I’ve been trying to spend a little time each day to learn something new about SEO (search engine optimization), tags, metatags, anything to help with getting my brand out there so people will love my shop, and more importantly, purchase from my shop. I have discovered, the hard way, that the phrase “if you build it, they will come” is not true in the overwhelming world of on-line retail. But I have discovered that I have been doing something right, and quite by accident. I’m talking about backlinks. Backlinks are like a back door to your site. Think of your url address as the street side entrance to your shop, people walking down the street see your site, and come in. For a customer to know where you are located, Google search may tell them how to get there, but if you’ve ever dealt with Google maps, you know that sometimes the directions get confusing, if not downright incorrect. That’s because the “front door” of your shop is when your shop is is linked by another site, perhaps through a blog feature or a tweet. It’s there, constantly changing, or falling to the bottom of the page due to newer content about other sites. But your backlinks are totally controlled by you. Think of Google search as a busybody walking around to see what everyone is talking about, and they hear your name, a lot! The more “she” hears your name, the higher your site will become in a search. And backlinks are links (sometimes permanent links) that you attach to other sites. Customers see these links on a site, and click on them to visit you. Now, there are tricks to having good backlinks.
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It’s Better Handmade. Thank you Kimberly for giving us yet another site to spread the word. On Fire for Handmade. Thank you Anne for opening this site to Handmade Artists everywhere. Pinterest. Yes, set up a board and load it with your own items. Toot your own horn, and other will join in the band. Flickr. While you can’t link your items, per se (it’s not a selling venue), you can link to your shop in your profile. A new place I just started to visit is Wanelo. It’s very much like Pinterest, but more retail. Another great opportunity is via blog hops and link up parties. I have several on my website where you are all invited to link up. Some have rules, some don’t, but they all are fun.
Where do you “advertise” for free? If there is a site you use that I did not mention, please share it with the rest of us.
And Happy Selling!!
Debbi
Back in the pioneer days, handmade was just that… made with your hands. There was no electricity, and there were no machines. So if you needed something, you devised a way to make it using your hands and little else. If you needed a blanket, you killed a bear or a buffalo, skinned it, tanned the hide, and covered yourself with it for warmth. But humans have always been resourceful, so “handmade” got easier.
People migrated into cities with the industrial revolution. Those still on the farm still raised their own sheep, sheared them, spun the wool and then knitted the blanket. But people who had moved to the cities still had these skill, just nowhere for the sheep. And the factories found a way to take that raw wool, spin it and sell it so the city-dwellers could still knit themselves a blanket. Certainly, the blanket on the farm that had been made from home-grown wool was just as handmade as the blanket knit from manufactured wool. 
The same applied to wood craftsmen. They didn’t have to sand by hand with a piece of sandpaper anymore. The could plug a handy tool into an electrical outlet and accomplish the same thing in a fraction of the time. No less care went into the finished piece. The only difference was that the finished piece was completed faster.
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