Category: Blog/Website Technical How-to

Pinterest 101 – How Do I Get a Pinterest Account and How Does Pinterest Work

I (Julie) love Pinterest and find it to be an extreamly valuable tool both as an art teacher and as a blogger. I am a firm believer that EVERY blogger that is interested in growing their readership should be using it both as a promotion tool and as a means of connecting with other bloggers.

We have all heard the rumors about how Pinterest will suck you into a time warp and have you pinning for hours without even knowing it. I’ll admit that when I first began pinning I did spend hours. Pinterest was still young (just over a year old) when I began and I had to navigate through it with little direction. The Pinterest phenomenon was only just beginning and I was a pioneer among my friends in the artful skill of pinning.

Pinning on Pinterest really is an art, that when perfected, can be a fabulous means of driving traffic to your blog! I’m talking about the possibility of increasing from around 200 to well over 8,000 hits on your blog in a SINGLE day! YES – this happened to me! If your planning to be at Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged (and I hope you are) I will be sharing my Pinterest success story there.

We’ve had a lot of questions regarding how and why to use Pinterest. We’ll be doing several posts over the next few days to help you get stated pinning. If you are already pinning we will address some techniqes that will be beneficial to you as well. Here are the topics we will be covering over the next few days:

How Do I Get a Pinterest Account and How Does Pinterest Work?

How Do I Pin To Pinterst and How Do I Create and Organize My Boards?

How is Pinterest Beneficial to Me as a Blogger and How Do I Make the Most of Pinterest?

Frequently Asked Questions and Myths Regarding Pinterest

Everyone’s talking about Pinterest and you have finally decided to take the plunge and set up an account! I’m going to walk you through the basic steps to setting up an account so that you too can join in on the fun.

How Do I Get a Pinterest Account?

Do you have a Facebook or Twitter account? Then you have everything you need to get a Pinterest account! No “Invites” necessary!

1. Go to Pinterest.com.

2. Click LOGIN

3. Click “Connect with Facebook” or “Connect with Twitter”.

THAT’S IT!

You should now be prompted to enter all the information needed to setup your account! If you don’t have Facebook and/or Twitter you will need an invite which you can get by clicking “Request and Invitation” (this will take several days or longer) or by asking a friend on Pinterest to send you an invitation.

How Does Pinterest Work?

We’ll talk specifically about pinning in a our next post but first you need to understand that your experience on Pinterest is largely influenced by who you FOLLOW on Pinterest. Pinterest is completely user driven and when you login to your account you will be seeing only the pins of the people you follow. (Pinterest does have a search engine and an “Explore” feature which you can use but again it is only pulling from what others have pinned and not from the internet as a whole.) If you don’t follow anyone – there wont be much going on! To get the most out of Pinterest you want to follow people with similar interests. Start with the “Find Friends” button under your name in the task bar.

When you click on “Find Friends” you will be able to connect with your Facebook friends as well as contacts you have in Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and email. Just click “Follow” and you will start seeing their pins when you log in. You can also send invitations to friends and family members.

The other way to follow people is to visit some of your favorite blogs and click on the “Follow me on Pinterest” or the “P” buttons you may find on their page.

Here you can see my follow button in my sidebar right under my other social media subscription links.

Now that you are following people you will begin to see what your friends are pinning when you login. It is very much like looking at magazine. And to me, the best part of a magazine is always the pictures. You will see a pretty eclectic mix of things being posted. Here is what my page looks like right now:

Things I am seeing range from recipes and kitchen techniques, gardening ideas, fashion trends, art projects, organization ideas, handmade gifts and so on. I can browse these items and choose to repin them or I can click on them and I should be taken directly to the website or the blog location of that image.

Here is a pin that someone posted:

When I click on the pin I should be taken to the source of this pin on the internet. Meaning, I should be taken to the blog (or website) where this picture originates from. Here is where I was taken:

This pin actually comes from the site of Gina, our February Blogger of the Month, and was in a post she wrote on her blog Desperately Seeking {Gina} about some Halloween treats she made back in 2008!

Now that you’ve got that Pinterest account set up, you can begin by following Arkansas Women Bloggers!

Coming up in our Pinterest 101 Series:

How Do I Pin To Pinterst and How Do I Create and Organize My Boards?

How is Pinterest Beneficial to Me as a Blogger and How Do I Make the Most of Pinterest?

