The Mom Blogging Resource

How to use LinkedIn to promote your blog.

2011-11-11T23:54:00.000-05:00

LinkedIn is so much more than a site to help you find a job or promote your business. You can use LinkedIn as a tool to promote your blog and generate a lot of traffic and leads. However, LinkedIn techniques to help generate that traffic really have to be learned. There are a few different techniques and they really have to be tested through trial and error to see what works best for you and your blog.

The steps to LinkedIn are simple:

Create a profile & fill it in completely.
Add a profile picture that is professional looking. Not photos of your pets, kids or something abstract.
Add your contacts & networks.
Add your blog feed through a LinkedIn app
NETWORK!

Who should you add on LinkedIn? First off, import your e-mail contacts. You can do that automatically by putting in your e-mail information (from multiple addresses) on the LinkedIn site. It will import your address book and check which of your contacts also have LinkedIn profiles. This is a smart idea since most of our business contacts & prior brands and PR people are listed in our e-mail address book!

Also add former classmates, friends, former colleagues, bosses you may have a good relationship with; add anyone you know that has LinkedIn. This is how you begin to network and find new contacts. Go ahead, add your competition too! However, only add contacts that you know or you feel you can build a networking relationship with. Don’t add people you do not know at all and do not spam them with invitations.

You can build new relationships and get more exposure with LinkedIn Answers. Go ahead and answer some questions, but answer the questions you can give good and educated answers to. Demonstrate your expertise by writing strong and well-structured answers to “show off”. Chances are, if you answer a question well and clarify the answer to the person asking, they probably will add you as a contact as well. (Further helping you network.)

LinkedIn communities are also important since you can participate in discussions. Discussions are another great way to show off your expertise and gain new traffic, contacts, networks and leads. Go ahead and strut your stuff when posting threads or replying to threads. You will only want to join communities that are within your blogging niche. Adding communities out of your niche may confuse those in your network and those looking for experts.

Keeping active in communities, answers and also your status update are very important with LinkedIn. You don’t want to drift out of people’s thoughts by lying low and being inactive. Your status update is important since that is the first thing that shows up on the front page when your contacts log in. You want to keep that updated in order to stay active in their memory. You want to keep that impression fresh in their minds. Keep it interesting, business-related and well updated. Always remember to add a link back to your blog, that is the way you will drive traffic!

LinkedIn is probably better than Facebook and Twitter as people who are on LinkedIn are more business inclined. You can really drive massive amounts of quality traffic to your page as well as connecting with some great business and blogging contacts. When it comes to LinkedIn it is more quality instead of quantity. You want contacts that are going to stay with you and steadily read your blog instead of hundreds of contacts that may click on your blog every once in a while. Social Networking is the new black. J

Are You Reviewing Products Correctly?

2011-11-09T15:27:00.008-05:00

Almost every blogger loves to review products and write their opinion for the company or business they're working with, but are you correctly reviewing the product or service?

There really isn't a guidebook on how to review a product or service but there are some unwritten rules that, to some, are common sense. Some bloggers really need to put more thought into their reviews or even follow a small outline for their reviews, it will make their reviews catch a consumer's attention better.

I see many reviews that are simply a blogger promoting the product or service and calling it a review. Granted, many bloggers are hesitant to say anything negative about the product or the company, but that is what many companies want. They want to know the positives and negatives of their product, the pros and the cons, they want their item compared to something comparable within their competition to see how their product weighs up. They want you to tell your readers and other consumers why their product should be in homes rather than another brand within the same genre. Don't be afraid to state both the pros and the cons of the product, that is part of a review.

How do you write a great product review?

- Take a photo or video of the product you are going to review. You want the consumer to see an actual photo of the product, not just a stock photo or the photo of the box. Some bloggers even go as far as to take a video of the product they're going to review/are reviewing so the consumer can see the product in action. Videos are not mandatory unless your client requests one, but they are very helpful in reviewing.

