Solo Masterminds is a support network of female solopreneurs from all over the world. There is most likely someone who has been where you are, where you want to be and where you are going that can give you the support and feedback you need in order to grow your business, reach your goals and be as successful as you want to be.

One of the biggest advantages Solo Mastermind’s has is the support forum where you’ll find discussions going on about…

• Email Marketing and Newsletters
• Traffic and Search Engines
• Networking and Social Bookmarking
• Publicity
• Affiliate Marketing
• Time Management & Automation
• Business Ideas
• Blogging
• Audio, Podcasting & Radio Shows
• Offline, Local and Mobile Marketing
• Websites that Sell
• Providing Services

Under the “Special Resources” section of the forum, there is a topic entitled “Seeking Joint Ventures”. Here you can list your affiliate program, your viral ebook or freebie giveaway so that others who reach a similar market can partner with you.

Then there is the Solo Mastermind Special Offer section. A SMSO is a significant member to member discount or a unique offer not available elsewhere. SMSO offers include anything from discounts off transcription services, ebook formatting, advertising, copywriting and video marketing, wordpress services, and much, much more! SMSO offers are a great place to find services you need for your business at great rates, as well as a great place to offer your services to other Solo Mastermind members.

If you’ve never heard of Solo Masterminds before, or if you have but didn’t realize the advantages being a Solo Mastermind member brings, then why not check it out now. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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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?

I’m blessed with a spouse that encourages me to build an online business. In fact, he was the one that bought my first domain name and hosting. He will gently ask, “Are you working or playing?” And if I am playing when I should be working the guilt is justified.

If you don’t have a spouse that encourages you – are you sure they understand what you are doing? Have you told them your goals – what you are trying to do online and why? I’ve heard many couples set a time line, “If I can make X amount by ___ I can continue to do this online work.” Maybe your spouse would be okay with you being online for less time; so set times and work hard during those times. Maybe they really want you to be available during the evening and don’t care if you are online during the day. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the spouse doesn’t usually complain unless it’s affecting their life in a negative way. Figure out what are top priorities for them. If you keep the kitchen clean and laundry done can you have the rest of the time? Maybe they don’t care so much about the house, but want you to spend time with them. Good online business is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Take it one step at a time.

My children’s attitudes changed when I explained what I was doing and how it affected them. They don’t have to understand everything I do, but a general explanation goes a long way. When I explained that I was working to get the money for piano lessons and horseback riding lessons they were eager for me to work. When they understood that my why is to help my family they gladly quieted down to let me think. They also saw me plan times to just be with them and not work so they felt important too.

Something Carrie Wilkerson mentioned in Solo Smarts Podcast 14 really stuck with me. She makes sure her business benefits her shareholders – her husband and children. Didn’t we start this whole online thing to benefit our family? Don’t let the flashing things lead you away from your main goal. Our quantity of life is already set so let’s make the quality the best we can.

P.S. You can get the first chapter of Carrie Wilkerson’s book for free.

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1. Video is going to be even more important in the next year.
2. Written blogging is not going to stop.

Building up a presence on YouTube give readers a new way to connect with you, provides a chance for brands to see you in action, and brings your content to a new audience (albeit one with a lot of stupid comments).

Jennifer James is another generous blogger that tells mom bloggers what they need to know and creates a community for them to help each other. She wrote 15 Mom Blogging Predictions for 2012. My favorite part of her prediction:

I am much more apt to watch a mom’s video that she uploads onto Youtube than the glossy stuff that’s professionally produced. … Brands have been toying with video and mom bloggers for a few years now, but 2012 will see an outbreak of video content.

I have not met Holly Pavlika but I think her 2012 Predictions For Marketing To Moms is right on. My favorite part is about….wait for it…video!

Moms are also finding that their personal channels on YouTube can turn them into web celebs, lead to book deals and make them money with the right content. Brands need to jump on the video bandwagon if they want to stay engaged with mom.

