A Blog about Blogging - One Year Now!

From French Blog - source

I started this blog about a year ago.  A good friend recommended that I give it a try to broaden my marketing and branding efforts for my little business, Wydeven Designs (link to website).   I learned quickly that there is a huge, other world out there in the "bloggersphere".   I choose to use blogspot to create and maintain my blog link since it provided a nice, clean template for ease of design and is FREE!   I started reading other blogs and talked to friends and family for ideas and inspiration.  I quickly found that there is both synergy and competition out there.  People seem to borrow liberally from each other (generally with accreditation which is the right thing to do) and thereby promote each others blogs.   Some of the numbers of visitors are staggering - some are claiming 10-20,000 per day.   Blogs with large numbers of visitors are generally also making money - how much I do not know.

There ia an annual "design bloggers conference" currently being held this week in Los Angeles which started in 2011 and is SOLD OUT!  link to conference site

So, how would I characterize my experiences and what have I learned?

*  The desired mood, whether you are a multi-million $$ business (e.g, Bunny Williams - NYC Designer)  or a stay-at-home mom describing her day to day experiences maintaining her home and raising her children, it to be chatty, friendly and NOT TOO obviously promoting your business.  It causes a blogger to look far and wide for topics and I have ended up broadening my initial list of "labels" significantly.  Beside the obvious ones like ... green decorating, furniture refurbishing, home decor, estate sales, craigslist, and upholstered furniture styles and colors, I have added ... travel, garden, pinterest, and others.

*  It is hard to know how best to balance "self-promotion" and providing general information  and ideas which may have a broader appeal.  The easiest approach that works for me is to tell stories of my adventures which are linked to the business but are more about my life and passions.  For example, I have had at least 12 blogs on what I am calling my "Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Adventures" and also do a series on garage and estate sale finds - both give me lots of options.

*  It is hard to come up with topics every two or three days although reading other blogs and spending time on my latest obsession, pinterest, does help. Speaking of pinterest,  prior to finding it, most of my design trend ideas came from decorating magazines which may or may not always reflect everyday people's real interests.  Seeing the patterns of what people like has been very informative.  I will do a blog about my discoveries down the road - I just found another topic!!

* Blogging, like pinterest, seems to be mostly a feminine occupation - you don't see many men actively engaged.

* And finally, I am still struggling with how to add followers and get more "hits".  Blogspot has a great program that allows you to see who is reading your blog - daily, weekly, monthly, forever!  It is particularly interesting to see this information - see my chart below - I just reached about 7500 views.

United States 6,221 Russia 198 United Kingdom 143 Canada 140 Germany 128 India 58 Australia 31 Netherlands 31 France 28 Philippines 16

So, I will continue to study my colleagues/competition in the bloggesphere and apply more lessons learned.  It is fun to be part of this effort at mass and direct communication and I am glad I got started!