So, You've Built a Blog.   Now What?

If you've read last month's Market Insider, then you've hopefully decided to take the plunge and start a blog.   This month, we continue our series on blogging, focusing on in-depth tactics for marketing your work and your blog.   Next month will conclude this series, by exploring some common mistakes that bloggers experience and a few artist blogs.  

With web marketing, there are essentially two methods you can employ to help people find your site.   The first method utilizes the structure of the Internet and search engines; the second method is good, old-fashioned relationship building done online.   We'll cover search engines first.

Blogging in a networked world

One of the main ways in which people find your blog will be through search engines.   They might not be searching for your name directly (though they may if you're doing enough marketing through other channels), but they may find your blog when searching the web for relevant keywords.  

For example, searching for "wholesale craft blog" on Google, the Wholesale Matters blog is the first site listed on the search results page (as of the time of this writing--search engine results fluctuate).  

To understand how this works--and how it can benefit you--it is important to have a basic understanding of how search engines work.   Most search engines, like Google or Yahoo, are essentially huge indexes of web sites and web pages.   To index web sites, search engines send out "spiders," which are software robots that read the text on a web site.   Spiders also examine the links found on a page, and follow them.   Search engines then use complex mathematical algorithms to determine what a site is about based on its content, and how relevant that site is to other web sites based on the links.   Relevancy is also determined by how frequently a web site is updated.

When a person performs a search on a search engine, the search engine compares the search terms entered to the pages listed in its index.   It then returns a list of results, ranked according what the search engine determines is relevant to the person.  

Blogs take advantage of how search engines work in two ways.   First, your blog will presumably have content that is relevant to your work.    So, if you're a potter in New Hampshire and you have a blog, your blog will be listed in the results when someone searches for "New Hampshire potter."  

Second, blogs frequently include what's called a "blog roll," or a list of links to other relevant web sites and blogs.   Search engines spiders follow these links and the search engine determines how relevant your blog is to these sites by comparing the text on each site.   Generally speaking, the more relevant links you have on your blog, the higher your

blog will appear in search engine results.   And the more frequently you update your blog, the more search engines will see it as relevant.   In other words, how well you maintain your blog will effect how search engines view you as an expert.  

NOTE:   This is a very basic explanation of how search engines work.   A more in-depth explanation can be found at How Stuff Works or on Wikipedia.  

Reach out and touch someone

Interestingly, the same blogging tactics used to boost rankings in search engine results also help you connect with audiences.   By nature, blogs are social in that they connect like-minded people to each other.   The more you participate in other people's blogs and online conversations--and the more you maintain your own blog--the more traffic you will receive.  

The first step is to identify which blogs you want to link to on your own blog.   The key here is relevancy, though the blog or site you're linking to does not necessarily have to be exactly the same topic.  

Next, follow these blogs as closely as possible (an easy way to do this is to use a news aggregator, or RSS reader--see Wikipedia for more information).   Stay abreast of what these bloggers are saying.   When the blogger posts something that's relevant to you, be sure to make a comment on their blog (provided their blog allows this--not all of them do).   And when you make your comment, be sure to include a link to your blog.  

When one of the bloggers you like makes an interesting post, create your own post that extends the discussion.   Be sure to leave a trackback, an electronic acknowledgement that you are referencing their post (see Wikipedia for more information on trackbacks).

If you have a new post that you think a blogger mind find interesting, don't be afraid to alert them to the post.   They may mention it on their own blog, which will send you readers.   You can also ask them to link your blog on their site, but it's advisable to only do this if you have an existing relationship with them.   Otherwise, they might see your request as spam and simply ignore you.  

Participating in online discussion forums can also drive traffic to your blog.   Be sure to include either your blog address or your main website in your signature line when posting.   That way, other members will be easily able to find your website whenever you post to forum discussions--whether you mention your blog directly or not.

Last but not least, update your blog as often as possible.   This is possibly the single most important thing you can do for your blog.   Not only with this help you with the search engines, but it will give your readers a reason to return.   And it will position you as the expert of your subject (see last month's Market Insider).   

There are a number of other tactics to get your blog noticed, such as joining a blogging ring (a collection of blogs with similar themes).   Starting with the above ideas, though, will get you well on your way to marketing your blog, your work and yourself.

Got a blog?   Let us know about it!

Post a link to your blog in the comments section of this post about blogs at Wholesale Matters.

OPPORTUNITIES KNOCKING

Call for Entries

Composting Good and Evil: Redesign for Sanctimonious Sinners

A virtual exhibition open to all artists.

What would happen if we tossed our smug habits into a heap? What if we composted our shameless sins, our saintly intentions and our fertile imaginations and pledged to use the resulting fecund glory to redesign and nurture the world?

Imagine the change that could grow from a pile of temptation, convenience, guilt, hope and inspiration! Join this collaborative effort to transform your compost of good and evil into art for an earthshaking exhibition.

Using any of the following words as a guide, show us a piece of your (recycled) mind and (reprogrammed) heart. Reflect, reform, reconsider, resolve, relate, revise, rework, renew, repair, repurpose, reconnect, review, regret, renounce, reproach, react, rethink, reuse, reduce and recycle.

Ethical Metalsmiths will feature the exhibition on its Web site beginning March 15, 2008 for an extended period of time. The exhibition will premiere on the campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, on Friday, March 7, 2008, during the Society of North American Goldsmiths annual conference. Digital images will be viewed on an outdoor, billboard-size, high resolution LED display.

You can work small or big, but we must have a high quality digital image. Submissions that are consistent with the theme and purpose and meet the image requirements will be included. The use of recycled and repurposed materials is encouraged, but not mandatory.

The deadline for entries is February 10, 2008.

Email mail@EthicalMetalsmiths.org or visit www.EthicalMetsmiths.org for more information.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

I never think that people die. They just go to department stores.

Market Insider Archive - MI newsletters from previous months.