freshblogtips: blogging tips with a creative twist

fresh tips roundup: five links for bloggers

2010-02-17T11:08:51-05:00

Here are some helpful highlights from around the web for my blogging buddies:

1. Discussion about Blog Giveaways

The Skirted Roundtable has a great podcast about doing giveaways on blogs. They offer some unique ideas about bringing traffic to your blog and how to make a giveaway successful for the blogger and the person/company who has donated the product for the giveaway. It is definitely worth listening to. (And there's a giveaway to boot!)

2. Social Media 101 Book

Blogger Chris Brogan's new book was recently released: Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online. I just ordered it, so I can't give my opinion yet. But I've been reading his blog for a few years now, and I have no doubt that his book will be just as helpful as his blog. If nothing else, the cover is super cute.

3. Typography

Confused about the fonts that you should use on your blog and/or marketing materials? This post on Big Brand System provides some great hints on choosing typefaces. Pamela also offers a few of her favorite sites for finding fonts (including my absolute favorite, myfonts.com). Her typography post is just one in a series of ten posts that she is writing in the Design 101 series. Here is the most recent (you can find the other posts at the bottom of the page).

4. Breaking Blogger's Block

Having trouble coming up with new topics? Or new ways to write on that same old topic? You'll love this post on Problogger: Blog Like a Cartoonist – Six Stunning Secrets to Help You Break Through Bloggers Block.

5. BlogHer 2010 Registration

Are you interested in going to BlogHer 2010 in New York City? The deadline for early bird registrations is February 28 - you'll save $100 if you register by that date. I am still up in the air about going. Anyone planning to go?

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freshblogtips.com was nominated for an "I Heart Design" award for Best Blog. If you have five seconds to spare, mosey over to Rose Flash and vote for me! You can vote once a day until March 13th - so put it on your calendar. ; )

We have a winner!

2010-01-26T16:44:34-05:00

Congratulations to Cathy Greschner of Orange Sink, the lucky winner of last week's giveaway! Thanks again to Lisa Leonard for agreeing to answer my questions and for donating the Family Crest necklace.

And thanks to everyone who entered!

freshblogger interview: lisa leonard +jewelry giveaway!

2010-01-17T19:07:30-05:00

I first heard about Lisa Leonard when she sent me an email two years ago and asked if I wanted to give away one of her custom necklaces to a lucky freshvintage blog reader. I received more traffic during that week than any other time since I started freshvintage (as noted in my post about traffic-building tactics).

So, when Lisa approached me a few weeks ago to do another giveaway, how could I possibly refuse?! Since my last giveaway in 2008, Lisa has expanded her jewelry line and created a lovely new shopping site for Lisa Leonard Designs. I was intrigued by the marketing approach that she uses for her business, so I invited her to answer a few questions for my freshblogtips readers:

1. When did you start blogging to help market your jewelry business?
I started blogging about three years ago just to document our family life and share creatively about my jewelry. Although I had a jewelry business, I focused on local retail shops and home parties. Soon I had readers asking if they could purchase my designs online, so eventually I started taking paypal and the online business evolved from there.

2. Do you use Twitter or Facebook to spread the word about Lisa Leonard Designs?
I've recently started using twitter and I have a facebook account but I hardly ever check it!

3. What was your most successful online marketing campaign?
I would say connecting with other bloggers regularly is my most successful campaign. It involves making real relationships and it's an ongoing process. There is no easy, make-money-quickly, campaign. It's all about networking and helping others, too!

4. Have you ever paid for advertising on another website or blog?
Yes, I pay for ads on other websites. I really try to assess cost of the ad, number of visitors (the blog owner should provide statistics) and whether or not the readers will resonate with my designs. I love when blog owners sell their own ad space, rather than working through a middle man. It's easier to network with blog owners.

5. Do you use any type of web analytics to measure your traffic and conversion rates?
I use Google Analytics to get an idea of traffic. A lot of people use readers, and that can be hard to measure. But google analytics give a good baseline.

6. Did your business have a tipping point? (that is, a specific event that really made your business take off?)

This is a great question. The business has grown steadily and requires a lot of attention. Getting a full page feature in Parenting Magazine was a huge confidence booster and brought us tons of traffic.

7. Judging from the number of comments that your blog posts receive, it is obvious that you have built quite a loyal community. How do you keep your blog readers and customers coming back?
I genuinely care about my readers and I appreciate their input. I want to hear their stories--not just share my own. I think we all want to connect and be understood. I hop over and visit their blogs and get to know them.

