New Friends, Old Friends, and Presents

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I have been doing a lot of thinking.  

About my blog, about networking, about advertising, and about connecting with people online.  

Pardon me if I ramble for a minute.  I promise I have a point.

I have met some amazing people here in the interwebs, and even though we have not met in real life, I would definitely consider them friends.  If you blog or have an online shop or business, or participate in any of the other thousands of types of social media out there, then you understand about connecting with people and making friends online.  These are the people you chat with, always visit their blogs, respond to their tweets, repin their ideas.  Your own little group.  As I bounce from blog to blog and watch my Twitter feed go by, I notice that certain people always respond to others.  They sponsor each other's blogs, they buy each other's stuff.  Some of them have been lucky enough to meet in real life  This is fantastic, but some people find this clique-y and don't feel like they can break into an already-formed group.

And so all this starting me thinking.

I have been thinking, semi-seriously for awhile, about paying for advertising on other blogs.  As my shop grows and as my blog grows I thought it might be nice to put myself out there in other venues.  Perhaps larger blogs are the place to start.  I debate on whether it's worth it, and if, indeed, it will it help.  I see offers of free advertising that doesn't actually turn out to be free, which is seriously disappointing.  It's hard to make a decision.

I have been thinking of doing some kind of a swap for the holidays because it's fun to send to and receive things from people.  I was initially thinking a card swap, but I have seen so many other cool swaps out there, I wanted to try and think of something more.  I often have ideas like this to try and connect with other people out there, but they don't usually take off.  I want to do something that will work.  But what to try?

And so, as I lay awake at night running my large to-do list around in my head, making plans for new products, thinking of what needs to be done the next day, and sort of wishing that just the act of thinking about stuff would actually accomplish the items I've also thinking about all of this stuff.  It's been mulling in there, stewing for awhile.  And finally, I came up with an idea.

An idea to connect some of the friends of friends that I have online 

as a way to introduce us to each other.

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Starting ASAP I would like to offer free advertising here on my blog.  Totally free.  No money exchanged, no product reviews, no giveaways required, nothing like that.  If you have a blog or an online shop and would like some promotion, I would be happy to have you here.  I would be happy to do an interview, but I would also like to do a series of holidays posts, with ideas from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  I would love to have a series of guest posts offering tutorials, DIYs, or recipes of some sort.  I would be happy to put your button in my sidebar, or give you a quick shout-out in a Finds post.  And I definitely want to do a swap- a handmade holiday swap.  More details on that tomorrow.

The only thing you need to do is tell your friends.  If you do a post, invite them to come by and read it.  Send them this link and tell them it is free advertising.  Tweet this out or pin it on Pinterest.  So your online friends can meet other groups of online friends.

Because you never know who you're going to meet.

This is not the largest blog, but I have fantastic readers, and

you never know who will read your post or see your button.

And who wouldn't like some new friends?

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If you're interested in one or more of the above suggestions, or if you have an advertising idea of your own, please leave me a comment with an e-mail address at which to contact you, or send me an e-mail at miloandmollyshop @ gmail . com.  I really hope this idea takes off.