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So usually, when there’s only a few days left to sign up for one of my online classes, I’ll post a little announcement here.
Well, the next Craft Blog Tune-Up session is just a couple weeks away. But instead of the plain ol’ announcement, today I want to tell you the story of how I started blogging, and why I believe in it so strongly.
I spent my entire adult life wishing I could work for myself, and wishing there were a way to do that in crafting. (And this was way before the internet community, Etsy, or any of that.) But I could never seem to make things work. Over and over again I took “stopgap jobs” while I tried to figure out how to go into business for myself. And over and over again, those jobs would become all-consuming. (I have a certain problem with trying to please boss-people.) Years would go by.
Anyway. There went my 20′s. And my 30′s. Every three years or so, I’d quit my day job with a goal of taking a “stopgap job” until I figured out my own thing. And then the cycle would start again.
Argh. But one fateful day in late 2006, I started blogging. (Aw, what a silly little first post!)
I didn’t really have any business goals when I started my blog. It just seemed like a fun side-project to go along with my podcast. But the more I blogged, the more I liked it.
The more excited I got about my blog, the more I’d dream up posts I thought my readers would find useful and interesting. And in time, people noticed my blog and opportunities came my way. It didn’t happen overnight, but I got invited to do some freelance writing for magazines and websites. I got a book deal. I had an offer to teach craft classes locally.
Because, as it turns out, a good blog is like a living resume. It shows the world what your skills are, what your design and writing sensibilities are, and that you can plan projects and meet deadlines. Your blog helps people decide whether to take a chance on working with you.
Your blog also helps you diversify your business. The more of these opportunities I took, the more I realized that I could also create my own opportunities. That’s when I started publishing ebooks, teaching online classes, and helping people one-on-one with their blogs. Here I am at last, self-employed and working in crafting. Sometimes that still blows my mind.
Along the way, I’ve met thousands of wonderful people from all over the world, and found ways to work with many of them. Others became close friends. Every day, this community inspires me to grow as a crafter and an entrepreneur.
If your blog isn’t doing all these things for you, all you likely need are some small adjustments – whether it’s improving the content you make, or tweaking your blog’s design, or learning how to approach the craft community more effectively. Take my class. I can totally help you.
Also, one of the coolest things about these online classes for me is watching each group form its own bonds. These people continue to comment on each other’s blogs and forge projects together long after class is over. It’s like getting a jump-start on your own online community.
What about you?
How did you start blogging? And what has blogging done for you? Leave a comment below – I’d love to hear!
this is great inspiration, i always give up. i get tired and quit. Also I feel like advertising my blog is like hey everybody read my stuff! but i stumbled upon this is it does give me hope, i feel like I am supposed to write but have only got one published. So I guess that’s better then nothing. thanks for this.
Diane,
Thanks for giving us insight into your blogging path! I've always wondered…;)
I think you have been so smart at making your own opportunities, plus you are such a hard worker! Thank you for being such a giving person with your talents and knowledge!!
My family has always been crafty. My sister, Anjeanette, had a personal blog for about a year before she even told the family about it. Then, she introduced us to it and then that turned into she and I doing a craft blog together. It was a way of doing something we love, together. It has been really fun and we've added family members along the way, though we've been crafting with them our whole lives.
For me this is the thing that I do for myself. I'm working on it making me money, but right now it only pays for my craft supplies with a little extra. I think for right now it is just great being a part of the craft community. It is interacting with the world outside of my little home and my children's lives.
Rebecca@RootsAndWingsCo
Thanks for chiming in here, Rebecca! You're all doing great work with your blog. It takes time to build that audience so you can begin earning money, but the amount of participation you're doing in the craft community will have great results over time.
Blogging also started me on a fabulous, adventurous career path. I loved reading your story!
Ah, if you feel the drive to write, that's more than halfway to success! Just keep writing and being genuinely you, and the rest falls into place.
Thanks for sharing!
I started blogging in like 2000 — I wrote an online journal and hand-coded it with html. I think it's still on the web somewhere (if angelfire is still in existence, that is). That was a personal blog. I continued to do a personal blog (sprinkled with all my craft projects) until on a whim, I started Dollar Store Crafts, and a lot of other people thought it was as fun as I did. Yay!
