How to increase business by increasing traffic to your blog.

[#1]

If you have been blogging for your business for some time, do you feel it's helped to grow your business and bring sales. I do blog and have not found a way of tracking sales through my blog except through contests where I offer a coupon code. However, I have noticed a direct correlation between my blogging activity and sales. The more I blog, the more sales I get. And I feel it's because my blog brings in so many different eyes because of the variety of contest I post. In fact, I feel that blogging #1 and facebook #2 are my two best marketing options that don't cost me anything but a little time.

Much of my blog traffic comes from google - which is great. But I've recently increased by readership to over 20K unique visitors a month - that's over 400 unique visitors a day - with a few tricks and submissions. I've been playing around with a lot of different options like kaboodle, craftstylish and blogher blogs to pull traffic back to my own blog. I also share my posts on facebook and twitter. Additionally I have added several options for following my blog - google friend connect, networked blogs, email subscription, and blog lovin'. My top traffic sources, however, for http://www.soapdelinews.com come from the following:

Google - make sure you've submitted your blog and use lots of keywords in your content and your title.

Stumbleupon - Stumble your posts. Have others stumble your posts. It works.

Pinterest - They're still new, but when you pin something crafty and fabulous a lot of repinning goes on and your work gets shared over and over.

Craftgawker - They're picky about photos, but if they like what you've got, they will send you a good amount of traffic. Don't just share posts about your products, share other content as well. Your blog should have an obvious link back to your shop so you shouldn't feel you just need to promote your stuff with them. If you have wedding lovelies, check out weddinggawker.

IShareCrafts - Very similar to craftgawker. Less picky about photos. But it must be a craft project of some kind. They also have spin offs like craftgawker does for food but also for printables.

OnePrettyThing blog - If you have craft tutorials this is a great place to submit them. They'll link to your project and send traffic your way. It must be your own original project though - not a link through to a tutorial on another blog.

Blog Lovin' - A blog directory that also lets you follow your favorite blogs and check out the daily feed of your favorites in one handy location.

Giveaway sites - If you run a giveaway and submit it to giveaway sites, your traffic will soar. You can also use giveaways to grow your social networks and blog followers.

Tumblr - I don't use tumblr as my main blog and I was VERY reluctant to give it a go. But now that it's established I've found it can work. I often blog a photo from my main blog with a short description and a link back to my blog. Be sure to TAG with keywords. I've gotten a lot of hits to specific articles through tumblr from people doing a key word search ie. DIY While it's not consistent, if your article gets featured in a keyword search the traffic surge is obvious.

Hopefully you will find these sites as useful tools as well. Also, if anyone else has had success in bringing traffic to their blogs using specific sites or techniques, I'd love if you would share them here!

If you don't blog and are reluctant to blog on a consistent basis, I would recommend starting with tumblr. You can simply reblog content on days you are not feeling motivated. I read an article not long ago that says blogging increases inbound links for businesses by 55% or something like that. And I believe it based on my own personal experience.

[Former_Member]

Great info. I've jumped into the blogging pond, but can't seem to keep up with it. Now, I'll try harder. Thanks.

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

Free2BeMeJewelry says

Thank you soapdeli for the information...I'm going to use blogger.com...I cant wait. P.S. I love your store:)
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Thank you!

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

CMBDisplayDesigns says

I've been reading through this thread, and I'm sorry if this has been repeated, but what's your recommendation on using blogspot, blogger, or wordpress? I'm completely new to blogs!
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Blogger and Blogspot are one in the same. It's best if you don't have a lot of technical know how and want something super simple to start with. Plus the free version allows javascript.

Wordpress requires a little more know how but it also a great option. You can do more with it. The free version does not allow javascript though - like etsy minis - so I'd opt for the self hosted version if you go with wordpress.

Both are great platforms. It's just personal preference. Sign up for free accounts for both if you're unsure and play around, then start blogging on the one you like best.

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much! I've been experimenting and found blogger so much easier to use, I took the leap and started my own blog! I'm a little scared, lol, but here it is: www.customizedliving.blogspot.com/
Now I need to put some of your tips to use and figure out how to get followers!

