Top 5 Fun Traffic Tips for Your Blog

Are you finding the traffic building a bit tiring? Not getting the amount of traffic to your blog that you’d wished for when you started?

Increasing your readership needn’t be tiring or stressful, it can be FUN! If you just have the right mindset when doing it you can benefit immensely and have fun at the same time.

1. Social Networking. This can be too much fun if you don’t watch out.  If you aren’t already on twitter or Facebook I suggest you get on there as soon as possible! Have fund and promote your blog at the same time. Use a service such as Bit.ly to shorten your URL’s and tweet about older posts as well as new. Remember to interact with other tweeters and not only tweet your own content.  Same thing goes for Facebook, reply to statuses of your friends and contacts and make new connections whenever possible. Don’t collect friends for the sake of having friends, only connect with those you really have some kind of relationship to.
2. Join a forum related to your topic. If you write about gardening it make sense to talk to those interested in gardening and not weight loss. Have something in common; you never know what connections you can make on forums. Don’t see it as time wasting, instead as a unique opportunity to meet new interesting people.
3. Comment on other blogs. This is probably one of the most given advice around when it comes to blogging but it works! Making thoughtful comments that show you are actually commenting because you have something to say and not for link building can make a huge difference for your blog.
4. Learn some basic SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is important for any blogger who wants more readers.  Don’t worry if it seems complicated, it really isn’t and you only need to know some basics.  A good idea is to check out Dan Thies’ free eBook SEO Fast Start. Learn how to use keywords in your titles and posts.
5. Write unique content. Show your personality in your posts; don’t be afraid to show a bit of who you are in your blog.  That is what makes your blog so special. Another tip is to write “Ever Green Content”. The term “Ever Green Content” refers to writing content that can be read today, tomorrow and months from now and it will still be relevant.

Actually you could probably put these tips in any order, they are all very effective. What you do with it is up to you. Blogging is supposed to be fun, so make the most out of your blog and have fun with it!

Need to set up some more strategies for your blog to get it going? Sign up for some Blog Coaching with Linda to see what you can improve on your blog!

Why should my business invest in a blog?

Why Your Business Needs a Blog

As small business owner you might ask yourself  “Why should my business invest in a blog?” A very good question indeed, but let’s turn it around and ask:

• “How can a blog help my business?“
• “What are the benefits of having a business blog?”
  and most importantly
• “How can a blog help my business grow and make me money?”

The real answer is that as a small business owner you need all the help you can get to spread the word about you and your business. Blogging is one way of promoting your business, and by now you should have grasped that you get what you pay for.

3 benefits of having a business blog

A blog offers businesses three very important benefits.

1. It will increase the awareness of your brand and make it easier for potential customers to find you.
Do a search for your company or the services you sell and see how easily you can be found. If  the result isn’t very good, a blog or website can help change that.  Self-hosted WordPress is pretty search engine friendly out of the box, and when you add on a plug-in specifically designed to help with SEO, your blog can become a powerful tool to help you rank better in the search engines.

2. It will help you build credibility.
It will help your potential customers to trust you.  The more you write, the more they trust you – if you give them the right information. Use your blog to inform and educate your customers so they understand what you offer. It is a fantastic opportunity to show what you have to offer without being too “pushy”.

3. It will help you with your marketing efforts.
A Blog is a viral marketing tool: it will make it easy for people to talk about you and your services. A blog makes it easy for others to link to you and to talk about what you’ve written. This will result in more sales opportunities. The time you spend on your blog can be substituted for various other marketing efforts you are doing and still give you a better result.

Visitors know if you are investing in your blog

When you are in business you quite quickly start to understand that you get what you pay for and the best is often worth paying for. Here at Berries and Cream, we like to use free and low cost services whenever possible, but when it comes to making the investment in a website or blog we tell it to you straight: Having your own domain name and paying for hosting is a must if you are serious about your business and about your blog.

Too many times have we seen, and still see daily, small business owners starting a blog on a free platform service without a custom domain and then complaining that their blog is not giving them the results they had hoped for. This goes together with the credibility point above: make your customers trust you by showing them you are a serious business owner.

