05/07/2013

Link building to grow your business.

Hope you are all enjoying this lovely weather we are having now in the UK. It seems that summer is finally here and judging by how quiet it`s been online, most of you are out making the most of it.
Me I am taking part in a Mentoring month that is a collaboration with Etsy and a few teams. In the British Crafters team not everyone is taking part although all did have the opportunity to do so. A lot of the time it comes down to time, commitments and being able to squeeze in even more extra work.

As I was made redundant last month I can utilize that time to do the Mentoring month and make the most of it to improve my shop. I intend to turn my crafting, that was more of a hobby that almost paid for itself, into a business that`s my full time job.
Actually it`s been a full time job since I started in blithe ignorance and then discovered that I knew so little, it`s just that the rest of my life has been squeezed into the time I have over. I do get up very early now, 5.00 - 5.30 a.m. The extra time so early is invaluable for promotional and listing work, updating shops etc.

An online business is, I think, harder work than a bricks and mortar one. Although never having run a business in the outside world I could of course be wrong. It just seems to me that it`s a constant struggle to get seen and found, to get your items to the forefront of anywhere and everywhere. If you don`t promote daily then you are likely to disappear from sight, at least until you become better known.

This is of course where back links come in. Finding sites that don`t charge you to add links and maybe have a page where you can add business details, pictures and links. The more you have, the bigger the online presence.

So you`ve guessed it, today I am adding some more site links for you to investigate and add yourself and your business to.

I`m going to start with Rebelmouse. This is a fast growing and very popular site, so very worthwhile to get yourself a presence on this one. You can add feeds from all the social media sites if you want to, but if your aim is to pull in views to your shop or shops then you are probably better to stop at twitter. Whichever feeds you add here it will fill your page. So if you add Pinterest and you often add lots of pins to your page, they will all appear on your Rebelmouse page, likewise Facebook, etc etc. With mine I did what I often do, open a page, get bust and forget about it, then every so often remember it`s their and update it. Probably wiser to check all these sites regularly and update.

How about Google+? Quite a big one this and bearing in mind that it`s google, a very important one to have. Think google rankings here. The holy grail for all online businesses. Who doesn`t want their products on the first page or at least the first two?
I certainly do. I have a google+ personal page and now also a business page. The business page is a recent thing for me on Google+. I`m not sure how long they`ve had that going. It works pretty much like facebook in that you gain people, only this has circles. You can name them whatever you like to put people in to categories. Like acquaintances, Followers, Friends and Family. Quite handy this as it means you friend and family don`t have to get inundated with all your posts. You can choose who sees them each time. You can personalise the page and add your logo to your business page. To gain followers, you really need to add updates daily or at least a few times a week, like with facebook. There are also different features being added, like `hangouts` where like minded people can get together and chat. It is user friendly and quite easy to work out what to do, I managed.
Thay`s probably enough for today with those two biggies, they`ll take you some time to join and add everything.
Good luck with those.

I`ll just add these couple in case you get through those quickly and get bored.

www.lilyshop.com This a site to sell on as an addition to your other shop or shops. It`s fairly new and still building but worth a look and maybe adding a few items, after all what have you got to lose? You pay 5% commission to the site if you sell something but there are no listing fees and no other charges at the minute. Plus once you ad your item it stays there until sold or you remove it. There`s no time limit on the listings.

tophatter.com/ This one is an auction site, but unlike the big boys you don`t pay for listings, at least not at the minute, you just pay a fee if the item sells. The auctions are quick apparently. Might be worth a look, another option for you.

Okay, that really is it from me today.

If you enjoyed this blog and/or found it useful, please share to help others. Thank you.
I hope you`ll come back soon.

2 comments:

  1. Great post. I've popped over to Rebelmouse and started having a play around. See you there!

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  2. Well done Apryl and thank you.

    ReplyDelete