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An Inspirational Story And An Informational Book

barefootexec
Seeing people that are running a successful online business helps motivate me. Seeing a mom start a work from home business from below nothing to wildly successful inspires me so much! Carrie Wilkerson has used the internet to help her become a world-wide name and face in the online business world, get out of debt, support her family, allow her husband to work with her from home, and even hire her mother.
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Now she is launching a book titled The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom. I scanned the first chapter that she’s giving away for free and then went to Amazon and bought the book. That is very rare for me! I’m a second-hand book buyer; but I like Carrie’s style, her honesty, and her work ethic. I’ve learned from her before and am sure I will again.

Electronics For A Blogging Conference

Being the mommy bloggers that we are we like to stay connected even when we are meeting friends in real life at a conference. After all there are many more friends that are still “in the computer.” :)

This video gives you tips about taking electronics on trips.

Mommy Blogger Statistics

blogfrog logo

blogfrog logoIn April 2011 BlogFrog conducted a survey of over 2,000 bloggers [I was one of them.] to gain insight into relationships between bloggers and brands. They compiled all the information into a pdf that I thought you might like to look at.

2011 Brands and Women Bloggers Influencer Partnership Study

Keep in mind that their main purpose is to connect bloggers and brands. They are not attracting VA’s, affiliate marketers, content marketers, or other online business people. I would guess that the majority of bloggers that took the survey are daily life/mommy bloggers.

Here are some of BlogFrog’s main take-aways from the survey:

  1. 90% of bloggers surveyed are eager to partner with brands although the majority, almost 60%, have never been approached by a brand or agency to work on a campaign.
  2. 95% of bloggers surveyed have favorable views on brand-sponsored social media and blog campaigns as long as they are authentic, represent a quality product, help generate income, and are fun.
  3. Social good matters. Campaigns that include an element of social good increase trust levels for 56% of you.
  4. 70% of you trust a brand more when that brand is promoted or recommended by someone you know from a blog or social media.
  5. Bloggers surveyed indicated that technology, electronics, health/beauty and food were the most desirable campaign categories.

Hashtags: What They Are And How To Use Them

A hashtag is literally a pound sign. When someone organizes a Twitter Party or chat they send out an “official hashtag” which consists of a pound sign followed by a word or words. By using the pound sign you are able to tie similar tweets together so you can follow along during a chat or pull all the tweets up later.  Here are some examples of popular generic hashtags: #networking #marketing #bieber #graysanatomy If you are hosting a party or holding a webinar and having people respond by twitter you should set up a more specific tag so you can pull up the tweets related to that particular event.

In the following video I explain how to save a search in Twitter.com, Tweetdeck, and Hootsuite.

How To Blog In Your Own Voice

women talking

women talkingIn school I was taught to write a research paper by taking notes on 3×5 cards, organizing them according to my outline, and combining them into a paper. The 3×5 cards were not to be verbatim from the source book; we were often warned about perjury. We were told to write in our own words, but everything had to be very proper, no contractions, watch for cliches or idioms, make every sentence complete, etc. etc. etc. That left little room for my voice; not that I had much of a voice/style in high school…

Writing a mommy blog is quite different. You need to have a voice, a uniqueness, even a style.

Where do you find a voice and how do you get it?

The good news is that you already have a voice. Ever hear of voice biometrics or audio forensics where people are identified by their audible voice? All you have to do is take that audible voice and define it in your writing style. No one else can define your voice for you. They could look through your past writings and help you figure out or hone your voice, but in the end – only you can define your voice.

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About WordPress | A Smart Choice For Your Blog

design a website

A WordPress Website Gives You Advantages

design a websiteMy platform of choice is WordPress. WordPress is most commonly known as a blogging platform but it’s grown in popularity as a website platform for both large and small businesses. It’s a smart move to use WordPress for your blog or your small business site; and actually your blog can be the start of your small business.

Why does WordPress work well for both? Here’s 8 reasons:

1. Easy to Install – With a good hosting program you can simply install WordPress with a few clicks. Oh, and did I mention it’s FREE?

2. Easy to Update – One of the features of WordPress is the easy to use visual editor. It’s called a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. You could compare this type of editor to using Microsoft Word to edit your website as it’s very easy to use and many people catch on to use it quickly.

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Get Visitors By Registering With Search Engines

more blog traffic

Increase your blog traffic

more blog trafficMore traffic is always a good thing. If you have great traffic you can get more subscribers to your mailing list, have the ability to sell ads on your site, and get your message out to more people. Building – and keeping – traffic takes a long time, but there are some easy things you can do to get started.

