How Is Blogging Useful For Promoting My Business?

I've had my two blogs at Google's Blogger since 2006. They used to call the blogs Blogspots. I bought my own domains for each a few years ago. I pay $12 per year each. I was following 126 blogs over the years. I found recently that most had stopped blogging around 2015, with a handful blogging up to 2017. 

I unfollowed those, ending up with 6 blogs and 2 of those are mine. So, it does seem that blogging is virtually dead in the handmades and creative community. There are, however, still creatives who have tossed around the idea of blogging. They are wondering today if they should start blogging. I will share my thoughts on this valuable marketing tool.

Blogging is work, especially if you care about the format of the posts and adding images. If you're blogging for joy, you'll keep at it. Being able to see statistics of who's visiting your blog may inspire you to continue. It can also discourage you if you only see a few people visiting every few months. The same with blogging for interaction from readers or to make money through monetizing. 

I don't care for most of the affiliate advertising that is available. I tried Amazon Affiliate Marketing for a short time but I did not have enough traffic so it didn't work out. I tried affiliate marketing through a couple of book sites like Abe Books, Alibris and Thrift Books. 

I just didn't take to it and I'm not a trendy, popular online influencer. I can't remember exactly which book affiliate I used, because it was so long ago. It's not easy generating comments and an income through blogging. I think that's why many who have those goals give up on blogging but a blog can be used in other ways. 

A blog can be useful for a number of reasons other than affiliate marketing. If you discover ways to use it to further your interests or brand, you'll keep blogging. I appreciate blogging because it's a place where you can say whatever you want, how you want and as often as you want. You can market yourself as often as you want and in whatever way you want. 

Unlike marketing on social media and other marketing platforms, no one will tell you what you can't do when you do it from your blog. You can use the SEO that you want to use. When blogging to market your products and services, you can share as many images as you want. Your product descriptions can be as long or as detailed as you want them to be. 

Most of all, you can add as many links in your blogs posts as you see fit. There are no annoying restrictions or constrictions. As long as you follow the TOS of the blogging platform that you are using, you are free to market yourself through the blog however you see fit. 

Though my creative friends and many others have fallen by the wayside in their blogging, I am so glad that I have not. I can't think of a single creative whose blog I enjoyed and was inspired by who is still blogging. Writing your own blog is a fun way to promote yourself and your brands! It can be very effective if you stick with it and learn how to use it to your benefit. At this writing, you can still do it for free at some sites and even still buy low-cost domains.

Substack (Substack helps anyone set up a blog and email newsletter. No tech knowledge is required. It’s free to get started on Substack.)

Blogger (recently sold their Blogger platform to Squarespace and I'm still here waiting to see what changes Squarespace makes over time)

Yola (2 websites with 2 pages each for free plan, have to design your own website through their templates and drag and drop)

Wix (unfortunately, only a 14-day free trial, have to design your own website through their templates and drag and drop)

Weebly (have to design your own website through their templates and drag and drop)

Tell The Potential Customer What To Think

This tag line or blurb that Artful Home uses 

 

Art and apparel for your extraordinary life,

 

illustrates the marketing technique of insinuating to your potential customers how to think. This is important because more than buying a product, shoppers are buying an experience. They want to feel like the product is implying. 

 

When a customer buys at Artful Home, even if their life is not that great they are being told that their life is extraordinary. They will be inclined to believe it and make more purchases to get that feeling. At least, that is the goal of suggestive marketing.

 

Artful Home

 

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Payhip Upgrades Their Memberships Selling Feature

Payhip upgraded their membership selling feature and have this to say:

It’s been entirely rebuilt from scratch to help you sell any type of membership to your customers. With memberships you can now add “Posts” which let you share content with your members in a flexible & interactive way. Of course you’ll also be able to upload any files you’d like with each membership post. You can also allow your members to comment on posts, building up a community around your membership...

 This link leads to their announcement about their upgraded system for selling memberships.

