Carat Blog Shop

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Blog Shop evening organised by Carat Media. It was a great chance to meet brands, mingle with other bloggers, have some nibbles and brush up on our blogging knowledge. The brands on the night included Swimwear 365, their collection I posted about here, Flannels, Kaleidoscope and Matalan who generously gave out goodie bags on the night. 

After getting to know everyone, we listened to talks from Rahul, Mark and Pete on various blogger topics such as affiliate marketing and blogging do's and don't's. 
What they look for in a good blog: 
Domain authorityPage ranking - where you appear in the search engines

Social MetricsFacebook, Twitter, Pinterest - If you're blog has a ranking of 20+, you have a very good blog. You can check your score at www.opensiteexplorer.org. Pay close attention to your page authority and your domain authority, but also remember not to compare your site's figures with those of the BBC or Telegraph, both of which have fantastic social metrics. The Telegraph in particular is so successful down to the amount of social shares they have on their website. 

No. of External LinksThey are important, link your friends, have a blog roll - but keep it to a minimum. Use Carat's rull of twenty and ensure that you don't include more than this amount  on a page, which is bad for your blog. Fair enough, link back to your friends but keep it to a minimum. If you really want to scrap the 'less is more' approach, create an extra page for your links so that loading time on your site doesn't delay people from viewing your blog. 

Own domainA lot of bloggers are on Wordpress and Blogger but the team at Carat recommend that you invest in your own domain name, stating how it makes a big difference. "It gives you complete ownership of your blog. On blogger/wordpress – you don’t officially own your blog- legally it’s not yours and if they close, it’s your hard work down the drain." 
"It also gives your blog a lot more credibility and looks a lot more profressional, like you’re serious about blogging. You get complete control." Email is important – use your professional blog email. When registering for a domain name, Carat recommends  123.reg and GoDaddy which charge roughly £5 a year for a .co.uk domain and £10 for a .com – get both or get all of them for your name and link them to your main blog.
Social share buttonsPut them on every single post – more links coming into your website – raises your google ranking.

CommentsThe more interaction on your blog, the better!

Regular and fresh contentIt's important to have a blog schcedule in place to ensure you get everything done in time. 

Astheritically and fresh contentPretty pictures and design are what makes a fashion blog what it is. 

Rich media contentNot just words, but videos, pictures, infographics and more. 

Blogger awardsThe team advises all bloggers to "get on that bandwagon.""Make your blog as interesting as you can."

It was a thoroughly informative and fun night so a big thank you to Carat Media and all the other brands that helped make this event fabulous. 

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