious difference with Timeline is the appearance, it's a much wider 'wall' with two columns instead of one. Older stories are now accessible by date from the panel on the right hand side, giving the lifespan of the page. They have added a new tool which means that you can bump up old posts by 'Pinning' them, this is done by clicking the pencil icon on the right of any post and choosing the option 'pin to top'. This brings this post to the top of your timeline on the left hand column. It's a good idea to regularly pin popular posts that reflect your page so that prospective 'likers' can gauge quickly what your page is about. Once an item is pinned it remains at the top for 7 days.

Another way to make a post more noticeable is to 'Star' it(do this by clicking the star icon on the right of any post) this makes the item double width, and much more noticeable when scrolling through older posts. It's good to punctuate the timeline with a few of the favourited posts to break up the double column layout.

When I first went onto timeline I was disgusted that landing pages were made defunct as there is no longer control over what tab a new viewer arrives on. Previously I had designed a landing page that reflected my business and brought me lots of new 'likes'. Facebook have replaced this with a cover photo, a large image that sits behind your profile picture. It is fine to use an image of one of your products in this window but to get the best results it would be better to have a text and image graphic(similar in a way to the banners on Etsy). Although be careful facebook have some rules about what text can go here, you are not allowed to point towards the like button, include sales promotions or other info that should be in the about section. The dimensions for the cover photo are 851 px wide and 315 px tall, and make your document 72 dpi.

They have also added 'Milestones' to the timeline, which act like starred posts(double width), but are designed to highlight key events in your business like awards, press etc. Your chosen event date will then be marked in your timeline. You can create these in your status bar, next to ask a question, and you can upload a photo with your description, the picture dimensions are 843 px wide and 403 px tall. This new feature can be used to great effect to give the history of a business in a dynamic way, especially for older businesses as they can mark events and trivia through the past decades. There is a lovely example here at Leo Burnett Worldwide.

Facebook have added a handy admin panel at the top so all traffic and notifications are easily available. Thank goodness the days of no notifications on business pages are over, that was a nightmare! You can monitor traffic, reach, and who is talking about your page. They have also added a private message section which is really handy rather than people having to discuss sales on your wall. During my research for this article I found out that pages can directly message their 'likers', although be careful not to abuse this and alienate your readers by spamming them. But you can only message people who have already sent a direct message to your business page, you can not start a new conversation with one of your fans. It would be a good idea to post an update letting your fans know that they can now send you a direct message, as most people don't know the mechanics behind a business page.

You should also note that the amount that your updates appear in peoples news feed has changed over the past few months, someone who interacts with your page is more likely to see your updates that people who don't. This means that you need to post more regularly, and at different points in the day. It is also advised that you post different types of things, not just talking about your business all the time. Use pictures, ask advice, questions, share finds from Pinterest etc (For more info on this large topic head over to this great article).

The magazine format of timeline has meant that facebook is becoming a much more visually based forum, so as crafters we should utilize this. Post pictures from your mobile while you are making something. While shopping for wool/materials snap a picture and ask what colour people prefer. Share helpful craft articles that you are reading online. There are lots of ways to vary your updates, just start thinking outside the box.  You'll soon start to notice your 'talking about' numbers increasing, and afterwards your likers. Try to post information that people will want to share, George Takai (Ensign Sulu from Star Trek) has a great business page where he posts loads of funny geek pictures, he gets hundreds of 'shares'  every day because his content is great.

All in all I'm pretty happy with Timeline now that I've learned all the new features. At first I hated it because it meant that I had to relearn lots of things. One frustrating thing is that they don't have an attach link function anymore in status updates which leaves an ugly pasted link at the end of the update, it seems like a pointless change. But the overall benefits outweigh any clunky problems. Knowing facebook they will come up with a whole host of new changes in another 6 months just to annoy everyone!

Helpful Articles:
Involver
The Drum: 5 ways timeline will impact business pages
CMVLive: Timeline, what's it all about?
How to get more interaction on your business page

My business page

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The Name Game

Hi there. Anne-Marie of Handmade by Amo'r here, musing if a rose by any other name really would smell as sweet, or if it would be as thorny as my own Esty shop name has become to me of late.

