A poorly designed book cover is a common reason for low to no book sales.

In a survey of 2,000 adults by StudyFinds.org, 80% (eight in 10) ‘admitted to avoiding a book because of its outward appearance’. This shows you just how much a book cover’s design matters for sales

Investing in high-quality professional book cover design is a necessity.

Publishing a book, especially a coffee table one, can be costly, particularly if you are self-publishing. When managing your production budget, it can be tempting to design your book cover yourself or go with the cheapest designer. This is not advisable unless you are a book designer yourself. Even then, you may not be a specialist in designing high-quality lifestyle books. Coffee table book cover design is an art, and professional designers understand the elements that go into creating a standout cover.

A good book cover immediately tells the viewer what the book is about. As you think about how you want your artbook cover to look, remember that a badly designed cover can result in low sales, while a professionally designed and relevant cover can boost sales. If you’ve already published your coffee table book and are experiencing sluggish sales, your cover could be the reason. A cover redesign could be what’s needed to turn things around.

For more on designing your book cover, turn to page 91 in your copy of: How to Publish a Coffee Table Book. Don’t have a copy yet? Follow the link to find out where you can purchase it.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

Source: https://studyfinds.org/judge-a-book-by-its-cover

[Image credit: The image shown belongs to Marta Dzedyshko via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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What is the middle market?

Markets are typically divided into low, middle and high-end segments. These segments are tailored to the price, quality and availability expectations of their target consumers. As its name suggests, the middle market sits between the spectrum of mass-produced, low-priced and cheap quality goods, and limited or bespoke, high-quality, expensive goods, by offering products that are good quality yet affordable. Middle-market goods and services typically range from high-volume to limited-edition entry-level premium offerings.

The middle market is popular for brand positioning because it attracts a large, broad consumer base with moderate to high levels of disposable income. This, however, makes the mid-market, as previously mentioned, very competitive. It is here that profit margins get squeezed in a bid to attract customers and be profitable. Sellers in this mid-marketplace segment range from independent small businesses to multi-chain department store retailers that can afford to mass-produce at above-average quality, while keeping prices affordable enough to make a profit.

Why positioning your artisan brand in the middle market isn’t always the best option

1. You will always be competing on price

By positioning your artisan brand in the middle market, you will be competing on price while trying to maintain the quality of your craftwork. Bigger retailers can afford to buy materials in bulk, reducing the overall cost per item they produce. Trying to keep up with this market positioning strategy has a detrimental effect on your business and profitability. This is because at this level, being forced to lower your prices can push your craftwork into the low market. And, the lower you price your craftwork, the more product you have to make and sell to meet your financial targets. On the other hand, charging higher-than-average prices can make your work too expensive for the market, leaving you with little to no sales.

2. You’ll get lost in a sea of average quality brands

In the middle market, your artisan business belongs to neither the high nor the low end. This is because it is perceived as too cheap to be premium and too expensive to be low-cost, so you lose out either way. It is more difficult to make a profit. If positioning your artisan business as high-end makes you uncomfortable, you can create spectacular high-priced bespoke or limited-edition pieces or collections and balance them out with a collection of pieces at more affordable price points. For more on getting comfortable with charging high prices for your craft work, read: What to do if Selling your Statement handmade crafts to Rich People Makes you Feel Uncomfortable.

Positioning your artisan business in the premium sector

The premium sector is not about competing on cost. It is about letting your skills, creativity, and story take centre stage.

The higher you position your work in the market, the less it becomes about how much something costs and more about how it makes a customer feel. Positioning your artisan goods at the higher end of the middle market, or the premium and high-end market, can make financial sense. This is because the higher you go, the less you make, and the less you sell, but the more you can charge, which even things out and can save you time.

Note: If you are positioning your craftwork as premium or high-end, you better make sure your work and how you present it reflect the level of quality that is expected by the market.

That said, whichever market you choose to position your artisan business in, you still have to put in the work it takes to stand out. And, savvy artisan business owners know that offering premium-priced creations alongside their more affordable high-volume collections can be a winning option.