- Write your review. The first paragraph should be an introduction to the product that you're reviewing. Let the consumer know some basic information about the item such as the name, the usage, the size, style, colors available, price and so on...

The second paragraph should be a paragraph describing what type of customer is the target demographic for the item. Is it for a busy mom on the go? Is it for a teenager that is just graduating high school? Is it for a college student to make their lives easier? State the reason why the product is a target for that demographic and why it will be ideal for that person.

You want the consumer/reader to know that you actually used and tested the item, So either give a very in depth review of how the product works and how you would go about using it, take photos of the item being used or as we said earlier; go a step farther and video the item being used.

** NOTE THE PROS AND CONS. If a review is overly positive or overly nice to a product, the reader/consumer won't take the review seriously. Even though you add a disclaimer to the end, the consumer still may think the company paid you to write a fake review. This always casts negatively on the product/company since you need to compare and contrast. Companies will not get angry at you for stating the pros and cons, they look for the constructive criticism to better their product the next time.

The next paragraph should let consumers/readers know how to purchase the product along with a link to the manufacturer site and any promo codes you may want to add. After letting them know how to purchase the product you can note any giveaways that you are hosting for this product. A great lead in is, "(Company name here) has offered one of their great (product name here) to a lucky blog reader..." [Alter that to fit your blog!] And state the entries/rules/regulations to the giveaway itself.

- USE SEO. Make sure your review and the title to your review utilizes SEO keywords. (Search Engine Optimization) SEO keywords are very important to your review being seen/picked up in a search engine.

- DISCLAIMERS. Very important...the FTC now requires bloggers to state a disclaimer at the end of their post letting the reader know that they received compensation or a free product for the review. You also should disclose that the review was completely your opinion of the product and was not solicited by the company itself. This is a mandatory disclosure now and needs to be posted.

Writing a review is fairly simple but writing a review that has impact takes a little more skill. Remember, new companies do look at prior reviews that you've done for other companies. They want someone who can give the full impact of what their product delivers and gain them new customers. By sending a free product or monetary compensation for a review, they are making a small investment in you and your skill. Make the best of that and show them what you're made of.

How to Keep Your Visitors on Your Site.

2011-11-09T08:26:00.001-05:00

To define the bounce rate in layman's terms, it's the percentage of people who enter your website and then leave (bounce) without visiting anymore pages. This happens often by the reader clicking another link from your blog, closing the window, clicking the back button or inactivity once on your blog for an allotted amount of time. So, how do you keep your readers on your page and prevent them from bouncing off of your page? There are a few things to try to lower your bounce rate! (An ideal bounce rate is 20%-40%. Anything above 40% needs to be addressed. This means that your visitors are not really reading your material.)

What could be raising your bounce rate?

Too many external links towards the top of your site - They could be drawing too much attention to themselves rather than your blog and your content.

A cluttered blog. If you have too much content on your sidebar as well as the main section of your page, it might be too overwhelming to the reader. A cluttered sidebar is unprofessional and draws attention away from what really matters; the content.

Non Relevant Content is another reason. If your keywords are completely irrelevant to what your content is about, the user will probably close the window or go back to search results. You want to make sure that your related content is seen by the searcher.

Navigation is hard to find would be another reason. You want to make sure that your navigation is extremely easy to be seen and in an area that is very clear to the reader. Group all related pages under one subtitle in the navigation so they're easy to find. (i.e., "Recipes", "Coupons", "Tips & Tricks", etc...)

Have interesting content, catchy post titles and use the bold and italic features to break up your content a bit. Add some related photos to your posts to keep them interesting and use bullets when needed. All of these help to break up the monotonous tone of a solid paragraph. At the end of your posts, a great idea is to use LinkWithin. Why? It shows related posts that would be of interest to your reader as well. It keeps them in your site and keeps them reading older posts! (Another good idea is to use a "recent post" widget on your sidebar. This gives them even more to read!)

I cannot stress enough how important a clean look is to any website, blog or business. You want your page to look professional and you want the front page to speak volumes about what your site is about at first glance. Most people do not search too much into your site if the topic isn't apparent. If your site is too confusing and hard to read, they'll go elsewhere where the point is straight forward.