Another point Holly made that resonated with me:

She may not be an early adopter, but she is taking the digital landscape by storm while still consuming traditional media like email, TV and magazines.

So they really do talk about other things beside online video, but I love online video so that’s what I focus on. Other themes I’ve seen a lot of in these and other posts are that

• Pinterest is huge,
• moms like mobile,
• moms also like to feel good and do good [duh!] so if the product/marketing helps with that it’s better received.
• and content is still King! [video or written]

P.S. For a win-win situation create video with your mobile device. I recommend the iPhone Video Hero course for further learning.

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Online video continues to grow in the social media world. Learn how to use your iPhone or mobile device as a camera and don’t get left behind as YouTube takes over the world.

The iPhone Video Hero course is made up of short videos that can be watched in between dishes, laundry, feeding the kids, etc.  That’s how I’ve been consuming it…

I’m a hero – even though I have an Android device. There are lots of great tips and tricks included in this training from former MTV and BBC TV Director Jules Watkins. I enjoy seeing his wife and children in the examples; he keeps it real, simple, and smart.

You too can be an iPhone Video Hero today!

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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.

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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.

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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.

While those are all great for the brand, you may be wondering what’s in it for you, the blogger. There are actually many benefits to partnering with a brand or company. Here are just a few:

• Increased traffic to your site by conducting giveaways, which allows the blogger to earn more through advertising sales / ad networks
• Free products to review, which can enhance the blogger’s lifestyle and save them from purchasing the product on their own
• Sometimes, a company will pay a blogger to host a giveaway or publish a post

Different brands and companies have different methods for working with bloggers, with reviews and giveaways being the most common.

With a review, the company or brand will send the blogger free product to try and post about. This can be tricky – as it’s important to stay honest and not feel obligated to say something nice about the product.

Remember – if you are not being honest, your readers will spot it a mile away.

In a giveaway, the company or brand will allow you to give one of their products away. This can result in a lot of free traffic. People love to win stuff and will flock to your site for a chance to win. It’s important to make sure that the company will be sending out the prize, though. You don’t want to get stuck paying for postage!

You will have to promote the giveaway, of course, but if you use social media, the offer can easily spread like wildfire. You will be surprised at how much you can increase your traffic by offering giveaways.

Getting free products to review and an increase in traffic is just the beginning! For more tips on how to work with brands, check out this 8 piece “How To Work With Brands And Big Companies” workbook set.

With this set, you will receive two workbooks, an hour-long audio, several checklists, sample emails and more. Normally priced at $34.95, you can grab it for only $27. This is a limited time offer, and it won’t last long.

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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.

The contest prizes include 1 free year of essential tools that make a blogger’s life easier:

• Dropbox – I personally LOVE Dropbox – and I only have the free version.
• Copyscape – find out if anyone is stealing your content
• Evernote – a great way to organize notes and information
• Spotify – music to keep your mojo flowing
• Pingdom – monitors your blog to make sure everything is ok.
• Remember the Milk – task lists and organization so you don’t have to worry about forgetting stuff

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Free Download: 2012 Calendar

The Blog Energizer Calendar is awesome! [que angel voices] I’ve downloaded it for several years now and it gets better each year! Check out what it has this year:

• Monthly themes at the top. Blog post series anyone?
• Weekly themes partway down.
• Daily themes listed when appropriate. January 13 is “Make Your Dream Come True Day;” that can apply to so-o many niches!
• Birthstones at the bottom – what fun!
• Lots of places to write and get yourself organized.
• Tips & tricks for online businesses and blogs at the bottom. Wow!

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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!

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Treat your blog like your home.

Be professional. Keep things neat just as you straighten your house before guests come. You don’t usually show guests the insides of your closet or attic; neither do you need to tell your readers every gritty detail of your life that does not apply to them.

Learn how to do things professionally online and make your site look nice so your guests are comfortable being at your site and sharing your content. You probably wouldn’t  invite guests over when your house is under construction.

