Category Archives: Blogger Resources

Five Things to Think About when Starting a Blog

Blogger Resources,

This is the first in a series of posts I’ll be featuring about blogging and social media here on TheMommyInsider.com.  Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to my RSS feed to be notified when the next post in the series is added.

How to start a blog

I have been working online for over 10 years. I started AtlantaMoms.com in 2001 and TheMommyInsider.com in 2005.   I have earned a full time income from home for 10 years.  I never thought I’d be able to say that.  The kids and my husband love that I work from home as do I.   I am the first to admit that, working from home is a huge challenge and can be frustrating for the entire family since they sometimes don’t understand what I am doing (blogging, tweeting, marketing, talking to advertisers, brand ambassadorships – what the heck is all of that, they ask?).  I am proud that I am a small business owner and blogger and have been since 2001.  I couldn’t have done it without having a supportive husband, kids, family, and friends.

At first glance blogging may seem intimidating or complicated, but it is actually quite easy. Hera a few things to think about and keep in mind, especially as a mom blogger.

Writing

Anyone can be a writer. You don’t have to be a professional writer to blog.  I am not a professional writer.  All you need are the language skills to convey your ideas. Avoid poor grammar and spelling.

  • Don’t worry about not having anything interesting to say.
  • The antics of children, a new recipe, a craft project you’ve been working on — all of these are common topics and excellent choices for blog posts.

Social Media (Twitter and Facebook)

Don’t discount the importance of social media when you’re establishing a blog. Twitter and Facebook can be excellent means of sharing your updates, advertising and gaining new readers.

  • There’s no cost to using either of them, and they can have a huge impact on your blog traffic.
  • You can even interact more directly with your readers and take ideas for future blog posts by being active on Twitter and Facebook.
  • You can follow me on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Time Management

Time management is important, especially if you’re a mom with kids. Writing a blog takes a time commitment just like any other hobby. Regular updates are an important sign that you’re taking your blog seriously. There are tons of distractions to keep you from writing.

  • Keep a list of topics near your computer.
  • Schedule writing time during your child’s nap or school hours.
  • If your child *needs* your attention, give it to her.  It’s not worth trying to write with a whining child in your lap.

Photography

Nearly every blog is covered in photography created by the blog owner. If you’re writing about daily events, carry a camera. Pictures can go a long way towards bringing and keeping readers.

  • You can upload and edit photographs for free online at a site like picnik.com
  •  If you don’t have the right kind of pictures for a particular blog post you’re working on you can find free stock photos from stock photo websites.

Hosting

Setting up a blog is a job of its own, but is well worth the effort. If you’re into web development you can purchase hosting for yourself, but that takes significant time and effort.

  • Consider using a free resource such as WordPress.org or WordPress.com, which is a simple and easy to set up blog software.
  • Register a domain name for your blog at a registrar such as Godaddy.com.

 

Making and updating a blog is a fun and potentially profitable activity, and it costs nothing to set up and start. If you’re interested, give it a shot! There’s nothing to lose.

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Please share your favorite blogging tips and resources in the comments below.  Let’s make this is a great resource for beginning and seasoned bloggers!

As I embark on this series about blogging, please feel free to ask me any questions you might have from the most basic to more complex questions in the comments below.

 

Alicia Hagan, Editor

Optimize and Analyze your Blog or Website

Blogger Resources, ,
Image source: jscreationzs

With the changing landscape of the Internet, it’s more important than ever for a business to properly manage its web presence and optimize their website. This cannot be any more true than for a small business owner. As the Internet continues to expand exponentially every year, it is easy for a business to become lost in the shuffle of Google and other search engines. In order to maintain a presence in search engines and a strong foothold in the business world, it is a necessity to perform proper analysis of your website or blog regularly.

Successful business owners looking for web traffic analysis know that Omniture is one of the finest companies working in this field today. Offering a full range of products, Omniture.com goes above and beyond when it comes to web-based marketing and analysis. The company focuses on social networking and overall Internet usage, while utilizing the ever-growing market of mobile communications and video. This creates a unique experience not only for the customer but anyone interacting with an online channel. Highlighting an extensive suite of tools with professional service, Omniture is among the most experienced companies today.

One of the major attributes driving this company is its sheer understanding of advanced metrics directed specifically with a business’s ultimate goals in mind. Using a platform of performance-minded optimization, it can find the best options and draw precise conclusions from the information. This insight ultimately means that a company’s business model is perfected and the online presence is maximized. Without a doubt, this driving force has made Omniture.com a presence enterprises can count on even in the most volatile market conditions. This definitive online strategy has proven invaluable and will be an asset to any business going forward as the Internet and mobile world continues to develop.