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Lisa has generously offered to give away a Family Crest necklace to one lucky freshblogtips reader! That's a $72 value!

Simply leave a comment below by 12pm EST on Friday, January 22nd. The giveaway is only available to US & Canada readers. The winner will be randomly chosen on Jenuary 23rd and notified via email (so make sure yours is included). One entry per person, please.

Thank you, Lisa!

P.S. For those of you attending the sold-out 2010 Blissdom Conference, be sure to visit the panel called Leveraging Social Media to Build Your Business - Lisa will be one of the speakers.

UPDATED: Comments are closed now. Winner to be announced soon!

How the Hell Do I Use Feedburner?

2010-01-05T16:46:33-05:00

You've heard about RSS feeds and XML feeds and Google Reader and Bloglines and all of that junk. But do you really understand why you should care about your blog feed? If your answer is no, don't worry - I am going to show you step-by-step how to create a Google Feedburner feed and add it to your blog. It is totally free, in case you are worried about the current economic climate and all that stuff.

I guess you are wondering: Why do I need to use Feedburner? Some really technical people can probably give you a big list of reasons, but I have two:

Reason #1: To Help The Lovely People Who Read My Blog

Feedburner makes my feed easily available to my blog readers. I can click a few buttons and magically get the HTML code that enables my readers to follow my blog in their favorite RSS Reader. And it even lets my readers receive an email whenever my blog is updated. Bottom line: you want occasional blog readers to become subscribers, which means that they will keep coming back.

Reason #2: To Measure How Many People Read My Blog Through a Reader

With Feedburner, I know how many people subscribe to my blog. The number of feed subscribers is one of the metrics I use to measure the growth and success of my blog. Some people might not care how many subscribers they have. These are also the same people who don't look at their blog stats (either through their blog platform, or tools like Google Analytics). Personally, I am obsessed with the metrics related to my blogs, so I want to know how many people are reading them and where they originated from.

So, on with the steps. The first thing you'll do is login to Feedburner with a Google Account. If you don't have a Google Account, you'll need to register first.

Step 1: Burn Your Feed

Don't let the phrase "burn a feed" freak you out. You are actually just letting Feedburner create and manage your feed for you. Your feed is just a simplified version of your blog posts that enables automatic distribution of your content. You can find more info about feeds on this page: Feed 101.

After you login, type in the URL of your blog. For this example, I am using vintagedennison.com, a blog that I use for testing purposes.

If Feedburner finds more than one feed, you will be asked which one to choose. I've always selected the Atom feed (which is usually the first one listed).

Step 2: Name your Feed

Enter the title of your feed, and the address. No spaces in the address.

Step 3: Skip the next 2 steps in the Feedburner "Wizard"

Hit Next twice. You will skip through two screens. The second screen asks if you want to use Feedburner Stats. Don't check anything for now. You can always go back later and turn those on.

Step 4: Connect your Feedburner Feed to Blogger or Typepad.

You've created your new feed, but now you need to link it to your blog's existing feed. Since most of you use Blogger or Typepad for your blogs, I am pointing out the links that describe how to connect your blog to your new Feedburner feed. If you have another blog platform, like Wordpress, this page also lists instructions for those feeds.

So, click the link for your blog host and follow the directions. You will have to go back to the Blogger or Typepad websites to configure the feed. It is very simple, though. Don't be scared.

Step 5: Publish a chicklet to display your feed

If you lost your bearings on the Feedburner website, you can find this on the Publicize tab ("Chicklet Chooser" on the left column). A chicklet is the little graphic that lets users select how they want to read your feed. I strongly suggest that you keep it simple, and use the standard graphic for feeds:

After you select the standard icon, the HTML for the link will be automatically generated at the bottom of the page. You can add these to Typepad or Blogger blogs by creating a Widget. Or, if you know how to embed HTML into your blog, just copy and paste the code into a Typelist or Blogger HTML Gadget.

You can see my SUBSCRIBE link up there in the right column. Click it and you can see what will happen when you add a similar link to your blog.

Step 6: Activate Email Subscriptions

The Email Subscription service allows your readers to get an email whenever you update your blog. This is helpful for readers who don't follow a lot of blogs and probably don't use a Feed Reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. You need to Activate this service before using it. It is also located on the Publicize tab.

After activation, select how you want your readers to subscribe via email. There are two main ways to sign-up subscribers: through a form directly on your blog where your readers enter their email address OR through a link that goes to Feedburner (the reader enters their email address on that page). I prefer to have my readers go to the Feedburner site via a link because I don't want a form that takes up space on the sidebar of my blog.