It’s fine to outsource; just as it’s ok to buy a dessert – or maybe you go so far as to order pizza. [I like pizza!]

Be personal. Remember your passion/message and share it through your stories. Be authentic by letting readers into your life when appropriate. Guests won’t continue to visit if you don’t let them past the porch.

If somebody comes to your house and is a bad guest you won’t invite them again. If somebody comes to your site and says mean things/attacks you it’s okay to block them.

“If someone comes to your house and purposely breaks things – are you going to let them come back?” ~ Serena Woods GraceIsForSinners.com

Most of all, take care of the guests that are already at your house. Many times we go after new traffic, more viewers, etc. Make sure you are taking good care of the readers and traffic you already have.

“Feed the people at your table.” ~Emily P. Freeman ChattingAtTheSky.com

It is possible to blog professionally and personally at the same time. Do you have a good example of treating your blog like your home? I’d love to hear it in the comments.

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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.

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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.

They recommend that you add the google page link to your website so readers can easily find you. But those urls are cumbersome. This site http://www.gplus.to/ will give you a shortened url that is easier to remember and nicer to look at.

For example I have: [Please add me to your circles!]

• My personal page: gplus.to/jendi
• My business page: gplus.to/ScenesandCinema
• My niche site’s page: gplus.to/SimpleVloggingTips
• My blog’s page: gplus.to/JendisJournal

One warning: Don’t run a contest through your Google + page. At least not yet.

What about you? Will you make a page right away or wait and see what happens?

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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!

Angela has used WordPress for years, knows it and loves it! She created a playlist of videos to share with you 10 reasons of “Why WP?”

On her webinar TONIGHT you’ll learn that it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune or take months to see results with your WordPress. She’ll cover the following:

1. Build It – Whether it’s for yourself or for your clients, building a website with WordPress is smart!
2. Update It – WordPress is used by 22% of all new websites… there’s anopportunity for work there (ya think?)
3. Teach It – Angela says she simply can’t corner this market all on her own! Millions of people are using WordPress and they need your help to learn how to use it.

This webinar is provided as a completely free service and a preview to the kind of material you’ll receive in November’s Website Design Mojo course.

Don’t let that stop you from signing up, though. Angela will provide more than enough content for you to take away and use, guaranteed. She also will provide you with a fantastic offer that’s not available anywhere else for those who want further learning via my group coaching. (hint… it’s something else you can make a living with)

The webinar happens TONIGHT Wednesday, November 2nd at 8pm ET. Join us by filling in your name and email at the link below:

Sign up for free: Website Design Mojo

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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.

Smart Blogging Skills is a fifteen week course. After fully completing the lesson plans – you’ll have raised your level of exposure in the blogosphere, added more than fifty pages of content to your blog, built some great relationships and incorporated new profit points into your content.

Here’s some of the information included in the course:

• How to prepare your blog for visitors using good content
• How to be social and be out there appropriately promoting yourself
• Keyword research, SEO, analytics
• Start making money with your blog

In this updated version Kelly McCausey added more affiliate marketing info, a lesson about audio, a lesson about video, and made sure everything is complete and up to date.

When you enroll you can try one or two weeks to see if you like it. You are free to drop out whenever you want; OR – what I think is more likely – you can sign up for the whole course and get a nice discount. Go check it out now!

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Sure, if they’re referred by a direct link to the home page, that’s where they’ll arrive. That isn’t how we get most of our traffic though.  Many arrive from search engines to an internal page, landing on a single post on your blog.

We want these visitors to click around and investigate other content on our site and decide they like us, right?

If they like us, hopefully they subscribe to our mailing list, follow us on social media or click on one of our products, services, affiliate links or ads.  It’s why we blog after all. (Well, most of us.)

How to keep a visitor clicking around?

Here are some ideas for holding on to your visitors, presented in no particular order of importance.

Make sure your blog header graphic links to your home page. 

There are a few blog themes that aren’t set up that way so check for it.  Also see that you have a ‘Home’ link in your navigation.