Payhip is a great place to sell your memberships, courses, music, digitals, physical products, subscriptions, etc. You can join for free and open a free shop or use their selling links feature to sell your products from your website or blog. When are you going to take advantage of this remarkable selling venue?

Payhip was started by 2 brothers, Abs and Kahin Farah, who live in England. Payhip is a profitable company that is doing very well. I'm happy to say that I don't expect them to fold like so many selling venues have done over the past several years. Check out this site, which if full of features for sellers and totally free to join and open a shop or use their selling links.

The Benefits Of Blogging For Business And Marketing

It is shocking how many crafters, makers, artists and other creatives have stopped blogging. I reviewed my blog reading list to see who was still posting. I ended up purging from 125 blogs to 6, and 2 of those 6 are mine. Most crafters hadn't posted since 2015. A handful had posted in 2017 and after that, none of the 125 bloggers that I was following had posted. Something happened around 2015 in the crafting/makers/creative community where people stopped blogging. I asked myself is blogging dead?

Here are some possible reasons blogging has all but stopped in our creative community. Do any of these reasons fit you?

1. There seems to have been a general loss of enthusiasm, disillusionment and disappointment about online selling. 
2. Seeing many listing websites come and go. The demise of ArtFire, Dawanda and others was depressing. While some creatives migrated to other venues, some gave up listing.
3. The postal system started to increase fees yearly, negatively impacting handmades income. Sellers had to raise prices often when they did not want to.
4. Life has become more busy. Can't find time to blog.
5. Sales have fallen off and can't find a way to increase them.
   

One crafter said to me recently that back during the time when creatives were blogging the public couldn't get enough of handmades. I think there is still a love for handmades but other product types have flooded the market. Etsy's homepage is filled with digitals and printables, which I made the jump to because I love graphic design. POD sites are doing well and 3-D printed products are taking hold. Despite this, many handmades sellers are still doing well but they are not blogging. They are overlooking the greatest value of creating blog posts, advertising and promotion. 

Paying for online advertising is not affordable for most independent creatives. We are left with sharing through the few social media sites that are active. Social media, however, does not provide the value that it used to. People rarely interact anymore and there may be likes given but they lead to few sales. Any economically productive ways to market online have dwindled as well. So, why is blogging important for business? It gives us an easy way to draw potential customers and increase sales.

Consider These Benefits Of Blogging Then Ask Yourself Is Blogging Worth It

1. Can be used to market and promote without being flagged as a spammer. 
2. No advertising fees. 
3. Format, content and length of posts are controlled by the blogger. 
4. The frequency of posting is controlled by the blogger.
5. No limit on images in a post. 
6. No limit on links in a post. 
7. The type of SEO used, words or long-tail phrases, is controlled by the blogger.
8. Blog posts can be found by search engines. 
   

If you are blogging, you should continue and tweak your style and process. If you are a creator and you are not blogging but asking yourself should I blog, you should start. Selling competition has exploded over the past few years, since 2010-2015. Savvy blogging is a great way to successfully compete. The challenge is to:

1. Learn simple ways to start using keywords and phrases in blog posts, product listings, etc. The easy techniques in this book will guide you. Learning and using keyword search doesn't have to be expensive, tedious or frightening. In Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing, you'll learn to conduct fast, free and easy keyword phrase searches and add the results to your marketing content.
2. Choose a schedule to consistently prepare posts. You really can post as your schedule allows. Of course, the more frequently you post the better. You can choose to post once a week or twice a month but the key is to post every time you have set aside a time frame to do it. The goal is to be reliable to readers and potential customers. As you become adept at creating posts and are able to free up more time, you can increase your frequency. If you can never make more time, keep posting on your original time schedule.
   

Though I have been consistent with blogging over the years, I've known for some time that I'm too sporadic with posting. I've never given up that I will develop a good blogging schedule. Blogging as a marketing tool is invaluable when used with skill and commitment.

