If you’re writing a craft blog you’re hoping to build an audience. You hit “publish” on a new post with the goal of having people to read it. Hopefully lots of people.
As craft bloggers, building a large audience can bring a lot of great things, including potential revenue
sources, whether they come from selling ads, selling your products, or selling yourself to bigger publishing or craft companies as an expert in your field. With so many craft blogs and so much social media noise, though, it can be a daunting task to know how to bring that audience to you.
It can even be paralyzing.
Maybe a tutorial will draw readers in? But is it better to create a tutorial for a complex project in your area of expertise or something simple that anyone could easily replicate? Should you show the steps for a whole project or just focus on a single technique?
Or maybe readers want to see what you’re working on in your studio, but is show and tell boring?
Revealing your own vulnerability can be a way to bring people in, but how much is too much? Will exposing your failures erode your standing as an expert?
Ack! What should you write about then?
If you’ve ever sat down to compose a post and felt this sort of panic, you’re not alone. Creating a continual flow of valuable content is key to a maintaining a successful craft blog, but what that content should consist of can be elusive.
Photo from the Australian War Memorial Collection on Flickr.
Do you want to get over this hurdle? Here’s how: write to a single person.
Don’t worry about your audience. Let go of your blog statistics. Forget about trying to please a crowd of thousands. Instead, develop a highly specific profile of a single person and write directly to them.
In order for this to work you need to put some time into fully describing this audience of one. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Is my reader a man or a woman?
Where exactly does she live?
When does she read my blog?
How old is she?
What kind of crafting does she do? Is it a hobby or is she trying to sell her handmade wares?
Does she blog?
What kinds of frustrations does she encounter when she’s crafting, or thinking about crafting?
What does she wish she knew more about?
Who does she aspire to be as a crafter? As a blogger?
What does she love to make?
What other blogs and websites does she look at regularly?
I know it can be difficult to choose a single answer to some of these questions. One way to get some more insight is to look carefully at the last 10 people who’ve commented on your blog (besides your mom!). Click over to their blogs and learn more about them. Read their profiles, look at their photos, search for them on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter to see what they’re interested in.
Make your single reader an amalgamation of these commenters. If you’d like you can even search through stock images and print out a photo of an actual person to represent her. Tape her up on the bulletin board near your computer.
When you sit down to write a new blog post, write to her. Imagine that yesterday afternoon you went over to visit her for an hour in her workspace. What was she making? What kinds of questions did she ask you about it? What advice did you give her? What will you show her when she comes to visit you in your studio?
Now compose a post just for her. Take pictures so that she can better understand what it is your talking about. Give her the information she needs, the pat on the back, the words of warning, the inspiration, and the tutorial that will make her day better.
Now you know exactly what to write about.
Believe it or not, the more specific the person is that you’re writing to, the broader appeal your posts will have. People will click and retweet, pin and share your post because they feel like you’re talking right to them. You’re solving their exact problem and showing them how to make something they’re going to love.
Writing to an audience of one will help you build an audience of many.
Great post, just what I needed. 🙂 (I wish my mom commented on my blog!)
Thanks, Betz. I wrote it for you.
I bet you say that to all your readers. 🙂
I think my sister is my ideal audience, if I were to take the time to write how-to posts, especially. She’s a great paper crafter, and is just starting to sew more. At the very least, I want her to see what I’ve made since she lives far away.
I wish I could forward this to certain people in my life and yell, “It’s not for YOU! Stop commenting on it and effectively shutting down anything anyone currently dealing with this issue might want to say.” And yes, I mean my mother and MIL. Just because you’ve already lived it and had your 60 years of learning doesn’t mean others aren’t grappling with these problems now.
Okay, rant over. 🙂
Interesting post, I don’t have a blog but read lots and am thinking about starting to write one. But the thought of putting my thoughts out there is really daunting. I’ve been sewing and crafting for over twenty years, my friends come to me for advice people have even bought my dolls etc etc yet I still feel really shy and nervous about writing about it for strangers to read. Or worse what if no one reads it and it’s a total dud. Same with selling on etsy I ve been thinking I should do that too because at the moment I’m just making bits and pieces custom orders by word of mouth and I’d like to take it a bit further, but I’m terrified to be honest. I think making up a profile for a reader is a reall good idea and perhaps I will do that and see if I can muster some courage to get started!
Saskia
Hi Saskia,
I'm glad this post was helpful to you in your own thinking about next steps. Beginning a blog and online shop can be overwhelming for sure. I think the best advice is to take it one step at a time and realize that these things build slowly and require a good deal of persistence. Good luck to you!
Abby
Such and awesome post!
This is really encouraging and exciting. I’m going to work on writing a profile for my target audience
thanks 🙂
I'm so glad you found this post helpful, Kimberly. Good luck with this exercise!
Thanks, this post helped me today! I’m glad I found it. I have a good friend, a sister in Christ, who is just starting to crochet. I think she is my “reader.”
I must admit I’ve never thought about my target audience, I just write about things I love. I would love to build traffic to my blog and it’s always been something quite elusive to me…how do I get people to engage with what I’m writing? There’s so much content on the internet that I feel overwhelmed and often think ‘why would anyone pick my blog when there’s so much else to read?’
I’ve worked hard recently at improving the look of my blog and trying to make it more focused with ‘about’ pages and proper links at the top to my shop & tutorials.
It’s constantly evolving and I’m learning all the time…which is probably a good thing!
This is great, Abby, thanks! I keep using your blog as a resource to help me better enjoy writing my running blog, and I’m amazed at how relevant your blogging advice is even for topics outside of crafting. You’re so articulate with everything you write!
Thank you, Kelly! It’s good to know that this kind of advice helps with any sort of blog, not just a craft blog.
Found this article really helpful. I’ll be writing to my best friend from now on. Thanks!