Check that your navigation includes your  ‘About’ page link. 

I know this is obvious – but I have had to search for it before and we don’t want that.  It should be be easy.  (This is a good time to remind you to check your about page for necessary updates.)

Format your blog posts in an attractive way.

Don’t write for a post for your blog the same way you’d write an essay for college.  A post made up of paragraph after paragraph is dull to look at visually.

Use sub-headlines within your content to break it up and make the main points pop out.  See these two examples:

Can you see how the content on the right is going to be easier to read online?

If you’re not sure how to do it, I made a video a few years back that demonstrates how you can use the WordPress visual editor to format your posts attractively.  (Check it out here – be patient, it takes a minute to load.)

Display your popular blog posts.

Most Popular Posts – This plugin displays posts by popularity as based on the number of comments it has received.

Google Analytics Popular Posts – This one displays posts that have received the most traffic according to your Google Analytics account.  (You do have one, right?)  You’ll have to put our Analytics log info into the plugin so that it can access your data.

Use a related post plugin.

Related post plugins are designed to display a set of links to posts related to the content being read.   There are dozens of options, here are just a few:

Link Within – A popular related post plugin that displays a post picture thumbnail and link to related posts.  You can choose how many related posts you want to display.   I don’t recommend Link Within it because it redirects the visitor through the Link Within website.  That means these links aren’t helping you with your internal linking strategy for search engine optimization.

Related Post Thumbnails – This is very much like Link Within, it will display post picture thumbnails with a link to the related post.  The links are not redirected so they will create nice internal links.  It’s a simple plugin, it chooses related posts based on your choice of categories, tags or both.  (It doesn’t ‘read’ the content and choose related content based on that.)

Yet Another Related Post Plugin – This plugin will display links only, no pictures.  (At least not at this time.)  This plugin ‘thinks’ more about the related content it displays.  According to the plugin info: “Using a customizable algorithm considering post titles, content, tags, and categories, YARPP calculates a “match score” for each pair of posts on your blog. ”

Cross link within your content. 

Even though you use a plugin to display related posts, you should link to other relevant content on your blog within your post when it’s possible and seems helpful to your readers.

Use a recent post plugin in your sidebar.

If your blog theme uses widgets, there is a simple recent posts widget that comes default with current installations of WordPress.  You can just click and drag it in to use it where you’d like.

If you’d like to do something more eye catching, try the Special Recent Posts plugin.  This will display recent posts with post picture thumbnails, the title and content excerpt.  I’ve used this plugin on a couple of different sites now and it looks attractive.  (See the pic above and see it in action in our sidebar here on Mom Blogger Pro.)

Create a list of your favorite posts.

There’s no plugin for this one, you’ll have to create it manually.  What content on your blog are you most proud of?  Publish this list on your sidebar or footer.  You may also want to publish it as a supplement on your about page.

Do these things and I know you’ll keep your visitors on your site longer.

What’s your advice?

I bet there are more great tips for keeping readers interested – if you have one, please share it below

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I had an opportunity to talk with Jonathan Cardella of Site Brains recently, enjoy the transcript here:

Kelly: Jonathan, I just stumbled across your website SiteBrains.com and your spam-fighting plugin and I am so curious about where did you come up with the idea for this?

There are lots of spam plugins on the web that say that they fight spam but yours fights it in real time – can you explain that?

Jonathan: Well, we thought it was really important to do that because not only do we want to fight spam but we wanted to encourage productive behaviors. The idea was to give the user feedback in real time. That’s kind of where we are going with things but the idea is that some people just make mistakes. They don’t realize they are breaking the community’s rules and so it helps them to let them know kind of in real time because then they have an ability to fix what they are doing and still make the submission.

And we do more than just spam but what we really want to do is just, or we are working on doing, is to provide a solution where we can process all user inputs of any kind. So whether it’s a comment or feedback, which is typically abused, but also just the registrations themselves can be abused, or when you are making a request you’ve got bots going out and people going out and abusing even the contact request or abuse lead generation forms or service request forms with stuff that’s irrelevant or that you don’t want going to your sales team, we also have solution for that.