There are also ways to check to make sure the SEO keywords you're using are keywords with low bounce rates. Google Adwords Keywords is a great tool to use to ensure that your keywords have low competition ratings. This, in conjunction with ensuring that your SEO keywords match your site's content. To summarize; low bounce rate keywords and keyword integrity are the two essential things to remember when coming up with SEO keywords for your site.

Should We Be Called "Mommy Bloggers"?

2011-11-08T18:00:00.003-05:00

Mommy [Mom] Blogger is what most of us are called, but is that a complimentary or derogatory term?

It really depends on who you ask. Personally, I embrace the term Mommy Blogger because that's just what I am. My blog doesn't specifically have a niche, I post about anything that I feel passionate about and I am a mommy of two wonderful girls. I don't know why I would want to be called anything else. To me, a creative mind, the term blogger just sounds and feels so flat. (Yes, that "Mommy" before it really spruces it up!) However many journalists and writers that "just don't understand" give mommy bloggers a bad name; that's why many want to be known strictly as bloggers or writers.

Some writers find it unfair that moms that blog make money, are well known, get to test products or dare to consider what we do a business or a job at all. These are mostly hardcore professional writers and journalists who are not "in the know". I'd like to say they're mostly men who can't put themselves into our shoes and that's why they throw tomatoes at us, but there have been a few women journalists who have done the same. It's a shame that they flame us without taking the time to read what we do and visit our sites. We take the time to write and research our articles/blog posts and actually are among the most influential writers on the internet today. Mom bloggers are really taking over since we're educated, knowledgeable and know the right things to say to get other moms to relate to us.

I have my own personal insight into who would be considered a mommy blogger. As I said before, I do consider myself a mom blogger since I don't have a niche and I'm a mom. I believe any blogger who either has or doesn't have a niche and also throws in posts about her life, parenting and children is a mommy blogger since she incorporates her life as a parent. However if someone is a mom and writes a strictly craft blog, recipe blog, food blog, review blog, fashion blog, etc... and does not incorporate her parenting life; she would be considered what she is. (Fashion blogger, craft blogger, review blogger, etc...) I think it's also about what you want to be called and what title you see yourself in.

Does the term mommy blogger sound unprofessional to you? Some say that term invokes visions of parents sitting on their computer, couch or bed with their laptops in PJ's, fuzzy slippers and a cup of coffee with their children in tow. Those same people feel that term isn't professional since it doesn't invoke visions of a fully loaded home office. Honestly, even if you were working at home being a customer service agent, consultant and so on... you probably would still want to sit there in your lounge pants or PJ's and work. I doubt that anyone who works at home wants to get dressed in business suits to sit in their home office and work all day. Working from home has it's advantages and one of the advantages of telecommuting is not having to spend money on a wardrobe or thousands of dollars on equipment. However I do understand the stand on the term sounding slightly unprofessional.

When you think of the term, mommy blogger, do you think of moms in sweat suits with a diaper bag running around with their DSLR snapping photos of their little ones to post on their blog? Do you think of moms with coffee and bathrobes with messy buns on their couches with their laptops? Do you relate it to a mom in a home office researching and writing on her topic of her blog post?

What is your opinion?

How do Moms Make Money Blogging?

2011-11-08T10:22:00.000-05:00

Just how much money a mom blogger makes has always been a controversial and tough topic. In actuality, there isn't a solid way to calculate a monthly or yearly figure since it all depends on the blogger, their time investment, traffic and monetization techniques. However, it is possible to generate an income from your blog whether it's extra pocket change or a full/part time income. It does take a lot of time and work to make money off your blog and that is something that people do not have patience for. Generating an income from your blog will not happen quickly, it's something that will build up over time.

