How to set up a Great Blog!

By: Doll5272

So you have seen how so many people in your crafting community are benefiting from having their own blogs but you do not have the first clue on to start a blog or maintain it.

Crafters just like you are starting to see that by having and regularly maintaining a blog can highly impact the sales and customers coming to your site. Not only are blogs the new "HOT THING" out there, but they can be very large tool in the promotion of your site. A blog that is update frequently will be picked up regularly through Google and other Major search engines. Therefore boosting your rankings higher in major search engines. But maintaining a a blog can be time consuming and if not done properly can be a total waste of your time. So today I will be writing a very detailed article to help you on your way to having a successful blog.

1-Setting up your blog:
I highly recommend that you get a blog FOR FREE on Blogger.com . WHy? simply it is owned and operated by Google and it is proven that blogs on google rank higher in the Google search engines.

2-Adding Content:
We are all knowledgable in something that would interst your readers, you could write posts about new products you are creating, about upcoming sales or specials, or about diffrent sites you like or your personal life! Something that will engage your readers and make them want to visit your shoppe, and purchase your products. Use your blog as your selling tool to help promote your site, your products and you as a business owner. Below I will have a great lists of ideas on postings for your blog.

3-Feeds:
One of the most important things you should add to your blogs is feeds. What are feeds? Feeds are little buttons your customers can click on like Yahoo or Google or MSN that will notify your customer each time that you update your blog! Helps to keep your customers informed on when you update your blogs. This is great and I cannot stress to you enough how beneficial this is to you! You can go to Chiclet Creator and just click on the buttons you want to add and it will automatically generate a blog code for you to install into your blog. And that is all you have to do!

4-Pinging:
Another HUGE factor in creating a great site is PINGING. What is Pinging? This is letting all the search engines and blog sites out there know that you posted a new article on your blog. This is important because as I said above the more you update your blog with fresh content the more Google and other search engines will pick up your blog and give you targeted advertising! The two sites that I recommend for Pinging are PingGoat and Ping-O-Matic they are really easy to use! Simply after each post you make go to them and enter the title of your blog and your blog URL then check all the boxes of where you want your site pinged and hit SEND and you are done! Now everyone will know you just updated your blog with fresh content.

5-Link Exchange:
As with your normal website everyone who has a website knows that the more links coming to your site and going out from your site really helps in your site ranking higher in search engines. Same principal with a blog! Search blogs and try to link with other blogs that offer content similiar to your own like Country, Craft and Primitive Blogs!

Blogging Ideas:
Share Recipes
Craft Ideas
Craft Patterns
Sales from your site
Upcoming products
New Products
products you are working on
sites you love to visit
blogs you love to visit
Great ways you have found to advertise your sites
Sites you love to shop
Sites you partner with
Crafting Articles
Crafting Tips
Tips on your niche or expertise

Article by:

Article by Angela Wenke owner of Heartland Marketplace. www.heartlandmarketplace.org. Heartland Marketplace is an online craft marketplace offering affordable advertising options for crafters and primitive crafters. Heartland Marketplace Blog is also a great resource for great crafting and business articles heartlandmarketplace.blogspot.com