If you blog and you live in Arkansas, you have heard about those extraordinary blog conferences Arkansas Women Bloggers have put on in the natural state. From our first year at a camp in the woods of Northwest Arkansas to last year at The Park Wife’s home at the Ozark Folk Center State Park, bloggers from across the state and beyond (shout out to Oklahoma and Missouri) have gathered together for hooting, hollering, bonding, learning, unwinding and the beginning of many, many friendships. We unplugged our computers and plugged into each other. #AWBU has become a legend of its own. Some of you missed it. Don’t let that happen again.
It’s finally time for our THIRD Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged conference. This isn’t Blissdom, BlogHer, Blog Sugar or anything like it – and it isn’t meant to be an intense “real” blogger conference. #AWBU is better/different: it’s your chance to unplug for the weekend, network with other Arkansas women bloggers, pick up tips, gain inspiration and grow – as a human, and as a blogger.
Registration and tons of details will be revealed on March 1, yes, just a few days away! So… plan now to just do it! Mark your calendars, arrange to be away from home (I know that takes some planning if you have kiddos), get ready to step away from the screen. You can do this. We’ll have an idyllic setting and real, live, face-to-face connections with other bloggers and inspiring speakers to fuel and refresh you to return home ready to face it all. You know, the work – the play – the cooking – the cleaning – the amazingly improved and refocused blogging.
Today we’re going to discuss the art of pinning and the purpose of the boards.
How Do I Pin to Pinterest?
How do I pin from within Pinterest?
Pinning from within Pinterest is SUPER easy! When you login to Pinterest you will be taken to your main page where you will be seeing the “feed” of pins pinned by all the people you follow. It should look something like this:
On the left hand side you will see “Friends to Follow”. If you are connected through Facebook Pinterest will notify you of your other friends that are also on Pinterest. I assume it would be the same if you were connected through twitter although I haven’t tried this myself. You will also see “Recent Activity.” This is where you will see who is repinning your pins or if anyone has commented on your pins. You will notice that some of the names here may be unfamiliar to you. Since anyone is able to follow you on Pinterest you may not know some of these people. This is another great source for finding people to follow! Chances are that if they are repinning things you have pinned you probably have similar tastes and interests.
The rest of the page consists of the “feed” of pins that the people you are following have recently pinned. I usually peruse this once or twice a day. These images are constantly being pushed down as new things are pinned. If you see something you like and want to explore you may want to add it to one of your boards by “repinning” it. (More on boards below.)
When you hover your mouse over a pin you like, you will be given the options to repin, like, or comment.
Likes will appear on your profile page but are not organized on a board. Comments are visible to the original pinner and their followers. Clicking on “repin” will allow you to place the pin onto one of your boards. As you will see below, I can use the drop down menu to select my board and I can also edit the text that will appear with the pin on my board.
How do I Pin from a Website or Blog?
There are two ways to pin from within a website or blog. You can pin by using the “Pin It” button found on may websites or with the Pinterest Bookmarklet.
1. Pinning with the “Pin It” Button
You will notice that many bloggers have begun encouraging pinning by placing a “Pin It” button on their blog posts. Here is how it looks on my blog:
Sometimes you will even find the button right beside the pictures.
Click on the button and a window will pop up containing all of the “pinnable” pictures on that page.
Now you proceed just as you did above. Mouse over the picture you want, select “pin-it”, select your appropriate board, edit your caption and then select “Pin”.
2. How do I pin with the Bookmarklet tool?
Not all websites have a visible pin it button. If this is the case you can still pin using the Bookmarklet Tool put out by pinterest. Essentially this will place a “Pin It” button in your browsers toolbar allowing you to pin quickly from any page. To install the Bookmarklet Tool you will need to visit the Pinterest Goodies page and follow their instructions.
NOTE: If a “Pin It” button is not readily available on a webpage PLEASE check the pages copyright rule BEFORE pinning their pictures. I have heard of several occasions when pinners were contacted about violating a blogs copyright rules by pinning an image.
If you want to prevent people from pinning from your site there are several Pinterest blocking plugins available.
How Do I Create and Organize Boards?
Organization is essential to getting the best experience out of Pinterest but the great part is that they make it SO easy through the use of boards.