Follow the directions on the page according to the type of blog you have. You will add the magically-created HTML code to your blog. As in Step 5, you can use a Widget for Blogger or Typepad. Or, copy and paste the HTML into your blog directly.

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That was easy, wasn't it? It looked scary with all of those steps, but I bet it only took a few minutes.

Now, when you login to Feedburner, you will see the number of subscribers on the home page. Click on your feed to see the details. Here's mine for my freshblogtips blog:

Click the "See more about your subscribers" for even more info (probably more than you'll ever need) about the feed readers that your peeps are using to read your blog.

I just want to point out one cool thing - if you scroll down, you can see a section that look like this:

Click the "Manage Your Email Subscriber List" to see the email addresses of all of the people who have opted to get your blog updates via email. Pretty cool, huh?

There are other fancy things you can do with Feedburner, but I just wanted to cover the basics in this post. You can click through all of the tabs across the top (Analyze, Publicize, Monetize, etc.) and see if there is anything that catches your eye. On the Optimize tab, check out the Photo Splicer, which lets you add your Flickr photos to your blog feed. Perfect for a blog that focuses on photography.

Your final step is to invite your readers to subscribe to your blog. Do it in your next blog post. Sure, you've added the links to your blog, but most of your readers might not notice them right away. So, tell them all about it. And keep them coming back for more!

Advice to My Mom: 7 Tips to a Bang-Up Blog from the Very Beginning

2009-06-10T21:55:11-04:00

I finally did it! I bullied my mother into blogging! I might regret it later, but she is having so much fun thinking of new stories to share. You can find her wreaking havoc at BoggleMama.com.

Helping my mom create her new blog gave me a chance to think about the things I would do if I could start all over again. Here is the advice I gave her (applies to newbies as well as seasoned bloggers):

1. Get your own domain.
If I could do it all over again, I would have used my own domain name for freshvintage. It is not too late for me to switch over, but it will be a lot of work to move my photos. And I am afraid to lose Google traffic, since 32% of my traffic comes from search engines.

2. Install Google Analytics (or equivalent statistics program) on day one
How the hell do I know that 32% of my traffic comes from search engines? The stats on typepad certainly don't tell me that. My mom is obsessed with looking at the stats on Google Analytics, and her blog is only a couple of weeks old. The charts and graphs are practically empty, but she is optimistic that traffic will build.

If you haven't installed it yet, it is never too late. And it's totally free.

3. Write a few posts before you tell anyone about your blog
When I started freshvintage, I made the mistake of sending an email to a bunch of my favorite bloggers after I wrote my first post. And my first post was not anything special. At the very least, I don't think it convinced anyone to keep returning to my blog. In hindsight, I should have waited a while before I jumped into "cold emailing" other bloggers.

4. Create a theme for a series of posts
My parents have met some interesting celebrities because of my dad's past involvement in politics. My mom and I came up with the idea of having Famous Fridays. If she starts suffering from writer's block (highly unlikely), she can easily come up with a post for her Famous Friday series. Whether it is just a funny photo or a brief story about a brush with stardom, it is a no-brainer for her.

I have a similar series on freshvintage, called freshfind. These are short posts that focus on just one of my vintage finds, instead of the heaping piles of junk that I normally write about. The freshfind posts don't need a lot of preparation, and they keep my family from bugging me about writing a new post.

5. Don't apologize for not blogging
Sure, I haven't written a post for freshblogtips.com for several months. Do you know why? Because I had way too much stuff going on in my life. And I had nothing substantial to say. I even had to remove my BlogHer Ads because I wasn't posting as often as required by their advertisers. But I didn't want to write a post that said that I was sorry for not writing a post. Boooring. Only write when you have something to say.

6. Make each post stand on its own
No one wants to be the loser at a party who doesn't know anyone and doesn't understand the inside jokes. If you refer to a project or event or even a person in your blog, be sure to link back to a full explanation of it on a previous blog post. Give a little background info to help new readers. People will stick around longer if they know what you are talking about!

7. Encourage family and friends to casually proofread your posts
If anyone finds a grammar or spelling mistake on my blogs, I want to know about it as soon as possible. I know that some bloggers don't care about small errors, but I do. Tell your friends to let you know when they spot a faux pas. Case in point: on the About Me page on this very blog, I made a major spelling error that drastically changed the meaning of the sentence. I had NO IDEA about my error until a friend told me about it recently. The page had been live for eight months. Damn you, bitches! This was the error:

Original sentence with misspelling:
In addition to being a mom of two preschoolers, a loving and gentile wife, a blogger and an antiques dealer...

