The shortest answer: “Very carefully.”

The second annoying answer: “Every family is different.”

Let me elaborate.

Many mom bloggers want to make money to help their family. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I highly encourage it. BUT [you knew a "but" was coming didn't you?] many moms also struggle with time management. And quite a few struggle with guilty feelings when the housework isn’t done like they think it should be.

My advice is, “Don’t go by your personal feelings.” Talk to your spouse. Talk to your children/family. Are they happy? Are they annoyed? Do they even understand what you are doing?

[Read more...]

If you don’t start spreading your message excellently and often – someone else is going to win the customers and clients who should be yours.

Don’t you hate it when you see someone hire someone else to do what you know they could have hired you to do?

Or when someone hires another coach to help them with what you could have helped them with?

Or when they buy that ‘other’ product instead of yours?

You think – maaaaan, why didn’t they hire me/buy from me?

Probably because you haven’t been sharing your message well enough or often enough.

Kelly McCausey wants to help you ramp things up in this area and her Winter Blog Boost is designed to do just that.

We called your attention to all these free tools in 2011 and plan to continue the goodness through 2012. Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss anything!

1. Topics to blog about: Download Your Free BlogEnergizer Calendar
2. Save space on your blog: Download This Free Sticky Socials Plugin
3. Need a new theme? Here’s four free themes we recommend.
4. Find a specific icon in the specific size you need with Icon Finder.<
5. A whole list of free downloads [still good as of 12/11] about lists, target markets, and content help.
6. Free magazine – you can get the actual paper magazine – titled Website Success.
7. You can always get 7 free days in the awesome community/mastermind group that is called Solo Masterminds.

The Internet has changed many things in the last decade, including the media. In the past, brands and companies spent their advertising and marketing funds on commercials, billboards, and newspaper ads.

Today, these brands and companies are seeking out partnerships with bloggers. According to a recent report, almost 80% of Internet users read blogs. And with so many people bypassing commercials, thanks to DVRs, blogs are now one of the best ways to reach consumers.

Plus, bloggers develop special relationships with their readers. Companies and brands know this. The blogger- reader relationship is something not found in traditional advertising.

[Read more...]

This contest is only open until December 18, 2011 so enter now!

SceneChat is the brand behind the contest. It is to help spread the word about their site through the social media channels. You enter by connecting through Facebook and Twitter; I did it and it’s not difficult.

[Read more...]

Blogs run by moms tend to be graphic heavy and that’s to be expected. Moms, even those who are blogging as a business, often think of their blog as an extension of their home. That means they decorate it like they would a room in their house. The focal point? The blog header graphic!

From a strategic viewpoint, many mom blog header graphics are too big. They take up valuable real estate on the site and do little to earn it’s keep.

More and more though, we’re impressed with blog headers we’re seeing.

Today’s example: More with Less Today

3

Click on the image to see it full size on the site

The graphic is attractive, contemporary and useful – from the navigation to the social media and subscription area.

Good job Lori! Please pass along our kudos to your graphic artist!

I can safely say that The Relevant Conference is different from any of the other conferences I’ve attended. I’ve attended  for two years in a row, and plan to attend next year if possible. The Relevant Conference is a Christian women’s conference so if that’s not your thing you won’t want to attend, but I want to share something that I’ve been thinking about because of the conference. It applies to every blogger.

Treat your blog like your home.

[Read more...]

We all like to display a series of Social Media icons on our sidebar so our visitors can find and follow us on social networks, right?  (We do!)

Showing the icons is a great idea but making space for them on our sidebar starts to be challenging as the number of interesting social networks grow.

The Sticky Social Profiles plugin takes care of the problem for us.  It moves all of our social icons over to the side of our blog – visible but not obtrusive.  When a visitor arrives, they notice the little graphic on the left (or right – depending on how you configure it) and they click to access all of the social network links.

You may not consider the space saved on our sidebar a big deal, but when you need to keep an ad network graphic ‘above the fold’ like we do, every inch counts.

The plugin is set up to display these icons: Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, RSS, Tumblr, Twitter.  You use what you like and leave those you’re not active with empty.  (If you have a favorite network you’d like to see added, leave a request in the comments below and we’ll pass it along to the plugin creator, Lynette Chandler.)

By the way, if you have your own favorite social media icons, the plugin can be configured to display them.

Download the Sticky Social Profiles here.

On Monday Google Plus opened up pages for businesses, websites, and more. If you have a Google Profile set up you can go to https://plus.google.com/u/0/pages/ and create your own. The link is also part way down the right side of the stream page. Yes, I know you don’t need anything else to manage; but maybe you want to at least claim the page with your business/blog name. More info right in Google can’t be a bad thing. I saw something about searches taking people right there…

Tip:  For a blog click the category titled “arts, entertainment, sports.”

After you have created your page go to the front of it and click “edit profile.” It will only take you a minute or two to add some info, a couple photos, and maybe even a video. That will help people find you and recognize you.

[Read more...]

Serving people who need your help is a rewarding way to make a living. That’s why so many people use the tools of the internet to provide great services. You can use WordPress to deliver those services in one way or another…maybe by building a WordPress website that serves up products, helping clients by updating their websites, or by teaching others.

To support this mission, my colleague Angela Wills has put together a free, live WordPress webinar where she’ll share with you three easy ways to make a great living with WordPress:

Sign up here: Website Design Mojo It’s tonight!

[Read more...]

Starting a blog can be confusing, overwhelming, and just plain frustrating. This Smart Blogging Skills course will help you avoid all of that. It walks you through all you need to know to begin blogging, get involved in social media, and start monetizing.

I know this is a good course from personal experience. I have actually worked through this course twice, and now I’m excited to see how she has updated it! My first time through introduced me to many new things; my second time through gave me a step by step process to begin a second blog.

[Read more...]