What I Want and Don’t Want in a PR Pitch

Blogger Resources,

I have blogged for a little over 6 years now and have been in the online advertising and marketing business for over 10 years. I get over 300 non-spam emails a day and I’m not saying that to brag by any means. There are bloggers out there that get far more and there are bloggers out there that have their email under better control than I do and don’t get to the point where they have over 20k emails in their inbox. Enough of that.

I was compelled to write this article to answer a question that Cecily Kellog wrote for Babble recently titled “Pitches Gone Bad, When PR Agencies Only Get Part of the Story”. I won’t get into the article here because if you are a blogger, you really should read the article in its entirety but at the end of the article Cecily asks the question “How can we, as bloggers, make it easier for them to research us so that the pitches we receive hit the mark more often?”.

Here is my answer:

Include our full name, email address, Twitter and Facebook links on our Contact and/or About page. If you accept products for review and feel comfortable with leaving your kids genders and ages then doing so will help PR reps know if you are a good match for their product.

As far as pitches are concerned, I used to prefer personalized emails, but I now prefer a more ‘broad pitch’ than the personalized pitch. I think it’s great when a PR rep acknowledges my kids by their names and ages, but I find it more annoying than just about *anything* when I see “Dear Sally” instead of “Dear Alicia” or when the PR rep makes other mistakes in the pitch such as referring to my blog as someone else’s entirely.

What I would like to see from PR representatives:

  • Most importantly.. a clear and concise subject line such as “product review opportunity” or “brand ambassador opportunity”.

For product review opp pitches I would like to see a/the:

  • Brand name
  • Product name
  • Product URL
  • Product description
  • Age range
  • Product price
  • Store availability
  • Exactly how many products will they be sending me?
  • Do they want to do a giveaway?
  • Brief company bio
  • What they would like from me
  • What they will provide me with and/or do for me?
  • Subject line examples: “Sally’s Ice Cream Play Set product review opportunity” or “iPad app review opportunity – redeem code available”.

For brand ambassador opportunities I would like to see:

  • Brand name
  • Brand ambassador campaign name -Having an official brand ambassador campaign ‘name’ gives the campaign more credibility.
  • Why was this opportunity created? To build brand awareness, product awareness, blogger outreach?
  • What’s expected of me. How many posts are required? What am I expected to do on Twitter and Facebook, etc..?
  • What they will provide to me? Let me know if all brand ambassadors are getting paid the same amount or if pay is based on a ‘sliding scale’.
  • Potential travel requirements. Tell me what expenses are NOT covered (transportation to airport, parking, dining once I get to the location, etc).
  • Information about past brand ambassador campaigns they’ve done. Include a URL to the landing page of the last brand ambassador campaign you ran.
  • How long the campaign will last?
  • How many bloggers are you inviting to and will be participating in this campaign? This one is very important!
  • I would like to see all of this information included in the FIRST email that I get from the PR representative. That’s my wish anyway!
  • Subject line example: “Sally’s Organic Potato Chips Brand Ambassador Opportunity” – Easy, huh?

For article pitches:

  • Include the FULL article text and tell me that this article will not be posted on 5 million other blogs.
  • Include the author bio and a link
  • Subject line example: “Article post idea about dogs and Halloween costumes – full exclusive article text included”

Here are a couple of emails that I haven’t opened yet because the subject line doesn’t make me WANT to open the email:

Here are a couple of emails that I opened right away because the subject line made it clear what was being offered to or asked of me:

I understand and appreciate that PR reps are very busy, as are bloggers, and I am ok with more generalized pitches HOWEVER pitches must include all the information I need to make an informed decision right away. I don’t want to have to ask a million questions. That’s when I hit the delete button.

I, like may bloggers, have over 22k emails in my inbox. Yesterday, I received over 300 non-spam emails all of which I would LOVE to read but because I run two businesses and have two children and a home to take care of I have to choose very carefully which emails I open. That’s where a very clear and concise subject line comes in.

I hope this helps bloggers and PR representatives alike. I enjoy what I do which is why I’ve done it for so long and consider myself to be successful seeing as how I’ve worked from home, providing my family with a full-time income for over 10 years.

If you have tips on what you’d like in a PR pitch or brand ambassador campaign pitch, let me know in the comments below or email me at alicia@themommyinsider.com!

