Are you a beginner blogger for DIY craft projects? Are you having difficulty getting followers? Well, this lens will help guide you so that you can start getting more of your target audience to share in your creations.
Top 10 things to go to get more followers for your DIY Crafting Blog
Promote your Facebook Fan Page
Facebook has proven to be an excellent marketing and promotional tool for many businesses and although you may not be selling anything on your blog, you still want to have others share in your creations. Facebook will promote your page, based on your specific budget. Starting at $5 per day, you can reach out to millions of people in your target audience who will see your blog. If you don’t have a high budget, you can simply set it up for 5 days at $5/day to gain recognition. If you chose the correct audience, you should get at least 50 likes per day or even more. Again, the higher your budget is, the more your ad will be featured and the more “likes” you will receive.
Follow others that follow you
Blogging is all about social media! The more people you have following you, the more visibility your blog will receive. If someone follows you on a social media site such as twitter, follow that person back. It’s good social media etiquette and will likely attract others to your site. Likewise, if someone pins one of your pictures on Pinterest or follow you, the best thing to do would be to follow that person back. It will increase your visibility for that particular social media site.
Link Parties
Link parties are where you are given the opportunity to link one of your blog posts on a popular blog site so that others can see it. For DIY crafting blogs, there are many weekly and daily link parties. Participate in as many as possible. When I say participate, I not only mean link your posts but also visit and comment on other posts in the party. If you comment on someone’s post, they will most likely comment on yours.
Get connected to super-bloggers
Super-bloggers are ones that have been blogging for years. They have a large audience and have remained credible in the blogging world. Associating yourself to a super-blogger will attract their followers to you. Ways to get connected with super-bloggers are to ask if you can do a guest post on their site, have them feature or mention one of your tutorials on their feed or even ask them to “like” your social media page. Sometimes the best way to approach super-bloggers is to simply send an email. The worst that can happen is that they will say “no, I cannot work with you”. In that case, you just keep asking until someone is willing to assist.
Do a Giveaway
Everyone loves giveaways! Sometimes, even a small giveaway worth under $20 can attract your target audience. Set up a giveaway through rafflecopter or another giveaway site and request that people follow you, leave comments, “like” your fan page etc. in order to enter. You can then promote your giveaway on major sites such as online sweepstakes, giveaway blog fan page, craft bits, etc. The more people that enter your giveaway, the more followers you will have.
Feature your posts
If you posts involve tutorials, patterns, unique project ideas or freebies, there are blogs specially set up to feature each of those categories. For example, blogs such as Totally Tutorials features tutorials from other blogs. If you think your particular post is worthy of some exposure, send the corresponding blog and email or fill out their forms to have them look at your post. If they decide to feature your post, it will get visibility to all their followers which will increase your audience.
Take the time to reply
If someone took the time to comment on one of you post, link, tweet etc., reply to them. Sometimes, even a simple, “thank you for your comment” can go a long way. If you don’t reply, it shows that you are not involved in the conversation nor do you value that persons time. Although this may not be the case, it may be interpreted as such. As a beginner, try your best to always reply to comments. Once you become a super-blogger, you can hire someone to reply for your or you may be so popular, you can get away with not replying without consequences.
Mention other bloggers and post
As a beginner, there are times when you will use other bloggers ideas, patterns, suggestions, tutorials etc. If you do so or even post something similar to another blogger, it is good to mention that blog or person in your posts. Not only should you mention them, you should also have a link to their post that was similar to yours. This will increase your audience by automatically linking you to that blog. For example, if you are doing a tutorial on flowers that is linked to a super-blogger’s post, a search engine may pick up your posts as well as their post during searched which increases your visibility simply because you linked your post to theirs. Mentioning other posts is also good blogging etiquette. You don’t want anyone copying your work without giving you credit so don’t do that to someone else.
Be present and persistent
One of the biggest mistakes beginner bloggers make is to start a blog, write a post, start a fan page, get disappointed at the lack of interest from others and then quit. You need to be present in social media, tweeting daily, posting frequently, mentioning your blog constantly (without being annoying) in order to get more followers. People will not follow others who pin 1 picture a month or writes one tweet a week or only have 2 posts on their blog. As a beginner, it crucial to be persistent in your blogging efforts. The more your audience sees how present and determined you are, they more they will likely follow you and or come back to visit you.
A glimpse of your personality
Some people’s intentions for blogging are to bring in some extra money, while others may simply want to showcase their work. Whatever your reasons for blogging, it is good to share some personal things about yourself once in a while. If your blog’s objective is to promote your Etsy shop, you should give your audience a little glimpse of yourself outside of shop. I am not saying to talk about your dog and kids all day long on your blog, but to posts about a funny event at the dinner table one evening or share an accomplishment once a month may give your audience a more personal side of you and will increase your likeability. People are likely to follow people that seam rather than people they think are simply out to sell or promote something.
Starting out a blog is tough because you are thrown into water with many other fish that are bigger and may seem better than you. However, if you are persistent, use the right tools, target the right audience, follow good blogging etiquette, and have patience you will succeed.
