If you sell any sort of handmade product and you’ve ever written a tutorial for your blog, or shown how you organize your studio shelves, or explained how you choose cohesive colors for a quilt top, you’ve done something called “content marketing” such as the one serviced by a digital media advertising agency.
Content marketing is creating and sharing content in order to acquire customers. Essentially you provide valuable information or entertainment in an effort to develop a relationship with potential customers, but you stop short of a sales pitch.
There are people who’ve developed careers around teaching best practices in content marketing. And just like the craft world, the content marketing world consists of thousands of sophisticated blogs with very
dedicated authors trying to make a living selling what they know. There are podcasts devoted to content marketing and a flood of new books and online classes on the topic. There are content marketing celebrities and gurus and conferences to attend where you can meet them. Content marketing is
hot because it works better than other, more traditional marketing methods when it comes to selling online.
But I think craft bloggers were among the first content marketers, and are among the most authentic. All this talk of creating content to lure customers may seem pretty slimy to craft bloggers. Craft bloggers
earnestly and honestly want people to learn new skills and to enjoy making things by hand.
I’m a craft blogger, but I also have an internet-based microbusiness. Being a successful entrepreneur in today’s online landscape means learning the fundamentals of content marketing. When it comes down to it, a business exists to make money. And content marketers have a lot to teach us about how to do that better, faster, and more consistently.
Fewer and fewer people subscribe to blogs and become regular readers now. Most people who visit your blog get there by following a link from Twitter, or Facebook, Pinterest, or some other reblogging site. You can buy views at Social Zinger to increase your credibility and visibility on social media.
Some of the content marketing blogs are incredibly cheesy, promising more than anyone could deliver with a high slime factor to boot. But you certainly don’t have to implement something that makes you feel
uncomfortable. I try to read broadly, shedding what doesn’t apply and picking up what does.
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One afternoon last summer I was sitting on the lawn at the house we’d rented on the Cape. The kids were dipping their feet in the water, searching for shells, and I was on the Adirondack chair with a beer, reading
blog posts about how to write great blog posts. (Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I read while on vacation. Don’t judge.)
That afternoon I followed a link that led me to a most amazing content marketing document. I downloaded it right away and I’ve referred to it several times a week since. More than anything else I’ve read, this document has been exceptionally helpful to me in generating topics for blog posts and, equally important, it’s attracted more attention to those posts.
Like much of the social media marketing texts, when I first started reading this document, it really made me laugh. Was this thing for real? But the following week, back at home, I sat down at the computer and
tried to actually apply what it said and was wowed. I found myself easily coming up with great new post topics and those posts became really popular. It works!
Once you get over the sort of ludicrous nature of it you’ll see. It’s valuable. And it’s free.
It’s called 52 Headline Hacks: A “Cheat Sheet” for Writing Blog Posts that Go Viral and it’s by Jon Morrow, the Associate Editor at Copyblogger. Go get it, okay?
Writing headlines is not a topic I see craft bloggers focusing on, but we should be. An excellent headline brings in readers. And you can use a headline to generate ideas for posts, too. In this ebook you get 52 tried
and true headlines to use as titles for your blog posts. Just fill in the blanks. As Morrow says,
“Of all the ways you can improve your blog, this one is by
far the easiest…The more curious your headlines make people, the more they’ll
read your posts. The more they read your posts, the better your chance of
building a relationship with them. The more relationships you have, the more
influential you become in your niche. It’s the same process, regardless of
whether you have 100,000 subscribers or you just started your blog yesterday.
And it all begins with the headline.”
Here are some of my posts with headlines written after reading 52 Headline Hacks. Do you remember any of them? Did the headline help?
If you have a great post from the past that you either didn’t title, or titled with a limp headline, you can go back and fix it. Then tweet it or put it up on Facebook and see what happens. If you’re looking for an idea of what to post about this week, scan through the 52 headlines and pick one that jumps out at you. Fill in the blanks and see what you can come up with.
Look at you and your content marketing crafty self go!