So the idea is to just understand what the user is inputting, if a human or bot, and if they are human we still know that there’s a lot of potential for abuse and so rather than just say, “Oh they passed the captcha, they are human, they are okay”, it’s like what are they saying, what are they doing, and is that desirable, because you know how many people hijack blog comments.

So for sales promotion for example, or for just raw behaviors and so we wanted to solve all of that basically and we spend a lot of our time in the trend service that’s looking at what users and bots submit and try to understand what was good and what was bad, and we have the technology that help us understand that, it helps like owners and publishers to understand that.

Kelly: So I am on your website and I am playing with the sample contact form and for example, if I try to submit a comment that’s just few words like…that’s nice! It says, “Your message is too short. Please add some details”. I like that.

Jonathan: Yeah, well you can decide like what it says back. You can change that message and you can decide what’s too short or too long and that’s a really simple feature and one of the things we are working on right now is understanding gibberish from real English.

To give an example, we took a sentence and picked the words and reordered them like ‘the cat in the hat is fat’ and completely reorder that potentially depending on the sentence we would be able to track that there was no syntax; it wasn’t coherent.

So we are doing things like getting and giving that extra quality score and information score because we know that search engines like Google are starting to judge web pages based on that stuff. So basically the idea is to replace the file captcha and having to manually verify your account and having to register to comment. Just the idea so that you can honestly talk on a website, and as publisher that you are not at risk if you’ll have that sort of interaction so you maximize the user interaction.

Kelly: Because it is giving real time feedback, you are suggesting that you don’t have to submit posts for moderation because the post doesn’t even get posted until it’s of suitable length and doesn’t have profanity, etc.

Jonathan: That’s correct. So we keep it from going to your database basically but what we do is we capture everything, even the stuff you reject, we capture in our database and store it for you so you can come in and see it later and decide if you want to un-quarantine it for example.

We even capture the stuff that doesn’t get submitted and so if somebody comes in and types in your form and leaves – we capture that data for you actually.

Kelly: Really?

Jonathan: Yeah, well we thought it was important because what if the notices are like malfunctioning, right, and you are scaring people off, don’t you want to know that somebody, if they put something great in, that a notice was thrown and they left.

So we really spend a lot of time on that and what we are using is natural English processing to understand what the person is talking about and more specifically to analyze the link. If they embed a link in the comment, we call that and process that target page and decide is it sort of ‘has risk’ category; is it relevant to your topic?

So for example, selling t-shirts might not be traditional spam. It’s not porn or gambling, right? But if you are talking about a WordPress Plugin maybe you don’t want to link to someone who has an online t-shirt creation site.

Kelly: Right, right.

Jonathan: So understanding that kind of stuff is what we also do with this plugin.

Kelly: So now I am totally embarrassed because now you’ve got a record of what I typed in as a comment to test what it would say when I put a foul word in there.

Jonathan: That’s okay, people type all kinds of crazy stuff.

Kelly: When I tried to do it, it says ‘this text contains foul English’, so very cool.

Jonathan: Yeah, so we only record IP addresses so it’s anonymous.  We are not going to actually figure out who you are.

Kelly: So this is going to go beyond just commenting but also like you said, contact forms. So I am curious, I use Formidable Forms – would something like SiteBrains eventually work with a form like that?

Jonathan: We hope it would actually work with everyone. I am embarrassed. I don’t know Formidable said, but I do know like Facebook comments and Disqus and if it’s similar to that or it’s posted by them or an iframe, then they have to cooperate with us basically.

We work with WordPress, we are working on launching something for Joomla community and we work with any website. We have to form partnerships with them and we haven’t approached them yet but we think we’ll do that in the near future and hopefully we’ll get all the major platforms.

But yeah, the idea here though is that the sites can do this without those commenting platforms. So it’s doable and it’s we’ve kind of built it for everybody. You can create your own commenting platform is the idea.