Here are some articles on the value of blogging that I found to be helpful:

 6 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Marketing And SEO by Kristi Hines

17 Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Blog In 2022 by Brian Dean

 How Long Should A Blog Post Be In 2022 by Lena Sernoff

Do People Still Read Blogs? The Truth About Blogging In 2022 by Rowena Zaballa

Do People Still Read Blogs In 2022? by Ryan Robinson

Truelist Blogging Statistics by Maja Josifovska

Learn Keyword Search To Use In Blog Posts, Product Descriptions And In Other Marketing Content

 

Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing

Where To Sell Online

You can get started selling your digitals, courses, physical products and more on Payhip for free. In this video, Payhip shows you how quick and easy it is to start your online business using their platform.

Payhip provides the easiest way to sell any digital products such as digital downloads, online courses, coaching, memberships, and physical products. Join over 130,000 sellers who have successfully launched their online businesses with Payhip.

Payhip is a great place to sell your creative products because:

• there are no listing fees,
• FVF is fair,
• you can list free products,
• sell digitals, printables, software, music, ebooks, subscriptions, courses, workbooks, fonts, presets, templates, etc.,
  
• no storage limit,
  
• physical product selling now available,
• owners are responsive and attentive,
• you can sell using embed buttons at your sites/blogs,
• build a shop using their robust shop builder,
• offer Paypal and/or Stripe,
  
• marketing and affiliate tools,
• and more!

Payhip is based in London and owned by Abs and Kahin Farah. They created it in 2011 and it is a profitable company. I was glad to learn this because that means that the site won't be going away any time soon. I've been through so many listing sites closing.  

I love being at Payhip! Why don't you give it a try?

Payhip Website How To Get Started

My Domain Shop Through Payhip

Names For Your Product Or Service

Your product or service name is a powerful asset that customers should be able to associate with. It should be interesting and easy to remember and pronounce. It should reflect what your marketing demographic should expect from you.

I will skillfully name your product or service using research and simple marketing techniques. My names are meaningful, appealing and distinctive. They project the message that brand owners want to convey to potential customers. They also can help to keep your brand uppermost in the minds of previous customers.

Using a questionnaire that you complete, I create names that are tailored to your needs and as unique as possible. I don't use any naming software or scan expired domain lists because those names were not created for your distinctive needs.

I have created unique names for clients at Fiverr and Picky Domains and my reviews are all 5-star. Visit my Business Branding category at Printaphoria to order now. I look forward to beginning my research for your new product or service names.

Printaphoria Business Branding

Artsy Craftery Design Studio

Payhip Video Tutorial: How To Set Up Cross-Selling

Payhip is a great place to sell digitals, physical products, courses, subscriptions and other products.

From Payhip:

Payhip is an e-commerce platform that enables anyone to sell digital products or memberships directly to their fans and followers. You can embed Payhip directly into your website or you can use our storefront to sell your work. Payhip takes care of everything. We're an all-in-one ecommerce solution for creators.

There is a robust store builder and new features are always being added. Maybe you should open a shop there. Visit the Help Center for more info.

Why Are Etsy Sellers On Strike Yet Again?

 Etsy sellers launch a week-long strike over increased fees was written by Jaclyn Diaz and reported today at NPR.org. Many sellers have launched a week-long protest by closing their shops and other actions. This is in response to the recent in a long line of fee increases announced by CEO Josh Silverman. Seems like 59,000+ shop owners have signed the petition. A quick web search will show results for strikes during each of the past few years.

I don't feel that Etsy morale will improve for disenchanted handmades sellers. Somewhere along the way, during the past 12-15 years, Etsy management felt that to stay afloat they had to expand away from pure handmade support. They added a complicated fee system and have raised prices so often and by such a high percentage that it has crushed not only the bottom lines but the spirits of many handmade sellers. I closed my shops at Etsy a couple of years ago but not because of changes at the site. Sometimes I miss being there. It's at times like this that I'm glad I left though, which makes me feel sad. It was exciting to be a part of Etsy, back then.

