Websites & Blogging

Regarding websites.  I used to run/update my own website (www.neauveau.com) for several years before ETSY was started.  It was incredibly time consuming, and required a lot of skills that you many not have (web design, html, javascript, etc.)  So I'm not going to go into how to build a website because I don't think that's how online businesses are running anymore.

In 2010 I moved everything from my website to a blog.  This has saved me a LOT of time and money and helped increase my hits thru Google search results.  Instead of paying for a domain name (a domain name is www.yourwebsite.com) plus web hosting - I signed up for a free blog thru blogger.  You could also choose wordpress, but I just found the blogger layout easier to work with. 

You may wonder, "Wow this site is thru blogger?  How does she get it looking so pretty?!"  The answer to that is I purchased a layout thru Cinnamon Girl Studio Design.  She sells layouts and has great instructions on how to install them.  This helped me save a lot of time and make my blog look more professional.  If her layouts aren't your style - simply google search: Blogger Layouts and you'll find scores of websites selling layouts for under $30 that you can install with just a couple clicks and a few copy/pastes.  Many of them are free, and blogger/wordpress also has lots of free cute, charming, modern, clean, or quirky layouts you can play with to give your blog your signature style.

Also when you update your blog frequently (start with once a week and work up from there - I currently update 2 or 3 times a week) Google likes that and your blog will climb up Google search results.  It takes a long time to get on the front page of Google.  There are many algorithms that Google uses, and many are top secret.  But to simplify what I've learned - the more people who link to your blog, the more people who visit, the more you update with valuable information, and the more valueable your blog is - the higher your blog will be in google search results.

But lets take a step back for a moment.  Instead of thinking about how to the front page of Google right now, simply start by updating your blog once a week.  Within a few weeks see if you can update twice a week.  My friend April has a great series on updating your blog on her website www.theflourishingabode.com.