Nameplate cufflinks by Flying Squirl Jewellery

I’m suffering from store name envy. Forgive me a little name-dropping here but ones like Queen of Cuffs, Patchwork Delights and Huggle Knits are simple and clever. These names instantly give a clue to what is on offer while also evoking an emotional response. Irish Woolen, Purls of Colour and Homespun Ireland also conjure up a sense of the brand. Names like Balanced, Rainbow Stained Glass and A Box for my Treasure I find engaging and most importantly, memorable.

How I rue the day I chose to name my store Handmade by Amo’r based on own my initials. (Anne-Marie O’Rourke.) It seemed an obvious choice as I’d gained the nickname Amor, meaning 'love' in Spanish, when living in Spain. My shop was to be, and is, a labour of love.

Scouring the internet for businesses with similar names (in English) I found no reason not to use it. Granted, there were some with Spanish names incorporating the word. Now, if you search for ‘Amor’ with relevant keywords you’ll find tonnes of other brands (but please don’t!) I’m buried so deep I practically don’t exist.

A few years ago when I signed up green and uninitiated, I knew nothing of brand identity or marketing. SEO was just the Irish translation for the phrase ‘here is’. The more I learn, the less I seem to know.

I do know however, I made the faux pas of choosing byAMOR as my Etsy user name instead of amor or even handmadebyamor.

‘an elephant never forgets’ by Michael Prior Photography

My friends, family and happy customers, who are my greatest advertisers, do not pass the name byAMOR on to their friends and colleagues. The simpler term amor, naturally sticks in their heads, sometimes attached to some random other word. As we already know, a search for the term 'amor' will not dig up my store! As if to prove my point, this very week my cousin told me she couldn’t find my shop when she googled said term. The searcher needs to google byAMOR if I am to be found.

While gnashing my teeth over my predicament, I sought distraction and began pondering the stories behind other shop names. Sailmakers Daughter was a name I always found intriguing. Curiosity got the better of me, so I asked the owner, Edana for her story.

Butterfly ring by Sailmakers Daughter

“Like many others I have a strange obsession with the sea and come from seafaring roots - my Mam's family being from Clogherhead and 2 of my Uncle's are fishermen“ Edana explains. “It was something I wanted to incorporate into my shop identity from the beginning but I spent a loooong time deciding on a name. I thought that it should incorporate hand craft also and spent a while looking through annals of bygone crafts. The Sailmaker fitted the bill and Daughter I added because of my family's sea going ways plus I felt it softened the effect and also allows me a nice wide scope for the ridiculous number of crafts I seem to dabble in.”

Mary of ‘The Blue Cow and the Grey Crow’ (Myrasimon) also had an enchanting story to tell.

Evening Bag by The Blue Cow and the Grey Crow (Myrasimon)

“I chose the name ‘The Blue Cow and Grey Crow’ based upon the idea that people describe colour in relation to their own experience. “she says. “A bluey-green isn't the same as a greeny-blue for instance. My father, a farmer, describes cows that are grey in colour as blue (ours is a Belgian Blue/ Freisian cross breed I think, 1980’s), as most farmers do. That’s a bit of a mystery! Hooded crows, as the rest of the world calls them, he calls grey crows. The head and wings of these birds are black and the body is grey.

So in a given context a colour description can be very individual (Grey Crow) or in another context a widely accepted description. When it comes to describing the colour of the pieces, especially the knit ones, on my web site I've faced a similar quandary. Hence the name!”

Beaded heart necklace by The Green Peach

Liz of The Green Peach explains that her shop name is a little of where she grew up and where she lives now.

“I was born and raised in Georgia, USA, just north of Florida, which is famous for peaches. It's called the Peach State. I moved to Northern Ireland about four years ago and that's where the "green" comes from. Mostly because compared to South Georgia, where everything is mostly brown, N. Ireland was quite a welcome contrast!

I've also been making jewellery for a while, but only just joined Etsy recently, so I thought green was appropriate in that sense as well. "

Names like these are memorable and obviously mean something to their creators.

If you are contemplating opening a new or second Etsy shop, you'd be well advised to learn from my follies and heed this important Etsy post ‘What’s in a Name.’ Also, make sure your friends, family and customers have easy access to your shop link - add it to the end of emails etc. If you can, keep your loved ones well stocked with a few business cards and/or other promotional material to pass on.