If you’re looking for clarity to help you position and elevate your craftwork in the premium artisan goods sector, my carefully curated services can help. Discover what’s on offer here.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credit: The image shown belongs to Enikő Tóth from Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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Artisanal luxury honours the handmaking process by emphasising the unique quality of handcrafted products that bear the individual imprint of the maker. In highlighting the skill of the artisan, the focus shifts from the expensiveness or exclusivity that tends to define luxury. Instead, the artisanal input becomes a medium for bringing sincerity and soul, and meaning into the heart of the product or experience.

Artisanal luxury chooses to place the focus on:

• People and community by respecting cultural bonds, inherited knowledge, and ancestral skills and techniques

• Celebrating heritage by upholding the value of craft traditions.And, seeking to preserve the skills and precious know-how, while enabling them to evolve

• Collaboration
 through skill and knowledge sharing for mutual benefit

Spotlighting craftsmanship within luxury production, therefore, reveals the essential role of highly skilled artisans in creating high-quality, well-made objects. Connecting with and getting to know those behind the products helps to humanise what is often perceived to be an entitled sector. For more on the role of craftsmanship in luxury, read: Craftsmanship artisans and their central role in the rise of true luxury

That said, not everything made by hand automatically qualifies as ‘artisanal luxury’. Alongside the mastery of skills, there is a need for creativity and imagination to transform artisan know-how into exceptional, relevant objects and services. And this is where the designer or retailer adds value, and collaboration becomes a necessity.

If you want to know more about creating an artisanal luxury goods brand, have a look at my services here.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The image shown belongs to Mathilde Langevin via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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As someone who has published this type of book, I may be biased, but my answer would be a resounding yes- publishing a coffee table book is still worth it. Artbooks, to give them their fancier title, have unique characteristics that set them apart from other book types, i.e. novels.

Publishing a beautifully designed, image-led book is relevant because they are:

Works of art

A coffee table book can become a work of art in itself. This makes it difficult to replicate this type of book online. The style and format are designed to enhance the reader experience, making it difficult to replicate in digital format

Desirable

Artbooks double as decorative objects placed on, as their name suggests, coffee tables and shelves in homes and workspaces. These illustrative books are seen as luxury items that speak to the taste and sophistication of the owner.

Cultural Reference Markers

Coffee table books present insights into the zeitgeist of the times by documenting moments in culture and history to create a visual record of what was

Educational resources

An artbook’s focus can provide insight into a particular subject, immersing the reader into a world they want to know more about.

Inspirational

Coffee table books are aspirational and inspirational. They can inspire ideas and add to the reader’s knowledge about the subject.

If you have an idea for a coffee table book but are still unsure if publishing one is right for you, for more on the value of artbooks, read: What is the point of a coffee table book?

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The image shown belongs to Kaboompics.com via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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What is PR?

PR, or Public Relations to give it its full title, is the act of sharing positive information about a business with the public to create a favourable impression. PR helps build a reputation by shaping how your audience views your business. PR also involves how you manage your information by controlling the messages you put out and where and how you do this.

Doing your own PR comes with several benefits:

1. It’s cost-effective

PR agencies can be expensive. If you are a small craft business with a modest promotional budget, hiring a PR agency can wipe out your funds before any meaningful return has been realised. As you begin to promote your craftwork by doing your own PR, you get to understand the nature of building media relationships. You also get valuable insights and advice on your messages, helping you to fine-tune them across all your marketing activities.

It makes sense to work with an agency when you are ready to take your business to the next level and have the funds to do so. This is something to consider when you want to focus on other areas of growing your craft business. At this stage, having navigated PR for yourself, you can confidently hand off the task while keeping an eye on things.

2. It’s easier to find contacts yourself

PR is all about connections and contacts with the people who can give you the right PR opportunities. When working with a PR agency, yes, you are paying for their expertise, but you are also paying for indirect access to their contact database. You don’t get direct access to the agency’s media contacts, which means you have no way of building a relationship with that specific contact who likes your work, unless they contact you themselves, which could put you in violation of your agency agreement. And, if you find yourself unable to continue with the agency, you lose access to their contacts.

