When Your Blog Goes "Poof" - It Can Happen To You!

Earlier this year, I opened my browser and went to this blog. Horrified, I found a message that said the blog had been deleted! I was stunned and I tried to log into the blog's back office but to no avail.

Frantically trying to find some sort of Blogger tech support (there is none), I ended up in a Blogger forum and posted my problem.

The moderator was quite helpful and said that there are times that the Google bot will erroneously tag a blog as a spam blog or as a blog that is breaking the TOS, none of which this blog fit. He started the Blogger reinstatement process for me to get the blog back online.

I was livid as the days went by and no blog. I knew my scant traffic would be non-existent when I finally did have a blog again. And, my ads would be totally trashed.

It took almost two weeks to get it back online. Even then, I had a lot of work to do to make certain links and widgets got back to working, do some things to get a little traffic back online, and then to jump-start the Project Wonderful ads again.

When a blog goes down, the decline in traffic, rankings, klout, and everything else beneficial  is quick and very tedious to get back when it is back online.

This was an eye-opener. Of course, we don't think this will ever happen to us, but since we are using a free blog platform, we are at the mercy of the owners of that platform.

Since that day, I have been working on a self-hosted blog. Work is slow as I have a day job, but soon I will be able to control the fate of my own blog on my own web hosting.

Free Tutorial  to Install a Wordpress Self-Hosted Blog!

I took a FREE ecourse on how to install a Wordpress blog onto my own web hosting from CreativeWebBiz.com. The lessons were so easy and step-by-step that the installing onto my web hosting amazingly simple. Check it out if you want to go that way for your blog.

In the meantime, just be aware that this happens all the time. If you use your blog for income in any way, it is smart to create your own self-hosted blog.

Advertising Your Blog with Entrecard - The Experiment

If you follow this blog, you know that I like to experiment before I have an opinion of a source. You can check out IndieCEO's experiment with ProjectWonderful advertising to see what I mean. I have been eyeing Entrecard and thought I would give it a good try.

Entrecard is touted as "The Ultimate Networking Tool for Bloggers." It is a way to advertise your blog to gain readers and boost traffic by adding an Entrecard box to your own blog. You can see IndieCEO's Entrecard box to the right of this post. That is where people will "drop" their cards or have their requested/approved advertising show.

Entrecard is like its own little country because it has its own economy system! No cash payments are needed.

You simply earn credits by dropping your card on other blogs. By purchasing advertising with those credits, you can select the blogs where you want your ad to show. There are other opportunities to gain credits listed on the site that you might explore. I was able to earn enough credits when I first signed up to actually advertise on others' blogs right then and there.

There is a system to receive advertising on your own blog. You can either approve each one or choose to have an automatic approval. I prefer to approve each one because the content and look of ads on my blogs are very important to my brand.

Here are the Pros and Cons of Entrecard that I have found:

Pro

• Free advertising that costs no money - just time and thought.
• Fun - there are a variety of categories for artists and crafters to surf through - I have found such interesting blogs
  
• Networking - I have begun to see favorites and tend to comment there and receive comments back
• A way to gain readers
• A way to boost traffic
• A way to gain followers to your blog
• A way to have your blog promos seen, like your shop minis, twitter link, those kinds of things
  

Con

• Most traffic is just that - traffic - and not specifically readers
• Many will "hit and run" by going to your blog, dropping a card to get credits, and zoom out of the blog
• It takes time - whether little or a lot is up to you
• You must participate consistently to gain benefit by spending a little time each day to drop your card
  

Here is my summary of Entrecard:
I do like it, given my expectations. I don't expect tons of readers and commenters. I don't mind the ones who "hit and run" because it boosts traffic numbers. I also have ProjectWonderful ads on my blogs and the increased traffic boosts the bids on the ad boxes.

Those that linger to read and comment are the jewels of the process. You can gain a great networking group long term if you stick with Entrecard and participate. It may take a while but that is what I am going for while I am building traffic. I have also added to my blog "followers" through this method.

