Saturday 30 January 2010

SUNDAY... Coffee and Cake



Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...









Hermit Or at least I have been feeling a bit like a hermit, rather than actually being one. I guess it's because for the past week I have lost a couple of nights sleep (pregnancy related) after already having insomnia for many weeks, on top of trying to do my duties with my son, housework, Etsy stuff, research and somehow managing to take my son out to his various groups and little friend meetings. Being tired isn't the thing really, I guess it's just the whole lack of time I have spent really thinking about much else but the above, which oddly has left me feeling like I've been a recluse all week. But in all there has been some progress from all of this. My son is asking the all fun "why?" questions now, I made and listed loads of new prints in my Etsy store including a 2010 Calender dedicated to my print "Dreamweaver", my little baby has stopped booting me so hard now that she's running out of room!, and relating to the Etsy/blog side of things I've managed to move things around a bit, sorting out my unactive Project Wonderful box (I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed!), finally getting back into throwing my name into more search engines/directories and also ticked a few boxes on my to do list that have made a grand difference in my incoming traffic.
I thought I'd mention one thing that has been positive this week in terms of advertising, because it's something I reckon anyone could benefit from if they're prepared to take a little bit of time daily to make that bit of difference for their website/blog. Last year I came across something called "Link Referral" which is a great directory of various businesses that ranks your page based on a credit system... ie: requires some input from you, and input from others to position your webite in the big list on there. You have the option of paying something like $35 monthly if you don't think you can spend time daily doing the things it recommends you to do, which has the advantage of sticking you in the top 10 of your chosen catagory, or like myself you can just do the 5 things daily that consist of visiting a number of listed sites, writing short reviews, favouriting and contributing in the forum. Initially when even the idea of registering (I hate form filling) was frightful, finding out that you had to do these things daily to give yourself a good chance of being noticed seemed pretty far fetched, if not setting off alarm bells considering like most people that's tried and tested free advertising sites, they either bring you frig all traffic, or give you a tonne of poor quality traffic. So I was wary... but I thought I'll give it a go... there were loads of Etsy shops on there so I thought "hey... I'll conform for a day and see what the results will be like." The site claims to bring between 20-60 new people to your site if you rank high enough, which obviously means that doing it the free way means you may not get that much, but would probably notice a difference. And if I'm totally honest, the following day after checking my Google Analytics, I was pretty shocked to see a dramatic increase in my traffic. Dramatic I say because since my month of being ill, my traffic had dropped to an all time low. So you can imagine I was pretty pleased! But would this be consistent??? So 5 ish days later I'm still clicking and typing away on there for an hour or so a day (managing 2 sites n all) and hey presto, my traffic is still improved and the peak is definitely due to this site. The best bit is, even though it's not hundreds of people (yet... i hope) it is for once QUALITY traffic... people who are obviously looking into the niche I have stuck my work into and are visiting out of genuine interest. No click throughs, and high bouncers. Well worth it. So anyone out there that has the time try out Link Referral. See what is does for you. It may not be a massive thing unless you catagorise yourself into a popular catagory, or give them money so you don't have to do anything, but you will notice a difference.
So now that I have completed this post I'm torn between sitting still and knitting, or maybe working on a host of new prints I have planned... I think I may knit... I find a lot of tranquility in doing that to relax lol!!!

moonangelnay x

7 comments:

M.M.E. said...

Thanks for the Link Referral site! It sounds very interesting. I hope you can catch up on your sleep soon.

Almost Precious said...

Very interesting. I looked into that Link Referral and just thought that there was no way I could devote enough time to it. Seems between etsy and blogging and my family there just aren't enough hours in a day to do it all. :(
I started my blog at least a year ago and I've noticed that many who began their blogs at about the same time or even later than I did have some how managed to get hundreds and hundreds of followers, leaving me well behind. LOL
No really, I know several bloggers who started their blogs about the same time I did and they now have like 800 to 1,800 followers, a couple have even broken the 2,000 mark. Guess all it proves is that I don't spend nearly enough time on my blog. Okay so now big question...more time on my blog and less time with my family, or maybe I could just give up sleeping? =D
Hope you get rested, I know that crocheting and knitting can be very relaxing...as long as a stitch doesn't get dropped along the way.
Oh btw I found your blog through the etsy forums thread in a post about blogs.

Babamoon said...

Link referral is a bit of a time sucker, but even after writing this article i found that doing the recommended tasks just took 15 minutes so i must be getting used to it!

i think with site traffic some people have the right idea immediately, or it could simply be down to their site content being more sought after... my dream is to start receiving hundreds of views daily, but it requires a lot of research and understanding into the web and the search engines. I'm still getting it myself, i just like to post what i find along the way thats helpful :)

Karen and Syd said...

You have received the Sunshine Award from us! Please visit our blog post when you have the chance so that you can claim your award and pass it on!

-Karen and Syd, BZD

Babamoon said...

wow that is so nice thankyou!

Sarah said...

Thanks for the info about Link Referral. I went and checked it out, and I'm going to give it a shot. I'm not sure it'll drive buying traffic to my shop (after all, I didn't buy from any of the shops I visited or reviewed), but I want to try a range of online promotions, and I'd rather start with the inexpensive ones!

Babamoon said...

i found when i was first getting used to it, i was trying to battle the little time i had to do it against the time i spent properly browsing, but now that im managing my time better i have been able to look at some of my fave shops (that i hearted for future reference as i look at mainly blogs and etsy shops!) and even though i can't buy now, i will be buying from some people in the future as a result of finding them on link referral as ive come across some great little props for my baby when shes born (camera at the ready lol!) and also something special for my OH for his birthday too :)... you never know, just having people saving your shops may result in a sale another time :)

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