What I really meant to say:
In addition to being a mom of two preschoolers, a loving and genteel wife, a blogger and an antiques dealer...

I didn't mean to say that I am a Gentile! Why in the world would I ever point the fact that I am not Jewish on my About Me page?! I was trying to be ironic by saying that I am genteel - as in "free of vulgarity and rudeness". Oops.

freshblogger interview: mary from pretty good

2009-02-02T17:40:11-05:00

Our next blogger on the interview hot seat is Mary, creator of the Pretty Good blog. Mary is also a Kirtsy Editor, which means she gets to search the interwebs for cool stuff that she shares with the world.

Mary has a unique approach to blogging. She overlays words onto her photographs instead of writing separate text descriptions. The results are beautifully photographed images with fun fonts and inspired writing. It is a pretty, design-minded version of I Can Has Cheezburger?. Without the cats. And the bad spelling.

Mary also carefully selects her favorite photos from sites like flickr and displays them on her Tumblr site. This is a whole new form of micro-blogging that I'm planning to try out myself one of these days.

Thanks to Mary for sharing her blogging insights!

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1. What was your blog's "tipping point" (a significant or defining moment)?

So far, my blog has experienced a slow and steady growth, so I can't point to one event -- and, frankly, I'd prefer it that way rather than a more flash-in-the-pan type jump. My Editor role at Kirtsy has been nice exposure, but mainly I've seen my "audience" grow in two ways: first, I continue to fine-tune my blog to helped to keep it fresh and interesting. I'm constantly making tweaks to (and even changing completely) my content and the overall look of my blog so that it really reflects me aesthetically. I also noticed my audience broadening as soon as I became more active in the blogging community, like commenting more and more on other blogs and connecting offline with other bloggers. It's a form of networking, really, but you need to stay with it and have good blog content to back it up.

2. Do you ever get blogger's block, when you just can't think of anything to write? How do you overcome it? On the other end of the spectrum, do you ever write posts ahead of time when you are feeling particularly creative?

Although my blog is 100% visual (think random photos paired with a few succinct words), I do get blogger's block. Usually, one inspires the other: I have something to say and I'll take a photo to accompany it, or I have a great image to share and I'll add a few words to it. But sometimes my house is a mess, or it's raining out, or people have seen my hydrangeas 87 times already. And if I don't have a great picture to share, I won't post just anything simply to get a blog entry up.

So, since my blog is so image-focused, on days where I have a blogging block I break it by visiting Flickr. It's my one-stop source for eye-candy overload. I also check out my favorite photography and home decor blogs (already a daily activity, yes; but when I've got a block I really spend time exploring their posts and what they're linking to). Both of these exercises force me to look at my surroundings in a different way. I also just pick up my camera and start shooting away. Even if it's overcast out and the lighting is horrible, I just play around. I'll walk down to my favorite antiques market and click away at some of their goodies (and, yes, even buy stuff to photograph at home...I like it call it "accumulating props". You know, like Martha Stewart and her infamous prop room. Somehow this doesn't fly with my husband...) I never worry about getting a big, exciting shot - in fact, I go in the opposite direction. I focus on the beauty in the details. Some of my best photos are of the most random, simple things -- a strawberry; a scrap piece of pretty ribbon. And once I get a great picture? I snap out of it. I'm excited and re-energized. The ball gets rolling from there.

If all else fails, I just forget about it. I put the camera away, I shut down my Google reader, and wait until tomorrow. Sometimes I just need time off to clear my head.

If I've gone through a particularly great photo-snapping spree, I'll stockpile a few photos for a rainy day (literally and figuratively). This not only helps during dry spells, but also when my 'real job' gets too busy for me to break away and do a post.

3. What is the biggest mistake(s) you've made since you started blogging?

For me, it would definitely have to be trying to be like other bloggers instead of just being myself. I love to write, I love to take photos, I love to share bits of my life and style with others. So I've really had to find and ease into my own writing and photography style, and I've had to really had to figure out what exactly I wanted my blog to be about. And, be secure with it.

My old blog looked completely different from the way my new one looks now; not only visually, but content-wise. I started out with much longer, wordier posts, and I eventually found that although I love to write, I was forcing myself to come up with words just for the sake of making sure my post was long enough. (Hey, some of my favorite bloggers practically write chapters of books for their daily posts; wasn't that how I was supposed to do it, too?!)