Frequently Asked Questions and Myths Regarding Pinterest

Top 10 reasons to attend WordCamp Fayetteville

Guess what, ladies? WordCamp Fayetteville is coming in July and we think that members of the Arkansas Women Bloggers should be there. WordCamp Fayetteville is the premier technology event in Arkansas. The 2012 conference is July 27-29 in Fayetteville and tickets are only $30.

WordCamp Fayetteville is planned entirely by a grassroots committee that is dedicated to helping make the blogging and website world a better place through the use of WordPress.

Here’s the cool part. Most of the people involved, from the planners to the participants, are not technology gurus. They are much like ARWB members in that they come from all walks of life and have varying technological skills and knowledge.

There are four tracks this year:

WordPress 101 (Beginner)
Content Creator (formerly the blogger track)
Entrepreneur
Developer

The whole idea of WordCamp Fayetteville is to learn how to make one’s blog or website better but we wanted to go into more detail about all the reasons ARWB members should register right now for WordCamp Fayetteville.

10. Bragging rights-you can say you went to a techie conference and impress all your friends with your smarts.

9. Food you don’t have to cook-the ticket price pays for a great catered lunch (we heard BBQ?) and access to the after party, which has even more fantastic food. Who wouldn’t want to come just for the food?

8. Iceberg-both the beginner’s track pre-conference session and the after party are being held at the Iceberg CoWorking Space in Fayetteville. This will be the perfect chance to check out the new venture and either join or see ideas for developing coworking space in your own area.

7. Get hired-in the previous two years of WordCamp Fayetteville, people have found new employment in various forms including jobs with sponsor companies, new ideas for businesses to start themselves or simply ways to improve and/or monetize their existing blogs.

6. Learn from others-the best part of WordCamp Fayetteville is all the learning that goes on and we don’t just mean in the sessions! People in the WordPress community love to share ideas, help each other troubleshoot problems and discuss their sites. The sessions themselves will be jam-packed with information that will take your WordPress and blogging skills to a whole new level!

5. Make new friends-folks come from all over Arkansas and the surrounding area for this. It’s a great chance to meet new people and make new buddies!

4. Put a face to the Twitter handle-we all have people we follow on Twitter whom we’ve never met in real life. This is the chance! Get to know people beyond the @ symbol (by the way, did we mention that the @wcfay is on Twitter also?).

3. Free stuff-there’s a growing number of raffles, give aways and other prizes that will be available throughout the day!

2. Make your site look/function better-WordCamp Fayetteville will teach skills that will help make your blog or your website function and look a lot more professional and that will help get more followers.

1. Blog brighter and better-the tagline for WordCamp Fayetteville is Blog Brighter! and we aren’t joking. Learn how to write better and attract a larger audience to your blog or website.

You can check out their event webpage to learn more about WordCamp Fayetteville and register online. The deadline to register and still be guarenteed a t-shirt is July 15th so act fast!

And of course don’t forget about our very own Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged Conference. Click here to register for AWBU! Early bird registration for #AWBU ends July 31st.

Blogging With Your Senses

Blogging with your senses.
Written by ARWB January 2012 Blogger of the Month, Lyndi Fultz of NWAFoodie.

You don’t have to be a food writer to engage your senses when you write.

As bloggers, we often work in the deeply heartfelt emotional realm when writing our posts. Have you ever stopped to think about writing from the see, smell, hear, touch, and taste perspective?

As we entered into the new year, I took a perspective on where I am with my blog and where I want it to mature. One missing aspect became VERY apparent. Many of my posts exclude the “taste” element.

As a foodie, that warrants a citizen’s arrest.

Instead of booking myself into the county jail, I am challenging myself to improve specifically in this area.

Yesterday as I sat down to write a post about the humble carrot, I tried something different. I took out a sheet of paper and on the left hand side of the pad I wrote all the senses: see, smell, hear, touch, and taste.

Free-flowing scribble emerged next to each category as I pondered the experience pre and post roasting.

The post oozed mental color.

Let’s try this together. Take a look at this jar of pickled rainbow carrots.

At first glance we could describe it as: colorful, cloudy, inviting.

Now, let me engage the senses:

See: colorful, cloudy, inviting, a nostalgic nod to a day when women canned and preserved for a future event instead of simply running to the closest Walmart

Smell: as I prepped the pickling juices, the pungent, acrid smell attacked my nose and caused me to pause and ask, “ do I really want to finish this?”