Dwanda, Artfire and others folded and it seems like Etsy is having to take drastic steps every year to remain viable. These decisions have invited in questionable resellers and consistently driven away Etsy creatives. I was at Zibbet when years ago there was a mass exodus of Etsy sellers to that selling venue in response to insufferable changes. Most of them returned to Etsy when Zibbet did not deliver what they were expecting. Sellers need to seriously ask themselves if any selling website will fulfill their expectations. If not, what is the best course of action for their brands?

While the popularity of Etsy seems bleak for many, others are realizing what I had begun to feel some time ago. The best business practice for the future of creating and making is to learn how to market and sell from your own web spaces. There are still a few venues left where the income of the creative is not gouged. One of them is Payhip. Another is Meylah. Find Meylah store setup info here.

Learning to self-promote and sell from our own blogs and online shops will provide peace of mind to start, which will go a long way in generating income. It is difficult to focus on creating good products and effectively marketing them when there is misery about the selling platform and constant fear of what will come next. It can be bad for the creative psyche to be in an atmosphere that has become increasingly riddled with controversy.

Will this strike matter to Etsy management and ownership? Will it bring about the desired changes? According to many sellers' comments at the forum, no it will not. Many of them say it's the low-sales-volume sellers who have organized and are signing on to the strike. My heart goes out to the makers and designers who feel a need to boycott Etsy. If the majority are low-volume sellers, then my suggestion to learn to market and sell from their own shops is even more crucial. If being at Etsy is not paying off, shouldn't those sellers be expending their efforts and funds elsewhere? That would build invaluable marketing experience and generate more lasting assets for the sellers.     

Book Funnel Definition Sales Funnel Stages

A book or sales funnel is a marketing method designed to lead visitors and potential customers to a purchasing decision. It is composed of several processes that may include a landing page. While a landing/sales page and a book funnel can work together, they are also different. 

Some book funnel landing pages can be annoying with their in-your-face graphics, popups and extensive length. They lose the potential customer long before the visitor reaches the end. Landing pages, however, are only as good as the writer of the book funnel.

Potential customers often need to be led on what to think and how to think it. Sometimes they seek but do not follow through when they find what they desire. Sales funnels can lead them through the steps to obtain what they are seeking, which are the published products that you and I are offering. Learn how to skillfully create effective book/sales funnels for your written products here:

Book Funnel Optimization: Essential Tips to Convert Leads into Paying Readers

 

How To Do Keyword Research Book At Amazon

 

Now at Amazon in Kindle and paperback format. 

Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing

Find the PDF version at Printaphoria:

Simple Keyword Search PDF Book

Learning and using keyword search doesn't have to be expensive, tedious or frightening. In Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing, you'll learn to conduct fast, free and easy keyword phrase searches. If you:

• have never done keyword research,

• are not sure what it is,

• have no idea where to start

• but know you need to,

then this simple, keyword phrase search guidebook is for you. 

Developing good SEO (search engine optimization) habits through keyword search and use is necessary to increase traffic to your listings and content. It's especially vital when selling from your own shop, website or low-traffic platforms. Even at high-traffic venues, competition is so massive now that it's next to impossible to benefit from some of that traffic.

Why beat your head against the traffic-blocking wall when you can quickly learn how to carry out simple SEO keyword searches and use them to pull in more customers? Once you learn, you can carry your skills wherever you sell on the internet. You'll no longer be dependent upon anyone else's website to make sales.

SEO through top-ranking key phrases application is a major player in successful e-commerce. It's great that you are learning just how useful and essential this skill is!

 

What Are Landing Pages Used For?

Have you ever considered creating a landing page for your product or service? A good landing page definition is an online page where potential customers are presented with detailed product info that will motivate them to buy.

To get my feet wet, I've decided to learn to create an effective landing page for my first ebook. I recently published it at my shop: Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing.

What Are Landing Pages In Marketing?

Landing pages and sales pages are similar. Sometimes, they are called funnel landing pages or sales landing pages in marketing. While landing pages are usually shorter and more brief than sales pages, both are used to steer potential customers to buy.