If you want to try it, click here for Entrecard!

The Project Wonderful Online Advertising Experiment

The mystery of online advertising...if you love to surf online blogs and web sites of artisans and crafters, or even the online comic crowd, you have the opportunity to see ads that are distributed through Project Wonderful (PW).

PW, as it is abbreviated, is an online ad auction that is so automated that even those who are not online savvy can use it and is a great way to dip your toe into the online advertising waters. Although there are groups of all kinds using PW, the main groups targeted are online artists, handcrafters, designers, gamers and online web comics.

Project Wonderful itself states, “Project Wonderful reinvents online advertising. We've made click fraud impossible. We give advertisers the power to choose what sites their ads appear on - and publishers the freedom to choose what ads show up on their sites..."

In contrast, if you have ever used the Google Ad Sense program, you know that you cannot request your earned money until your account reaches $100. PW allows withdrawal of funds $10 and above. In addition, Google makes the majority of decisions for you as to what shows on your site, whereby PW allows you, the advertiser or publisher, to have complete control on where your ads are placed or which ads you put on your pages.

In these last few months, I experimented with PW as a clueless, new-to-online-advertising newbie for my GalleriaLinda online shop, as well as recently for the Indie CEO blog. Boy, did I learn a lot from the experience.

I started placing ads on my jewelry blog, GalleriaLindaShowcase, starting January 1, 2009. In about 4 weeks, I had $6 in my account. It grew to about $15 by the end of February. Feeling confident, I decided to use the money to pay for GalleriaLinda advertising instead of withdrawing it.

There are several predetermined sizes of graphic ads you can create, the most popular being the 125x125 pixel size ads. I created my very own GalleriaLinda ad, uploaded it, selected blogs to host my ad, and placed bids. If you want a 125x125 pixel animated ad – you can create one at GifMake.

Things I learned as an advertiser:

• Pay attention to your ad clicks (there are “performance” reports for you to check).
  
• If you go for the free ads, then it is no worry - may as well keep it there. If you are paying, then you make decisions to keep your ad on a specific site or delete the bid based upon the ratio of unique site traffic vs. the number of clicks you get.
  
• It is easy to find places for your ad that have $0 cost and is a great way to try this without spending money. This means that your ad can be placed for no money but your ad may show only off and on, depending upon the bids for those slots. The ad boxes fluctuate in bid pricing all day long!
  
• FREE ad space is allowed only for a two-day time so you will have to manually renew every two days if you wish. If you bid actual money, you can designate the time from a day to unlimited.
  
• It IS possible to get free ad space on a site with significant traffic, but it will be only for a short while. Most free spots are on sites that have minimal traffic.
  
• If you are picky about where your ad is seen, you have control, although it takes time to do a keywords search and handpick those you want.
  
• If you are not so picky about where your ads are seen, you can do a campaign using search terms, and “let ‘er rip.”

Things I learned as a publisher:

• Build it and they do not automatically come! Like anything else online, this takes promotion, traffic numbers, and dedication to make this work well for you.
  
• PW ad campaigns from others will automatically find your ad box if your box description fits the key words and fits the traffic criteria setup by the ad owners.
  
• When setting up your ad box, good key words are critical.
  
• Your web page or blog where your ad box is displayed needs to have traffic in order to attract a flow of ad placements. You must promote your page and update it frequently to bring up those traffic numbers. The more frequent you update, the more traffic you will have that may capture more ad campaigns automatically.
  
• Ways to promote your web pages and blogs can be found in the Indie CEO “Blogging is an Art” series.

To get a good feel for the process, here is a great tutorial on using Project Wonderful posted by TimothyAdamDesigns.

It is FUN to see your very own little ad showing on someone else’s web page!

If you want to learn the process, you can try out PW by placing ads manually by searching for $0 ads and paying attention to traffic counts for learning and understanding. This will help you understand the process. Alternately, you can place an ad box on your site and wait for funds to collect to use for your own ad placement. Or, deposit money right away into a PW account and go for it!