In reality, though, I was really more comfortable communicating in a tone that was as conversational and easy as possible; I wanted readers to hear my real voice, rather than some perfectly polished paragraph. For me, that meant being less formal and wordy and just getting to the point of what I wanted to say. And that's when I realized that my blog wasn't going to be a diary; I'm too private a person for that. It was simply going to be bits of this and bits of that; little snips of things that I saw that I thought were pretty or interesting.

So, my posts started getting shorter and shorter, and I quickly realized that I was counting on the photos within my posts to communicate just as much as my words were. I eventually decided to blend the two and incorporate the words right onto the picture. This new format has also given me a chance to play with fonts and design a bit, making it even more fun for me.

While we're talking about photographs...another lesson I learned is that I didn't have to post 57 pictures with each entry. Now, I post only my very favorite ones. I prefer quality over quantity.

4. Have you ever kept your blog a secret from certain people in your life? If you work outside the home (in a non-blog-related job), do your co-workers know that you blog?

I do have a full-time job, and my close friends at work know about and visit my blog. I heart lunch breaks and the ability to schedule posts for future dates :)

5. Do you regularly monitor the traffic statistics on your blog? Do you use a stat tool, like sitemeter.com or Google Analytics? Do you make decisions about blogging based on the results that you see in your stats?

I use Sitemeter and I love it. However, it can stress me out if I pay too much attention to it -- I'm actually a much better blogger when I'm not checking it. If visits are down one day from the next, it's way too easy to get sucked into obsessing over why, and that's no fun. But I check it every few days, and I do notice that when I am posting regularly, my stats hold steadily increase. And sometimes that's a bit of an incentive when I get lazy.

One thing I do think it's a really, really great resource for is seeing who refers readers to my blog. Sitemeter has allowed me to discover when another blog has mentioned mine, when people have added my blog to their sidebar links, and when my blog has hit a site like Stumble Upon.

6. Name a blog that you love and tell us why you love it.

It's really super hard for me to name a "favorite" of anything (I'm a Gemini, you see). Especially when I have almost 200 blogs in my Google reader, ranging from photography to decorating to business to shopping to food to personal blogs.

But one blog I just love is Oh Happy Day. My heart literally skips a beat when I see that it's been updated with new posts. Why? First of all, Jordan is the epitome of cool. All of her posts -- whether they're pictures of her walking her baby up a hill or of a party she's thrown or a bedroom she'd love to live in or a part of her hallway she's just wallpapered -- simply ooze style. A really unique, very personal style. And whereas I tend to see the same things hit the same blogs across the blogsphere, Jordan seems to post things I haven't yet seen, and I always leave inspired. Her words are straightforward and brief (yay!), and I get the feeling that everything she posts about has been selected with care and are things that she genuinely loves. I also think she has a fantastic way of presenting just the right amount of her life so that it doesn't over-expose her or her family, yet you're left with dy-ing to know more about her.

7. Do you have a blogging tip that you would like to share?

My number one tip is to post on a regular basis. Whether it be daily, weekly, every Wednesday, whenever: give your readers a sense of when they can expect to hear from you. The beauty of sites like Google Reader or Bloglines is that you don't have to check in with blogs on a daily basis to see if they're got a new post; instead, you're automatically updated when they do. But even so, in order to establish and keep a readership, you've got to provide content. (Trust me -- even though I live by my Google reader, I do housecleaning regularly and I not only unsubscribe to blogs that I'm bored with, but also ones that aren't updated regularly.) If readers know that you are a dedicated blogger and will be posting on a regular basis, they're more apt to stay with you.

My other tip is to just be yourself. Because although I sound like your mother when I say that, it's harder than you think to let your guard down when your blog is published for the entire world to see. Post about what you love, and let your personality show through -- it's the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else -- and people will be attracted to your passion and genuineness. Forget about what you think your blog should look like or be about or have in its sidebar and just make it be something that you're totally pleased with. Be inspired by (rather than try to be a carbon copy of) the blogs you love. Readers have so much to choose from out there, and not everyone is going to subscribe to your feed. And that's totally OK! Because chances are there are a lot of people you will resonate with; so just keep at it and be patient. It takes time to develop a readership, and your consistency will be rewarded down the road.

Oh, one more thing: please, no black backgrounds with white font. It hurts.

Curses!

2009-01-28T21:15:08-05:00

I received my first hate mail last week.

I know. Moi?