The internet is littered with my abandoned personal blogs. I started blogging in 2002, but they rarely had any real focus or purpose, they were just a place for me to record my thoughts. My current blog started out last year as a place for me to record my experience as I started a small side business designing jewelry. Now that I'm starting to take my business more seriously, I've come to view my blog as a marketing tool, as well as a way to connect with people who have similar interests and tastes as me.
I have high hopes that I'll stick with this one. Since it serves a specific purpose, it seems harder for me to abandon altogether. I've been posting more frequently and consistently than on any of my previous blogs, and while those old blogs rarely got comments (and when they did they were typically from people I knew in real life), this one gets a handful of comments with each post, many of them from people I've never met before! That kind of feedback is encouraging, and makes me feel like I can't just let my blog go untended for months at a time – I might actually be missed! ;-)
Sounds like you're well on your way to a community of fans, Stephanie! Definitely, consistency is really important when your blog is tied to your business. It's about being a regular presence in people's lives, so they remember you when they have occasion to buy jewelry. Good luck with this one!
Thanks for this post, I'm just starting my own craft blog and it's nice to feel some encouragement. So far I'm just excited to put my little bit of conceitedness of crafting out into the blogosphere.
I started blogging having stumbled on a few on the www. I didn't have an idea about crafting blogs though and just how amazing some of them are. Since I started blogging, finding my voice and mixing a bit of mum stuff, a bit of crafty stuff and a bit of me I've connected with lots of others around the world. I definitely need to work on my consistency… I find that when the children are unwell it falls by the wayside as I have nothing to say and no news to report. Maybe I need a few emergency posts in back up!! Otherwise my blog serves as great motivation to actually have some creative output. I enjoy postive comments from others – it's just a positive experience all over!
Thanks so much for sharing your blogging story! I'm a big fan of those 'emergency posts' – life always presents barriers to blogging, and it's great to be prepared.
Conceitedness, Adrienne? How do you mean?
There are so many nice blogs on the internet. I had seen a lot of them, then I found out how easy it was to make a blog, and as blogs do not need to be a professional thing, but can be something for a happy amateur like me, it was a very good experience to create one.
It has given much advantage. You learn about other blogs, se what other people make, get nice coments. But most of all: It is so nice with this possibility to show what I make.
In earlyer days, people got together around a cup of coffe with their knitting and sewing, talked about what they made, maybe a little gossip (gossip is not always negative), and learning from one another. I think that blogging have some of theese qualities.
In the mornings I make a cup of coffee open my computer, to se if there is something new on the blogs I am following, it is a nice way to begin the day. And today Diane, your photos of flowers gave me a wonderfull kick of colours.
I just have to jump on here and whole heartedly recommend Diane's classes. I took her tune up class earlier this year and was blown away by the thought provoking content, the different topics covered and mostly Diane's commitment to her students. I really looked forward to the weekly chats with Diane and my amazing fellow class mates. They were all such great resources and it was so awesome to get to bounce ideas off one another.
Diane will help you to add value to your blog and ultimately get more out of blogging. Thank you Sister Diane – you are truly an inspiration.
Xo
Thank you so much, Margit! I'm always so inspired by your beautiful paper designs. I love your analogy between craft blogs and knitting/sewing circles. Absolutely!
Aw, you are lovely. Thank you so much – I loved having you in the class! And I love your blog!
I started blogging because my best friend asked me to write a blog with her. A few months later, she decided it was too much of a chore, and I decided that I wanted to write even more frequently than I had been writing, so I took it over and write it by myself now.
I blog because I like the practice of writing, I like the commitment – of saying that I'm going to write every day and doing it – and I like that it pushes me to be creative and do hands-on crafts with my girls while also seeking out new and interesting ideas. It's the first time I've ever really had a real hobby (that I pour a lot of time into), and it's made my life immeasurably better through all the astonishingly nice people I've met on the blog and on Twitter.
What you wrote, Diane, about the more excited you got about your blog, the more you wanted to dream up new things to share with people – I feel that way too. And I also really believe that it is a living resume, as you said. I definitely consider it a portfolio and possibly, in the future, a path to a different/new job.
I like reading CraftyPod a lot, and I like your contributions to Make + Meaning even better. I like reading blog posts and listening to podcasts that have substance to them, and yours always do.
Blogging has been great for me too. I love the sense of community that comes from it.
It has been great to see other artists grow and expand through it.
congratulations, I love your site.
Alma Stoller
I only started blogging last year but didn't tell anyone about it because I wasn't sure I'd stick with it. Eventually I started posting several times a week and my readership grew.
