Etsy's Handmade Blog
Team Tip: Is Blogging Important?
Story by daniellexo, EtsyTeams, sarawearsskirts
Published on August 25, 2008 in How-To 		Photo by

Anda

Blogs can play a vital role in marketing your Etsy Team on the web. Many people choose to buy handmade to support artists. A good blog gives your customer base a glimpse into the lives of the artists they're supporting. Sneak peeks into studio spaces, interviews on artistic beginnings and techniques make for interesting content. You can promote your colleagues and Teammates easily with a blog, and relevant tutorials, tips, tricks and other useful information will keep readers checking in often.

Blogging doesn't come naturally to everyone, so it's best to pick someone on your Team who enjoys blogging to be responsible for posting often. There's no harm in starting a blog to see how it works for your Team, and delegating posting responsibilities will ensure the blog gets updated regularly. Here are some simple steps your Team can take to set up a blog and maintain it successfully.

  1. What types of things would your Team like to cover in its blog? Keep in mind your Team's goals and pick topics that members of your Team feel comfortable and knowledgable enough about to talk about every day: a type of craft, information on where your Team lives, or something that makes your Team unique that will be engaging for your target demographic. Remember, you won't want to be too personal (no gossip!), as this is a professional blog created to drive traffic to your Etsy shops. You want to connect with a specific group of people (your readers and potential customers!) by making the blog fairly specific and full of information, but keeping it broad enough that you can eventually have a pretty large readership.
  2. Find your tone. What type of voice should the blog to have? For example, it can be an instructional blog, you can adopt a professional voice or you can really be yourself. Setting a tone and being consistent makes a blog easy to read.
  3. Blog often. Blogs are an interesting medium because they can literally be up-to-the-minute information. No one wants to read a stale blog.
  4. A wise blogger once told me "No one cares what you had for lunch today." (Unless your blog is all about food, I suppose...) Make sure you're blogging about things that engage your readers!
  5. Include great photos! These could be photos of members' studios or workspaces, little snapshots of members' everyday life, in-progress shots of items, or photos of your Team in action. Photos can make a blog-reader feel like they're being treated to a behind-the-scenes tour.
  6. Have actual content. It's not hard to distinguish between an interesting blog you'd like to revisit and a series of advertisements upon first visiting a blog.
  7. Blog often. This is the most important tip.
  8. Use widgets! Etsy, Twitter, Flickr, Amazon and other sites all have applications you can include in your blog's side bars to keep the page dynamic even when you can't update it. Etsy Minis are a great tool to get your work—and the work of people you admire—noticed without writing dull posts about your own shop over and over again.
  9. Blog often! The more often you blog, the more people will check your blog.
  10. If you find it's not working, don't let your blog sit around decaying! Remove your blog from the web—there's nothing sillier than a blog that hasn't been updated in eight or nine months.

Here are some useful places to get started with a Team blog, or spruce up your existing blog:

Blogging should be an enjoyable way to get to know your Team better, as well as attract fans (and buyers!) of your work. It's a way to let people meet your Team, and should highlight positive aspects of what you're doing and the things you learn along the way. Exchange links with other bloggers (especially other Teams!), include lots of Etsy Minis, read and comment on other blogs to increase your readership. Have fun!


For more Team Tips, please check the Teams Resource page.  Also, we discuss the Team Tips, news and ideas in the Etsy Teams email list! Keep up the great work, Etsy Teams!

Tags bloggers, blogging, blogs, delegating, Etsy Teams, Flickr, HOW-TO, instructions, Seller Handbook, selling, Seth Godin, social networking, Team Tips, teamwork, ten steps, tips, twitter, typepad, wordpress, writing
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25 comments     Login to add your own!

Aug. 25, 2008 at 3:01 p.m. juliebcreative

yay teams!

Aug. 25, 2008 at 3:12 p.m. lpdesigns

having a team blog is a great idea. it's more accessible to me than almost anything else.
Great tips. :)

Aug. 25, 2008 at 3:35 p.m. tamdoll

Great article! The EtsyChai team has plans to blog weekly now as well as post all of our treasuries made.
Check out our most recent "Chanukah for Crafters" article, making the holiday accessible for anyone!
http://www.etsychai.blogspot.com/

Aug. 25, 2008 at 3:42 p.m. lauraslefthook

Our EtsyHookers Team has a team blog, which we update with a team member of the week, a pattern of the month, as well as our creative challenges. We are slowly, but surely, building it.

http://etsyhookers.blogspot.com

Aug. 25, 2008 at 4:11 p.m. DAINTYCROCHETBYALY

time to blog then! :-)

Aug. 25, 2008 at 5:51 p.m. MeadowbelleVintage

I like the "list" format of this article--always helpful for organization.
Now I just need to add "find etsy team" to my list!
Go everyone else's teams!

