Handmade Monday 74

Hello and welcome!  If you need any info about Handmade Monday, you'll find it on this page - please take a few moments to read it if you're new here.

This week, as the rain has been pelting down relentlessly, I've been painting, sewing and writing.  I'm not sure there's much to show for it though!  Some of it I can't show, because it needs to go elsewhere first and some of it just isn't finished.

So, I'm blogging about blogging...

Blogging for Sales

While writing the blogging article for Craftseller magazine, it occured to me that when I asked the question on here about how your blog has helped you sell, most people didn't think their blog had helped them to sell.  I was actually quite surprised and even a bit shocked by that - but it made me realise that there probably is quite a particular way to blog that can make a big difference to sales (it doesn't need to be done that way all the time).  It really isn't just blogging aimlessly that leads to sales - although a well-read blog will obviously help in the same way that chatting to people offline will.

I can tell you quite categorically that blogging is most definitely a huge help to sales, and certain blog posts can carry on bringing you sales even years later - but I think (just occasionally!) maybe a few posts need to be written in a specific way.  These are the posts that become your "evergreen" posts and will show up in search engines over and over again for years.  It's the most effective, easiest and cheapest form of search engine optimisation I know of.  I discovered this accidentally and refined it with experience - and it works.

I've kept that firmly in mind while writing the article for Craftseller but have already written something on the subject.  If your blog hasn't helped you sell yet - and you'd like it to - do have a quick look at these posts:

Why Your Blog is the Signpost to your Website

 Top 10 Tips for Selling Successfully Online

I will write another one soon specifically about how to create a post which works hard for you over a number of years.  Those of you who sell may also be interested in the one I wrote this week: How to get your Products in a Magazine

I'm off to the railway station in a few minutes.  My middle daughter and youngest granddaughter are arriving on a train from London (the image above is my youngest daughter and middle granddaughter - confusing, I know...).  I'm quite excited to be having them stay, and I hope to be able to take every afternoon off all this coming week to spend some time with them.

They'll be sleeping in my office/sewing room (converted to a bedroom via the magic of sofabed and travel cot and a lot of picking up of pins) so the office/sewing room is relegated to living room and hallway.  Another reason to take a little time off I think!

OK, so here's Handmade Monday: enjoy browsing!