That said, not every mom blogger makes money -- despite a popular belief and stereotype. Some mom bloggers just blog for the passion and emotional outlet, others are review bloggers and rather test products than generate an income, some just plain don't know how to monetize their blogs and settle for just testing products and writing for the emotional outlet of it all. There are moms who do not want to work on their blogs full time either, some do not see it as a way to generate income. (Then we have those journalists who criticize mom bloggers for making any income or testing out products - they don't think our opinions and articles should be considered a "job".)

Blogging is a business to some moms and just like any brick and mortar store, the business with the most traffic always makes money. Let's say that your blog has about 500 readers per month, well the blog with 1,000 readers a month or 10,000 readers a month will definitely make more money than the smaller underdog. Is it possible to up that income and traffic? Of course it is. There is always room for improvement and that's what we will focus on. Try not to compare your blog to another blog, however. Trying to analyze how many followers they have, how many monthly hits they have and how much they make will discourage and depress almost anyone. Focus solely on your blog and how you can make it better. There is always competition out there, but you do not want to base your ideas off another blog. That always leaves you open for copyright infringement or plagiarism. We definitely do not want that to happen!

So, how can we make sure that we can earn the full potential income of our blogs?

Design
Niche
Content
Frequency of content

These are the most important factors.

Design - You want to make sure that your design is easy to navigate, easy to read and easy on the eyes. You want your site to be attractive to the visitors/readers and not be difficult for them to find content or read your content. Branding is also a part of design and that would be to have one uniform design, font and logo throughout every aspect of your business. (Blog, E-Mail List, E-Mail Signature, Business Card, Print Outs, Etc...) Your brand has to be easy to notice and something that, at first glance, would bring your business to mind quickly and easily. If you can't achieve a great design on your own, there are low-cost independent companies that can help you with that!

Niche - This has been a controversial topic since most people feel that if you have a general "mom blog" you don't need a particular niche. I'm very back and forth on this topic because I, personally, don't mind blogs that talk about different topics that are important to the author, but many people do mind it. Many professionals say that if you narrow your niche and write only in your niche you will make more money. This isn't proven but it's always important to put out there to any blogger. Take or leave this piece of advice, but keep it in your head.

Content - It's never quantity but it's quality. I know that sounds so cliche but it's true. If you can bang out 100 blog posts in one day it sure will look like you're productive, but they probably won't be quality posts. It's more important to take your time writing a blog post, doing research to get your information correct and to make sure that your grammar and spelling is correct than to post more than one post in a day. You also don't want to clutter your blog or overwhelm your reader with new posts.

Frequency of posts - I don't mean bombarding your reader with 5-10 posts a day but keeping up with your blog. Things get busy and missing 1,2 or 3 days of posting is normal for a mom blogger but don't neglect your blog or your readers will disappear. If you only post once a month or once every few months, your readers will think you forgot about your blog and will "unfollow" you or forget that your blog even existed. Every day or week you do not post is really missed income that could be made, since new posts generate the most hits to your site. (Generally speaking.) Make sure you keep steady with 1-2 posts per day or bi-daily.

Ok, so we got that down, but how do you actually make money off of your blog?

º Google Adsense is one of the most popular and well known ways to generate an income from your blog. While it isn't the most efficient way to make tons of money, it can generate a small income for you. How does it work? Bloggers sign up for Google Adsense and place the code for their ads on the bloggers sidebar, top of the page or between posts. The ads that are shown on the site cannot be chosen, however the ads that will appear will use related keywords for their content. For example, if you write about fashion the Google Adsense ad might be for Macys, Bluefly or Urban Outfitters. If you write about parenting you might get a Toys R Us ad or Parenting.com ad. With Google Adsense you generate money by CPC. (Cost Per Click) Meaning, every time someone clicks on the ad on your site you get a small commission. The commission varies by advertiser and blogger but the norm for a blogger would be $0.01-$0.5 per click. (Some make more depending on their traffic and google page ranking.) Most people do not make the majority of their revenue through Google Adsense, but it is entirely possible.