Kelly: But it would be nice if this worked with something like that too to keep people from submitting spammy things that way but yeah, you mentioned Disqus, I have used Disqus. I use it on one of my sites but I am not thrilled with it on a wider scale.

Jonathan: Yeah, we think there’s a lot that we could do to improve their product but maybe we are going to launch our own commenting platform. We haven’t really decided yet. We are leaning towards a few other applications like basically providing topic telling on the fly and categorization of the incoming content, potentially we are going to build the crawling service so that we actually can crawl the web and show people and website owners that they have problems.

So that’s something else that we are kind of looking on and the comment especially is on the list but I don’t know, I don’t know when we get to that thing.

Kelly: So SiteBrains is in beta and it’s currently free to use. It is a WordPress plugin so you could put it on your blog right now and use it – is this headed towards a premium plugin thing?

Jonathan: You know we are trying to keep this free for now. We have an API for enterprise users and I think once we have some users who are really generating with, there will be an enterprise kind of offering but for now we are trying to keep it free to all the smaller businesses and medium-sized businesses and we have plans on the line for possibly offering premier services that wouldn’t necessarily be paid, wouldn’t necessarily require them to pay us because we think that we can do things to help these companies generate revenue and actually we would be sharing the revenue with them.

So for example, if you wanted to turn on like something we might call ‘Smart Context’, as people are talking about new identities, so like if they are talking about a restaurant or a book for that, it would be able to bring back and recognize that as an object and then show you with the ratings or how much the cost were to buy it.

So yeah, something we have in the works that we think would be much more useful than looking Adwords product and a lot more relevant and unobtrusive and actually improve user experience and potentially generate revenue for publishers.

Kelly: Right.

Jonathan: That’s kind of where we want to go with the monetization process so that would hopefully alleviate us from having to charge for the service because we think everybody needs it and we want everybody to have it.

Kelly: Yeah, well that sounds great. I like that. Jonathan, thanks so much for taking a minute to talk to me about SiteBrains.

Jonathan: Thanks so much for the opportunity. I have enjoyed it and call us if you got spams.

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This is a guest blog post written in a fun quirky way – it took me a minute to realize she was writing from the point of view of a child for part of it.  A very wise child indeed!

Some days ago, I asked my mommy if her blog still wasn’t generating any money. She nodded and looked sad. I told her there was no point wasting time and that she should stop blogging. If was only then that she startled me with a question. She said, “Do you know anything else, I could do instead?” The sad face of my mother made me think that there has to be something which my mom needs to know before expecting good money from her blog.

When I was born, my mother quit her bank job to stay at home with me. Later on, somebody told her, you could still make money by blogging. She started blogging and whatever little money she earned from it, was spent on us. I believe she is a superwoman indeed.

The sad face of my mother motivated me to help her research and figure out some weak areas which she could work on. I figured them out and brought them to her notice. The blog’s been better since. Here are some key points of my finding which you too can use to turn your flop blog into a money spinning machine.

Consistency is a key to success.

The biggest thing I noticed is that my mother was not consistent. If you blog once a week, then it should be once a weak in real and if you publish a post daily, then it has to be daily – no excuses. If a reader follows you strictly and you miss a day of posting, you may lose that one reader who logs on to your website to read what you have to say. Therefore, be consistence and see how it begins to reward you.

Deal with the writers’ block.

The syndrome of writers’ block is faced by almost all writers at some point in their blogging careers, which prevents them from creating and producing something new. My mother was unfamiliar with this syndrome, and she always blamed my father and his aggressive behaviour for her inability to generate new ideas. If you ever feel short of words and ideas, just take a break, change your environment, exercise you body, take long breaths in open air and divert your attention by not staring at the computer screen. These tips really work like a charm!