CopyBlogger Media says:

A sales page and a landing page are both crafted specifically to encourage people to convert. While landing pages are virtually the same as short-form sales pages, long-form sales pages tend to be more detailed than a typical landing page.

What Is A Book Funnel Definition?

A book funnel or sales funnel is also a marketing tool but it encompasses both types of pages. It can include links to any number of landing and/or sales pages. These are all used as strategic conversion tools. They are ways to convert visitors, browsers and lurkers into buyers.

EmailDrips shares about funnels:

It’s a strategy used to take readers on a journey to convert them into paying customers. Typically, the funnel is like a book with the same function as a normal sales funnel. So inside the funnel, there are links to strategic pages to the website, newsletter opt-in, or sales page. A book funnel is a great way to build relationships with your readers, even after they read your book. 

Since a landing page can be the beginning of designing a book funnel, I will be studying Abs Farah's article on Book Funnel Optimization: Essential Tips to Convert Leads into Paying Readers. Abs is one of the founders of Payhip, a selling platform where you can offer digitals, physicals, memberships, subscriptions and courses.

Implementing savvy marketing tools like landing pages, sales pages and sales funnels doesn't have to be overwhelming. There are many free and easy to follow resources online.

Innovation, Adaptability, Persistance: David's Bridal

Consistently, we see innovation, adaptability and persistence as the kingpins of enduring business success. Those traits have made David's Bridal the lone, national, wedding dress chain today.

While David Reisberg decided to begin selling his privately-designed wedding gowns in 1945, innovation began 20 years later after he sold his south-Florida salon. In 1972, Phillip Youtie bought the boutique and around 1988, brought in the retail expertise of childhood friend Steven Erlbaum.

Stores at this time stocked only sample gowns in a standard size. Youtie and Erlbaum changed the store model in the late 1980s with this warehouse off Interstate 95 where they stocked designer gowns, discontinued dress and manufacturer overruns at below retail prices. This chain of bridal stores was like none of its kind. David’s Bridal was all about making a no-frills shopping environment for those who need an expensive wedding dress for a fraction of the price. Stores were not comfortable, but more plain and warehouse-like. Although there was little to no comfort in the stores, brides-to-be could expect a bargain.

Adaptability resulted in finding ways to acquire new stores:

Years later, as the business grew even larger and larger, small stores were starting to go out of business while more David’s Bridal stores were being put into the business. Between 1994 and 1995, 12 stores were added to the bridal corporation...In 2000, the May Department Stores Company bought David’s Bridal from Youtie and Erlbaum for $436 million. By this time, David’s Bridal was the largest retailer of bridal gowns and wedding-related merchandise.

Persistence

David’s Bridal is the largest American bridal-store chain...and the only nationwide competitor of bridal stores...One in four American brides are dressed by David’s Bridal.

Successive acquisitions and emergence out of a two-month bankruptcy did not kill the dream. While Mr. Reisberg worked faithfully for over two decades and did not financially enjoy the astronomical success of his brand, the point is this; David's Bridal endured through the innovation, adaptability and persistence of all who believed.

On October 11, 2012, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice announced the completion of its acquisition of David’s Bridal, Inc. in a deal that valued the company at $1.05 billion.

David's Bridal is currently in 49 states, 5 Canadian territories and the United Kingdom. As of 2018, it was worth $2.5 billion.

Opportunities to innovate surround us everyday and many of the commerce giants that we recognize are still owned by the innovators. Those who do not own their flagship brands have taken the fortunes made through them and built new ventures. You may not be seeking colossal growth for your brand but the methods that lead to this kind of proliferating success can help you to reach your goals. 

How can you innovate your brand so that it will stand out and attract a robust market?

Is your growth lagging for lack of adaptability to an ever-changing society?

Do you cling to pet projects and ideas that do not inspire persistence?