I moved away from the city where I have spent most of my adult life and lots of my friends keep up with me that way, since it is largely a personal blog. Often I talk about my knitting, but I'm finding that my new life on the very west coast is so full of adventure that I am often behind on blogging about the things my husband and I get up to.
I have just returned from the Victoria Fibre Arts Festival and I am now inspired to start designing and publishing patterns. It is my hope that one day I too will get a book deal from my writing. I have already started teaching (knitting) classes and hopefully that will expand as my own skills grow.
Thanks for your blog, this is great!
Thanks so much for sharing your story here, Stacey. And good luck with all your blogging goals! How exciting!
Thanks so much, Alma!
Thank you so much, Molly – and I'm so glad you shared your blogging story here. I totally agree with you – the practice of regular writing is so helpful. I think it's led to my having more discipline in other areas of my life. (Except for those areas involving keeping my office organized.) :-)
Oh, Diane! You are such an inspiration! :) I started blogging because I wanted people to tell me how awesome the little japanese stuffies I made were. And they did. And then I posted more. And then more and more and more. And then I started connecting with awesome people like you. And then I started dreaming big … and I can't wait to see what is next. :)
First of all, can I just say that I completely forgot that once upon a time there was no Craftypod blog?! That's just craziness.
I don't think I've ever discussed why I started blogging on my blog…a few months of early posts were lost due to computer failure (needed that handy blog back-up tutorial)! I digress! I started Geek+Nerd back in college as an assignment for a computer class. We had to build a website from scratch. I was really inspired by Cut+Paste at the time, and dreamt of having a shop, a zine, etc, etc, so my first design and my domain name for that matter was/is sort of an homage to Cut+Paste.
I've been blogging for ten years now (WOW!). My first blog was a Livejournal and was just filled with awful dramatic musings of my 18 year old life and is now all private (thank goodness). G+N is six years old, and it has brought me such joy, friendships, connections the world over. My blog helped me make my dream of the Holiday Handmade Crusade a reality, and once got me featured on CRAFTzine (because of a certain awesome friend…thank you, that was the thrill of my crafty life!)
Anyways…I would be more articulate about all of this with more coffee. Conclusion. Blogging is great. The end!
It started as my talking to myself, on purpose. I wanted a record of the things I've made, so that I could feel like I had accomplished something with my creative self. Now, years later, I have a small (but loyal) group of friends and readers to whom I can turn with questions and ponderings and it's lovely. In fact, right now, it's the majority of my social life- I'm working seven days a week in various seasonal and temporary time-sucks and don't get to get out much otherwise.
On a side note, I suspect my blog has done a fair amount for my etsy shop as well, even if it isn't exactly a shop blog. Plus, I feel like it gives me a place to give something -tutorials, patterns, inspiration, whatever- back to the online crafting community.
Dude, your Japanese stuffies were totally awesome! I can't wait to see what's next for you, either!
Heh – the Pre-Blog Era (P.B.) is fuzzy for me, too! :-)
I remember Cut + Paste! I love hearing your story of how you started out. Your blog was one of the very first ones I read – I don't recall how I found you, but one of my earliest posts was about your scarves! Remember these? http://www.craftypod.com/2007/01/01/sarah-is-a-…
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Corvus! (And if I may be permitted a little nerd-out, I think your blog has helped your Etsy shop more precisely because it's not a shop blog. People want to connect with the things that make you YOU, and that interests them in your shop. If you blogged only about the shop, it might read like a long ad.) </nerd-out> :-)
I started blogging in 2004. That's like a century in Internet-Years. Ravelry, LibraryThing, Etsy were still years in the future. Back then, craft blogs were few and far between. I had about 10 in my favourites folder which I would check about once a week. (If there was such a thing as an RSS reader back then, I'd never heard of it!) I decided to start my own blog because I wanted to record the things I made and how I made them. Things aren't really that different now. I try to imagine I'm writing to a future me or sometimes to my Mum, because the thought of anyone actually reading my blog freaks me out a bit! Over time I've branched out to include the other things I'm doing now, like art journalling, zines and making over my apartment. I find that regular blogging is great exercise for my writing muscle, and it provides motivation to keep creating things so I have something to blog about, and vice versa.
Diane, thank you so much for this post. I just came back to my unfulfilling day job after a one-week vacation and was feeling a little deflated. This gives me hope! I'm going to work harder on my blog this summer.
All the best with your blog, Ashley. Keep at it!