It has taken all of my strength, but I decided that I am not going to reply to her email directly. With a nod to Dooce and her infamous hate mail posts, I've decided to post it on my blog instead.

Without further ado...

Hello Colleen
Today was the first time and last time I will ever go to your website. I started reading and read a curse.
I then went to your profile and when you talked about cursing too much I had to heartily agree.
I am a Christian, and those words are not in my vocabulary. I stick to the Christian Internet Code of Ethics, where it talks about not visiting websites that compromise my life in Christ. Do I think I am better than you? No, Jesus says we are all born sinners! But I am a sinner saved by grace,the blood shed by Jesus on the cross!! "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment". Matthew 12:36. I hope and pray that you may see this and accept Jesus as your Saviour.
Sincerely, the Servant

I would love to tell her that I curse because it brings a sense of levity and irreverence to the seemingly mundane topic of yard sales. And I curse on my blog because I occasionally curse in real life. I write the same way that I talk. My cursing has nothing to do with God or religion. Nothing that I write in my blog would personally offend a normal person. (Unless you are averse to stories about defloration on bridal night or throwing pennies at hookers. Which I would totally understand.)

No, I don't think an email response would have been constructive for either of us. She wrote about her ethical & religious beliefs, and any smart-ass reply that I write would not convince her to change her point-of-view. The same way that her email doesn't convince me to get my ass to church.

And that is fine with me. She has strong beliefs, which I completely respect. I'm never going to sway her to think differently. So, it doesn't make sense for me to waste energy on a potentially ugly email exchange.

Don't get me wrong - I love a good debate. Just ask my neighbor, the Tastykake Man. We almost got into a fist fight while we were debating the merits of alternative energy for automobiles.

But when it comes to my blog that has nothing to do with politics or religion, I've learned that I shouldn't waste time arguing with strangers about politics or religion.

How about you? Have you ever received negative comments or emails because of something you wrote on your blog? How did you respond? How would you have responded if you received the same email?

P.S Thank you to all of the lovely freshvintage readers who left very nice comments when I wrote about my hate mail. I am going to re-read all of your comments whenever I feel stupid and depressed and don't want to get out of bed.

P.S.S. Here is the Christian Internet Code of Ethics. I think the one that talks about "not visiting websites that compromise my life in Christ" is really referring to pornography. Not blogs about Pyrex and vintage rick-rack.

Did Tina Fey Read My Blog? And Other Blogging Goals.

2009-01-09T13:57:36-05:00

One year ago, I wrote a post on freshvintage about my blogging goals.

Here's the rundown on the results:

1. Quadruple the daily visitor count
My daily visitor count definitely increased since the beginning of 2008, but nowhere near four times. Closer to double. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. It is good to have big goals, but if you don't take any actions to reach that goal, it ain't gonna happen. I didn't do anything monumental on freshvintage that would result in a quadrupled visitor count. Sure, there were a few posts and mentions on other blogs that brought the daily count up much higher than normal, but those high numbers didn't stick around for more than a few days.

If I ever plan on quadrupling my visitors in 2009, I'll have to come up with a detailed action plan. A plan that includes vintage sex tapes and pictures of celebrities in compromising positions at flea markets. That would definitely drive up the numbers.

2. Write more tutorials
I wrote two new tutorials during 2008: Displaying Vintage Paper Labels and Creating Fabric-Covered Corkboards (with an additional follow-up post).

I've mentioned before that the small number of tutorials on my blog drive a huge chunk of the Google traffic that I get. It is the 80/20 rule: I get roughly 80% of my traffic from 20% of the posts on my site.

Since I wrote the Corkboard tutorial, freshvintage received 2411 visits from people doing a corkboard-related search on Google. Which is strange for a blog that isn't centered around my undying devotion to corkboards. Now can you see why I wanted to create more tutorials? They usually bring a nice stream of traffic.

And let me tell you this: you'd all better not write a bunch of fabric-covered corkboard tutorials or else the shit's gonna hit the fan. I kid, I kid. My point is that we all have ideas, whether they are totally original or a fresh take on an old idea, that could use a step-by-step, fully-photographed tutorial. And those tutorials could potentially drive a lot of traffic to your blog.

3. Drop more f-bombs
I totally effing failed on this one. But I think my mother-in-law is happy about it.

4. Get Tina Fey to read my blog
My sister has a friend of a friend who is a close friend of Tina. Friendly enough that she has Tina's email address. Let's call her Sally.