GalleriaLinda's ad boxes where you can place your ads are available at:
GalleriaLindaShowcase blog
IndieCEO blog - see the right side of this article

Blogging is an Art - Who Will Read My Blog?

Fourth in the series "Blogging is an Art," we will figure out who will read our blogs and where to find them!

The series includes:

• Should I start a blog?
• Will a blog help sales?
• What should I write about on my blog?
• Who will read it and do I need to promote it?
• Where do I go to create a blog?

Q. Who will read my blog and where do I find them?

Once you have decided to start a blog and are now getting into the joy of writing, it can be disheartening if you do not have any readers!

How do you know if you have readers? It is easy. There are many free "counters" that you can add to your blogs. I currently use statcounter.com but there are several on bravenet.com, as well as others on the Internet. These counters are installed on your blog in your dashboard layout.

Of course, no blog should be without Google Analytics. Read GalleriaLinda's post on Google Analytics to find out why.

If you are serious about blogging, especially if your blog is related to your business, figure out who your customers and readers are and where they can be found.

For example, this Indie CEO blog is serious to me and to my business, GalleriaLinda. I know that I am specifically targeting small volume online sellers, small indie businesses, and a great deal of the handmade community falls into those categories. The reason for this specific reader demographic is the mission of Indie CEO, which is to support very small businesses with information they may not otherwise have, such as easy-to-understand and easy-to-do marketing, promotion, and business processes. I purposefully go out and find this audience.

You can find a lot of your readers through these methods:

• Forums of all kinds, such as industry, business, product specific, interests - post each time you have a new blog post and start a conversation within the forum
  
• Search these forums for specific topics where you can share your blog content as an answer to a question
  
• Join blog rings, researching key words that will fit your content. Check out Xanga and Ringsurf and always be sure your blog settings allow your blog to be in your blog venue's directory


• Social networking, such as Facebook, Twitter, Ning groups - you can RSS feed your blog into most, as well as post an announcement of your newest topics


• Don't forget the people you meet locally on the street - have a business card prepared for that presents your blog


• Customers you sell to can receive your blog business card in their packages


• Your email signature is a good way to expose your blog link


• Email campaigns - send out newsletters specifically about your blog or include information about your blog in your regular newsletters about your business or products


• Join local blog meet-ups - this can be fun - start one if you cannot find one
  
• Read blogs, comment on blogs, always put your URL after your signature (never do this without truly reading and appreciating the blog content - do not, do not spam)


• Profiles all over the Internet are opportunities, such as on Flickr, Ning social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, directories, selling venues, and more...anywhere you are allowed a profile is perfect


• Local organizations you join are good places to promote your blog


• Advertising - look into Entre Card, Project Wonderful, plugboard and other ways to do advertising for your blog (none of these are specifically endorsed by Indie CEO)

I hope this inspires you to embrace your blog and spread your joy to everyone around! I will leave you with my own Indie CEO business card that I hand out along with my GalleriaLinda business card.

Please comment with other ideas on where to find readers!

Newsletters are Meant to Be Shared

I found an interesting blog from Pam Hawk, who makes "Pass it on Plates." What a great concept these plates are for sharing goodies. You must visit her Etsy store to find out all about it.

Pam has a blog about street-smart business, promotion, marketing, and a lot of excellent topics! I was so enthralled with the blog's rich content, that I wanted to share it with you.

Her latest post is about using newsletters as marketing strategies. Just like "Pass it on Plates," newsletters are meant to be shared and she shows you how.

Keep Pam in your sights for good, usable strategies for your Indie Arts business!

The Pam Hawk blog will go on the Indie Business Blog Roll on the left. I am building resources for you!
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Blogging is an Art - What Do I Write About in My Blog?

The series "Blogging is an Art" continues!

• Should I start a blog?
• Will a blog help sales?
• What do I write about in my blog?
• Who will read it and do I need to promote it?
• Where do I go to create a blog?