The major advantage of doing your PR is that you get to build your own database and foster direct relationships with your PR contacts. Online access- digital and social platforms have made it easier than ever for you to find journalists and publication details. This works both ways, because sharing your work also helps journalists find and reach out to you. Offline has its advantages too, as networking brings people together, and printed publications often share journalists’ social handles.

Acknowledging that some media contacts can be elusive, again, when you are ready and can afford to do so, you can work with an agency with a much better understanding of what you need from their services.

3. You’re not restricted to a PR agency’s hierarchy

As a small business, you can get lost in a PR agency that has clients more established than you. This means they may not always give you their full attention. And, if the agency has similar businesses to yours on their books, you could be competing alongside them for a PR opportunity when your account manager selects who to put forward. An agency also gets to decide if it’s worth putting your product forward based on their opinions.

When you manage your PR, you get to control the products you want to promote and who to send the press releases and pitches about them to.

4. You know your business

If anything, one of the key benefits of doing your own PR is that no one knows your business better than you. You create the products or work closely with the people who do. You know the materials, processes, skills, heritage, history and stories that shape your artisan business. This makes you best placed to communicate all this with passion and purpose so that the media contact can truly understand the significance of the products you want them to feature.

Doing your own PR requires a plan. As with anything unfamiliar to you, you will need to learn the process. If PR is something you want to do yourself, take a look at my masterclass: Pitch to Press. It takes you through the exact step-by-step process on how to get media coverage for your artisan business if you want to do it yourself.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The image shown belongs to alleksana, via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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One of the advantages of craft is the stories centred around it. Stories of the techniques, the process, the materials, the heritage, the inspiration, and the maker, the essence of which becomes embedded into the objects created. This makes storytelling a must-use, visibility-increasing component of your marketing strategy to help your craft business stand out. Brand storytelling does this in the following ways:

1. Establishing a USP

In marketing, there is what is known as a Unique Selling Point (USP). In other words, what makes your business, product or service different from similar offerings in the marketplace? Your USP is the thing that sets your craftwork apart. And the stories you have to tell about your craft contribute to shaping your USP. Your USP will help you develop a strong brand identity that encompasses your mission, purpose, values, messaging, graphics, craftwork characteristics, and so much more.

2. Becoming memorable

A distinctive USP, in turn, makes your craftwork memorable. People remember stories over facts, and when the story of your work resonates with them, they will find it easier to recall what you do. By sharing the stories centred around your USP, you strengthen the customer connection to your work. This is important because connections will help you engage with your customers, building relationships that lead to trust and loyalty.

3. Generating awareness

Being memorable generates brand awareness. When your audience becomes more familiar with your work and story, they start to recognise what makes your craft unique, your signature style. As a result, your craftwork immediately stands out to those who are drawn to what you do and why you do it.

4. Creating emotional connections

Brand awareness leads to emotional connections as the people who come to know and connect with the story behind your craftwork become more invested in what you do. When people buy into your story, emotional connections form. They start to appreciate your work as being more than just another product, viewing it as something meaningful to their lives. This is the reason why storytelling is a powerful brand asset. Stories can fire up the imagination, touching people on a deeper level in ways other marketing strategies cannot.

5. Building Trust

Emotional connections build trust. Trust turns audiences into customers. The people who buy your products and then tell others about you. Trust occurs when people believe in what you say and do. Building trust requires consistency in the messages you share and how you show up and present your work. Gaining trust is a gradual process as people come to know more about you. Building trust requires exceptional customer service skills because the way you treat your customers can make or break their trust in your craft business.

6. Gathering a community

Trust gathers a community of loyal followers who willingly support and believe in what you do. Having a community puts you in a position of influence to inspire and motivate others for the better. Influence comes with responsibility, and when used to good effect, it can lead to acts of positive impact that extend beyond your business, community and industry, leading to even more stories to tell.

If you are fed up with your handcrafted products being invisible and want to learn how to use storytelling to help your business stand out from the crowd, read Harnessing the power of storytelling in your craft business to help you create better customer connections.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The image shown belongs to rovenimages.com sourced via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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Getting up close and personal with craft is always a delight, and with its focus on craft, LCW has become a must-attend fixture on the international creative calendar. It is a week when ateliers, workshops, and places normally closed to the public open their doors to reveal the mastery of hand skills, techniques, and imagination that go into creating breathtakingly beautiful, crafted objects.

