Tag: blogging

Bloggy Boot Camp: Top Ten Tips for Blogging Success

Tiffany Romero Bloggy Boot Camp Organizer — SITS Girl Tiffany Romero telling us how much she LOVES to talk in front of a crowd.

Good morning! We’ve just finished up a yummy breakfast from @PetitJeanMeats! SITSGirls Tiffany Romero @TiffanyRom and Francesca Banducci @FranBanducci gave welcoming remarks. This is the 15th Boot Camp – these gals know what they are doing!

This post is a “live blog” of the Top Ten Tips for Blogging Success session at Bloggy Boot Camp Dallas. Please excuse all typos and format issues. We’re live!

Presenter: Laurie Turk @TipJunkie – Introduced as being ahead of the curve in everything social media and technical. Laurie is super outgoing and friendly, and truly believes in paying it forward. http://tipjunkie.com

Top 10 Blogging Tips – (keep your mind open when thinking about how you can apply these to your blog)

1. Know what industry you are in. McDonalds is the largest single owner of real estate in the world. They are not in the business of food, they’re in the business of real estate. YOU are in the business of online real estate. Your content has to be great, but people have to SEE it in order for your blog to be successful. As we learn and grow, our blog will grow too.

Laurie recommends Kelby Carr’s eBook, Mom Blog SEO as a great way to drive traffic to your blog.

2. Treat your blog like a business. Think like a business person. Have one main purpose. If you solve a problem, you will make money! Know your limitations and work toward your strengths. Find a way that you can take something you love and make money at it.

Ophra.com – One page business plan
Small Business Checklist for Bloggers – SavvyBlogging.com

3. Always expect a pay-off for your efforts. Don’t spend time, money, or effort on things that don’t pay a return. Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income. Schedule these with short and clear deadlines. Think about how much your blog costs you a day in time and money. Pay-offs:

Higher Traffic
Recognition
Money
Experience

Cut items out that don’t pay off in one of the categories above. Get rid of email subscriptions, etc that don’t help you. Laurie cut out Twitter because it was taking a lot of time and didn’t have a pay off.

4. Work smarter, not harder! Multiply your strengths and outsource the rest. Never underestimate the person sitting next to you – collaborate with people who are different from you and have different skill sets.

Do your most important task first
Spend your 1st hour intentionally working
Have a 12 month editorial calendar
Have office hours
Maintain no-technology hours
Only read email 2x a day
Use social media management tools like HootSuite to schedule image posts.
Sync Google Calendars with your family
Use alarms on your phone
Have 3 month goals & track them in Google Docks

5. Establish an end game and define yourself. Make a long term plan. Where do you want to be in 3 years?

6. Never second-guess a fun idea. If you have a crazy idea and it is completely bonkers, do it.

7. You’re only as good as the company you keep. Surround yourself with supportive people. If someone is bringing you down, get away! Join a closed facebook group that is negativity free. Barter advertising! Cross-promote! Be active in one another’s community.

The loudest voice is not always right. Listen to the people that are making money. Listen to the people who are already doing what you want to do. Avoid blog envy! When one person succeeds, we all succeed.

8. Teach people how to treat you. Remember “your problem is not my problem”. Make people tell you what they want and what their parameters.

9. Reward, don’t bribe. Give people something fun/free and all the sudden your subscribers will shoot up. ebook, printable, how-to guide, etc…

10. Branding, baby! Branding is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room. Ask your readers, ask your friends, “What do you think I am?” Find out how other people describe you.

Bonus Tip: Brand Every Blog post – First 3 sentences: explain what the reader can expect from the beginning, middle, and end of your blog post. Link to other posts within your blog in those first 3 sentences using relevant keywords as the link. Brand Imaging: add text, url or logo to your image. Use PicMonkey.com (it’s free). Footer: Put a footer with your profile picture, your blog button, RSS Feed, ebook, or Facebook Freebie. That way if people steal (scrape) your content, it’s still branded as yours.

