Why Blog?

Well we all know that blogging is quite subjective. People blog for different reasons so I am just asking you Why do you blog or perhaps a better posed question is what is the focus of your blog?

I have learned never ask someone to do something you won’t or have not done so below is why I blog and I shared a little (well maybe more than a little) about how it is evolving! NOTE that I said “evolving”. The best is yet to come! Give me about a year! LOL!


One thing I learned from the Block Head Rod Talk show was that I needed to sit down and make a plan for how I intended to use my blog? How do I want it to look? Funny thing is I initially I did NOT do this. I created my blog in order to be a part of the Etsybloggers team. I did start to enjoy it once I got started but my purpose and focus have evolved since I started blogging.

With all that said I took my mentor Rod’s words to heart because the fact is I felt quite aimless the months of October and November. Not knowing what I was doing and why, joining everything under the sun with no sense of purpose though everything I joined had the potential to serve to advance my business.

So where did I go from there?

Well first things first. I needed to be a student and so I took Rod’s advice. As my blog and focus have evolved, I not only established my focus/intent but as a result created this new blog I am writing on now. I realized I had two niches I wanted to work through and focus on. One being - promotions and sales (both of my shop items and others) and the other being tips/training/ and just my random thoughts!

How do I intend to use my Unique Commodities blog for promotions and sales?

Promote other sites with the first priority being to my Etsybloggers Team members.

Goal: Driver bloggers to my blogsite and then to my Etsy Store hopefully to make a purchase.

Allow other artist (Etsy or not) to advertise on my site. I am a little green at this so this is still a work in progress.

Share my personal life – I want the readers/bloggers to see that I am a real person with struggles and joys just like the rest of the world. I want to be personable.Post pics of my items as I create them. Allows the customer to see my creative process and know that it truly is hand made and to see that I work hard to develop a quality product. Besides I know people are quite visual!

Post actual side bar sales items on my shop – Now UNTIL Rod mentioned this I SERIOUSLY never thought about it. I think I was more intimidated by the thought of figuring out how to do it than anything. Rod posted the instructions on his Block Head Radio blog.

CONSISTENTLY BLOG– I know that the more I blog, the more exposure I will get and hopefully the more sales I will get!Networking with other Bloggers – Use my blog by whatever means to meet other bloggers and creative artist to learn from, share experiences and ideas with. I am confident this will help my sales and build upon my blog exposure!

How do I intend to effectively use my Indiscriminate Musings blog for tips, training and all the etcetera?

Well I decided to survey other blogs that I LOVED and see what other bloggers were searching for? I also decided I did not have any intention of ‘reinventing the wheel’ if you will by blogging about the EXACT same thing as other bloggers (not intentionally anyway).

What would be my edge ?

As I Twitter, I follow another mentor, Crafty Coaches approach who ask you when you follow him on Twitter, “How can I help you?” I know him doing that when I followed him IMMEDIATELY caught my attention and I went straight to his blog! Plus he reminded many of us that we were using Twitter to pimp Etsy. If you want to know more about that thought (bet you do LOL), check out his article "The Wrong Way to use Twitter".

Now when someone follows me on Twitter, I say “Thanks for following me! What would you like more tips/training/information on?" With that said, both on my own and when someone tells me what they want more information on, I either write about it if I have the knowledge OR I survey other blogs to find the information as I have absolutely no intention of 'reinventing the wheel'! If I write about it then I let my follower know that I wrote the article and provide the link. If I find a source that answers their question just as effectively if not more effectively then I can, I simply backlink to the source's blog and let my follower know where they can find the information they are looking for. I in turn let the blog owner know “Hey just backlinked to your blog!” Now ain’t that TWO for the price of one?!

BOGO in the HOUSE!

I now have a satisfied follower on Twitter, who just might continue reading my articles AND I might have a NEW follower from the blog I backlinked to! After all, who does not want free exposure?!?

So there you have it..phew I was rather long winded wasn’t I? YOUR TURN! Why do YOU Blog?

Sincerely,
Indiscriminate and Random Musings