This LCW was noticeably bigger than previous editions, spreading out to include more of London beyond the usual Central/SW focus. The event gave locals and visitors greater access to craft displays in their locality through an engaging programme of established and emerging names in the world of craft. There was something for everyone thanks to a diverse range of participants from luxury houses to art colleges to religious buildings offering displays, tours, talks and demonstrations.

As widespread as the event was, it was impossible to see everything, even if you chose to do the full 7-day calendar of events, including the evening ones. Selecting what to see required some planning. For the exhibitions and showcases I visited, LCW was an opportunity for me to meet in person artisans I have interviewed for my various writing commissions including the Homo Faber Guide, an initiative of the Michelangelo Foundation, which was the LCW headline sponsor.

My journey across the city on one of the days took me from Cockpit studios exhibition of leading and next-generation makers to No. 9 Cork Street, where I met furniture designer and artisan, Brodie Neill, then onto The Pimlico Road, popping in and out of the design and interior showrooms and workshops. There, I met ceramicist Isatu Hyde at Jamb, and at Soane Britain viewed a demonstration of paper making using old cotton shirts by The Paper Foundation, one of the last handmade paper makers in Britain.

Woodstrokes Table, Brodie Neill, No. 9 Cork Street, London Craft Week 2025

I am always fascinated by ways in which cultures choose to revitalise their craft heritages as a way of preserving them. So, another day brought visits to the international pavilions, which served as a window into how they are doing this. The Royal Thai Embassy presented an elegant and beautiful display of the Royal family’s efforts to preserve and modernise traditional Thai textile heritage through a range of initiatives, including the Queen and Princess, adapting these textiles into contemporary outfits for Royal engagements.

An installation of indigo in the Chinese Pavilion in Cromwell House led to an introduction and in-depth conversation with shibori textile specialist Yoshiko Wada Morphopoulos. While ‘yAwArAkAi kArA – The Reflecting Skin’, an exhibition by Maud and Mabel gallery, introduced me to the serene and evocative works of Japanese ceramicists Akiko Hirai and Kenta Anza. Tucked away in a back room of the building was the Saudi Pavilion, one of my favourite presentations. With its quiet, atmospheric presence and understated elegance communicated through deep, rich tones of purple and dark green, the installation presented a collection of vibrant, woven objects that together told a beautiful story of weaving and artistry.

The Suadi Pavilion, Cromwell House, London Craft Week 2025

It’s nice to see a celebration of craftsmanship excellence with dedicated events like LCW, giving the talented makers and their exceptional objects a moment in the spotlight, enabling people to see and appreciate the meaning, value and beauty that handmade brings into our lives.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The images shown belong to Tapiwa Matsinde. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.] Main image is a ceramic vessel by Kenta Anza, curated by Maude and Mabel Gallery.

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As the name suggests, coffee table books are books to, well, display on a coffee table. Loved by interior decorators and stylists, these image-led books have gained a reputation for being decorative objects used to speak to the perceived taste and refinement of their owner.

However, on closer inspection, coffee table books serve a deeper purpose beyond being mere decorative objects filled with page after page of high-quality photography.

Well-produced coffee table books serve to visually document significant moments in [cultural] history. They do this by reflecting the cultural mood and influences of specific periods in time. They also serve to celebrate renowned cultural personalities and brands. And in the case of cookbooks and how-to guides, their main aim is to inspire readers to try out new things and visit places and spaces they may never get to in person.

At first glance, coffee table books can come across as superficial. Books peddling style over substance, but the underlying purpose of this type of book is so much more. Coffee table books can take us on a visual journey into the creative, social, and cultural narratives of different cultures from around the world. They give us a glimpse into the moods that define places different from our own. I will say, though, it does depend on who is telling the story. And, whether the storyteller has the right to tell the story and if they can objectively tell the story.

As a side note, cultural diversity is lacking in coffee table book publishing, which impacts the types of stories we get to see and hear. Depending on who is curating the story, a coffee table book can counteract and challenge negative stereotypes about people, places, and cultures. The point of a coffee table book is that these books can invite us to view things from a different perspective. In doing so, they start important conversations to bridge the gaps in understanding.

