Fun, New Gifts and Tutorial on DoSayGive! | Do Say Give

Fun, New Gifts and Tutorial on DoSayGive!

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Today I am telling you all about my fun new SHOP categories, how to find them, and also answering some questions about how everything works on my blog!

Even though DoSayGive is made up of three parts (doing, saying, and giving) I know I devote a lot of my posts to the gift-giving aspect. But it’s not because I want to encourage you to buy more stuff, I promise! In all honestly, it’s because, for one, it’s less time-consuming to link fun gift ideas and sales than it is to sit down and write thoughtful posts on deeper subject matters (as much as I like to!). And, two, I really do have a passion for the love language of gift-giving. It brings me such joy when people comment or message me that I helped them find the perfect gift for a loved one. I just love it!

Because I do so many posts on gift ideas, I recently updated my SHOP categories to make it easier to find what you are looking for. It’s nothing fancy, but just hopefully more organized! I have spent so much time lately researching and finding really neat gifts and linking them in these SHOP pages.

Here’s how it works:

1. At the top of my homepage, you will see a SHOP header. If you scroll over it, a drop down menu will pop down…

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2. Scroll over “Fabulous Gift Ideas” to see all the categories I’ve been working on…

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Sometimes on my Mac the categories are hard to see, so I just enlarge the screen (command +).

To the right will pop out another menu that links the following gift categories:

Gifts for HerGifts for HimGraduation Gifts / Hostess GiftsHousewarming GiftsTeacher Gifts / Under $25Under $50 / Wedding Wishes

3. Scroll over SHOP: “Children’s Gift Ideas” to find a plethora of children’s gifts. (Note: this is where the books are!)

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Here are the categories of children’s gifts:

Wonderful Children’s Children’s Gifts / Timeless Baby Gifts / All Boy Gifts / Girly Girl Gifts  Tween/Teen Girl Gifts / Classic Children’s Books 

Under the Classic Children’s Books I linked these book categories:

Board Books (0-3) / Picture Books / Girl Book Favorites / Boy Book Favorites / Read Aloud Favorites

 4. You can see more gift categories on a desktop/iPad than a phone.

It’s just the mobile program I use that only allows me to choose 5 SHOP categories. You can always search any gift category (gifts for him, hostess, graduation, etc.)  on the mobile version and find any of them that way.


A few ins and outs about using DoSayGive…

(These are all in regards to questions I have had recently about my blog. Thank you so much for your questions and feedback; please keep them coming!)

1. If you click on a category to browse gift ideas, know that you aren’t actually buying anything from me! (A reader asked that – good question!)

All I am doing is linking different products from various companies. I do this to save you time. Instead of you going to 14 different stores to find a cute hostess gift, for example, you can come to my blog and I’ve linked the cutest things from my favorite stores. I spend a lot of time curating these SHOP boards and really want it to help you find what you need!

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In most cases, I show the price, but because prices are constantly changing, definitely click on something if you like it because it might be cheaper than shown!

2. After all the product photos, I link relevant blog posts.

Let’s pretend you were looking for a baby gift I featured in a blog post. You can search “baby gift” on my blog, but you can also go to the baby gift category and scroll down to see all the blog posts I’ve done on baby gifts.

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Not fancy, but it works, right?!

 

3. If you buy something I feature, use the links in my blog (or at least tell them you heard about them on DoSayGive!)

This is the thing: companies big and small are tracking how you get to their websites. So it’s great if they can see that you came from DoSayGive. Why? Well, for one, companies are more likely to give special sales or partnerships to my readers if they see I am sending them a lot of traffic. (Think 20% off of the Big O Key Ring last fall!).

So if you ever end up buying something I feature in a blog post – or in one of these SHOP categories – I would appreciate so much if you would use the links in my blog to get there. (In other words, if you decide you want something a week later, come back to DoSayGive and click on the website link I give – that way they know I sent a customer!)

Now, full disclosure, in some cases I may get a (small) commission if you use my links. That’s awesome, but that’s not why I started DoSayGive. It’s just part of how this blogging thing works. Just like if a realtor shows you a house you love and buy, she will get a commission. Same thing for bloggers.

But more important than the commission is that companies see that DoSayGive sent you. Again, the more people I send to a company, the more the that company will be willing to do collaborations and discounts for my readers. Who knows, maybe they will even want to start advertising on my blog! (Something else I didn’t know bloggers did frequently – the learning curve is steep, but so much fun!)

4. What the heck is liketoknow.it all about?

The liketoknow.it thing on Instagram is simply to make it easier for you to buy things I feature. Here’s how it works: You sign up your email address on www.liketoknow.it and whenever you “like” a photo with a liketoknowit hashtag, the product details will be sent directly to your email inbox.

Now some people love liketoknow.it. Others just like to see products featured on my blog and shop that way. Either one works! (Usually anything I feature on Instagram I will eventually put on my blog, too, so it doesn’t matter to me!).

5. Don’t forget the smaller companies!

Now I feature a lot of smaller companies that might not be tracking traffic. So if you ever order something from one of these companies, or even stop in a store in Dallas I mention, I would love it if you would tell them you heard about a gift idea on DoSayGive. Again, if they know I am driving people to their stores, they will be more likely to work on collaborations, giveaways, and discounts. (And just yesterday a sweet reader came up to me and said she went in a store I featured and when she mentioned she heard about them on DoSayGive, they gifted her something yummy- so you never know!).

6. You might want to get on DoSayGive’s newsletter.

I don’t promote my email newsletter, but I take a lot of pride in sending out a quality newsletter. Not only will you be notified of new posts, but I usually include a few extra tidbits just for my subscribers – whether’s it a just launched sale or special discount code. Or maybe I’ll just include some additional fun finds I found after I published the post. I think of my newsletter subscribers as the heart of my blog, so please sign up below if you are interested (you can unsubscribe anytime, too!) :

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So I hope that helps explain how the whole blogging/link thing works. And, more importantly, I hope my blog helps you find what you need – whether it is an etiquette question or a thoughtful gift idea! My blog is definitely not fancy or high tech, but I hope it is user friendly. Please help me make it better and better by commenting any suggestions below!

And I tell my friends to always “like” and “share” on Facebook any posts they enjoy. That helps so much, too!

Happy Giving!

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Sources:

Lacquered Box (several sizes available)

Photo: Megan Mueller Photography

Jewelry: Neely Phelan Jewelry necklace

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