'Legend,' Connemara marble necklace

As for me, born with a noble Irish surname like O’Rourke, I’m not about to lie down and play dead. Too late to win head-on without starting over, I shall attack the problem from the sides. I’ve already taken the first steps to counteract my rookie mistakes. So far, 'byamor' and 'handmade by amor' seem to be yielding better results but how I solve the greater problem is a story yet to unfold. May the game begin!

Idiot Guide to Facebook Business Pages

For a long time team members have been asking for an idiot guide to facebook pages. Since I manage a few of them I thought I would wave my hand in the air and volunteer. Firstly....

Why bother setting up a page?

They are a fantastic social networking tool, since I set mine up about a year ago my online and real life sales have increased exponetially . People are on facebook anyway and business pages are like an ad that they have agreed to sign up to. You can let you 'followers' know about new products, events or even how many cups of coffee you already drank today. It's a way of getting the word out there to new people about your business but also putting a personal face to it too. But you only get out of it what you put in, if you only update once a week and are not creative with your output then you are not going to see much return from it.

The difference between Business Pages and a personal account?

All businesses should set up a Page rather than a personal account for their business. I know a lot of people don't do this, but it's against facebook rules and also it annoys people who are any way facebook savvy. It's harder to build up followers with a business page, but there are reasons for doing it the right way. Being a 'friend' allows people to see the personal information of all those who are friends with you, ie access to photos, status updates, etc etc. I know I don't want any business having access to that, especially if I have things like my email address in my personal info. Whereas with a business page a person just 'likes' the pages, meaning they can see the pages updates, pics etc, but not visa versa, the business does not have access to the 'likers' info. As people are getting more and more clued into personal security online they will be less likely to be 'friends' with a business.

Do I need a personal account to set up a business page?

Yes you do. I would recommend joining facebook with your own personal name, and spend at least a week getting familiar with the site. Become friends with everyone you know as this will help you down the line when you are setting up your business page. I know lots of people who set up their personal account and their business page in the same day and they are totally confused by the whole thing. It's a bit alien at first but figure out how to use the status updates, uploading photos, and sharing links. If you get stuck go to the help section, most things are answered there.

Getting Started.....

When you feel comfortable with the site and you want to set up a page go to any existing business page, here is one, and look to the bottom left hand side and you will see 'Create a Page', click this and it will bring you to a list of choices that would best suit your business, browse through them and choose. Underneath is a text box where you type the name you want for your business page, ie. Nice Day Designs. You will then be brought through the steps of uploading a picture, sharing with friends, etc etc, all of this is fairly self explanatory. But the end of this process you will have a bare page with a profile picture. Now it's time to get crackin'!

Spreading the word:

At this initial stage you will need to depend on all those friends that you built up on your personal account. Do not be shy with your friends, request your neighbours, aquaintances, old school friends, BUT NOT STRANGERS! The more people you are friends with, the more people you will probably have liking your page, and then some of their friends etc etc. You can not request that just anyone like your page, like with a personal account, you can only 'suggest' it to the people that you are already friends with 'suggest to friends' button, this is on the right hand side. After you have suggested this to your sister, neighbour, granny and cat, you will start to see the numbers go up over a few days. (please note this function might only be available after you have gotten 25 'likers') With people who know you well you could send them a message asking them to help you network your page, by posting it on their status update. Facebook are finding

new and horrible ways to make running a business page more difficult, 'suggest to friends' used to be open to everyone but now they seem to have locked that down (which I only discovered while writing this tutorial). A way around this would be to add another administrator to your page. You can find this by going to edit page, and manage admins, then you can add anyone you are friends with. They can now control your business page and also suggest to friends. This is helpful for things like a group page like the Etsy Ireland one where it's easier to run with a few people.