Hear: my husband, walking into the house with panic in his voice “what is the smell? did something happen?” (again I question myself “do I really want to finish this?”)

Touch: crisp, snap, crunch

Taste: think pickled okra, only crispier, I imagine how it will add the perfect touch minced up in egg salad or adding as a pop of shredded color to the humble coleslaw
Better?

The blog challenge for all of us is to try this with our next post (include a link in the comments so we can all read it). Start off with something ordinary, like your daily walk, playtime with your kid, or movie night with your significant other. Or something as simple as sipping your morning coffee.

Describe how you feel within.

It’s not just coffee, it is the carrier of life on a chilly January morning as the first sting of heat slips past your tongue, the heady aroma wafting up your nostrils, begging you to wake up and face the day ahead.

Now it’s your turn.

How are you engaging your senses when you write?

Eat well, my friends. Eat well.

Lyndi

Lyndi of NWAFoodie is a girl who just happens to live in beautiful Northwest Arkansas. Much of her blogging inspiration comes from this gem of a place which she refers to as the proverbial land of milk-and-honey.

Understanding Blog Stats

A lot of you probably have set new goals for your blog with the new year, right? Maybe you want a new layout, or you’re going to participate in a new meme, or you want to expand the reach of your blog. Each of these goals takes time and effort, so you’ll want to see the payoff of all your hard work. But, how do you measure the results?

Alongside your own level of personal satisfaction, understanding your blog stats can be a great way to measure the impact of improvements you make to your blog. But, stats can be difficult to decipher, and culling out the valuable information is sometimes a chore. Here’s a quick primer on blog stats.

How Do I see My Stats?

If you are running on a free platform like WordPress.com or Blogspot (aka Blogger), your stats are built into your blog dashboard. If you are running a self-hosted site, your host provider likely provides a stat interface like AWstats or Webalizer. Probably the most commonly used site stats tool for self-hosted blogs is Google Analytics, which is what I primarily use.

Unfortunately, each of these methods breaks stats down in different ways and formats, so we won’t give a specific tutorial on moving through your stats interface here, BUT, let’s talk about some of the most standard statistics that you’ll want to track on your site.

Daily Visits – This is usually the easiest stat to see when you get into your stats interface. It’s useful because you can see which days had more visitors, and hopefully, correlate an increase in visitors with something you did on your blog, like writing a fantastic post, or linking to your blog from Facebook.
Unique Visitors – This is the number of different people (computers) that access your site. Usually we track this on a monthly basis. If your number of “uniques” is going up, you’re getting more people coming to your site! You can increase your unique visitors every month by utilizing SEO techniques and/or by promoting your blog on social networking platforms.
Visits – This is different from unique visits in that it counts the number of times that your site has been accessed. So, if your Mama visits your site every day for a month, she counts as one unique visitor, but she’s given you 30 ticks on your visits stat. Ultimately, you want your “uniques” to come back to your site over and over. The best way to do that is to give them a reason to come back!
Page Views – This is how many pages have been viewed by your visitors. So, if your mom comes to your site and just looks at the newest post, that’s one page view. But, if she clicks around on your archives, topics, bio, etc…your page views will go up. Easy ways to up your page views are to put links by post category in your sidebar, or to link to your own related posts in each post you write (Like I just did in the two bullet points above).
Bounce Rate – The bounce rate is the percent of visitors who come into your site and then leave your site without clicking on anything. For bloggers, this number is usually pretty high because our newest content is usually on the first page that visitors get to, so they don’t need to go anywhere else to find what they are looking for. However, a lower bounce rate means that your visitors are interacting more with your site, and that’s definitely a good thing!

What About that Alexa Chick?

You may or may not have heard of Alexa, which is another form of site ranking. Alexa ranks websites based on a number of components, including number of visitors, geographic reach, and the number of websites that link in to your blog. You can get your site’s Alexa rank at Alexa.com. Or, you can download the Alexa tool bar, which enables you to not only see your own site’s Alexa rank, but also the ranking of every site you visit.

Why Do I Care?

As I mentioned, stats are a good way to get feedback on how the work you do on your blog is paying off. If you want to work with companies or other PR efforts, the folks you will be working with will likely want to know the key components I listed above.

That said, don’t get too tied up in your stats. Spend some time in your stats interface to learn how it works and where to find the data that is important to you, and then mark your calendar to check it every week or two. Unless you are in the middle of a major campaign or change on your blog, there’s no reason to check your stats daily, and you’ll end up wasting a lot of time. Also, unless you are trying to make a business out of your blog, don’t put too much weight in your stats. Remember what your purpose for blogging is in the first place, and use your blog stats to help you meet your goals.

