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?

Welcome to this week’s edition of Berries and Cream Blog Design’s Cream of the Crop series. We hope that you will enjoy today’s featured site, Goat Milk Stuff.

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I don’t know about you, but I believe that natural products are typically better for you than highly-processed, chemical-laden ones.  Therefore, I was very pleased to discover Goat Milk Stuff when PJ graciously contacted me to offer her homemade goat milk soap as a prize for our launch party in Febraury.

Recommended by numbers of people including MckMama (blogger and mother of baby Stellan, for whose healing many are praying), the goat milk soap sold at Goat Milk Stuff is handmade by quite an extraordinary family.  The Jonas family is a large family (they have 8 children) who live on a 3-acre homestead.  They raise their own Alpine goats and lovingly turn the milk from their goats into fabulously natural soaps. Here is an excerpt from the Details page of their website:

Each bar of soap contains over one ounce of raw goat milk. The Alpine goats that produce the milk are not fed any antibiotics or growth hormones. Goat Milk Stuff use natural fats, coconut oil and olive oil to make their soaps. The colors of the soaps do not come from dyes or synthetics but from natural compounds and herbs. The soaps are scented with high quality essential or fragrance oils.

They even have a soap of the month feature which allows you to buy one bar of a different scent (they currently have 34 scents) each month for $4.50 instead of $5.00.

While I have not yet tried the soap for myself (I intend to very soon!), Dina, the winner of our launch party giveaway, had only high praise for this soap:

I have dry sensitive skin that gets even drier in winter. I have tried a variety of soaps, shower gels, moisturizers, without so far finding one that does not dry out my skin. Goat Milk Stuff’s soaps are far superior to any commercially available soap I have used. After using the goat milk soap, my skin feels soft and moisturized, making lotions and creams unnecessary. The soaps produce just the right amount of creamy lather, and leave my skin softly scented. My kids love the soaps too – my preschooler calls them Mommy’s yummy soaps! Bath time is more popular than ever, thanks to Goat Milk Stuff.

If you like boutique soaps, if you prefer natural products, or if you have sensitive skin or eczema, you’ll definitely want to check out Goat Milk Stuff.