Updates-Be professional but personal:

Now that you have a page and some followers you have to keep them interested and engaged or there will be no point in going through all that effort. In all the research I've done on this, they say the best approach is to be business like but with a human face. For example don't just talk about the same thing all the time, giving links to your new listings or you will soon lose all your followers. People are being nice enough to subscribe to this form of advertising from you, they don't want to be spammed. So the trick is to be personal, but not in an 'over-sharing' way, it's like talking to your posh auntie about work, ie you aren't going to talk about politics, religion or sex, and you're not going to curse, you will be pleasant instead,your best food forward. You can put a personal face to your business by talking about having to rush out to post orders, or that you're car broke down, or that you are taking a break from crafting with a coffee and cake. These kind of updates mixed in with links to treasuries

, blog post, and listings will give people a picture of what you do. Post daily if you can, about 1-4 post max. but spread them out if you are online over the day as you will hit different demographics. Also linking to other crafty arty things of interest will help with the community spirit but will also make your readers interested in what you have to say. If you are on your way to an exhibition then post a link to the event if

their is one. Or link to other etsy shops, if they have an interesting blog post, most of the time this gesture of good nature will be reciprocated.

Photos:

People love photos on facebook. Take pictures of items you've just made, supplies you just bought or your favourite shops to go supplies shopping. Also upload albums of images from your etsy shop, in the photo description copy some of you etsy description and then give a link to the item in your shop. I did this last week and I got a few sales about an hour later. Also you can include pictures of sold items and custom orders so people have some idea of what can be ordered off you. Lots of people include scanne

d in images of any press they have gotten, this helps to make you look impressive and famous!

Links:

Facebook pages really come into their own when you have everything linked together. I wrote this helpful article last year about linking your blog to your page, and also to your twitter account. I don't really go onto my twitter account that often but I have regular updates and therefore lots of views on the items in my shop because I have it linked from my page. Also don't forgot to link up your etsy shop to your page, this can be done from etsy and there will be a step by step guide. It all about making things easy for people, they don't want to have to search for your stuff, if everything is linked to each other you will have much higher visibility and hopefully traffic. Also another way to help with linking pages together is link to another page in your status updates. Have you ever noticed when the text of someones name is blue and is a link to them? Well you can do this once you are friends with them or like their page. All you do is type the @ symbol with no space and then start typing their name, you will see a drop down menu appear and just click it to choose the link. This means the update will appear on their 'wall' too, letting them know you are talking about them (in a good way!).

Promotion:

When you've gotten yourself established but you feel like you've hit a wall with new followers there are things you can do to help the profile of your page. You can host a giveaway, which we all saw was very successful on the team facebook page. It's very easy, just pick a prize, a deadline, and ask people to comment on your page, and give extra entry tickets for those that share the competition. Someone can only comment on your page if they like it, which means your numbers of followers will increase. Also try to encourage interaction on your page, ask for feedback on new products, reply to comments. Comments on other peoples pages, this is even easier since facebook recently allowed pages to comment on other business pages with their own business name rather than their personal account.

In the end I feel like I could talk about this forever, it's a big area and takes a while to figure it out. You'll get there in the end, it's taken me a year but now I have a steady following and the other day I just gave my first paid lesson in setting up a page! Without fail every week I have new customers at my stall who say they found me through facebook, so I know it's really helped my business. I hope this helps some of you out and if you have any questions just leave them in the comments section.

How-To Tuesday: Market Stalls Part 2

This is Ruth again from Nice Day Designs trying to pass on a few handy tips for trading on market stalls. This is second part is about interacting with your customers, if you missed the first part about display and presentation, just click here.

Doing your first stall can be daunting, and it's difficult to know what to expect, one thing I hadn't factored in was how to interact with my customers, I figured it was no problem since I had worked in the service industry for so long. But I discovered it's different when you're selling your own work, on my first day I didn't know what to say to people because there wasn't that buffer of the being at a checkout/bar/till. Suddenly it seemed far more personal and I got really tongue tied, it took me a little while but I learned tricks to get around this:

-Be friendly: Nobody wants to go to a stall where someone looks grumpy and unwelcoming, I know it sounds very basic but a smile makes all the difference.

-Give People a bit of space: Don't pounce on them as soon as they stop at your stall, telling them the price of everything. Usually if someone picks something up or inspects a price tag I tell them it's handmade, or a special offer price. It's a way of opening a dialogue with someone who looks interested rather than heckling every passerby. It can be a difficult balance and some shoppers are very shy, so try not to get offended.