If you have specific questions about anything related to blog statistics, please leave them in the comments and we will do our best to answer them! (If you’re wondering about something, there are probably several other bloggers who are too!)

This post was written by Fawn, ARWB Managing Editor and blogger at Instead of the Dishes.

5 Types of Blog Posts That Will Spice Up Your Blog

Written by Jacqueline Wolven of Moxie Works and Moxie Life.

Sometimes writing blog posts can seem challenging because we aren’t sure what to write. I’m not talking about writer’s block (that is a whole other post someday), but am instead talking about what kinds of posts to write. Sure, you can just use it like a Hello Kitty diary and write whatever hoops in your heart, but maybe you are trying to mix it up a bit and want to add a different spin to your blog. Not only that, there is some science that folks click on different kinds of blog posts. So your chances of gaining more clicks improve when you mix it up a bit. Here are 5 types of blog posts that you can start interspersing into your blog:

1. How To’s

The number one kind of post that is searched on is how to do something. Really, anything. People look up how to hem pants, how to cook omelets, how to fix the dripping sink, how to dance like Brittany Spears, and on and on. There are a few ways to do the How To post that draw attention. First, you can do it straight like a recipe and just spell it out in text. That works for some people and if you are doing your first how to it might be where you start. Second, you can do a detailed photo post. This has step by step instructions. Pioneer Woman is famous for these and the visuals really draw you in and convince you that you can make that amazing Moroccan Meat Loaf. Third, step into the land of video. Video is, hands down, the most searched vehicle on the web. Show people how you do something and you will draw hits over and over. Your videos do not have to be perfect. They don’t have to have TV studio production values… in fact, it might be better if they don’t. Just shoot it and post. You will see magic numbers happen.

2. Reviews

Sure, there are a million reviews out there, but if I read your blog and I am getting to know you I want to know what you like. I am building a relationship with you and I want to know what kind of toothpaste you are into. Seriously, you might think that your reviews or ideas about products are only useful if you are getting paid to post them, but the blogosphere has allowed us all into your supply closets. So, tell me about the sheets you have, the restaurant you went to, the new spice you are using – anything that you love/hate and I will be interested. Just remember if you are or are not compensated tell me that too. I want to know if this is an unvarnished opinion.

3. Show & Tell

One of my favorite things is show and tell. I am just a grown up kindergartener. I know that. But really, if you go shopping at Sephora, unpack your little bag on video and show me what you got. I love it. Did you just redecorate a corner of your house? Show me. I love to see what people are doing. Are you working on a new work project? Show me that too. I can’t be with all the bloggers I read, but I love to peek into their lives. And the more you show the more interested I am – well, keep your pants on. I don’t want to see that.

4. A Rant

Yep. Get personal. Get loud. Get passionate. If you rant about something, anything, people will read it. Get on your soap box and tell me about what you love, hate, want to fix, think someone else should fix and you will get hits. People love to watch a hissy fit from a distance. Rant away.

5. Projects

Involve your readers in your projects that you are tackling. This especially works with projects that you do every day. “30 Days of Drawings”, “40 Kinds of Soups”, “30 Days of Photos”, etc. Whatever you are doing make a project out of it and invite other people to participate. One way to do that is to create Flickr group that allows them to post their photos which creates a community around your project. You can also link back to posts that participants are doing – creating a lot of link love!

There are hundreds of kinds of posts, but I encourage you to try one of these and see what results you get. I know that one thing that will happen is that you will post more frequently when you commit to trying something different, experience some kind of rise in blog hits, and start to find your niche. Don’t ever feel like you are stuck doing one kind of post – it is your blog and you can mix it up anyway that you want to. That is the beauty of self publishing. Now go write posts!

Jacqueline Wolven blogs at MoxieWorks: Real Life Marketing for Small Buisiness and Small Towns and MoxieLife where she explores the beauty of living in the South and being in her 40’s. Her passions are doing good work, zen business, gtd and living the life you create. She left a successful career in San Francisco as the director of marketing to build her own, personalized, studio dedicated to helping small business. What she left behind were pointless meetings, red tape, and budgets that were astronomical. What she gained was a sense of living my life on my own terms, the ability to help clients have real success, and the joy of saying yes or no when she needed to.

