Congratulations on putting up a bead jewelry blog of your own! You have begun posting photos of your bead jewelry and you probably even have a few funny stories and maybe a link to your online store, but you've noticed that you're not getting many comments or even visitors.

How can you get more people to visit your site? Here are some great tips:

1. Cross Promotion: Here's an obvious one that often gets overlooked: include your website address and email address on all of your printed material you make for your bead jewelry business, including business cards, flyers and even informational cards you might include bead jewelry you've sold. There are always people who walk past your craft booth at a show and just don't have time to look at everything. Many of these people will get home and then later want to look up some of your work online.

2. Email Signature Line: Include your name and bead jewelry website address in the signature line of every email you send out. Even if you're just forwarding a silly joke, this could be important. You never know who may forward your email on to someone stranger who will stumble across your website and fall in love with your jewelry.

3. Comments on Appropriate Forums and Blogs: Even if you aren't writing a beading blog, you can still read all the other great bead jewelry blogs out there and leave appropriate comments about the post. Most forum comment systems allow you to give a website URL, which is where you'd put your bead jewelry website address. This may not get you much traffic, but it does give you some exposure to other beading people who may be reading the same blog posting and your comments. The same is true on forums. When writing a comment on a bead jewelry message board or forum you should always have your website listed in your signature if allowed. Some sites have rules about this, so it's best to read and see how it works for each beading site.

4. Advertising: You can advertise a good website in printed media or even on television! I would probably try local newspapers and smaller publications at first. A simple ad online or in a newspaper can read something like this: "All Kinds of Unique Bead Jewelry Supplies and Items! Visit http://www.beadjewelryblog.com" It would be an inexpensive ad because it's only a few words, and it directs people to your website which might be filled with wonderful full-color photos!

5. Update Your Site Regularly: Once you get a few people to visit, you want to give them a reason to come back. A monthly newsletter or a drawing for a free set of earrings or even a special sale every so often will definitely keep people coming back. And once they've become your customer or even your friend they'll most likely be interested in visiting again and seeing new items.

6. Search Engines and Web Directories: You already built the website, now you might want to submit your site to a number of different online search engines and directories. Your site might not show up immediately, but give it time and you'll slowly begin getting more visitors.

7. Trading Links: You can write or email other bead jewelry bloggers and ask them to trade links or give you a quick write up on their blogs in exchange for the same. I run a bead jewelry blog and I sometimes like to put up posts of bead jewelry artists just starting out. They usually link to my blog, and I usually put up a post for others to see. We're all beaders together and we have to help each other!

Good luck promoting your website! These tips really do work. How do I know? Because my bead jewelry blog had over 58,000 unique visitors in 2007 alone!