Monday, June 4, 2012

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


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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.



39 comments:

  1. Great advice, thanks Jennie! I already follow Clover and Violet, and I know what you mean, Beth, it's just such a pretty blog!

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  2. Very useful advice! I love the blogging advice component of this hop--thanks so much!

    Here's a question (to anyone): what is the etiquette for link parties as far as how many you can post to? I wouldn't ever try to post a project on every single one and flood blogland with my amazing work (ha), but is it ok to post the same project to two or three links? Or is that totally gauche?

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    1. I think it's totally fine to post it to a few, not everyone is joining the same linky parties, so you don't show it to the same ones over and over again... of course a few will see it twice.

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  3. thanks! I have made a couple of bloggy friendsin the last year. it's nice to exchange ideas with each other!

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  4. I have been trying to increase readers and I have a lot more followers after the sew mama sew giveaway! It really did work.

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  5. I have yet to take the plunge and start a blog of my own...I do love following though. Maybe this is my chance?

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  6. Great post! I love learning new things and new ways to build up our blog. It's always hard when you first start and you're trying to figure it out on your own.

    Vicki @ Quilting Lodge

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  7. I've always wondered if where your blog is hosted has something to do with being found - or at least being followed - as well. I'm over at wordpress, but use google reader because it's so much easier, and had to jump through a few baby hoops to get my own blog to show up in my reader.

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  8. Great advice! I'm going to try to get more active with my blogging.

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  9. I'm happy with my blog design, but I still wanted to comment. Love this post! Your guest bloggers are fantastic, Beth!! I agree that getting involved with online sewing activities -- linkups, sew alongs, even just commenting -- is such a great way to get to know people. I really believe that the personal connection with others is what makes blogging come alive. For me it started with the Small Blog Link-up at Lilly's Quilts...my blog has never been the same!

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  10. Lovely post! And great design! I've been looking to redesign my blog in the next couple of months because I've just been using a blogger template.

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  11. Good advice A- I have tried some of these and they definitely work thanks

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  12. thank you for the great advice!! I LOVE Stash Bee I'm going to join as soon as I get brave enough!.... hopefully soon!

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  13. Such good advice!! And I love the blog design.... :)

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  14. I loved this post! Thank you so much for putting this info out there for new bloggers. I have been blogging for less than a year and sewing for about a year and a half. My blog isn't large but I enjoy posting about my progress. Over the summer, I am going to try and have more interactive ideas for my readers. Hopefully, I can make that happen. Any suggestions? :)

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  15. Thank you Jennie! and I love the clean, crisp look to you giveaway blog design! Oh, and I overuse exclamation points too!

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  16. Thanks for the great advice Jennie!

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  17. Wonderful words of advice, I especially love the line about bribing ::giggle::

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  18. woohoo thanks for the advice jennie - love the blog design!!

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  19. Good advice, Jennie - is this your bribe? I'm already a follower, and we have a travel blog, but we don't get travel so much anymore, so I rarely have anything exciting to post about! :( That's fixin' to change soon, I hope - we have a trip to Mexico scheduled for next week!! yippee!! BTW - I signed up to make a pillowcase too!! Thanks for letting me know about the need!

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  20. Great post by Jennie, she is always so helpful and I love her projects too!

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  21. Super informative post!!!!!!!!!!

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  22. Great post with lots of good tips and ideas! Loving the blog template! Thanks for the giveaway :)

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  23. Excellent tutorial! Thank you for sharing.

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  24. Thanks for the great advice!! I could so use a new blog template! Thanks for the chance to win!

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  25. There are some great suggestion here, thank you!

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  26. Thanks ladies, I actually checked to see if I was a no-reply and added an image to my profile. I'm learning

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  27. Thank you Jennie to point out things I can enjoy (sew along, swaps..) - though with swaps it's sometimes hard to get in as they want a "CV" of your artistic life.

    This post made me think about numbers, about the quality and quantity probelm...
    Why is it that we need to get higher and higher follower numbers? It's a little sad that people pass judgement on you / your blog according to the number of followers. If you have just 50 you are tiny if you have 500 you are good and worth to read and if you have 1000 you must be producing tons of good stuff, have a give away every other week, host the biggest linky party, have ten ssponsors, run a BOM and... I'm just beginning to wonder why should I see it negative, that I don't do those kind of things? Is it nescessary to promote myself? or can I just "join the fun".

    I'm not sure if all of that is true, maybe I'm a bit pesimistic?
    I'm almost a bit afraid to post a negative-ish comment on this nice post, I do think Jennie said some wise and helpful things about how to get to know people, I just don't know if it's important to get the number higher and ever higher.

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    1. Hi Leo, I thought I'd reply to your comment. I am sorry if I made it sound like I think the point of blogging is to get higher numbers. I do admit that sometimes I get caught up in it, but that wasn't my reason for writing this. Instead, I was hoping to help people find other ways to meet people and get readers and be part of the conversation, because when one first starts blogging it can feel like you're talking to no one (at least, that is how I felt). So, whether you want to have any readers or hundreds, these were just ideas to help people find your blog and get involved in the community! :)

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  28. Great advice! Very helpful. I joined a quilt along last year and I am at the point now to put the quilt together. It has been a great experience to meet other quilters and see all the quilty inspiration out there! Thanks for the chance to win!

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  29. Love love to be in the giveaway...I really could need a fresh start on my blog with a new blog design... It would be just wonderful...:0)
    So please count me in...in both if that's possible...:0)

    Have been sick for a while so I really need to get going on my blog soon..so I'm reading all tips I can fill my head with..so thanks..:0))))

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  30. Some great ideas, thanks! (I love exclamation marks too!!) ...lol...
    I would just love to win the new design for the blog, as I am going to close down the blog I have at the moment (country-blossoms.blogspot.com) due to a family member being incredibly insensitive and hurtful to me, and I just dont want them to be able to see/read what is happening in my life anymore. ...yes... sad I know. I have put up with a lot from them, and I just cant cope with it anymore. So a few lovely people suggested that I start up another blog using a "pen name" so that I cant be hurt anymore by their comments. So... yes, I would just love to win this new design! Fingers crossed...ha..ha.. Hugs n Blessings to you all (& good luck to everyone too) from Sue xxx

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  31. Love all the great blogging wisdom. Really great giveaway - I would like my blog to have a simpler aesthetic, but can't deal with the thought of having to design it!

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  32. Another great post, Beth. Jennie had some great advice and tips. I really appreciate that you are doing this, it is so helpful for us new bloggers:)

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  33. Oh I just came across this hop today - what a great idea, thanks for hosting! I am actually JUST in the process of creating a blog -- I started sewing in January but didn't REALLY have a chance to get into it until March, so I'm just now thinking I'd like to blog. It seems like such a fun way to meet people with similar interests and also to chronicle my projects -- kind of like an online scrapbook. Plus then I can stop showing my coworkers pictures and asking "but which layout do you think FLOWS better?!?!?!" hah :)

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  34. Thank you for all the great advice. I am participating in my first quilt along. So excited! Thanks for the chance to win!

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  35. Thanks for the tips, Jennie and thank you for this inspiring blogging series. I am a quilter and I frequently read quilting blogs for education and inspiration. I've thought about creating my own blog, but then I wonder, "Does the Internet need another quilting blog and what unique skills do I have to offer...I'm not an award winning quilter, after all."

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  36. Thanks for the advice Jennie! I think that involving myself in a few swaps has helped to expose my blog a little more, plus, they're so fun!

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