*On a side note, you can also use this ebook to come up with some pretty hysterical headlines for craft blog posts. Here’s two:
- The Shocking Truth about Pompoms
- 9 Lies Quilters Like to Tell
Hee hee! Charlie and I have laughed really really hard many an evening coming up with terrible headlines.
I want to know what lies quilters are telling! (I think it’s that there’s more fabric like the one they have “over there”.)
What a fantastic post! Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. 🙂
How about “The Biggest Secret No One is Talking About in Knitting”. Hm, I’m going to try to come up with something more scandalous!
I totally know the lies a quilter tell and could write that post. Number one would be: I really do NEED more fabric! 😉
Great post Abby, and awesome website redesign. I like it a lot
Well, pom poms are pretty shocking 😉 Going to go read the article now & start thinking about headlines.
Really interesting thank you. Definately lying about the amount of fabric I have stashed under the spare bed………….
Thanks! I’ve read through the 52 headlines and am excited to try them on my blog!
Ha! Totally. Those devious quilters.
I’m so glad you found it helpful, Cindy!
Honestly, I think that’s a legitimate title for a blog post!
Thanks, Hanna. I’ve been sprucing things up around here. So glad you noticed!
It’s so true. I’m shocked by my huge pile of pompoms every day 🙂
Um, I’m not a quilter but I may be lying about the size of my stash, too.
Oh, good! If you do write a post with a headline using 52 Headlines, please come back and give us the link here in the comments (and this goes for everyone!). I’d love to see what you come up with!
I’m reading 52 Headline Hacks now! It’s an interesting look at headlines and how they affect us, the way Jon Morrow is saying these things is making me smile/laugh! It’s getting my imagination going for future posts….
It will totally make you laugh, but it also totally works! Let me know if you write a post with a great headline!
Thanks for suggesting the Headline Hacks. I read it last night and will probably try some. (and after I read it, I started noticing just how many blogs in my feed reader use variations of those hacks!) I was however, turned off by the “scare tactic” chapter, which included advice to avoid being like a journalist because everyone hates journalists. Obviously, I have a different perspective on that! 🙂 Especially since I don’t think legitimate journalists use those kinds of headlines.
(duh… talk about bad blog marketing. I just noticed I SPELLED MY BLOG NAME WRONG in my last (and probably every other comment I’ve left here!) Urgh. It should be fixed in this comment!
Hi Holly,
Yes, now you'll notice these headlines everywhere. I would agree that some of the headlines suggested in the ebook are inappropriate (the celebrity references are another example). But that's okay with me because there are many that work well for blog posts.
Thanks so much for posting this, Abby! I had been noticing recently how compelling it is to click links that say “5 easy ways to…” or “3 best kinds of…” and trying to come up with ideas to incorporate this in my own blog. Then you posted this, and I read the e-book, and now I really get it! I’m publishing a blog post using one such headline! Hopefully it will help grow my readership from practically zero to a few! 🙂 I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Yay! I clicked over to your post from Twitter because it immediately caught my eye! Please report back on how it went 🙂
I just wanted to thank you for this resource, I found your blog late last night and continued to read it this morning. I’m own a creative business for bridal accessories and struggle with blog content. I’ve downloaded the guide and created quite a few headlines this morning already. I usually write a blog post then think of the title but buy doing the title first I’ve come up with so many ideas.
So thank you 🙂
That's terrific to hear. I've found working backwards from the headline is a great way to generate new post ideas. Thanks for your comment.
Thank you! I’ve had it in the back of my mind that my post titles could use some improvement. Your suggestions are just the kick in the pants I needed to make me actually do something about them.
Thank you for sharing!! I came across your blog while looking at how much should we price our pattern. I have recently made a wallet pattern, and still weighing how much should I sell it for. But after reading your article – I have decided what I think it is worth for.
Thanks! If you have time, come and visit my little blog : http://littlemushroomcap. I am a craft blogger too. and after reading this, I may come up with new post with better header too!
Off to get the ‘cheat sheet’! Thanks Abby!
I’m in the process of starting my first blog (where to start????!!!! Aargh!!!!!)… Your tips are sooooooo helpful! I’m def going to read 52 Headline Hacks too