When I was a teenager I loved to clip magazine pictures and pin them up. My dad wouldn’t let me pin them to the wall so he bought be several bulletin boards. I had one for clothes, one for friends, and of course one for cute boys! It was a primitive form of Pinterest! The modern version of Pinterest works essentially the same way!
When you first set up your account Pinterest will provide you with a few generic boards to get you started. You can always edit these, delete them or create totally new ones.
1. How do I add a board in Pinterest?
Login to Pinterest
Click “Add +” in the upper right corner
Select “Create a Board”
Name your board, select a category and click “create”
You are now ready to pin to this board just like we showed you above!
2. How do I organize my boards?
How you organize your boards is going to largely depend on what you are pinning. I am an art teacher so I have a board for each class I teach as well as boards for several art related topics. I also have boards for food, dessert, home decorating ideas, fun projects, Christmas gift ideas and so on. I have all of my food on one board but you could easily create boards for specific meats (chicken, beef, fish, etc.) or even types of dishes (appetizer, sides, salads, etc.).
The more boards you want, the more boards you will create. You can also move pins from one board to another by clicking the “edit” button when you mouse over one of your pins.
3. I have boards and I’ve pinned to them…now what?
Everyday we see hundreds, if not thousands, of images on the internet. Pinning them in boards that are organized helps you to collect all those awesome ideas into one place. Now you can access your board, take a quick glance and investigate further. Here is an example.
Login to Pinterest.
Click on your name in the top right corner (You will be taken to your collection of boards).
Select a board and click on it.
I have a “BLOG” board where I like to pin ideas, tips and tricks to help me become a better blogger. Now all the tutorials I find and ideas I get are all located in the same place and I can easily find what I am looking for and can click on it for more information.
For example, the first pin is about how to create a media kit.
I can now click on that Pin and it will (should) take me directly to that source on the internet. (Note: Your first click will enlarge the pin and the second click will actually take you to the source.)
The great part about Pinterest is that it allows you to totally customize your experience by allowing you to decide who you follow, what you repin and where you pin it!
We will be continuing our series about Pinterest with the following posts:
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
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!
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:
Several months ago I noticed that the post theme for February was “Love Story”. I immediately started making plans to write a happy little post about my life in rural Arkansas and how much I love it. Then I was standing in my kitchen trying my best to perform the most routine of chores, and it hit me what I really love so much.
I grew up in a very structured household. You ate your food in the kitchen. You played with your toys in your bedroom. Holidays and other events were planned months in advanced. And you never ran through the house or spoke above a normal inside voice. I had great parents and a great childhood. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I married nearly seven years ago. The two of us lived in our little house with our Jack Russell Terrier, Chloe. It wasn’t structured, but it was quite and simple. The most excitement was cheering for our Texas Longhorns (sorry Razorback fans) during big games.
Our perfect angel, Arlington (Ting), was born in June of 2009 and our life was turned upside down. Suddenly there was crying at all times of the day. Bottles and toys littered every room of our house. Cheering for our favorite team was no longer possible because either we were being quite so she could sleep or watching Nick Jr so she would be happy.
Here we are, 2012. Ting is two and a half years old and we are expecting a little boy in April. Our calm Chloe has gone blind and is constantly bumping into everything and barking at every single sound around us. We both work full-time outside the home so toys, clothes, and who knows what else lies scattered around our small house (which seems to get smaller each day).
As I stood in my kitchen Sunday afternoon, the Super Bowl was on the TV. I was trying to watch the game, cook chicken, prepare brownies, and wash a few dishes and a load of laundry – all at the same time. Ting was running around wide open singing, dancing, throwing dolls everywhere. I was doing my best to not trip over Ting and her toys. Chloe was barking her head off at every little bump we made. Hubby came home from work and was trying to talk on the phone. It was TOTAL CHAOS.
That’s when I realized, it’s the chaos that I love so much! I cannot begin to imagine my life as a quiet and organized life, and honestly wouldn’t want it that way. I love my loud crazy house. I love my chaotic life. I can’t wait to add another child to the mix… it’s going to be so much fun!!
Karen lives in South Arkansas with her husband and daughter. She loves reading and cooking and anything that involves spending time with her family. Her blog, Ting’s Mom, chronicles her daily life as a mom and wife, as well as an occasional review of products her family can’t live without.