 

Sources:

David's Bridal Locations

David's Bridal - UK

PRNewswire - David's Bridal

The List - The Truth Behind David Of David's Bridal

The New York Times - David’s Bridal Files for Bankruptcy, but Brides Will Get Their Dresses

Wikipedia - David's Bridal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roberto Blake On Successful Brand Deals

When asked if he finds it more difficult, as a person-of-color graphic designer and Youtube creator, to obtain brand deals in comparison to others, he replied,

Not really but I’ve also built a system for brand deals...I also do better on brand deals than most Creators my size or larger regardless of their background, due to my ability to negotiate and package my deals.

While discrimination is often endured daily by many of us, his successful focus is on evaluating how to deliver more value to the clients/customers whom he does acquire.

While I'm not aspiring to produce and upload YT videos (the unpopular slideshows format works better for my schedule), I love Roberto's content. He's clear, engaging and relevant. This is not the first time that I've written about him. 

I like making a pit stop at his channel to see what he's currently sharing. I am also a graphic designer but I don't freelance. I prefer to design pre-made products and services. Roberto produces many videos with inspiring content that can apply to any creative pursuit.

Check out his YT channel and website for great info on boosting the success of your brands.  

About Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is dedicated to building the creator economy through helping creators and influencers build brands and businesses online. Learn how to monetize your creativity and skills, grow an audience, sell products, monetize YouTube videos, make money online, and build a personal brand. He has grown his Youtube channel to over 500,000 subscribers.

Find Roberto Online

Youtube Community

Youtube Channel 

Awesome Creator Academy 

Roberto's Youtube Starter Kit

Interested In Sponsoring Roberto Blake And Sharing Your Brand With His Viewers?

info@robertoblake.com

725 Ponce De Leon Ave
ATTN WeWork Roberto Blake 2nd Floor
Atlanta GA, 30306 

 

 

 

One Tip For Blog Growth

Online a lot and wondering why your blog following is not growing? Reduce your time posting at forums, groups and social sites and devote more of it to posting at your blog. In an attempt to drive readers to your website, you are squandering precious content at other places. Even simple, short comments can be published as asides at your blog. At the very least, you should be copying over the comments into blog posts. Ideally, you could originate the comments at your website.

Consider This: Maybe you need to spend more time drawing readers rather than driving readers. To do this, you need to be at your blog. 

Blogger Email Follow Replacement Svcs

In seeking a replacement for the discontinued Feedburner email follow widget, I've been seeking a free-to-start, easy to use email mktg platform. I've seen ConvertKit recommended often, along with MailChimp. MailChimp has been moving away from being known primarily for email marketing, so I'm not sure how simple they have remained.

I took a peek at Mailchimp and saw plans titled Marketing Platform and Transactional Email. Just that quick look-around made me feel tired. ConvertKit's pricing page is straight-to-the-point, easily understood, at least to me, and shows many features for the free tier.

I subscribed to Peggy K's weekly newsletter to see how she does it, although I'm not sure I want to take on the extra work of newsletter production. I just want an easy way for my readers to follow by email.

Peggy K writes about a variety of tips and tricks for creators on many platforms. She chose to use Revue, a newsletter platform acquired by Twitter, to replace Feedburner's terminated RSS to email svc.

If you are interested in exploring newsletter sharing, you can read about Peggy K's overview of svcs here: Alternatives To Feedburner's RSS To Email SVC She overviews not only newsletter svcs but also RSS to email svcs.

Optimizing The New Facebook Business Pages

In this still relevant, late 2020 post, Brandastic shares some points on how to make the new Facebook Business Pages work for your brand. 

Their focus is on changing how we use a Page. I like these 2 points:

• Focus more on educational rather than promotional content.
• Join and interact in FB groups with your business page. 

Read the full article here:

Are Facebook Pages Still Useful in 2020?

Another great post on optimizing Facebook Business Pages is this article from Tripepi Smith. The 2022 new pages transition is discussed and tips on optimizing the new design are shared.

Follower count is now rounded up and it seems that page likes are no longer displayed. Some business features, such as jobs and appointments, are no longer available.

Facebook’s New Pages Experience 101

 

 Steps To Creating A Facebook/Meta Business Page

Create A Free Business Page In Minutes  

What To Know Before You Create A Facebook Business Page