Should I Start a Craft Blog

Where There's Tea There's Hope Print

Blogging - To blog or not to blog?

Should I start a blog... ?

Not everyone has the desire to spend their precious crafting time in front of a screen but I would recommend blogging as a positive and motivational tool.  I would also add to those worried about the technical side, you needn't worry, blogging platforms such as  blogger are exceptionally user friendly and aimed at computer novices.  If you come across anything you are unsure of there are masses of websites and blogs just like this one, that offer easy to understand tutorials and tips on every aspect of blogging.



Do I have the time or confidence to start a blog?

 A blog is relatively simple to set up (http://www.blogger.com/ try it!) and needn't take up masses of your time - just an hour or so a week or one or two blog posts is enough to start to build a small network of friends and followers. The more time you spend promoting the better but it is content that is the most important aspect of blogging.
"I'm terrible at self promotion, and lack confidence to be able to openly talk about my crafts let alone sell them"
Sound familiar? Once you begin blogging, your confidence will naturally grow with each comment and new follower. Crafters use blogging as a way to focus creative energies and motivate themselves to finish projects. Offering up your latest projects for discussion and receiving feedback can be enormously rewarding and inspiring and help give you the confidence to talk more freely about your own crafts.

Sometimes our nearest and dearest don't share a passion for sewing or crochet, so to find a network of like minded people without having to leave the house can be alot of fun, surprisingly sociable and give you the ability to express yourself more than on a forum.  Talking about your blog rather than your shop is a nice indirect way of introducing your 'real life' friends and aquaintances to all your lovely creations without making it seem like a hard sell!

Nest Egg Basket

Will a blog help my craft business?

A blog can be a great way of publicising your craft business, adding an interesting background to your online shop.  Most craft blog readers are fellow crafts people, many of whom have blogs of their own and enjoy creating treasuries and doing features on other crafters or swapping 'blog badges'


These little snippets of publicity may at first seem fairly insignificant, but are in fact hugely helpful in building the online presence of your business, allowing search engines to find you and your products more easily and bringing custom to your shops.   Imagine shopping on your local high street and finding every other shop had a poster up with a picture of you and directions to your shop or the local craft fair you were attending on the weekend - and they did this for free just because they liked you and your stuff and wanted to make their own shop look good.  Not only would this increase the number of visitors but it would also add desirability and credibility to your business.

Bottles - after

This sort of blog to blog publicity is free and with more and more people using the internet to shop, every positive referral and link that points to your shop or your own blog will help to get your online business noticed.  Read this post about how you can use your blog content to reach your target market.

So if you want to start a blog or if you need some tips to get a neglected blog back from the brink then please check take a look at all the practical blogging tips available on this crafters resource blog!  thanks for reading - please contact me if you would like to add your blog to the listings and the blog rolls. 

I'd also love to hear from you all about your own experiences of starting up your blog - if you would like to write a blog post about how blogging has helped you gain confidence or find new customers then please let me know and I will add a link here.  Or why not simply leave a comment!

Click here for many more blogging tips!