Q. I am an Indie CEO. What do I write about in a blog?

This question often freezes up new bloggers. New bloggers know they want to blog, but when the blog is setup, writer's block sets in.

If you are new to writing especially, this is quite normal. Be encouraged, though, that the more you write, the easier it becomes, and the more you will enjoy it.

Keep your audience engaged with your content by keeping your topics focused. This goes back to your decision about your target audience and why you want to blog in the first place. What do you have to say? We discussed this in the first part of this series, "Should I Start a Blog?"

There is nothing wrong with wanting to write about everything! In fact, I encourage you to have several blogs that you can strategically use to cross-promote, thereby sustaining traffic on each (more about promoting in the next part of the series). I have this IndieCEO blog, plus my jewelry blog, GalleriaLindaShowcase.

Often, I think of topics and content at the oddest times, so I keep crazy notes about topics with a few little bullet points. These notes get me started on a short post when I have time to sit down and write. Remember that a post should be short. It is not an article.

Think about writing a shop/product/business blog, a crafty technical blog, and a personal blog and target specific content to each. If you decide upon a business blog, you might be inspired by the topics list below. (This is the abbreviated article and list. Download more ideas in the entire “Blogging is an Art – What Should I Write on My Blog?” article here).

Potential Blog Topics

• About you, your background, how you got into your business
• Your expertise as an artist, designer, creative
• Where you learned your expertise
• How you happened to become passionate about your craft
• What media or processes you have worked with, antics, experiences - could be fun!
• Your works in progress - include background and interesting facts that are not found elsewhere - this could be at least 50% of your posts if it is a promoting blog
• Tutorials are very popular for keeping readers and bringing traffic
• What you do locally relative to your business, such as shows, exhibits, etc...
• Interesting facts, such as a favorite cause you support through your business
• Where you are found or featured online

(Eleven more topic suggestions are found in the entire “Blogging is an Art – What Should I Write on My Blog?” article here).

Blogging is an Art - Will it Help sales?

In the next few posts, I continue to work through some of the basics of blogging for you in this "Blogging is an Art" series, utilizing my background in marketing communications, as well as my experiences with blogging for GalleriaLinda.

• Should I start a blog?


• Will a blog help sales?


• What should I write about on my blog?


• Who will read it and do I need to promote it?


• Where do I go to create a blog?

Q. I am an Indie CEO. If I start a blog, will it help sales?

The answer is....maybe....it could...if you play your cards right.

My experience considers blogs to be a "soft marketing" strategy and there are many online sellers that have gleaned some sales from featuring their work on their blogs. These sellers are also successful in bringing in reader traffic that is their target customer.

What is "soft marketing?" Soft marketing is really relationship marketing, where you build a relationship over time between you and the reader. This builds trust, familiarity, friendship, and warm fuzzies. Who wouldn't want to buy from a trusted, familiar friend?

Here is a great 30-min audio on soft marketing from Blog Talk Radio.

Soft marketing includes those things that you do for your business that are not blatant promotional selling efforts. Blogs and Flickr photos are examples of soft marketing opportunities. Sales can be had through these methods and are the result of successful "schmoozing!" It takes time and patience but can be very rewarding, not only as a customer builder but as a friendship builder.

Some ways you can utilize your blog content to enhance soft marketing for your products are:

• Be friendly and professional


• Some personal content could be good but be careful to come across as a true professional that runs a viable online business


• Open the doors to your life as a business owner, artist, designer, creative - give a glimpse into these worlds


• Build your brand by optimizing your content for SEO (using appropriate links)


• Showcase your products and creations, giving history, information, and perspective beyond what is found in your shops


• Know where and how to promote your blog to your target audience


• Encourage comments to start a "conversation" with potential customers

You can also create your blog to be your own selling site!