Stick to one area of writing

I noticed one day my mom wrote a post on “tips to save on grocery shopping” and on the next week about “the trip to the Disneyland with kids.” When my mother told me about two different areas of her writing, I had to stifle a laugh. Though it annoyed her for a while but she saw my point later on. Bloggers often tend to jump from one topic to another which really does not make any sense in blogging. If you want to build a readership, all of your blog posts should have a specific focus.

Valuable content is the king:

I remember when we were in school, my mother always asked us to not to rely on books solely for knowledge but I believe she never followed this advice herself. You build a sound and consistent readership only when you bring quality in writing, which does not come on its own if you’re not good with words. You have to consult various informative sources like e-books, internet, articles, newspapers, forums and so on and so forth. In addition to this, you must add value in your blogs by sharing your own experience with the readers.

Sitting idle does not work!

Waiting for a miracle to help you make six-figures through your blog without making an effort is just stupid. You have to monetize them properly for deriving making good money through them. I noticed my mother used to spare an hour or two for writing and used to spend the rest of the time in household works. Just dedicate some time for monetizing your blog by sending e-mails to the readers, taking part in forums, and being a part of the affiliate-marketing programs.

My mother worked out on these weak areas and now she is happy to run a home and a blog successfully simultaneously. So whoever said there is nothing parents can learn from their children was wrong! Love you mom!

Susan Smith is a global wholesale trade and B2B marketing expert. She writes frequently on the topics related to wholesale products, distributors, wholesalers and trade suppliers.

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If you’re used to using free WordPress themes it may seem like a leap to start paying for ‘Premium’ themes.  Your investment to get started with Genesis and one Child theme is $99.95.  (If you want access to all of their themes, you’ll spend $299.95.)  It’s a lot of money – we know!

So why did we gladly invest in StudioPress? 

Well, their themes are fantastic.  They’re beautiful to look at and they’re packed with all of the latest WordPress bells and whistles.  They have lots of widgets to work with and help us keep our plugin needs down to a minimum.  And – they have a thriving support forum where we’re able to stop in and ask questions anytime.

There are plenty of pretty free themes out there, but free means no support.  It’s been our experience that it’s common to run into trouble and not have anywhere to turn.

Newer StudioPress Themes We Think Moms Might Like:

Luscious Child Theme & Fabric Child Theme

The all access license ($299) is worth choosing if you have several blogs or like to redecorate your blog often.  StudioPress releases new themes fairly often and you get access to them at no extra cost.

They also have this new StudioPress Marketplace where freelance designers submit their own child theme designs for Genesis.  These themes aren’t covered under the regular license but they are priced low, just $24.95 each.  We see a lot of cute designs there and look forward to more.

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You’ve got to have a really good why. Why do you blog?

It’s not enough to…

• just enjoy blogging. Hobbies don’t make money very well.
• want to make friends and be part of a community. Friends change.
• try to stay in touch with family and friends. Life gets busy.
• want to make some extra money. Circumstances flip-flop.

There’s nothing wrong with those reasons and many of us started because of one of them; but they won’t keep you going for the long haul. Your why has to be stronger than those reasons.

Making money is the strongest motivator I listed. Let’s take that one a step farther and look at the stronger “whys” that saying covers.
You want to blog for money…

• because your spouse lost their job.
• to feed your family.
• to own a home.
• to change your [and your families] lifestyle.

The first four reasons can be pushed aside pretty easily. I know – Been there done that. The second four reasons stay right in front of you and push you to stay up late, get up early, write when you don’t feel like it, record a video on a bad hair day, etc. If you want to be a Mom Blogger Pro and consistently blog for a long time figure out your “why.” Figure out your core reason that will propel you through all the “don’t-feel-like-it” days. If you need a visual reminder write your “why” down or make  dream board that has pictures that represent your goals and dreams.

Having a good solid reason that motivates you to keep working at your blog or online business will help you post consistently. Posting consistently will help you get more content out there. Getting more content out there will help you get in front of more eyeballs. See how it works? Having a good “why” will help you blog for a long time.

It will also help in any online business you start. There are many online business ideas you can check out at Mom’s Talk Biz.

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