º Paid Posts are very common as well. You can either join companies that allow you to bid for writing a paid post or companies that will assign you paid posts depending on your content or individual companies can contact you to ask you to write them a post. If you're writing paid posts through a site like Pay Per Post or Social Spark you'll generally get a set amount. (Usually $5-$15) If you're writing for a company that specifically hired you, you may be able to negotiate a higher amount by charging per word. For writing a paid post privately, I would charge about $150-$175. That would definitely either go up or down depending on your skills and how well you can write that post.

Make sure you talk to the company or read the outline of what exactly they want. See if they want any specific links noted, products noted, photos used and so on. Some companies are very specific about what they want in their paid posts. You want to keep up a good relationship with the companies that you work with - for sure!

º Affiliate Marketing is another very popular way of making an income through your blog. When you place an ad on your site for a product or offer and one of your readers click through to that site to fill out an offer or buy a product, you are given a commission for that lead or sale. There are many companies out there that allow you to sign up to view the affiliate marketing ads available to you. Most are very well paying as well! Logical Media has some of the best paying ads to place on your site and you can earn an income quickly through them!

º Placing ads on your site is also important. However you really can't start to do this until you have a steady flow of traffic to your site. Once you establish your site and have some great traffic, you can advertise those statistics and let advertisers pay for prime space on your site. Prime space would be the leader-board ads at the top of your page or the skyscraper or square ads on the top of your sidebar. They would be considered the prime spaces because their placement quickly gets them noticed before anything else on the site.

There are many more ways to monetize a blog but we don't want to overwhelm you all at once. Remember, monetizing your blog and making an income takes a lot of patience. As you gain more traffic you will see your income grow monthly a little at a time depending on how much work you put into making your blog your business.

Must Have Apps for Mom Bloggers (Part One)

2011-11-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

For a mom blogger on the go, our mobile phones or tablets are an extension of ourselves. While many people may tell us that we need to surgically implant these devices in our hands, ears, etc... We know that being connected at any point of the day is 100% essential. You never know when a client may need you or when an opportunity may come knocking on your door...or e-mail. How can we keep connected and keep productive when we aren't near our computers? What apps would be essential to a mom blogger? Here is part one of our must have apps for mom bloggers! (If you have any other apps that may be essential, leave them noted in the comments! We will include them in our Part Two.)

DriveSafe.ly is a very important app for mom bloggers who are always on the go. Everyone knows how valuable time and e-mails are for busy mom bloggers and even now while you're picking your child up from school, doing errands, grocery shopping or driving to activities, you can stay safe and still get your e-mails at the same time! DriveSafe.ly reads your e-mails, facebook messages, SMS texts and twitter messages aloud to you. You can even answer VIA your voice! This app is really one that I put to use a lot and you probably will too!

Blogger is a vital app for anyone who uses the Blogger platform as their blogging platform. Download the app to edit, write and publish blogs straight from your mobile device! You can also add photos to your blogs, upload photos, add location information and tags! Do you have more than one blog? No problems at all! This blogger app allows you to quickly and seamlessly switch between all of your different blogs to edit with ease! This is definitely a must have app for any Blogger user!

iSpend is a great app that allows you to keep track of your income and your expenses. In a time when finances are very tight and everyone wants to be able to itemize every little business expense to get the most of their tax refunds, iSpend can definitely help keep track of every little business and personal expenses at the same time. You can even export the reports as a CSV or PDF when you need to be able to keep a hard copy of your expense record. This app is free and great for keeping track of your finances.

Lemon is slightly similar to the above iSpend but the use is much different. Have you ever tried to rustle through receipts to find that one receipt that you needed? Now you don't have to! Lemon is such a simple app with a great concept. Snap a photo of your receipt and within 5-10 minutes Lemon will read your receipt and list the store name, items you purchased, price of the items and the grand total. I absolutely love this app for keeping track of my receipt so I know what I spend! This is one of my favorites.