The coffee table book’s origins have a fascinating history, which I uncover in my post What is a coffee table book, and why is it called that?

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The image shown belongs to Cup of Couple, sourced via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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There are several different channels I always use to help me find and select makers and artisan businesses for profile-raising opportunities. In this post, I am sharing some insights into how I find designers, makers and artisan product businesses so that you can use the information to inform your marketing, PR and brand positioning strategies.

Finding a maker or artisan brand

My personal, curated directory

I’ve been working in the contemporary craft and design industry for over 15 years and have built up a database of contacts that includes craft business owners. I often start my search for makers and artisan-led brands with those I already know, going through my directory and then seeing what those names are up to.

Takeway: Reach out, don’t be afraid to introduce yourself.

Online search

The ability to search for information online kickstarted my blogging, then writing career. I would run and still run endless keyword search engines searches, making a note of who I found. Google is my go to, but social sites such as Pinterest and Instagram are at the top of my search list too. I use variations of keywords and phrases related to who and what I am looking for for the project I would be working on, i.e. pottery studios in Bath.

Takeaway: SEO and keywords are an important part of your marketing strategy.

Events

Craft fairs, tradeshows and exhibitions are great places to learn about emerging and established makers. They are opportunities to see craftwork in-person. If the maker is in attendance I can introduce myself and reconnect with those I already know.

Takeaway: Even if you are not showcasing make the effort to visit events that are relevant to your craft. Talk to people, because seemingly random conversations can reveal you’re talking to a curator, decision-maker etc.

Recommnedations

One of the best ways to find and select makers and artisan businesses is through recommendations from my network. I could be having a conversation with a designer and they mention someone whose work I ‘absolutely have to‘ check out. Or a ‘do you know…‘ conversation starter can lead to ‘…tell me more‘. When events I listen out for names people are talking about and afterwards I go and look them up. The point is when your work makes an impression please take note.

Takeway: Network and maintain contact with your customers and connections.

Publications

As I mentioned, I never know where I’ll come across craftwork that catches my eye. Magazines and newspapers both print and digital can offer up gems. Print may be traditional media, but it is still one of those mediums that draws you in. I’ll be reading something like a gift list round-up, spot an object, make a note of who its by then google their details.

Takeaway: PR still pays.

Stockists

Although I help stockists find craftwork or artisans to collaborate with I also find names while browsing physical and online shops, i.e. a gallery shop, interiors store, lifestyle boutique or department store. This could be in a local highstreet, shopping centre or even on holiday.

Takeaway: Stockists can help raise your visibility.

Website

This may be my personal preference, but once I have a name I always refer to the maker or craft business’s website. I may follow this up with a look at their social media pages- Instagram or Facebook, but I still prefer to see and explore a website first. With a website I can cut through the distractions of digital content. A website gives me more of an insight into how professional the maker or brand really is away from the gloss of social posts. Understanding that websites can disappear, having a website makes me feel like the owner is invested in their craftwork, by putting down more stable online roots.

Takeaway: Having a well maintained website is still a necessity.

Selecting a maker or artisan brand

Once I have found a maker or artisan brand, the next step I take is to get to know a bit more about them to gauge their suitability for the project I am working on. This could be a magazine article, an exhibition or a recommendation request. My get-to-know criteria include:

Reputation

Reputation is how others view your work, i.e. customers, critics, curators, collectors your peers. Regardless if you are established or up-and-coming this would be in the context of your craftwork. You don’t have to be a well known maker or artisan-led brand but I do need to feel confident that you can deliver the goods.

Takeaway:

Product Quality

Quality is one of the factors that impacts reputation. The contemporary craft market is demanding and expects a certain standard. Though its not always possible, I try to see a maker’s work in person. Alternatively, I’ll look for reviews- customer and publication – that speak to the quality of the craftwork. Events that the maker has taken part in also provide uselful clues, especially if the event is one known to have a rigourous selection process.

Takeaway: Investing in improving and mastering craft-making skills is an on-going process.