Using a free blogging platform without a custom domain name (like myblog.blogspot.com or myblog.wordpress.com) often creates a first impression of unprofessionalism. A custom domain name, on the other hand, lets people know that you are serious enough about your blog to invest in it.

Our Recommendations

Hosting: We recommend and use BlueHost and HostGator. Very easy and reliable and to work with. Have your site hosted for a small monthly fee.

Self-hosted WordPress: WordPress is easy and very flexible to use; all of the available add-ons (plugins) make it a great Content Management  System.

A custom design: Make your blog or website unique and memorable. Having a custom design made for you will help enhance your brand and make it easy for your visitors to remember you.

Have questions?

Now let’s go back to the question: “How can a blog help my business?” If you need help to figure that out, sign up for a consultation on how a blog can help your business.

If you have not yet have a blog, it is about time to get one. Need help? Ask us and we will guide you in the right drection!

Maintenance On The Go: The Premium Service Club at Berries and Cream

Many of our clients hire us for new projects every month.  In the past, we have not had a difficulty working in projects for returning clients with little to no wait time.  However, the demand for our time has increased this year, and we are finding it increasingly difficult to work projects into our schedules without the client having to wait for several weeks.

As a way for us to be able to once again work on our most loyal clients’ projects quickly, we are introducing The Premium Service Club.

We have created the Premium Service Club for our loyal clients who frequently require our services for their projects. We are now offering our clients the opportunity to reserve our time so that their work will be completed first every month. (Please note that membership in the Premium Service Club only reserves our time and is not payment for any actual work.)

Premium Service Club members are guaranteed to be first in line every month as long as they remain club members.  Since the Premium Service Club is set up as a subscription, you will never need to worry about losing your “first in line” privilege due to failing to renew your membership.  The subscription will be automatically billed every month until you cancel it.

Because we are reserving the first week of every month for club member work, we are only offering 10 memberships.  The limited number of memberships is intended to prevent us from being overbooked with member projects, which would defeat the purpose of the Premium Service Club.

In addition to having exclusive reserved time on our schedules, members will automatically receive a 10% discount on all projects over $100 which they purchase through our store using our checkout process (the discount will not be applied if the Google Checkout option is used).  No coupon code will be required for members to receive this discount.

Being part of The Premium Service Club is like having your own web designer on stand by, ready to get started on your project. Our main goal when working on our clients projects has always been to provide top quality work, and the Premium Service Club allows us to do that on a  higher level.

In addition to the Premium Service Club, we are now offering Monthly Maintenance Packages. The monthly maintenance packages are for those clients who needs recurring maintenance on their sites every month.  Whether you need Light Maintenance, Regular Maintenance, or Heavy Maintenance, you are sure to find a package that is well suited for your projects.

Tip: Being a Club member and a monthly maintenance subscriber is a great way to ensure your website is always our top priority, freeing you to work on your business while we work behind the scenes.

How To Use Your Blog For Business – Interview with Christine from Life Verse Jewelry

I recently had the pleasure to work with Christine from Life Verse Jewelery when she wanted a new design for her blogs Life Verse Blog and Womens Bible Café. Christine had been looking for a blog designer for quite some time to help her and was very pleased that we managed to get both blogs done in only a week. Christine mentioned she has seen a 41% increase in sales since starting her blogs and I caught up with her to ask how the blogs have helped her grow her business.

Please tell us a little about your blog.
I have two blogs: a business blog – LifeVerseBlog.com and a personal blog -WomensBibleCafe.com

Each blog serves a different purpose. My business blog includes articles about new products, promotions and giveaways. The content is focused on inspirational stories.

My personal blog is a Women’s Bible Study. Since I am a Bible Study Leader, I do not mingle the blogs, preferring to keep the Bible Study site for the sole purpose of encouraging people to read and study the Bible. I have about 10,000 monthly readers on this site.

How long have you been blogging?
I started blogging three years ago with the typical “Mommy Blog.” My first blog was a disaster with unrelated articles, poor graphics and numerous errors common with beginner bloggers.

What do you blog about?
I blog about inspirational people, books and things. My business blog focuses on my products and my Bible study blog focuses on scripture.

