Week 3: Blog Hop News and Advice for New Bloggers Guest Post

Today's guest post is by Jennie from the awesome blog, Clover & Violet.   I have been a follower of her blogs for a while.  Jennie and her mom post fantastic tutorials and make such beautiful projects!  Plus, their website is super cute and filled with creative inspiration!  I highly recommend adding them to your blogroll.

Here is what she had to say:

Hi there!  I'm Jennie and I blog over at Clover & Violet, a sewing, quilting, and embroidery blog I share with my mom.  We have a shop of the same name where we sell our quilted bag patterns too!  When Beth asked me if I'd be interested in sharing with everyone a little bit about blogging, I was thrilled!  {And, take this warning now, I really love exclamation points!  So you may see too many in this post!}.  Now, onto my blogging advice for new bloggers, since Deborah had such a great post last week, and I've posted blogging advice before {you can read it here}, I thought I'd take a slightly different route today and write a few ways to get your blog found and help it grow!  I'm betting there are some fabulous small blogs out there {maybe even more fabulous than some of the blogs everyone seems to be reading}, but they just haven't been found yet, so here are five tips:


1. Have a giveaway!

Want to grow your blog?  I guarantee you'll gain a few readers if you host a giveaway.  Yep, you read it right, I'm suggesting you bribe people into reading your blog.  You don't have to giveaway anything big or fabulous either, but rather a token of appreciation to your readers.  One of my favorite giveaway items is a charm pack.  They're small, affordable, and light to mail, and everyone loves a bit of free fabric.  Another favorite is a pouch or mug rug, something handmade that will be enjoyed by another crafter.  You can almost bet it will go a long way.  {Note: You can read some giveaway suggestions and tips here.}

2.  Be a blogging friend!

When reading about how to be a good blogger, you'll always see advice about leaving comments.  However, I'm going to take it a step further and suggest you look for some blogging friends.  Find a few blogs, similar in size to yours and visit them regularly.  Leave meaningful comments.  If they visit your blog, reply to their comments.  If they e-mail in reply to your comment, turn it into a discussion by replying back.  This may not get you to 10,000 readers, but you'll probably find it more rewarding to have a few blogging friends than just lots of random commenter.  {Note: do not become a blog stalker!  Start slow and see if a friendship develops!}

3.  Join a quilting bee!

I had a fear of quilting bees...I finally joined my first one this year, but let me tell you, it's a great way to make friends!  My quilting bee is called Stash Bee, and we make blocks for everyone from our own stash plus up to two specific solids.  Different bees are run a variety of ways, so there is sure to be a perfect bee for you!  {Note: I am not an expert on qilting bees, but if you browse quilting blogland you're sure to find more info!}

4.  Participate in a Quilt Along!

Quilt alongs are everywhere, they come in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of inspiration, requirements, and ideas.  Find one you like and actively participate in discussion, making the quilt on time, and blogging about it.  Chances are, you'll make friends with some other bloggers/quilters also doing the same quilt along.  Many of my blogging friends are the people who have participated in my quilt alongs.  {Note:  There is a Beginner's Quilt Along going on here, even if you're not a beginning quilter, it might be a good place to star!}

5.  Link up at a Linky Party!

Okay, first off...I am terrible at Linky Parties...but they are a great way to meet people!  Just follow the rules, link up something fun, and you might find yourself some new friends!  {Note:  There's a great small blog meetup at Lily's Quilts each month, here's Junes!  For a list of Linky Parties, check here!}

I hope this has helped you with some ideas to grow your blog!  I know a lot of people say it isn't about the numbers, which is mostly true, but, if you didn't want someone to read your blog, you probably wouldn't be reading this either!  So, don't focus on numbers, but it's okay to work on growing your blog!

Just one more thing, blog design!  Today I'm giving away this premade blog design:

It is simple, clean, and hopefully visually appealing, I'm willing to do some tweaking of colors and fonts, and will include social media buttons and a signature {I just didn't see the point of customizing before I knew the color scheme!}.  Having an easy to read blog can really help increase your traffic.

In addition to blogging at Clover & Violet, I have a second blog: click. snap. swoosh. laugh.  I'm not exactly a blog designer, but I'm increasing my design skills, and I have some tutorials and links for sprucing up your blog!

Thanks Jennie for taking the time to provide us with such valuable advice for growing our blogs!  These are such great ideas to help us find our place in the quilting/sewing blogosphere.

To enter Jennie's giveaway and win her beautiful premade blog design, just leave a comment on this post.  Leave any comment you want to enter the giveaway but if you have a minute, how about letting us know your ideas and/or experiences for growing your blog and readership.  The giveaway will stay open until this Friday, June 8th at 8pm EDT and a winner will be chosen at random.  (If you already have a blog design for your site and therefore, not entering the giveaway but still want to comment, just let me know.)

Okay, and a word about no-reply bloggers - many bloggers/readers that are no-reply bloggers don't even know it (I didn't!)  Jennie has a great tutorial on her blog for fixing this.  If you do not receive a reply to your comment within a few days, then you are most likely a no-reply blogger.  If you don't know for sure that you can receive replies to your comments, then please put your email in your comment - how else are you going to know if you win?!?

Blog Hop News Weekly Update and Link Up

Calendar:

June 5   
    Cinzia from Deux Petites Souris

    Kristy from Quiet Play

June 7
    Taryn from From Pixels to Patchwork

    Em from Sewing by Moonlight

Click here to find links to the awesome tutorials from the last two weeks and more information on joining the Blog Hop.

Other ways to keep up and participate in the Blog Hop:

   1.  Follow me on Twitter. 

   2.  Join and post on the Let's Get Acquainted! Flickr Group

   3.  Follow and post on my Let's Get Acquainted! Pinterest Boards here and here.

Weekly Link Up:

This is a weekly link up for Blog Hop Participants and anyone who is following along.  If you have made any projects inspired from the tutorials on Hop, link them here.  If not, just link up your recent post so that we can all get to know you better.  Be sure to visit some of the other bloggers who link here as well.  Please link to this post somewhere in your post or on your blog so others can find it as well.  *Also, if you have any events on your quilting/sewing blog (QALs, SALs, etc.), you are welcome to link them here as well just put the word EVENT and the name of the event when the link up widget asks for your name.