Best Blog Commenting Guide

I have been writing about blog commenting on  my main website at find handmade - an Australian magazine style site where inspiring individuals who are successful at the markets are sharing their background stories to encourage you to get involved. 

One of the most lacking elements in the emerging stallholder business is the complete absence of any online profile outside of facebook for most stallholders. 

And it is worrying that outside of fb there is not much way of connecting with repeat and referral customers. 

So many sales opportunities are going astray and business growth is not a good as it could be in those critical momentum building early phases.
Experts Guide to Blog Commenting for Handmade Artisan Beginners

Australia's Handmade and Artisan Community is Blossoming

Here's and excerpt from a recent article on blog commenting.

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.

What I have found is that almost NO ONE does it - so if your a handmade artisan and you blog - YOU'RE WAY AHEAD!
Here's some amazing tips from another article...

1. Check that your post is search engine optimised before you publish it - read this post about getting to page one of a google search
   
2. Take lots of time deciding on the title of the post - this is what will be shared across networks when people use sharing icons on your site.  The blog title should be concise and descriptive of the content. You can always add catchy text when sharing your links. Don't make it too long, use a subtitle in the body of the post if necessary.
   
3. Tweet your link on Twitter, don't just rely on the one auto tweet if you have one set up from your blog - make an effort to send a few throughout the day - and chat too so your twitter stream is not just full of links.
   
4. Use hashtags from relevant groups to help further extend the reach of your tweets - eg, use #cbuk and I may very well retweet your post!
   
5. Post the link on Facebook, again try not to rely on just the autotweet.  I find that when I post latest blogpost links for my own blogs and that of my clients, manual updates where I add a really engaging snippet of relevant text do best.  The worst possible way of sharing is to simply paste in the link and click post.  Read up on Facebook edgerank and read this post about my 'all killer, no filler' facebook strategy.
6. Share the link on Google+. Getting +1's for your posts will help your posts be seen in search engine results by friends of the +1'er - Blogger have made it really easy to immediately share your post to G+  .  If you have so far given G+ a wide berth, take a look at this guide from Mashable on how to use Google+.
   
7. Post the images in the post onto photo sharing sites, including the link and a description or snippet about the post -  Flickr, Pinterest and We Heart It for example.
   
8. Use a social media client like hootsuite or tweetdeck to schedule further sharing of the link over the course of the next week, change the text for each.  You can use this as an opportunity to see what sort of language works best, punchy / humerous / longwinded? If you do the scheduling asap after you hit publish, you wont forget and it will help give your post further longevity.
   
9. Schedule updates to reach various timezones.  Use Google analytics to check up on the effect this has.
   
10. Post the link on relevant Facebook groups or Facebook page walls that invite members to share links.

I have suggested some easy to follow links to get you started - here is a simple method to get some backlinks to your website or blog so that you will be indexed by google and t least appear in the rankings.

In an ideal world people are coming to your website through searching online in Google using keywords that relate to your product and business.  So if you sell organic soap, people searching for “natural skincare” or “organic bodywash” or “soap gifts” or “handmade soaps” would come across your site in the search results. Then they would see you website and buy from you.

But what if you are not appearing in the results – or you are buried at page 42. No one knows you exist outside your existing customers. So no chance of getting a sale from browsers – and that is like 99.8% of people out there. So the sales on your website are a bit slow – or it’s just crickets.  BUT we CAN do something about this!

Here’s a simple to follow workflow to get you started on blog commenting.  When you have links pointing to your website, Google sees this as almost votes of popularity for your content, and gives you a lift in the rankings.  Here’s how to get started building some links to your website.

Read the whole article on findhandmade/blog-commenting-guide

Handmade Markets

Handmade Products are bestselling gift ideas in Australia

What I do at findhandmade.com.au

I love handmade and we know there are many handmade artisans out there with intriguing stories to tell and brilliant products to sell. So instead of another directory filled with bland product information, we want to get amongst it and publish an original, interview/article about you and your wares.

Personal Touch

People want to know what makes you tick and what brought you to produce what you do and your influences and aspirations. Making a connection with your customer is sooo important and what better way to explain what you are all about than in a genuine 750 word article where you can have the space to reflect and show what you know.

More Images

People want to see you products, so we are taking advantage of big image sizes and plenty of room for you to show off what you have been making by hand. As they say – a picture is a thousand words – and having the opportunity to present your work in detail is ideal.

Video Interviews

Nothing quite conveys what you and your product is all about like a video interview.
So we are a little different – we want to know about you and your product and include a thought provoking 750 word article all about you and your product.

Sharing your vision and your story is one of the most important things you can do to put authoritative, independent and unique content in the digital sphere.

Australian Markets Directory

 Joining the Australian Local Directory

Joining the Local Markets Guide

Your listing will be in an exclusive neighbourhood where relevance, authenticity and perceived value are part of the assessment process we use when considering your submission. 

Plus, we offer the flexibility of listing your website, facebook page and other social media accounts so you can connect with your unique audience in the way that suits you.  No website?  Submit your facebook page up, it all helps in getting found online.

Having a Gourmet Gift Box website means you need membership at the Directory.

Farmers Markets Gourmet Food

Markets Farmers Expansion Like all markets, growing your production is a steady process.

Seasonal Conditions alone each year impacts heavily on both amount produced as well as overall vintage, that affects horticulture, aquaculture, across all farmers markets and local weekend business.

No matter how good your practices and procedures, a poor quality harvest will severely limit your product potential. The cost of expansion is expensive and time consuming, although there are tremendous benefits across both health and local community by being involved.

Local supply chains and delivery routes are established and the tentacles of the local fresh market spreads by face to face cross pollination. Key markets indicators suggest there is a strong growth in the localisation of food and food connections.

The slow food movement, organic beliefs and wider understanding of permaculture is having a direct impact on the way people see food, and ultimately where they choose to buy it. People want to buy local, but the science also adds up.

Competition and local loyalty will reflect this new frontier, an explosion that is also a lot of fun! A new way of looking at just how different the local farmers markets is best promoted online using a niche directory featuring local human edited content.

That means your unique entry hand entered into a powerful national database. Thousands of similar niche sites in the one place – to get your website indexed in the shortest possible timeframe. Further penetrate your site with links to inner pages and deep links.

As we discover more online it closer to what makes us human – intuitive web design. Farmers Markets Expansion is here on a global scale and from a site management point of view it is a valuable opportunity to join a local farmers markets directory. There are plenty of testimonials to reflect this too, which is what face to face interaction at the markets is all about.

Local organic connections are enabled with features in blog posts, related directories and aggressive online promotion to maintain markets dominance. With the phenomenal growth of the Local Arts Markets since the 1990’s, there is a lot of confusing, undirected and unbranded arts markets websites out there. A great proposal would be to seek out others and establish some sort of community, with a focus on making each member list a promotion or sales link to help with traffic.

And The answer would be a niche specific regional directory featuring popular, helpful real life submissions, human edited and supported with articles and blogposts. By working along a consistent, hand written thesis, with genuinely informative content means results are based on real time search.

And a pageview is a personal human visitor from another markets in Adelaide, or an event organiser in Goulburn, or a backpacker in Lismore. These people will actually be the typical demographic for your blog post and will reward you with a walk by from finding you in local search.

Welcome

Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to visit our Blog for The Gourmet Gift Box.

We are proud to share with you our new concept of total customer focused online shopping, where you are able to select your own exact preferences for your Gift Box without having to settle for pre-determined combinations.