One of those is to register with search engines.

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Can Your Blogging Skills Lead To Social Media Consulting?

One of the sessions I went to at the Type A Conference was “Transitioning from Blogger to Social Media Consultant” with the presenters Sarah Pinnix and Amanda Henson. Many mommy bloggers are starting successful businesses as consultants by using their online social media skills to help others. Sarah and Amanda have done a lot in their local areas. Neither of them started out with the goal of being consultants. They are good bloggers that love social media; when they kept getting questions about what they love to do they took it a step further.

If you don’t have a genuine passion for promoting businesses then you won’t enjoy being a social media consultant. ~Sarah Pinnix

Some people love to write, to photograph, to create products, to make sites to sell,etc. If you lack the enthusiasm for promoting businesses it will show; but if your face lights up and you get super excited to help someone else’s business grow and thrive  - this might be an idea for you.

You can check out their slideshow presentation with recommended sites, books, terms to learn and much more – Going From Blogger to Social Media Consultant.  I also know that Kelly’s Become A Blog Consultant ecourse will teach you what you need to know.

Be An Honest Blogger

Boy Scouts FieldBook

Boy Scouts FieldBookEveryone received a Boy Scouts of America Fieldbook in the Type A Conference swag bag. As I flipped through the book I was impressed with the massive amount of information it contains as well as the multitude of good pictures and illustrations. This quote caught my eye:

The people who I see performing best in a crisis are people who are honest and forthright. They don’t hide their personalities or their weaknesses. They’re genuine.

~ Sharon Wood, the first North American woman to summit Mount Everest

The book is all about knowing what to do outside in fun or emergencies, but since I was at a blogging conference my thoughts immediately applied that quote to the online world.

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Is A Blogger A Writer?

Mentor Lunch At Type A Parent Conference

I had the privilege of being a “mentor” at the Type A Parent lunch on Saturday. It sounds fancier than it was, but it was still fun. Each “mentor” was assigned a table and then cards were handed out to all the attendees. The attendees matched their cards to the tables. It was a good way to mix up the people that usually sit together.

I got to sit with six awesome ladies – Fadra, Lisa, Lucinda, Barbie, Christina, and Dianna.

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Video About Mom Bloggers And Brands

I found this interesting and pretty much right on the money.  [pun totally intended] I’d love to hear what you think.

Mommy Bloggers Influence

mom bloggers (2)

It’s nothing new that moms have a huge influence on advertisers. Even before the Internet most advertisements were directed towards women because when it comes to the household women usually run the household. While it’s not so popular to say that a woman’s place is in the home, advertisers still focus most items for the home – and for children – toward women.

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Profitable Hobbies To Blog About

crochet

crochet

All you have to do is visit a site like Etsy.com and you’ll notice that hobbies are not only in, hobbies are profitable too! If you are involved with any hobby, and know a lot about it, that’s the most profitable hobby to blog about. Blogging about what you know comes so much easier than trying to blog about things you don’t. If you already know about something then it will show in your blog posts. If it’s your hobby, then it is likely also a well loved activity and maybe even a passion which will show through your writing.

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Is Facebook Profitable For A Mommy Blogger?

facebook
facebook

photo from Shutterstock

Social media is hot for all bloggers and especially for mommy bloggers. If you don’t have a Facebook Page especially for your business you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect to your target market in a unique and personal way. So, the short answer to the question, “Is Facebook profitable for a mommy blogger?” – is yes. So, how do you cash in?

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Freebie Info on Content, Lists, And Target Markets

link love

link loveHere’s some great stuff for you – all for free!

Lynn Terry answers the Top 10 List Building Questions. You can read it as a post or download is as a pdf at the bottom. It is good for every blogger – whether a mommy or not – to have a mailing list.

All Custom Content is offering free Summer Content Planning Tools. A bit of planning ahead of time will help your business sale smoothly through the summer.

There are 2 free downloads from Contentrix that can help you. First there is How To Write Product Reviews That Sell. Many mommy bloggers do product reviews and it would be a nice bonus to make some affiliate commission from those reviews.

Then there is a free special report titled 15 Things You Should Know about Your Target Market to Immediately Boost Your Sales. Even as “just a mommy blogger” you should know about your target market. It’s necessary information for your media kit; plus it just may surprise you.

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