-Offer Information: There is nothing worse than talking to a trader and you feel like you are pulling teeth trying to get information out of them. Be pleasant and not too pushy, but tell people it's handmade, what the material is, or that your materials are sourced locally. These are things that people want to know, that's why they are at a craft market instead of Pennies.

-Converse: once you open up a dialogue and you feel that it's going well, continue the conversation, people at markets love to chat, go with it, you never know where it will lead. They might end up telling their neighbour 'about the lovely girl down the market', as you all know Ireland works through word of mouth. Although be careful of those who want to chat for a half an hour but don't buy anything, those people might get in the way of other prospective customers, I know it sounds a bit cruel but you'll need to politely dismiss them.

-Business Cards: If someone seems interested but they don't end up buying it probably means they don't have the money on them at the time, but you have the opportunity for a future sale. Keep business cards on the table and also some close to hand. Hand them your card, tell them about your website, and also if you'll be trading at that market again. 99% of the time I get an encouraging 'oh really, that's great' in response. Recently I've starting giving out DL sized flyers with all my info on them, shop, facebook, and blog with info and images from my business. This seems to be more effective than business cards as it supplies more information. If you do custom orders this would be a good way of letting customers know.

Sometimes it can be a very long day if you are at a stall, especially if it's quiet and there aren't many customers to talk to. The temptation is to bring a book and read it, but I would highly recommend not doing this. It's like adding another barrier between you and the customer, lots of people won't interrupt you, and you will miss opportunities to talk to browsers. This one-on-one interaction is what massive companies would pay millions for, so use this opportunity to add a face and a personality to your business. One tactic I use to pass the time is to bring some sewing with me, it makes it obvious that the products that I'm selling are made by me, I get work done during quiet times, and it's a way for opening up a dialogue with customers. It has the opposite effect of a book, it makes people curious and I end up talking to lots of people about crafting. It also makes my stall more memorable, I've had customers see what I'm making and come back a half hour later to buy the finished product, it all adds to the individual experience of the market. To help with the logistics of working while out of my studio I prepare my brooches at home all precut in little bags, and I just sew them together at my stall.

Another handy tip is to wear your product if possible, it shows a pride in your work and it also illustrates how well your pieces look when they are worn. Sometimes it can be a little thing like this that make that last final decision in a sale. This is also something you can do in your everyday life too, I often wear my felt brooches, and if someone comments I tell them I made it and either give them a business card, or tell them that I sell at a local market. Moo keyring business card holders come in very handy at those times! I know it may seem pushy but you are marketing yourself and your business, and it does lead to sales.

Recently I've found my facebook fanpage to be a fantastic resource for the market. It's a great way to advertise locally for free, during the week I post pictures of the things I've made to build up an interest for my weekend market. Then the day before I post a reminder about the market, with opening times and a link to the website. Without fail every week I get a new customer at my stall saying that they were reading about my work on facebook and they came down because they read my update. I can't recommend it highly enough, it's not that time consuming and it's free!

For the past few years things have not always been rosey at the market, sometimes it can be tough. Here are a few things I learned the hard way

Sales: There have been days that I've sold nothing, it's really heartbreaking and I took it personally, but sometimes it's more to do with advertising, weather and the alignment of the stars (lol). Go home, have little cry, pick your self back up again and try again the next week. It won't happen that often, but try not to take it too hard if it does.

People: I know it sounds awful but some people are just rude, some people expect to buy everything at a market for 2 euro and get annoyed that you are overpricing. Either politely explain that it's handmade, if they persist ignore them. Some folks are just plain dotty!

Weather: If you are trading outdoors check the weather forecast the night before, there is nothing worse than being freezing with no jacket, or wearing uggs and a jumper in 30 degree heat.

Spending: When you are trading at craft shows you are likely to fall in love with all the other traders work, and you'll want to spend all your money at their stalls. It's goo to support other traders, and that's where I do most on my birthday/xmas shopping. But try to restrain yourself, you are trying to make money. If you really want to buy something, set a target at the start of the day, if I sell X amount I can spend X. It might even be a good incentive to yourself to have a better sales pitch!

I hope this market series has helped answer a few questions, and that it encourages some of you to go out and give it a try. It's been the driving force behind my business, and on bad days I might moan and grumble, but I really do love it.