Glass Beads Daily + Holly Dare = AWESOME! Holly is My Guest Blogger Today! Thank you, Holly!

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   Glass Beads Daily
  by Holly Dare

  
  
       Glass Beads Daily is the culmination of several years of misadventures in blogging, studying SEO and selling beads! LOL!
  My background is in film production and advertising. But I loved crafting and have taught jewelry making during dry spells in my career. I found myself working for Carol Duvall,Queen of Crafts back when HGTV was good television. When I left that show, I started a business helping smaller craft companies with basic marketing. Making their websites function better always seemed to land in my lap.
      
       I got so good at that, I started freelancing for bigger companies. But I missed writing for television which led me to blogging. With the social media boom, I started taking classes or going to meetings just to learn more. I met people who actually make a living from blogging. And I tried a few of those...but knew that wasn't my ultimate goal. I just wanted to sell my beads!
      
  
       I was also one of the leaders of the Fire Divas (along with Lea Avroch and Theresa Ehlers) which was an off shoot of the original Lampwork Etc Etsy Street Team (LEST). That taught me so much about managing a group. There were a lot of rules and people would get upset because they were doing more than other people were. It was a lot of work but a great learning experience.
      
       I had set up the Fire Divas blog and realized that CONSTANT posting is a lot of what drives a blog. It's one of the reasons I post my own beads a bit differently than most artists I know. I prefer to list one or two beads a day (at different times) rather than ten all at once.
  But with all I had learned about search engine optimization (trying to get a good Google ranking) it suddenly hit me that no ONE bead maker is EVER going to get a high Google ranking. It's simply impossible for one person outdo some of those Chinese importers or "famous" bead makers. But a blog with consistent content using those good keywords over and over WOULD break that Google wall. We are four months old and we've made it to Page 2!
      
       A friend pointed out to me that I've essentially created another team of bead makers where I do the bulk of the work (creating the blog post and sharing widget we use every single day). But the artisans who share with us do have a job too! There is on one rule: if you have something glass bead related to share, please do so and then share the blog post on the social media venue of your choice. Without all their voices out there, we would have never made it this far!
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•      I ultimately knew I could help other bead makers and jewelry designers who were out there struggling. Others have told me that it is easier to promote someone else than to talk about yourself. My own best promotion has come from word of mouth. GBD gives us a venue to promote others and help ourselves too!