Alicia Hagan, Editor

My BlogHer ’11 Experience and a Special Thanks to BlogHer Heroes and Sponsors

Blogger Resources, New posts, , ,

I had an amazing time at BlogHer ’11.   Desiree, Stacie, and Niri are probably laughing really loud right now.  Seriously though, BlogHer ’11 was an EXPERIENCE for me.  If you know me, you know that I’m shy. I may have some Twitter followers, some Facebook fans, and I’ve built a site that gets over 100,000 visitors every month (AtlantaMoms.com) but when it comes to face-to-face interaction with actual human beings, I’m shy and that’s why I was a nervous wreck leading up to and during most of BlogHer ’11.  I felt most comfortable in the Expo hall talking to brands and learning about new and exciting products and services.

Do you know what made my experience at BlogHer amazing?  People and businesses and the support that they gave me.

Niri, Stacie, Alicia, Desiree at BlogHer

 

The People:

Desiree Miller from StressFreeBaby.com, Stacie Connerty from TheDivineMissMommy.com, and Niri from MommyNiri.com know that I’m shy (reserved as Desiree calls it) and were my BlogHer heroes.  It’s very important to me that they know that I couldn’t have done as well as I did, without them.. so thank you to you all from the bottom of my heart!  Each of these amazing women took me under their wing and made sure that I was comfortable and had something to do.  They were all great about introducing me to people they talked to which was so sweet.

I prepared myself mentally for weeks before BlogHer. I made all sorts of lists, printed all of my party invites, got a refill of Xanax, downloaded the BlogHer app for my iPhone and iPad, packed and repacked a few times, and thought I had it all together.

What a joke!  I barely used the app, I never used the printed party tickets, and I totally forgot to take Xanax the ENTIRE time.  My biggest fear is that people don’t give a flying hoot who I am or what I do which results in me not being the best at walking up to random people to introduce myself which is what you really should do at conferences like BlogHer.

I know and admire hundreds of bloggers.  However, while I’ve been blogging for over 5 years and have been attending blogging and social media events and conference for 4 years, I do not know many bloggers personally and I often wonder if some of them know who I am and if they do, what do they think of me?  Do they think I’m a bi**h because I don’t socialize enough, do they think I’m hideously unattractive (my unfortunate opinion of myself lately – sad but true), or do they think I’m ok but just don’t see the need to introduce themselves to me?  All of those thoughts were filling my head almost the entire time I was at BlogHer.. 5 days.

The Businesses:

Net Nanny parental control software for PC and Mac - BlogHer '11 sponsorI was thrilled to be sponsored by NetNanny, who makes the most incredible parental control software for PC’s and Mac’s.  To know that Net Nanny had faith in me enough to let me represent them at BlogHer was a great feeling.  I even got to meet and spend time with Melissa, the VP of Marketing.   If you haven’t already downloaded Net Nanny you can do that now here.

Invitation Consultants BlogHer '11 sponsorship winnerI was also chosen to receive a BlogHer ’11 Sponsorship from Invitation Consultants who makes beautiful baby shower invitations, baby announcements, birthday party invitation, stamps, photo cards, and other photo gifts.

What I got out of BlogHer ’11

  • People are amazing.
  • I learned that I am not invisible (imagine that!) yet I shouldn’t expect people to come up and say hello to me if I’m sitting by myself.
  • I got a lot ‘stuff’ (aka swag) – wanted or not.  Too much honestly.  I got rid of at least 20 pounds of stuff before leaving San Diego so I wouldn’t have to pay shipping or extra baggage fees.
  • I learned some grammar and writing tips (but I admittedly forgot them already.  I need a book)
  • I met some great people and saw some old friends including Jodi Grundig, J. Money, and Kim Vickers.
  • I learned that I shouldn’t attend 3-5 parties a night at BlogHer ’12
  • I learned that I don’t HAVE to put myself in uncomfortable positions (parties with lots of tall people).
Did you go to BlogHer ’11?  What did you learn about yourself and/or blogging?
Alicia Hagan, Editor

What to Pack for BlogHer ’11 – I Haven’t Started and I Leave Tomorrow Morning!

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First, I would like to say thank you to Net Nanny for sponsoring me at BlogHer ’11!

I am leaving to go to San Diego, CA tomorrow morning where I will spend 4 days mingling, learning, and partying with over 3,000 amazing bloggers from all over the country and the world, at BlogHer ’11!  Besides having to get my hair cut, nails done, pick chicken up from my friend Stacie, I have to do laundry, pack, feed and bathe the kids and act sane in the process of all of the above.
Because I am a research geek, I Googled ‘packing for BlogHer’ and found some great ‘packing for BlogHer’ resources that gave me more insight on what to pack for BlogHer as well as what to expect at BlogHer.

If you are attending BlogHer ’11, you might find these ‘how to pack for BlogHer ’11’ resources useful:

Here are a few more resources I found useful for preparing for BlogHer ’11:

If you are going to BlogHer ’11 and have packing or general tips please share them below!

Alicia Hagan, Editor