[EviesToolEmporium]

CMBDisplayDesigns-
Congrats on your new blog! I'm your first follower! It will take time getting to develop your following! Post your blog link on your profile page! If you're on other teams and they have discsussion threads started that list blog links post them there as well. Post it on twitter, facebook etc! The followers will come if you write frequently about a number of topics! Soapdeli has lots of great tips about that!
Michelle-

[Joyflower]

Sweet, thanks for the great tips!

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much, Michelle!! I was so excited to see you as my first follower! Thanks for the tips too, hopefully the traffic will come! I'm nervous, lol!

[Former_Member]

thank you so much for sharing those great tips !!

I am very new to Etsy , only for one month and happy to learning everyday ! I also exploring different way to increasing more viewer by attention different great communities and just recently create my facebook page , I can see the viewer is increasing but very slowly, it's about 20 more view per week,.. I have been America only for 4 years and I found English is still a big challenge to me, I tried to read and learn how other sellers write a good description of their items, but I know it's going to take me a while to be there, that's the main reason I using facebook beside blogging at this moment, do you have any tips for someone new to Etsy and English language? thank you so much for your generous !!

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

calligraphytzl, sorry I don't have any suggestions for you, but I'll bump this back up in case someone else does.

In the meantime anyone else with additional ideas for bringing traffic, please post them!

[Former_Member]

i have to do everything¡¡¡¡¡¡
thank you for the tips and information....
i alsowant to have more trafic in my etsy page... calligraphy¡¡¡ i am like you with the trafic and the english...

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

You're welcome. I hope you are able to use these tips to drive more traffic to your blog and in the end, your shop!

[Sidneyandcharlotte]

Thank you so much for the information you all provided. I am still undecided on the benefits/drawbacks of blogging from a time management perspective. Can a blog be easily set-up and maintained if you have limited time to devote each day...by this I mean maintained enough to increase readership and drive traffic to your shop? My other issue is that as an introvert who doesn't necessarily want everyone in my social networks reading my blog, would it be a waste of time to start one? Don't I need my friends & professional contacts to be my first readers? This is always what stops me when I start getting excited about setting up a blog: what could I write about that I wouldn't mind sharing with everyone who knows me??? lol. Curious if anyone else feels this way..

[Former_Member]

Really useful! thanks for sharing!

[Former_Member]

thank you again !!

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

Sidneyandcharlotte says

Thank you so much for the information you all provided. I am still undecided on the benefits/drawbacks of blogging from a time management perspective. Can a blog be easily set-up and maintained if you have limited time to devote each day...by this I mean maintained enough to increase readership and drive traffic to your shop? My other issue is that as an introvert who doesn't necessarily want everyone in my social networks reading my blog, would it be a waste of time to start one? Don't I need my friends & professional contacts to be my first readers? This is always what stops me when I start getting excited about setting up a blog: what could I write about that I wouldn't mind sharing with everyone who knows me??? lol. Curious if anyone else feels this way..
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With tumblr, yes. Because it utilizes social networking others can easily follow your blog and heart and reblog your posts which lead to more traffic to your blog. You can also create short posts by blogging links, urls or even photographs. A lot of people search by key words making it easy to find your posts based on tags.

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

Since I started promoting my blog my traffic to my shop has increased and my blog is now my #1 source of traffic!

[PurpleMoonDesigns]

Thank you for sharing!

[Former_Member]

Soapdell:

Thank You, Indeed! Great tips, I am going to try these venues out soon! Appreciate the work you have done, in finding these sites, too!

Best

judith

[HarrisMarksHome]

yay! thanks for the great info, all! a blog is my next frontier & this thread is so helpful (yes.....bit behind the curve) oh, well, better late than never :)

[Former_Member]

This is great information! I have wanted to start a blog for a while, but have not jumped in yet. Thank you for this topic! :o)

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

I'm glad you've found these tips helpful!

[Former_Member]

This is an excellent article. Thank you so much for sharing, as I am about to start my own blog. Could you recommend any giveaway sites, please? Thank you in advance.

[MulberryCreek]

WOW. This is a lot of good info. Going to take some time to sort thru all of this....thanks for sharing.

[RebeccasSoapDeli]

There are lots and you can search google to find more but the two biggest I've used that brought the most traffic are http://etsygiveaways.blogspot.com and http://www.online-sweepstakes.com

[Former_Member]

Thank you very much for your prompt and helpful reply.
With best wishes from London