A review of Start a Review Blog for Fun and Profit by Amy Hass, one of our Mom’s Talk Network Blogging Interns:

This report was well-written, informative and interesting. I really enjoyed reading it. I was actually excited about starting a review blog when I finished reading.

It explained everything even a novice blogger would need to know to start a blog on reviewing things for fun and profit. It covered finding your niche and your target market, researching your competition in your niche area and setting up a blog step by step.

The author explained the benefits of doing this type of blog for profit. It was noted that consumers want to hear from real-life people and their experiences using the products they are interested in. Also, companies with affiliate programs are more than willing to pay a commission for customer referrals.

I did appreciate how it noted as a beginner you wouldn’t make a fortune right off the bat. It takes time and effort to make some money but according to this report, it can happen.

I would definitely recommend this report to anyone considering blogging for profit.

I was excited to learn Alyssa Avant is this week’s “Buzz a Mom” interview participant. I had seen the announcement for Alyssa’s upcoming Twitter party on Resourceful Mommy, so I couldn’t wait to ask about her newest project, a membership site called Faith Leaps.

Here’s what she had to say:

Please describe your new membership site, Faith Leaps, for us.

Faith Leaps: Training for Taking the Leap of Faith Into Speaking, Writing, & Ministry, is a three month membership training program for Christians who are looking to “take a leap of faith into speaking, writing or ministry.”

This is an important site for you if you are feeling called to:

• Start a Bible study in your local church
• Start a club or organization in your community
• Organize a community project
• Write a column for your local newspaper
• Start a blog to minister to a specific group of people
• Chase your dream…

Whatever it may be, this program will help give the tools and the confidence to take the leap of faith. [Read more...]

This is a guest post from Rebecca Atkinson, the Web Marketing and Analytics Consultant we had on the last episode of Profitable Mommy Blogging.

During our recent chat, April and I talked a lot about web analytics, dissecting many important things to help you better understand what is happening on your blog and what those statistics mean.

One thing we didn’t get to was discussing ranking. I know many (mom) bloggers focus on their PageRank and Alexa Rankings, and in my opinion, neither of those rankings are worth a second thought. [Read more...]

Have you seen My Social Buttons? It’s a site with multiple free social media icons for all of your favorite social networks.

When people visit your blog or other website you want to give them lots of ways to connect with you, right? This is the place to find them. So, the next time you need a new button for Twitter or FaceBook go to My Social Buttons first. You’ll be glad you did.

Blogs are amazing creations. They come with their own subscription tool – the almighty RSS Feed! And savvy bloggers have taken the next step and run their RSS Feed through Feedburner which adds some interesting stat functions and provides a way for your readers to subscribe by email.

That RSS by Email function is not the same however as offering a real mailing list and that is what I want to encourage you to implement on your blog as soon as possible.

RSS Readers are great, and having some people receive automatic emails about your blog posts is fantastic – but these relationships are casual. Email list subscribers go a step further in giving you express permission to contact them by email outside of simply giving blog updates.

If you hope to profit from your blogging activity, this deeper relationship is a must! [Read more...]

I’m hearing more and more about the power of the Mommy Blogger these days. I love it! But, our individual influence is limited to the number of people who view our blogs. Below I’ve linked to an article about Mommy Blog Power and another on how we can increase our individual influence by growing our reading audience. [Read more...]

Hello, my name is Kelly and I’m chubby.

I’ve been chubby since I was about 16 years old.  I wasn’t a chubby child and I have fond memories of being a thin teen – but those memories are distant.

I’ve been gaining weight steadily all my adult life.  (One diet at a time.)  I married chubby.  I divorced chubby.  I worked chubby.  I volunteered chubby.  Today, I work at home chubby. [Read more...]

This post was inspired by reading 20 Affirmations for Busy Mom Bloggers at Mom Bloggers Club.

My Mommy Blogger Affirmations:

1. Blogging is fun.
2. My blog is a business.
3. My blog is a community.
4. Blogging is a creative outlet.
5. Writing well is just as creative as knitting a scarf.
6. Women want to read what I write!
7. I admire the women in my online community.
8. I have valuable ideas and experiences to write about!
9. Earning an income from blogging is morally acceptable.
10. Earning an income while doing something you enjoy is awesome!
11. Promoting myself and my business is a good thing.
12. Companies want to sponsor my blog.
13. My husband supports my blog business.
14. My family is more important than my business.
15. My family makes temporary sacrifices for the sake of my business.
16. My family is one of the reasons I have a blog business.
17. My children are a source of humorous blog posts.
18. My children will one day read my blog.
19. My blog business will pay for their therapy.
20. God has used my blog to encourage and equip women.

I plan to place these affirmations (or statements of truth) in my blog binder. Then when I feel discouraged I can read them and refocus on what I believe about being a Mommy Blogger.

I’ve been skipping around visiting a lot of mom blogs today with a focus on moms that have been blogging about attending events like BlissDom and Mom 2.0 Summit – and I see a lot of slender, beautiful moms in all the pictures.

Don’t chubby mom bloggers go to events?

Do chubby mom bloggers ever post their pictures on their blogs?

Doesn’t it seem like a lot of the popular mom bloggers are thin and pretty?

Discussion Please!

Sometimes life’s circumstances pose a challenge to our Mommy Blogs.

Take for example Alicia at Experiencing Each Moment.

Her husband, Dan, is deployed for six months with the US Navy. That leaves her a (temporary) single mom to 2 young children. In addition to normal family responsibilities, she spends time each day providing the medical treatments to combat her 3 year old daughter’s Cystic Fibrosis.

Some days she just doesn’t have the time or energy to update her blog.

So to help keep blog content fresh but still have time for her children, Alicia came up with a creative idea for a weekly guest column.

Once-a-week her husband will write about the international port cities he is visiting during his deployment. I think this is a great example of thinking outside the box!

She has taken a challenge (fresh blog content with limited blogging time) and turned it into something fun and creative (pictures and stories of his travels).

Have you ever had one of life’s challenges threaten your blogging? What creative solution did you come up with to keep your blog on track?

Do you understand Twitter? Could you explain it to a friend in 2½ minutes?

Lee LeFever can and does. Watch it here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Did he accurately describe Twitter? Do you understand it better?

Let me know in the comments.