Sally copied & pasted my blog post about Tina Fey into an email to Tina. It didn't include a link to my blog, but, hey, it is way more than I ever expected. I love Sally almost as much as Tina now (even though I never met her and that is not her real name).

Here's the rub: Sally sent the email to Tina the morning after she won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in January 2008.

So, I'm not sure Tina actually read my blog post, since she was probably in a champagne-induced haze. But I like to picture her reading my post on her Blackberry and laughing uncontrollably while she keeps Oprah on hold.

2009 Goals
And what are my goals for 2009? I'm still mulling them over. I'd definitely like to bring in some guest posters for freshblogtips.com. And I'm seriously thinking about attending a blogging conference like Blissdom in Nashville or BlogHer in Chicago. Anyone else thinking of going to these conferences? Does anyone want to get trashed with me after the keynote?

What are your blogging goals for 2009?

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When I first started this blog in August, I promised that I would post a list of all of the wonderful readers who decided to start blogging because of a little push from me and my blogging tips. Here's that list, along with a few other unlucky bloggers who had the pleasure of being bullied into blogging by me IN PERSON (in their shop, at their antiques sale, etc.). I will be keeping this list on a separate Bullied Into Blogging page, so if you have a new blog and were inspired by freshblogtips.com, send me an email and I will add you to the list on that page.

The Wild Raspberry Sisters

Auction Girl Vintage

Bella's Threads

The Roux (also inspired by her friend, Mary from pretty good)

Royal Port Antiques

Vintage Rescue Squad

Antekin

Magnolia Street Style

freshblogger: jennifer ramos from made by girl

2008-11-22T10:00:00-05:00

Entrepreneur & designer Jennifer Ramos was nice enough to answer some of my questions about her blogging experiences. Her fun & colorful design style is reflected in the cards and posters that she creates for her business, Made by Girl. Jennifer has been featured on tons of websites and recently in Latina magazine. Here are a few reasons why her blog stands out:

1. She has an online store selling her simply-designed (yet totally funky) 100% recycled cards and digital prints. BUT, her blog isn't one big sales pitch. She writes about other blogs, magazines, designers and websites that share her style.

2. Jennifer shares photos of the inside of her house. Doesn't everyone want to see how others live? Especially if your living room looked like this?

3. She shows us behind-the-scenes peeks into her business. Her posts about her booth at the National Stationery Show in NYC is particularly interesting (Part 1 & Part 2).

4. Jennifer has capitalized on her blog's popularity by selling affordable advertising. The ads are not intrusive, and they fit right in with her design aesthetic.

5. Jennifer is super-nice to her blog readers: she offers lots of giveaways of her fabulous products. And, right now, she has a coupon for 10% for her blog readers: HOHOHO2008.

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Here are Jennifer's answers to the questions I posed to her:

What was your blog's "tipping point" (a significant or defining moment)?
I think when I started writing more posts and adding more quality photos about my own products as well as others. Linking up with other bloggers helps a great deal as well. Such as when Holly from Decor8 added me to her friend's list, I received a whole bunch of new & interested readers.

Do you ever get blogger's block, when you just can't think of anything to write? How do you overcome it?
Of course I get blogger's block, in the same way I get designer's block when I'm trying to think up new designs for my MadeByGirl shop. The only way for me to overcome writer's block is to get off the computer and relax. Then come back to it and eventually I will gain some inspiration from something. I always do, so I consider myself lucky.

On the other end of the spectrum, do you ever write posts ahead of time when you are feeling particularly creative?
I don't think I've ever written posts ahead of time....but I think doing that is a great idea. Especially if you know you're going to be busy during a certain time. I could see that being very useful for me in the near future.

What is the biggest mistake you've made since you started blogging?
I don't feel I made any mistakes, but I do wish I had posted more photos for each individual post when I first started blogging.

Do you regularly monitor the traffic statistics on your blog? Do you use a stat tool, like sitemeter.com or Google Analytics? Do you make decisions about blogging based on the results that you see in your stats?
Yes, I monitor the traffic everyday via Google Analytics. I find it interesting to see who is blogging about me and through monitoring I can easily do that. Plus you are able to tell where most of your traffic is coming from etc. Its a great marketing tool as well!

Name a blog that you love and tell us why you love it.
Even though I love design blogs, I find myself reading Hope Dies Last almost everyday. On her blog, Hope delivers a great feeling of intensity within her posts. She writes about her life and relationships. I admire the candidness of it all.