ClockIn is a great app for work at home moms that charge per hour for their services. ClockIn is an app similar to a time clock that records the exact start and stop time of your project and gives you the grand total of hours that you worked that day. The app even keeps track of your time if you close the application for any reason, just open it again when you're ready to "Clock Out". ClockIn generates actual reports as well when you're ready to have a hard paper copy for you or your clients! Import in CSV or PDF format!

TaskThis is one of the newer and more involved apps for tracking tasks. This app can group projects by individual or team projects as well as utilizing your contacts to create a "team project" with those who are involved. Let's say you have an important call to make or an important e-mail to compose for the task at hand, just schedule a reminder so TaskThis can send you that reminder! Do you need a shopping list for your task? Go ahead and create one! It even keeps track of how much longer you have to get the task done! This is so helpful for busy moms who work on multiple projects at a time!

Intuition prides itself on being, "Mom's Personal Assistant" and I believe it is very close to being that. I find myself using Intuition all of the time because of the comprehensiveness of this app. First off, this app is so colorful and has the cutest interface - very user friendly too. You can use this app to get organized and to organize tasks or events by family member. You can organize your grocery lists into easy-to-find lists, you can even find grocery coupons to save you money and set your location information to "on" to help you complete your tasks! Yes, Intuition will use your phone's GPS location & it's information to find you stores you may be near to quickly help you complete your errands. This is a miracle app!

Instapaper is everyone's favorite app. It's great when we find an interesting tweet with a link to a blog post or just find a blog post that we might want to read. How many times do we actually have the time to read that post right at that very moment? Rarely... Instapaper is an app where in you can save that post, news story, etc... to read (online or offline) when you have the time to do so. Instapaper will hold and organize the articles until you have the time to sit down and read them. This is important for mom bloggers because we usually find inspiration in a news story/post.

LinkedIn is one of those cliche apps that everyone knows would be listed here; but it is vital. LinkedIn is a web-based program that connects professionals with other professionals or co-workers in their field which will make your LinkedIn Network. Many people have success from networking on LinkedIn or joining groups/group discussions on this site as well. Well, you can do all of that on your iPhone, Droid or iPad now! Approve contacts on the go, post in group discussions or add/edit your profile whenever you want.

TwitBird Pro is one of my favorite Twitter clients. While there are quite a few Twitter clients out there for mobile devices and tablets and while everyone has their favorite; this is mine. Twitbird also has the free version of Twitbird as well as Twitbird Premium (which is just slightly less in cost) but the Pro version is the best. The user face is very easy to navigate and the pro version can hold up to 16 twitter accounts and has real-time push notifications. The Pro version also has some great templates so you can easily see your tweets in your own style.

Evernote claims to be an extension of your brain; which is very true. You can remember anything you need to remember from inspirational notes to things that get your creative juices flowing. You can also remember kids school tasks or events easily without repeating it over and over in your head until you can get to a calendar. With Evernote you can make voice reminders/notes, text reminders/notes or snap video or photo to upload later on. The best part? You can sync between the web-based and mobile version.

How to Handle Being a Work at Home Mom

2011-11-07T14:37:00.000-05:00

Children are the main reason for Work at Home Moms wanting to work from their home. They want to be able to spend time with their children and watch their children grow up; childhood goes fairly quickly! While some mothers have it under control and can compartmentalize their motherhood duties with their work duties, some parents just can't. Some parents have a horrible time keeping their children busy while they try to get work done. There are parents who swear it isn't possible to work without interruptions, but it is. There are different strategies you learn, as a work at home mom, how to have a stress free and interruption free work day. It is possible - there is hope!

Working from home and parenting are both two very large full time jobs. We don't get paid for parenting our little ones, but we love to do it just as well. However it can even be more challenging than a full time job for many reasons. While working from home and parenting at the same time, it's important to come up with creative ways to get work done.

Include your children in your work!