How has blogging changed your business?
I’m generating 41% of my business sales with my blog. It’s a back-door to my website as readers enjoy the blog content, learn about my company LifeVerse Jewelry and desire to buy my products. After years of SEO and web redesign, it seems the most effective source of business for me has been my business blog.

The Bible Study blog has changed me spiritually as I lead online Bible study, I find myself accountable to my own study. I can’t take a day off or skip a few days reading my Bible when I’m tired, because I have 10,000 people waiting for me to write a new post. That’s commitment!

What are the most important things you’ve learned about blogging since the start?
Most importantly I learned to get professional help. If I had started blogging with the knowledge I now have, my business would have grown much quicker than it initially did. There are numerous mistakes beginners make…unfortunately I followed too many beginners and learned on my own, which was a waste of time and effort. Once I understood the professional benefits and methods of blogging, I was an instant blogging success in just one month!

What do you see as the main difference of having a self -hosted blog and a free blog? Do you think having your business blog self -hosted brings more credibility and business than a freely-hosted blog?
After a month of successful blogging, I realized that I wanted to offer more to my readers. I started researching top bloggers and their designs and followed the professional blogger gurus.

Following their advice, I bought a self-hosting package and popular template…only to find after three months of frustration that it was impossible for me to understand. I turned my back on that and found your company. Imagine my relief when you recommended a better self-hosting company than the one I was using, a better blog template than I was using and you were able to design and install my blog with a short amount of time! You’re my hero and you probably don’t even know it!

Before I found your company, I struggled and experienced frustration because my blog did not reflect my desired style.

What is your advice for those who do yet not have a business blog? Why should they start to blog?
Those who do not yet have a business blog are better off than those who do! The ones who do have spent months or years designing the blog, writing articles, building a following and are less likely to get out of their comfort zone into a better blog. New bloggers are positioned to start at step one, with the proper tools that will lead them to success. If you start with the wrong blog templates, formats, etc..then you’ll lose interest because you will not see the results you want. As I said, I generate 41% of my business from my blog…that’s a HUGE reward for my investment.

Christine’s extra tip;

Don’t follow the leaders, be a leader. Get a fresh blog idea, build a creative blog design, and write articles that other people are not writing. There are too many Mommy Bloggers out there! Be different! With that, you’ll create a following for your blog and income for your business.

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If you are inspired by Christine’s story and want to make sure you are on the right track with your blog I invite you to take a look at our store. If you need help with growing and marketing your blog and setting goals, e-mail Linda to find out about our blog coaching options.

Our Custom Blog Design Packages and Small Business Web Solustions packages includes everything and more that you need for your business blog.

Remember: Blogging the right way can make a huge difference for your business. Can you afford not to invest in your blog?

Meet Linda

Hello there, thanks for visiting us and finding out a little bit more about who we are. You’ve met Revka, the owner of Berries and Cream Blog Design, now it’s time to meet Linda, the co-designer.

I love telling the story about how Revka and I met and will do it once again. It all started when Revka came around one of my many blogs and saw that I was a bit frustrated as I was trying to create a header for myself that wasn’t like all the ordinary Blogger headers. Revka, sweet as she is, offered to help me and that was just the beginning of a successful partnership. When she asked me to join RS Designs I did so with a happy YES! Since then I’ve created tons of headers for myself and others, lol.

Born with an almost undying enthusiasm and living by the motto “nothing is too hard or difficult” I consider myself to be a very happy person. This is great when it comes to designing because I strive to make my clients just as happy.

I am actually Swedish but live in Brazil since four years. Before I moved here I lived in London for about four years. Married to my Brazilian love and mother to a blond jumpy little five year old who drives me crazy most days. Beside designing I teach English, help moms who wants to work at home, do freelance writing and try to balance my life and take care of my little family which also consist of eleven birds, two dogs and one hamster.

I love cooking and get all warm inside when talking about Italy and hope to one day be able to live in Tuscany even though I’ve never even been there.(I have been to Venice though) I also love singing and have always regretted not going for drama instead of multimedia at school although I can see the latter has helped me in my profession today.

The most gratifying when working with a client is to hear that they are absolutely thrilled with the results and then to see it up on their blog. And that is what I hope to achieve with the next design, and the next, and the next, and… maybe yours?

We love helping here at Berries and Cream so let us know how we can help you.