Presentation

How you present your craftwork in-person and online is another thing I look out for. Presentation can affect the way an audience views your hand crafted objects. Things like packaging, display props and social posts and website images are all part of the business interaction experience. They can show how much care you have towards your craft.

Takeaway: Polish your presentation by investing in the areas that help you present your work at its best, i.e. good photography, an engaging, informative website.

Look for the ‘why’

The ‘why‘ is the story and purpose behind a craft business. I am fascinated in the reasons a maker took up their craft, by the skills, techniques and process. This is what I enjoy writing and sharing about so that others can appreciate what goes into creating exceptional crafts.

Takeaway: Make use of storytelling in your marketing activities.

suitability For The Project

Some opportunities will be suitable and other will not. Any maker or craftwork that I select has to be relevant for my client or project requirements. Your skills, could be exceptional and your work beautiful, but if its unsuitable I cannot include or put it forward. That is not a reflection on your work, but a fact of business. In the case where I can’t feature or recommend maker or brand I add them to my directory, ready for when the a more fitting opportunity arises.

Takeaway: If things don’t work out don’t take a no personally. On the other hand don’t be afraid to say no if you feel a request is unsuitable for your work.

Professionalism

If I contact a maker or artisan brand with an opportunity I do expect a level of professionalism in the communication process. Making your products, managing a business or preparing for a market or event can keep you busy. I get it, I sometimes drop the ball too. But, the reality is, for the recipient having to chase for information and answers doesn’t instil much confidence in the maker or brand fulfilling the requirements of the opportunity.

Takeaway: Be professional and organised. And keep in mind, responsiveness and timeliness pave the way for a smooth working relationship.

Responsiveness

This is a big one for me. My work is often deadline driven, so when I contact a maker or brand with an opportunity receiving a response is appreciated. Even if you not are interested, receiving a simple message saying ‘this is not for me’ makes such a difference. This is because I know to move on and to not keep chasing you.

Takeaway: Courtesy impacts your reputation and the likelihood of future opportunities being offered to you.

As you seek to raise awareness about your craftwork and business, I hope you find the insights and tips helpful as you plan and carry out your marketing strategies. And, for more pointers on how I find and select makers and artisan businesses for opportunities, read How to catch the curator’s eye, proven tips for designers & makers who want to stand out.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

[Image credits: The images shown are belongs to Pixabay, sourced from Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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As someone who has built a career around blogging, I may be biased when I say blogging is not dead, it’s just changed. And, that’s to be expected as technology and how we engage with it evolve. For example, the advent of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram ushered in an era of micro-blogging. This shift initially saw people abandoning their website blogs before figuring out that they could run the two side by side. By using their social platforms, not only connect to their audiences but also promote and drive traffic to their website, people can better connect their audiences to the products and services they sell.

Today, AI is disrupting how we generate and search for content, impacting blogging. So, despite the plethora of online promotional channels, leveraging a blog to promote your craft business remains a worthwhile part of a marketing strategy.

If you’re curious to find out how a blog can help you market your craftwork and boost your visibility, get answers to your questions in this article. First, we need to look at what a blog is.

What is a blog?

To appreciate why you should have a blog to promote your craft business, here is a definition from the Oxford Dictionary, and a brief introduction to what a blog and blogging are.

‘A blog is a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style‘. A blog comprises individual diary-like entries called Blog Posts. Blogging is the activity of writing and creating content for a blog post.

So, now that you know what a blog is, here are the reasons why you should use it as part of your marketing strategy to promote your craft business

1. You have greater control over how you create and share your content –

With a blog, you have greater control over how you create and share your content. You also have more options to customise your blog design to suit your brand, in areas such as layout, typefaces, backgrounds and button colours. A blog offers you the ability to use different media types in one post: written words, images, video, or audio clips. And, with a blog post, you can link to other posts on your blog or to external content, enabling you to direct your audience to where you want them to go next once they’ve seen and read your post.

And, unlike most social media platforms, a blog on your website has no restrictions on content length. You can say as much or as little as you want in your posts; just make sure your content is relevant, helpful, informative, educational or entertaining. Blog posts can also be edited to correct mistakes after publishing and, if required, updated to keep the content fresh.