If you work creatively such as novel/article writing, blogging, artistic design, making jewelry or so on... try to include your children in your work. If you're a writer or a blogger set aside 10 minutes of your time to write with your children. You can tell them that to take 10 minutes to brainstorm for a story. The next day you may ask them to outline characters and so on... Include your children in what you do and maybe have them write a short story just as you do. (Of course, this works for older children.) For younger children you can set them down with crayons and paper and ask them to draw a picture for your story. If you design jewelry, set them down with some pony beads and a shoe lace; ask them to make a necklace or bracelet. There are many creative ways to include your children in your work so that you can be productive and they can keep busy.

Work during nap-time.

If you're a mother of a newborn or a younger aged child, this may be ideal. Newborns sleep approximately 16 hours per day. Granted, they are spread out naps, but during those 2-3 hour stretches you can get a lot done. Sit down and work for those consecutive 2-3 hours undisturbed and just get as much as you can done! For many moms, nap-time is their favorite time of the day. It's the only time they can take time for themselves and actually be productive in housework or business related work!

Ask for help.

Many moms are ashamed to ask for help, but sometimes you have to! If you have a friend or a neighbor with the same age bracket of children, see if you can arrange a play date so you can get some work done. Alternate every other day or week and arrange a play date at your home as well, give the other mom a break! Play dates are important to socialize your children and to keep sanity in both parents alive! If you do not have friends with the same aged children, occasionally ask grandparents or family-friends to help out while you work. This will change it up for the children as well as giving you some time to do what you have to do.

Rotate toys or movies.

When kids play with the same toys or watch the same movies over and over again, they tend to get tired and antsy. It's important to store some toys in a basement, attic or closet so that you can rotate the toys when you can tell the child is getting tired of them. Switch it up and take some new toys out while putting some of the older toys into the closet, attic or basement. This will keep them busy and allow for time for yourself to work! One of the things I've always liked to do was designate one box as the "Digging Box". (My mom did this for me when I was a child as well.) With our "Digging Box" I threw some smaller toys from when I was a child in there, some toys from when my daughters were little, some small toys that may have lost their pairs from another set and so on. Let the kids take a look through that box and see what they can find that may interest them! I, as a child, used to love this concept and my children do too! They can really use their imaginations with the contents of our box and it keeps them busy for quite a while.

Being a work at home mom will really differ from actually working an on-site job or from single friends who work at home. These are some important things to consider.

It will be difficult to concentrate for long stretches of time on one task. You may not get an entire article or chapter hammered out unless you're amazing at multitasking. If you're a designer, you may not get an entire design done in one sitting. It will probably take a little longer for a work at home mom to get a project or article/story done because of the short length of time you will have to work on that individual project. Don't worry...It's not the length of time in which you get it done -- it's quality.

If you're one of the lucky moms who have that 3-4 hour time period to work uninterrupted, do not do it all without small breaks. Even 1-3 minute breaks to get up, walk around, stretch your muscles, etc... It's better for you, your posture, your body and your health!

Creativity might be sparse -- if so, go play with your children for a little while. Sometimes children and their imagination or their creativity may spark something in your head. Don't be discouraged with writers or creativity block, take advantage of that time to get the creative juices flowing again. (Everyone finds inspiration in different ways, do what's best for you!)

Your time is more valuable than someone who works on-site or who doesn't have children. Remember to price yourself accurately so you do not cheat yourself out of the time you took away from your children to do that project. (We will write an article on this later this week!)

How do YOU juggle working from home and parenting at the same time? Leave some tips in our comments for other work at home moms to think about!

What Makes a Mommy Blogger Popular?

2011-11-07T00:10:00.000-05:00

I love reading other blogs and Domestic Diva was one of the first blogs that actually inspired me to write more about my kids, my life and to become a mommy blogger. However, I think about some of these other mommy bloggers that are considered among the most popular of the "mommy bloggerdom" (Yes, I made up a new word. It's cool dammit!!) and I wonder just why they're so popular. Don't get me wrong, I love some of these very popular mommy bloggers, I love to read their blogs and follow them daily, but what makes them any different than the rest of us? They have good designs, but so do a lot of other blogs, some of the little known ones. Sure they write well, but other blogs do as well. Some of these very popular blogs haven't been around for too long -- how do they skyrocket to bloggy fame?