Love, from the Bottom of a Backpack {Love Story} Written by Lisa Mullis of Frenetic Fitness
Several years ago I was in the puppy lust stage of a new dating relationship with a man who was “outdoorsy”. His closets held things like 4 season tents, down sleeping bags that compressed into sacs barely larger than my head, multiple backpacks, titanium cooking utensils and Gore-Tex hiking boots. My closets were full of slingbacks, pumps, ballet flats, clutches, totes, satchels, my Mikasa china and a down comforter that would need its own U-Haul when I moved. He owned a road bike and a mountain bike and could read topographical maps and UTM coordinates. I hadn’t been on a bike since I was in elementary school and didn’t know what a topographical map was, much less UTM coordinates. He took semi-annual weeklong backpacking trips out West with his college friends. I took trips to the mall. I was more familiar with line dancing than zip lines. I could work out one of those bras that had 7 configurations but couldn’t figure out how to strap on a backpack without help. Sleeping under the stars? Yes, but only if there was a giant skylight in my bedroom. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that as the relationship progressed, he would need to find out if I was going to fit in with that part of his life. He arranged a test: a weekend backpacking trip to North Sylamore Creek near the town of Fifty-Six in the north central part of the state.
How was I, a person who had moved to Arkansas as a child and had spent all her formative years here so unfamiliar with the outdoors, he wondered? Because my parents were not outdoor people, that’s why. My dad was a Vietnam Vet who had done his share of bivouacking and told us from the time we were little that camping was out of the question. That was not an experience he would repeat without being paid to do so. I did go to church camps a few times as a girl, and did not enjoy it. But I liked this guy and while he was more certain about our relationship than I was at this point, I thought I should at least try to see what he found so appealing about this camping thing. So with my hiking boots of questionable quality, a borrowed backpack full of borrowed gear and one new nylon shirt purchased that morning because I had packed cotton, not realizing that was a big no-no, we set out for our first joint backwoods experience.
Within an hour of starting off down a well worn trail, I realized he was leading me farther and farther away from the familiar rut. Soon we were “bushwhacking” in the wilderness. Was he trying to see if I’d freak out? Perhaps he expected me to complain about the rough terrain or the weight of my pack. I was passing the test with flying colors, we were 3 hours into the hike and I was still having a great time, a much better time than I had expected. Soon it was time to get back on the trail so we could start looking for an overnight campsite, but the best place to get back to it would involve climbing a tree up to a ledge above us. Yes, climbing a tree. Was this part of the test? If it was, I figured my grade was about to drop. I wasn’t sure I remembered how to climb a tree. Somehow I managed with less effort than I thought it would take and we journeyed on down the trail, sometimes chatting away about the things people chat about when all their stories are still fresh and haven’t been heard a hundred times over by their partners and sometimes walking in silence with little but the sound of wind in the trees and boots on the ground. After what seemed like days, but was in reality only a few hours, we found a primitive campsite close to a water source. Did I mention he expected me to filter my own drinking water too? I was exhausted. So I was quite happy to let him set up the tent, unload all the gear, start a fire and make me dinner. And then he did something a little unexpected. He pulled out chocolate pudding cups and a little bottle of Grand Marnier for dessert. On our very first date, he ordered Grand Marnier so we could continue to occupy our restaurant table until closing. It was a nice touch, a reminder of romance and that special feeling you get when you connect with someone, and I hadn’t envisioned it happening in the backwoods of Arkansas, pulled from the bottom of a backpack. A girl could get used to this.
I have had plenty of time to get used to it because I fell in love with backpacking on that trip and finally admitted to him what he had suspected for weeks, that I loved him too. Now I have my own backpack and much better boots and we spend as much time out in the woods and on the trails as we can manage. I learned to love it so much that I agreed to go backpacking for a portion of our honeymoon. Okay so it was backpacking in Peru but it was still backpacking. We still hike and backpack, sometimes just the two of us but more often it’s a family affair because we know that as much as we love each other and the beauty of Arkansas, we need to help our kids find their own love for it so it will be treasured and preserved for their kids to love.
I’m a Wife and Mom. I’m a microbiologist. I’m a mountain biker, hiker, backpacker, sometime runner, and workout enthusiast all while being addicted to good food. I write about it at http://freneticfitness.wordpress.com. I also write for www.ArkansasOutside.com about other people who love to play outside too. I’m fueled by pizza, red meat and goat cheese risotto. And sometimes I sleep.