This is good, especially if you do not have your own web site and do not care to list on selling venues or it can be an extension of your selling strategies. There are several ways to do this that include:

• PayPal "buy now" buttons - individual buttons from PayPal that you place by your item photo


• flogd.com - selling format that can be placed on blogs, Facebook, MySpace and other areas

Don't expect the money to come rolling in, however, you can make good strides in increasing views of your work, becoming better known, branding your business, and making friendship sales from your blog.

One last reminder is that you must bring in the right people to see your blog in order for the relationship marketing to work well for you. That is another blog series to come about finding your target customer, so check back very soon!

The "Blogging is an Art" series continues in the days to come.

Blogging is an Art - Should I Start a Blog?

As GalleriaLinda, I participate in a variety of indie arts forums online find many comments and questions continually brought up about blogging. The questions I see are about why to blog and the comments are about how to blog from a content perspective.

Over the years, I have created two blogs. IndieCEO is a business blog that is targeted to a specific audience - the Indie Arts business owners online.

My second blog, gallerialindashowcase, is my jewelry blog that is targeted to both my customer and other online sellers. While I consider it somewhat businessy, it contains lighter topics relative to creating jewelry, photography for online stores, some tutorials, and more.

In the next few posts, I will work through some of the basics of blogging for you in this "Blogging is an Art series".

• Should I start a blog?
• Will a blog help sales?
• What should I write about on my blog?
• Who will read it and do I need to promote it?
• Where do I go to create a blog?

Q. I am an Indie CEO and should I start a blog?

In short, the answer is YES!

Early blogs were setup to be fun, personal diaries with daily life antics that allowed friends and family to keep up with what you are doing. Today, blogs are big business.

Think about using a blog to enhance your online Indie arts business. Some advantages to having a good, targeted business blog include:

• Name recognition for you and your business
• Can set you apart as an expert in your field
• Great SEO & search support if you plan your blog with this in mind
• Features your work to your audience and works for you 24/7
• A place for potential customers to be sent by you to learn about you and your products/services
• An extension and enhancement to your web site and online plan
• An important part of your marketing plan if used correctly
• Once seasoned, a potential for utilizing advertising opportunities

WHY do you want to start a blog? Because everyone else has a blog? Because you want to use it to promote your business? Because you want to ramble on about your inner musings in life? Because you want to make it an extension of your creative expression?

All of these are good, but my experience suggests that it is best if you pick one reason why you want to blog. If you don't know where you are going, you will never get there. If you don't know who you are writing for, no one will read it.

Some things to think about before you actually start your blog are below:

• Why do I want to blog? What is my core reason - pick one. Everything else will fall out of this one objective.
  
• Do I want to blog about business topics, personal topics, a targeted craft topic, a specialty topic, or all the above?


• Who will be my target audience? Fellow indie artists? Friends and family? A targeted group within the arts community? An outside group supporting a cause? Or all the above?
  
• Where will I find this audience?


• How do I plan to promote my blog?


• Who benefits from the blog? Me? Them? Others? All? (goes back to why you want to blog)
  
• Do I have time to nurture this blog with rich content that is interesting to my target audience?

Once you have worked through this, you will have a better idea of how to plan your blog. Blog planning can be as simple as understanding what you want to do with your blog from the questions above, or as complex as a written plan to include promoting and marketing methods; advertising; statistics review, measurement and improvement; content editorial schedule, and more.

Check back for the rest of the "Blogging is an Art" series!

The Ice is Broken by The Jeweled Rabbit

Vintage Silvertoned Filigree Cufflinks
from The Jeweled Rabbit on Artfire

Congratulations to JeweledRabbit who bravely stepped forward where no man has gone before to be the very first to follow the INDIE CEO blog!

JeweledRabbit is from one of my favorite countries, Canada, and is a fellow jewelry lover. Take a look at JeweledRabbit's friendly blog for warmth, information, and a fabulous post on Twitter web tools! What better way to start your business new year?

Visit The Jeweled Rabbit on ArtFire for exciting jewelry and tell her that GalleriaLinda sent ya!

Your friend and fellow Indie CEO,
GalleriaLinda