If I said I didn't want to be amongst them, I'd be lying. Just like in any hobby or occupation, you want to be one of the top. Of course, being popular isn't what blogging is all about.

I write because I love to.
I write because I have the inspiration and love the outlet.
I write because I love to share things with others.

If no one followed my blog, I probably would still write because it's like therapy for me, but of course you want people to read and acknowledge your hard work. Most bloggers spend a good amount of their free time (and kids naptimes!) working on their blogs, writing posts and doing what they love. In my experience, blogs can take anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours to write well. (And that is with much proofreading and revisions too!!) I'm probably just rambling on and on, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

No way am I even near the ranks of those popular mom bloggers, but I was thinking about and trying to analyze just why they were so popular. I found a post somewhere on the internet with the ranking of the top mommy bloggers and went through the sites trying to compare and contrast. Of course, I did see some vast differences from smaller known blogs, but nothing that they couldn't improve on. Basically, these are the things I have found:

Regular Blog Posts - You don't have to blog daily, but blogging 2-3 times a week to keep your readers interested and engaged is a very important thing. It's important if you're one of the more popular bloggers or just a little blog starting up. You want to have something to grip your readers and pull them in. Posting about your day, your newest recipe and pictures of your totally adorable food covered child is good in moderation, but you also have to have posts to make people think or to start a conversation. Investing time into your writing whether it's during naptime or well into the night is important. Not all the time, but whenever you have the inspiration.

I have a notebook near my bed and a small notebook in my purse. (I also use my phone's memo pad sometimes) When I have inspiration, I write down a topic in those notebooks. Sometimes, in the notebook near my bed, I'll just write out an entire post. This happens a lot if I wake up in the middle of the night and just think of something. (And I'm too lazy to actually get up and write it on my computer.) There are days I just sit down and write saved drafts of all the posts I write in my notebook. It makes it so much easier for me to just schedule a post when I have a block. Though, I've been writing for many years and I really have bursts of inspiration at the most random moments. I would suggest this to anyone who may be the same way.

Networking - I'm not going to say spam other blogs with comments such as "follow meeeeeee!!!!" ha! That's just wrong and it won't get ANY blogger to like you. :) They may actually 'blacklist' you if you do that. ;) I'm saying that if you read other blogs and like a post, comment and tell them how ingenious it was, or share your thoughts on the blog, share your opinions. Bloggers put themselves out there and almost always love to hear your constructive criticism or opinions on what they're writing. Feedback is good. Who knows, that blogger may actually like to visit blogs that comment on theirs and they may like yours as well. From there maybe they would share a post, tweet a post, facebook a post or add you to their blogroll. From there it's like a domino effect. I always love to visit blogs on another blog I like. I'm one who checks their blogroll to see if I can find new and great blogs to read. Networking is a huge part as well.

I know there are people who think that PR and "giveaways" is a way to gain popularity and I guess in a way it can be... but I don't think that's anything to really focus on. For myself, I do giveaways and reviews because if a company contacts me and I like what they have to offer, I take them up on it. I find it as an honor to review and promote their products or services. Of course giveaways do gain attention through word of mouth, but in order to KEEP those readers, you have to have something of substance on your blog

Honestly, I think this is just the beginning for the Mommy Blogger world. There are so many more companies and media outlets that are just getting wind of this. There are companies and media outlets that are realizing just how effective mommy blogging is and how good of a promotional tool it is as well. As I may be contradicting myself now, I feel that there will be a huge climax for mommy blogging and a lot more attention in the future. Of course, it's really luck and being in the right place at the right time to even get noticed by any of these outlets, but who knows. Maybe one of the underdogs will get recognition!

Remember -- While there are bloggers who make a living off their blogs (few and far between!!) most bloggers do it because they love to. I write because I love to. It's a hobby, not a career. Who knows what the future will hold, but for right now we have to keep on doing what we love. Keep on writing, Keep on networking and keep on promoting ourselves.