2. You own your user data –

User data refers to the information you keep about visitors to your blog. This information is in the form of names, email addresses, age, location, interests and so forth. As explained in the definition, a blog is a type of website, typically set up on a hosting platform* i.e. GoDaddy, Doteasy, Bluehost. You can connect visitor data collecting tools to your blog, such as Google Analytics and mail subscriber providers such as Mailchimp, Flodesk, and Kit.

With these tools and, in addition to those that come with your hosting provider, you can keep track of and connect with visitors to your blog in many different ways, as they go through the journey from finding and reading your posts to making a purchase.

Customer management and mail subscriber tools enable you to save your user a data in the form of downloading a spreadsheet with the information. This means if something were to happen to your website and blog, you would still have your user data. The same cannot be said for social media platforms such as Instagram, which owns all the user data from traffic coming into their platform, in this case, your followers. Unless you persuade all your followers to visit your blog, website or sign up for your newsletter, you cannot engage with them outside of the social platform. And, if you were to lose your social media page or leave the platform, you would have no access to the community of followers you’ve spent precious time growing and nurturing.

3. You’re not tied to algorithms

Websites, social media and search engines run on algorithms. Algorithms help to enhance the user experience through functionality, performance, content delivery, searches and recommendations based on user interests and demographics. Algorithms, while useful, can hurt your digital marketing efforts by preventing your audience from seeing your content unless you play by the platform’s rules, i.e. paying to boost posts in your audience’s feeds.

Algorithms are constantly updated, and when a platform does so without warning, it can also impact your content’s visibility by restricting who sees it and when. In contrast, when someone visits your blog, they can see and browse all your posts. You can also react quicker to search engine algorithm changes by editing and updating your blog posts, as highlighted in Point 1.

4. You have the freedom to access, move and download the content you create

Some social platforms limit the access you have to download, edit or move around the content you share on your dedicated page. A blog gives you the freedom to move your content around to suit your needs. More importantly, you can save your blog content by creating backups of your posts, images, videos and so forth, to your preferred storage location, i.e. downloading to your computer.

By having a backup of your blog posts, should the worst happen, you can always upload them again- just remember to actually backup up your files! You can do this through the control panel on your web host.

5. It’s a traffic driver

People conduct millions of content searches daily on search engines and increasingly on AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. When you create blog posts that provide information and answers to what your audience is looking for, you help to drive traffic to your website. The marketing strategy for doing this is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), which refers to the words and phrases you use throughout a particular blog post to target a specific topic.

You can also use a blog to build your authority. If you create content that offers information centred around your industry, it can raise your profile. This helps attract the attention of journalists, curators, stockists, customers or fellow makers and students if you offer coaching, courses and workshops.

6. You can monetise your blog

You can turn your blog into an additional income stream by hosting ads, preferably from vetted suppliers and complementary sector-related businesses, rather than the random ones from Ad provider networks. The type of ads to consider could be: the shop where you get your materials from, an upcoming craft market, or a maker’s conference you enjoy attending.

Showing ads on your blog works best if you have steady traffic coming to your website, which is what blog posts do. If considering this monetising option, I would caution you to take a less-is-more approach to minimise interruptions to the reading experience, the sidebar tends to be the best place to place ads. And, be selective about who you partner with. What you choose to promote reflects on you, impacting the trust relationship you are building with your audience.

If you choose to manage the ads yourself, you will have to create a price list outlining how long the ad will be on your blog, in addition to having a set of guidelines regarding the ad size, design, and so forth. There are software platforms and plug-ins that can help you do this.

I hope you found the reasoning for having a blog useful, and if you are interested in using a blog to market your artisan hand-crafted items, find out how to get started in my post How to successfully start a blog and use it to promote your craft business.

– Tapiwa Matsinde

* Note: I run my website on DotEasy shared hosting and use Mailchimp; other than that, I am not affiliated with the hosting and email platforms mentioned, and by mentioning them, I am not offering advice to use them. If looking for a web host, I strongly recommend you do your research to identify the ones suitable for your needs.

[Image credits: The image shown belongs to Arina Krasnikova, sourced via Pexels. If downloaded and used elsewhere, please credit accordingly.]

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