Getting the Most out of SEO or “Search Engine Optimization”

Written by Jasmine Brown of The Brokins.

So you have a blog, dreams of using it as a source of income, and everyone keeps going on and on about something called “SEO”.

“SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization” is something that only truly matters if you care about your blog getting attention outside of your mom, Aunt Lucy, and third cousin Mabel. Bottom line? Search Engine Optimization matters to individuals who are interested in exposure via search engines. So lets go over the basic things that can be important for a blogger who wants to optimize their blog.

Write for your readers FIRST

Many bloggers fire up their blogs and get excited to fill their pages with content, content, and more content. The thing is blogging solely for content or flooding your blog with “key words” will show through. This is, in my opinion, the fastest way to turn off your readers. Striking a balance of creativity and best practice SEO is sometimes a tight rope walk and with some practice and attention it can be done.

Title is important

Create a title that A) grabs the readers attention B) communicates the content of the post and C) has the keywords that people search for in search engines. If your blog post is about DIY birdhouses, please don’t title it “Jimmy John Loves Birdies”. This title does not tell us what you are writing about specifically. If you must talk about Jimmy John, try this: “DIY Birdhouses: Jimmy John Loves Birdies”

Appropriately tag your posts, images, and links

Make sure to create appropriate tags that match your key words and be congruent and specific. The more key words, or words that describe your content, that show up in your post, title, tags, and links the more easily search engines will be able to find your blog posts and articles.

Keywords

“Keywords” are the holy grail of Search Engine Optimization. Most algorithms search for your keywords in the first 50-100 words of your content. For the best hits in SEO-world, add your keywords into an introductory sentence. Ex: “I want to show you my process of a DIY birdhouse”. Emboldened words get attention. All of that being said… the worst, WORST thing you can do is shovel a bunch of key words onto your blog for the purpose of search engine hits. Why is it the worst thing you can do? Um… because people aren’t algorithms and as fast they arrived to visit your site they will leave from lack of quality content.

My advice is to write good quality blog posts and articles FIRST and then see if there is a theme or keywords that you can identify to search engine optimize your content, titles, tag, and images. Bloggers excited to move on up in their Google (or whatever choice search engine) rankings can get over zealous and easily forget that getting people to stay, read, and subscribe to your blog is just as important as search hits. The best way to get those readers to engage and be dedicated to your blog is to establish a connection and provide your readers with good, stable, and diverse but relevant content. I am sure you’ve heard of the phrase “content is king” in the blogosphere. I would amend that phrase and say,
“content is king, but authenticity is queen (and queens have always been better rulers!)”

For valuable resources on SEO writing and Best Practice check out iBlogZone, http://www.iblogzone.com/2009/07/3-step-guide-to-simple-seo-article.html

Making Money with Google Adsense

Pris Weathers from Arkansas Ties share some “valuable” information with us about using Google Adsense to make a little extra cash while blogging.

I get several emails a week asking about my website, ArkansasTies and advertising, so I thought I would write an article to help other people with information on how to make their family or history website earn money. Over time (ten years) my website has grown and evolved and in the beginning I sold photographs on CD… which was ok but nothing grand or worth writing home about.

About two years ago, I came across the Google Adsense program. At first I was a little leery, no one likes ad pop-ups, and I certainly didn’t want that on my website but the more I read the more I was interested. They had many ads to pick from which allowed me to customize them for my website…so I signed up.

The first month was kind of slow but after I learned more of the “in’s and out’s” things started to move right along. ArkansasTies now generates from $200 to $1,000 a month and while not enough to retire on now does provide a nice little part-time income. The more pages I add, the more money I make…finally starting to pay me back for everything invested.

I have the ads placed on the left and bottom of my pages, clearly marked Google advertising. Every time someone clicks on those ads I am paid whether they buy or not. There is not a set price and some ads are worth more than others (you have no control over the specific ads or the amount) and generally pay .05 to 50 dollars a click. Keep in mind that YOU or ANYONE using your computers cannot click the ad’s to generate revenue. If you do this, they will disqualify you & remove you from the program. You must also have a legitimate website to enroll in the program. While they do not have a set number of pages to be enrolled, the more pages you have & the better quality of those pages, the more money you will make.Example: Google payment & earning reports.