Do you have a blogging tip that you would like to share?
A few tips:

Create an interesting header/banner for your blog.
Don't use black as your background.
Post good quality photographs.
Have a variety of artists or interiors (whatever you blog about, use variety)
Don't overload your blog with Etsy artists. I like Etsy and think its a great tool for artists to sell their work...but in my opinion a lot of the artists tend to have similar styles.
Blog advertising should be MORE affordable, some blogs charge insane fees for a TINY banner. In my opinion, smaller businesses won't have much of a chance to advertise on their blogs due to the outrageous ad rates.

Thanks so much, Jennifer!

P.S. The truth is, I only wrote about Jennifer because she makes cards like these and these and these.

How to Promote Your Blog on Facebook

2008-11-19T22:29:01-05:00

Everyone I talk to has been bombarded with Facebook friend invitations lately. In the past month, my entire family (except my luddite father) has joined Facebook. Even my mom. Unfortunately, her status updates mostly consist of praying for people, or the declaration that her "mammo" was clear.

But did you know that you can promote your blog (and/or business) on Facebook? I thought I'd share the things I've done to get my blog noticed on Facebook. Don't be intimidated if you are new to Facebook - I've only been active on Facebook for a few months. I'm no expert, and I was still able to figure all of this out.

Here are the things I've done so far:

1. Create a freshvintage page on Facebook

The steps to create a business page are not easy to find on Facebook (which is not surprising, since Facebook is a usability nightmare). You start by going to this page and selecting the type of page to create. Remember - this is completely separate from your personal Facebook page.

When I created the freshvintage page, I selected the "Brand or Product" option. And then I chose "Website" from the list. There are many other options, depending on your type of business.

2. Provide exclusive content on my Facebook page

You have to give readers incentive to visit your Facebook page. Otherwise, it is just a waste of time. My incentive is posting photos of my home, and other pictures that I've never shared on my blog. I've received comments and emails from my blog readers who have asked to see more photos of my house. So, I thought that this would be a good place to start sharing those photos. I'll use the Facebook page as an "exclusive preview" for photos that may eventually end up on my blog.

Your blog may not be as photo-driven as mine. Maybe your blog revolves around crafting or knitting or recipes. You may want to consider using your Facebook page as a means of sharing exclusive tutorials or crafting ideas that you don't share anywhere else.

3. Invite my Facebook friends to become fans

After I added some exclusive photos, I invited the friends of my personal Facebook page to become fans of my new freshvintage Facebook page. At that time, I had about 20 Facebook friends. I wanted to have at least ten fans of freshvintage before I told my blog readers about it (so they wouldn't feel like losers for joining a fan-free page).

4. Promote my Facebook page on my blog

I didn't want to write a whole post about Facebook on my freshvintage blog, so I included it at the bottom of one of my regular posts about my vintage finds. I emphasized all of the privacy aspects of Facebook, especially for the newbies who might be afraid that the whole world could view their personal information. It was a worry that I had when I joined Facebook, so I assumed that others had the same concern.

When I published the post about Facebook, I also added a Facebook badge to my sidebar.

5. Create an event and notify local fans

My sister and I were planning to sell our vintage finds at an Antiques Show, so I created an event through the freshvintage page. The event is visible to anyone who views the page.

The cool thing about events is that you can send an event notification to a specific demographic of your fans. Since my event is only relevant for people who are within driving distance of the Philadelphia area, I sent my notification to fans who live in PA, NJ, DE, NY and MD.

What's the Result?

Since I announced on freshvintage one month ago that I created a Facebook page, I've gone from 12 fans (who were friends & family) to 131 fans! That is definitely more than I thought I would get.

I consider this to be part of a long-term communication and brand-building strategy. Right now, my new Facebook page is not driving tons of traffic to my blog. But, I certainly have new readers who are trickling in. When people become fans of my freshvintage page, it appears on their Facebook News Feed for all of their friends to see. Then, one of their friends clicks the "freshvintage page" link, and decides to become a fan. And so on and so on. Many of those people never even heard of my blog. But, because I created this Facebook page, I have a new avenue for driving slow and steady traffic.

Other Bloggers with Facebook Pages

Here are a few examples of bloggers with Facebook pages:

Lori Marie from Pretty Little Things: Blog | Facebook Page
Vintage Goodness: Blog | Facebook Page
Martha Stewart: Blog | Facebook Page

What about you?

Is your blog on Facebook? If so, leave a link in your comment below and we'll become fans of each other. If you aren't on Facebook yet, is this something that you would try? Do you have any concerns?