Aug. 25, 2008 at 7:31 p.m. kiddyup

cool fabric

Aug. 26, 2008 at 10:08 a.m. VintageMafia

Thanks for compiling all of these great tips!

Aug. 26, 2008 at 6:09 p.m. art2theextreme

Great article!

I have some awesome blogging tips on my blog....

http://art2theextreme.blogspot.com/20...

http://art2theextreme.blogspot.com/

Aug. 27, 2008 at 12:40 a.m. HotFudge

Thank you for some great tips. Our street team, BrisStyle, has its own blog and I also have one of my own. Thanks to your article, I am sure I can make several improvements to my own blog.

http://brisstyle.blogspot.com/

http://www.hotfudge8.blogspot.com/

Aug. 27, 2008 at 9:11 a.m. Krystyna81

Great article. I have been so impressed with the Gallery United Team and the Interior Design Team - their blogs and organization skills have kept me informed, helped me promote, and have taught me so much about esty and beyond. I'm so proud to be part of both teams!

http://www.krystyna81.blogspot.com

Aug. 27, 2008 at 4:46 p.m. fairytalefibers

Great post, very helpful! Over here at the Etsy Trashion Team blog we are running a series focused on the various materials members of our team upcycle! It's been fun to see what different members are creating with similar materials and get to know team members a bit better!

Aug. 27, 2008 at 5:43 p.m. BrisStyleTeam

What a great article!!! We currently have a post up on our team blog about a local market that a few of our members attended, and it has led to the market organisers contacting us and offering their personal thanks and support, which is great. A blog can really connect you with your local community - it is so much more than just an advertisement!!! Thanks again!

The BrisStyle Team

http://brisstyle.blogspot.com

Aug. 27, 2008 at 5:56 p.m. kootsac

Excellent suggestions, thank-you.
I write articles for two of my teams. One series of features I am very proud of is a series I do weekly for the Trans Canada Etsy Team titled 'Gift Giving through the Zodiac'. It's a really fun and informative way to make gift suggestions from the shops of team members.
http://transcanadaetsyteam.blogspot.c...

Aug. 27, 2008 at 8:26 p.m. twinklestarart

Fantastic blogging tips, thank you. I love blogger but am going to move my blog to typepad as they have some awesome features. I'll be sure to come back here for some tips to improve my blog. I'm a member of a local Etsy team that has a blog with blogger.
BrisStyle Street Team - http://brisstyle.blogspot.com
TwinkleStarArt - http://twinklestarart.blogspot.com

Aug. 28, 2008 at 12:06 a.m. thefiligreegarden

Great blogging reminders! There are so many ways to improve a blog. The Boomers and Beyond (BBEST) team has given their blog a fresh look for fall. In addition to a weekly member interview, the team will be adding crafting tutorials and features on a variety of topics related to art, creativity and Etsy team activities.
http://boomersandbeyond.blogspot.com

Aug. 28, 2008 at 10:09 a.m. CeeVeeArts

We are a local street team that is growing. We appreciate these blogging tips and our great leader has implemented many of them!

http://greatcircleteam.blogspot.com

Aug. 28, 2008 at 4:28 p.m. trishalandesigns

Blogs are great way to promote your work. Great tips.

Aug. 29, 2008 at 2 a.m. alankarshilpa

Great article. I am new and didn't quite find a team yet but I love to blog about my journey as a wanna-b jewelry artist and a new home business owner. Check me out at alankarshilpa.etsy.com and alankarshilpa.blogspot.com. As a new kid in the block I am looking desperately for friends. So in case you visit my blog do leave a comment please..

Aug. 31, 2008 at 1:37 p.m. raghousenternational

Very cool!

Sept. 26, 2008 at 11:53 p.m. creativecookie

These tips were really good. Please keep updating us on the web trends.

http://onecreativecookie.blogspot.com/

March 12, 2009 at 3:29 p.m. vintagedchic

great hints to a new blogger- thanks!
http://braytonhomesteadinteriors.blog...

April 8, 2009 at 2:06 a.m. turquoisehorse

thank you ! I have never blogged i gess this is the first

Aug. 29, 2009 at 6:46 p.m. dsenyo

Great article and good motivation to keep blogging.
http://www.dsenyo.com/blogs/marissa
I tend to do more on twitter lately because it's so quick and easy, but I've been neglecting my blog!
http://twitter.com/dsenyo

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