Blog Check-up Part 1
Here are a few handy online tools to help you spring clean (fall clean?) your blog and make sure it is optimized, tagged and correct. I am a notorious bad speller so I need to use a lot of these to find spelling errors, mis-linked hyperlinks and weirdly-spelled meta tags.
I do not own any of these sites and have tried most, but not all. Always use discretion when giving your email address, but the sites I have been to all had online reputations and recommendations and clearly stated privacy policies, so I felt safe with them.
Spell Checking:
http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/FutureQuest/spell_check.htm
Finding Broken Links:
http://www.creatingonline.com/site_promotion/broken_link_checker.htm
http://validator.w3.org/checklink
http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/FutureQuest/link_check.htm
Browser Compatibility Checking: (How does my blog look in other internet browsers?)
http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/FutureQuest/compat_check.htm
I didn’t mention any HTML validation in this article – that is a little more behind-the-scenes and a topic for a more in-depth article about website maintenance, but I will be writing about validators and other web developer tools in the future.
Moo & Etsy Sitting in a Tree, K-I-S-S…
My day job revents me from reading the storque back to front, or reading all the admin forum posts so sometimes I miss new features, like the Moo.com partnership with Etsy. Did you know you can print your Moo minicards, stickers and other stuff from your product listings, instead of going through Flickr? You did? Oh. So I was the only one who didn’t know? Damn. Never mind.
I wish I had found out sooner because there was a coupon code for a free keychain/card holder, but it expired in may. I found the deal by randomly wandering through the “Community – Resources” section on Etsy and clicking on the “MOO” tag. Wonder what else I can find…
How to Get Attention While Wasting Time Online
Yeah, yeah, you’re supposed to be posting items in the shop or making a new ad banner for Project Wonderful, but you know you’re gonna spend almost the whole time looking at cute pictures of your friend’s new cat on Flickr or looking up old boyfriends on Facebook. While you’re there, you might as well get a little marketing done. Here are some ways to drum up some interest for your shop while wasting time on the internet.
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Upload all your item photos. *Given*
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Search the Flickr groups for keywords related to Etsy or your craft and join the groups.
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Upload a few photos to each group whenever you are on Flickr. Etsy sellers, buyers and bloggers all frequent the groups as well as more popular design bloggers.
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Make sure you have a link to your website in your profile. As per Flickr rules you are not supposed to use Flickr for marketing so you are not supposed to add your Etsy site address, just your blog address, but I haven’t been caught yet. Please don’t rat on me.
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Search for users with tags related to Etsy or your craft and add these artists as a contact. Chances are they will add you too and see the your new items when you upload them to Flicker.
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Comment on other artist’s photos – a lot. People follow the link back to your profile if you do, I promise.
- Search Etsy forums for “Twitter” to find other Etsy buyers and sellers to follow. They will probably follow you too.
- Go to TwitterFeed.com and set up your Etsy shop RSS so you will generate an automatic Tweet whenever you post an item to your Etsy shop. While you’re there set up a tweet for your blog too. Contact me if you need help with RSS or finding your Etsy RSS URL.
- Fill out your profile and make sure there are links to your Etsy shop, blog and/or Flickr account.
- Go to your favorite design blogs and look for a “follow me on Twitter” link to follow them. Even if they don’t follow you, they will probably still at least check out your webpage.
- Of course, follow me on Twitter!
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Add the My Etsy Application to your Facebook Profile – Go to the App page and enter your ID. While on that page (after hitting submit) go to the very top of facebook and go to Settings>My Etsy Settings (the settings menu beside your name) and chose the “Profile” tab, then click “add” beside the Box selection. You can try the Etsy Shop App too, but I just got an error when I tried to add it.
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Join the Etsy Sellers Facebook Group, upload some pictures, explore the group page and write on the wall or participate in the discussions. Sellers can be buyers too, and I have referred more than one buyer I could not help to Etsy Sellers I talk to on facebook, Flickr or forums.
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Add photos of your shop items into albums in your Photos section.
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Add other Etsyians as friends by searching for “facebook” in Etsy forum posts (like this thread, or this one) to find people who want to add other Etsy sellers or buyers to their friend lists.
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If you want to get REALLY into it, you can make a Facebook page for your store, and encourage other Etsyians to become your fans if you become theirs. I have not done this yet since I don’t have time to maintain a store on Facebook too, and this list is mostly for quick ideas you can do while puttering online.
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Add me as a friend: (make sure you let me know you’re an Etsyian, or I’ll think you were a random serial-friender).
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Add shops and items to your favorites, especially new shops. They shops with 1000+ hearts don’t always have time to visit each shop when someone favorites them, but the newer sellers will without fail.
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Choose an interesting shop item of yours for your avatar. When people see your avatar in convos or forum posts they will be curious and click through to your shop.
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Participate in lots of forum threads. Lots. Talk it up, baby.
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Join street teams.
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Create treasuries, or make friend with people who do!
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Pitch story ideas for the Storque to the editors. If accepted, you will get a lot of exposure for authoring an article.
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If you have nothing new to list, renew items on a regular basis to keep your page appearing in the recently listed sections.
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As always, check out my shop.
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Check out your Etsy stats at Majaba.org
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Comment regularly on the Indie and design blogs you read
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Add your name to the Etsy Sellers Blog List
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Check out my blog! Oh, wait, you’re there now…
Yay for justifiable online puttering!
Chuki is a Cyborg
So, I’m wasting time and I found this site that generates a cyborg moniker based on your own name. I did one for Chuki and, considering the fact that Chuki is a fuzzy little cat, neither humanoid nor particularly efficient at manslaughter, the result was pretty funny:
Mine isn’t as dramatic, but is kind of appropriate since I am a pretty curious explorer anyways:
I’m having fun playing with all this fun Internet stuff aimed at bored teenagers. I think Wednesday is my “re-living my Internet childhood” day.