One of the biggest things that tends to keep handmade sellers from blogging is the belief that it’s going to take over their entire life.

Or, maybe they’ve already tried blogging, and it DID take over their life. So they quit.

Believe me, I get it. We aren’t superheroes. Between making your products, and photographing them, and listing them, and customer service, and shipping , and promoting….the thought of blogging on top if it all feels just plain impossible.

If this has been an issue for you, it could be that you have been spending a little too much time doing what I call “chase marketing” when it comes to your blog.

Here’s an email I received today, and my answer will explain what I mean by “chase marketing:”

Hi-

I am the other ornament girl! I have a couple of questions, but not sure if you can answer them. Mostly time issues, I have blogged in the past, and found so much of my time was eaten up by having to post, read, comment on other blogs to keep up a following.  I was literally spending hours every day blogging. I finally pretty much gave up, and concentrated on my etsy store. Now with all of the changes coming to etsy, and closing an artfire store, I am concerned about putting all of my eggs in one basket. I do have a website, and get some sales off of that, but my goal is to make it my priority site for sales, starting in January of course… any hints or is there really a need to keep up with other blogs?

-Pamela,
The Magic Sleigh

Here’s my response to Pamela…

Hi Pamela…

While I do think following and commenting on other blogs can definitely help as far as building relationships and “meeting” other bloggers…especially other bloggers who are in the same niche and could be beneficial for you to form those relationships with… the truth is, your main focus with blogging shouldn’t even be on maintaining a “following.” And so, if that was your sole purpose in trying to keep up with lots of other blogs… you definitely shouldn’t be stressing over it.

With that being said… I am definitely not saying that having a following isn’t important. It totally IS. I am saying that it shouldn’t be your focus. If your focus is on getting that following, that’s when you’ll find yourself doing those things you mentioned, spending all kinds of time reading and commenting, and basically running yourself ragged in the process of it all. I call this kind of thing “chase marketing.” Anything that you find yourself needing to do over and over to get traffic and sales, or even just to MAINTAIN the level of business you’re at right now, is chase marketing.

So, instead, you want the things you do with your blogging to be more of an investment… things you can do once, that in turn, continually bring you traffic. That would mean creating such awesome content on your own site that it attracts people to you, so you don’t have to spend all your time running around chasing them down. And, if you can bring people to you, then that following you want will happen naturally, and you won’t have to spend nearly as much time on all that other stuff.

I know that can be the hard part…. trying to figure out what to write about on your blog that will bring visitors to you. The first thing you need to do though is figure out who those people even are. Who are the people who will want what you’ve got? If you can really nail down exactly who those people are, then you can start thinking about what they are looking for in their internet travels.. and then give them what they want with your blog.

You don’t even need to blog a lot. Sometimes a couple of weeks go by between my own blog posts, but it’s okay. I just do it as often as I can. Writing a good post can take some time, but if you invest in your blog, rather than “chase market,” the time you do spend will be very worth your while. And, it’ll definitely help you break any dependency on Etsy.

I hope that helped, Pamela! I’m off to check out your ornaments.

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So, are you spending too much time “chase marketing” when it comes to your blog (or your Etsy shop or anywhere)? If so, how can you turn your time into an investment in your business instead? 🙂