My only other advice to those who say their website is not big enough…nope not true…one good post that draws attention can earn you a lot of money. Recently I had posted a photograph of the Cornish house in downtown Little Rock. This particular house was owned by national planned parenthood founder Hilda Cornish. Roll forward to 2010 and guess who moves in? Arkansas’ own Duggar family. The humor of the Duggars moving into the the Planned Parenthood Founders home caught nation-wide attention and still continues to make money.

If you have questions, just drop me a line at ArkansasTies@ArkansasTies.com – Pris

I am Pris Weathers and Arkansas Ties is my website. It is 10 years old, has thousands of pictures, & lots of Arkansas. It is a full-time, totally devoted hobby of mine and my baby. You will find a little bit of everything on this website…genealogy, photography, history, bicycling, hiking, camping, traveling, etc.

The tall good-looking man is my sweetheart, Mark “Sweetie” Dodson, and we have been dating for 4 years. He is my best friend, my rock, and the love of my life and I am very blessed to have him in my life.

I love history and especially ARKANSAS history!. If you want to link to my website, please feel free, I would be honored. If you have something you want to add to this website or want to chat, drop me a line at arkansasties@gmail.com.

One Blogger’s Revelation

July has been a very bloggy month.

It started when I picked up the July issue of Little Rock Family and saw blogger Kyran Pittman on the cover. As far as I am concerned, Kyran isLittle Rock’s most famous blogger, and I’m completely in awe of her. As I gazed at her cover shot, I noticed another cover story headline floating above her head: “*13 Local Blogs You Should Be Reading.” I quickly flipped right past Kyran’s story to the blog feature (some fan I am!). By the time I got there, I had come to terms the fact that I would not be one of the featured bloggers, but my feelings were still a little hurt. I rationalized that most of the bloggers who were featured are leagues above me in their blogging “career”. The thing that did bother me a bit was that there were no guidelines as to how the blogs were chosen. Several of the bloggers work for the company that publishes Little Rock Family magazine. And that got me to thinking, Is blogging a popularity contest? What makes one blog better than another? Is it really all about who you know?

I ruminated over the 4^th of July holiday weekend, and then jumped into my turn as “Managing Editor” (a self-assigned title) of the Arkansas Women Bloggers website. I had two main goals: one, line up some guest blog posts, and two, visit as many blogs as I could and invite them over to join and enjoy the site.

To add to July’s blogginess, my awesome husband began migrating my personal blog from a free wordpress blog to a self-hosted .com blog. I anguished again as I watched him spend hours and hours doing battle with servers and files and domain names. Is all his work worth it? Am I a serious enough blogger for a .com? What will happen to my stats and comments? I hadn’t exactly asked my husband to migrate me. I had simply mentioned a blogging project that I would like to do, but which would require me to be self-hosted, and he took the project and ran. I am super appreciative of all the work he did for me, but at the time I felt sort of like a student who had struggled to graduate high school and was being forced to go to college.

Meanwhile, I was still ruminating on the blogging popularity thing. I questioned the time I’ve spent blogging and the value of what I get out of it. Particularly glaring was the ratio of published, paid writing gigs to blog posts for the year, which is roughly 1 to 55, unless you count that one blog post that won me a non-cash, randomly-drawn prize.

As I started visiting blogs from all overArkansasto invite bloggers to the Arkansas Women Bloggers Site, I was amazed at the diversity among these blogs. I laughed and I cried. I heard some really bad “background” music and a few songs that brought back memories. Some blogs had layouts that were true works of art and others I nearly went blind trying to read. I learned about vintage high heel shoes, snagged a recipe that I’ve already made for dinner (a chicken enchilada ring), was inspired by a smartly decorated back porch, saw tons of kids enjoying summer fun, and got a hankering to add blackberries to my garden next year. I shared a few bits of knowledge where I could via blog comments, but I definitely reaped more than I sowed.

And then it hit me. This is what blogging is about. It’s about making connections with people you wouldn’t normally get to know and learning from one another’s experiences. It’s about sparking inspiration and creativity, and sharing what is important to you. It’s about expanding your knowledge through a network of information that you can customize to fit your needs thanks to RSS feeds and email subscriptions. Blogging serves a different purpose to each blogger and blog reader. It takes a certain something to want to put a little piece of yourself out there; that is the thing that links bloggers together. I am super proud to be part of the blogging community, and I’m so excited to see the Arkansas Women Bloggers community growing. I don’t even care how popular I am.

Fawn Rechkemmer blogs about her sheer lack of domesticity and all the things she does to avoid washing the dishes at http://insteadofthedishes.com (thanks to her husband).