This session is being blogged to you live by Fawn Rechkemmer, who blogs at Instead of the Dishes. Special thanks to Petit Jean Meats for sponsoring Fawn’s attendance at Bloggy Boot Camp. Blogging is better with Bacon!

Join Us April 28th for a Meetup!

Since November we have been hinting to you about a gathering this spring. Well the time has arrived!

We want to extend a formal invitation to all of you to join us at the Historic Arkansas Museum in downtown Little Rock for an official Arkansas Women Bloggers meetup! Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 28th and don’t forget to bring all your bloggy friends! Here’s our agenda for the day:

9:00am – We’ll break into small groups lead by the ARWB Gals to discuss the blogging topics most important to you! Help and be Helped by your fellow Arkansas Women Bloggers!
10:00am – Learn a little more about the Historic Arkansas Museum, which has graciously stepped up to host our meetup.
10:30am – Time for refreshments, networking (that means chatting), and exploring the museum.
12:00noon – grab your ARWB friends, new and old, and head out to lunch in the downtown area. There’s something for everyone within easy walking distance. Then, save room for dessert and head across the bridge to the Argenta Market in North Little Rock and hit the Foodie Bloggers Charity Bake Sale (watch our website for more info on this event)!

We’ll also be giving away an attendance spot for our ARWB Conference scheduled for June 1-3 at the Ozark Natural Science Center! We’ve got some other goodies and fun in store too. In support of the Food Bloggers Bake Sale, anyone who brings baked goods for the sale to the meetup (we will transport them to the sale for you) will get an extra entry into the conference giveaway!

The Historic Arkansas Museum has reserved parking, so save your meter/garage parking money for the Museum’s fun gift shop, which is full of fantastic wares made right here in Arkansas. You can go here to RSVP for the meetup on Facebook, or you can leave a comment to let us know that you’ll be attending.

Also, don’t forget to register your blog with us by filling out our simple registration form.

We can’t wait to see you all!

3 Reasons I Love My blog Schedule {Love Story}

3 Reasons I Love My blog Schedule {Love Story}
Written by Sarah E. White of Our Daily Craft

I’ve never been a very consistent blogger. Actually, that’s not true. When I’m paid to blog I can do it with consistency and style, and even work ahead of myself when the need arises.

When it comes to personal blogging, though, it’s a different story. I have good intentions, and lots I want to write about, but my blog is always at the bottom of the to-do list, and often after all the commitments of my for-pay writing there aren’t enough hours with my daughter out of the house to get personal blogging (and, heaven forbid, a little house cleaning or exercise or something) done, too.

This year I resolved to do better, so I set myself a blogging schedule, or maybe more precisely a framework for my posts. Each day has a theme into which I try to fit my writing. This will be different for every site but here’s mine:

“My Life” Monday: this is the place for postsabout what’s going on in my life and household, parenting, general crafting essays and other stuff that doesn’t fit into the other days (recipes, bookreviews, etc.)
Tutorial Tuesday: just like it sounds. Here I’ll teach my readers how to do something or share a crafty project.
Whatever Wednesday: Wednesday is sort of a wildcard day. It usually looks a lot like Monday, with posts about crafting,parenting, what I’m working on and what we’re playing with.
Things I Love Thursday: a place to talk about books, websites, companies, people, products or whatever else I’m into that week.
“Found it on Pinterest” Friday: to keep myself actually creating some of the things I find on Pinterest, these posts feature my take on projects on my boards.

The Case against Schedules

I know the thought of a schedule for blogging is pretty off-putting for a lot of us. I didn’t actually expect to like it. Our blogs are personal, they have to do with what’s going on in our lives, and you can’t schedule that.

Furthermore, blogging is creative,and you never know what you’ll want to write about from day to day, right?

That’s true, but it’s also true that a framework for thinking about what we’re going to write can be just the thing we need to get us on track, keep us motivated, even make us more creative as bloggers. In fact, there are plenty of reasons to love scheduling.

Organization Will Set You Free

My schedule makes planning my week easy. Instead of wondering what I’m going to write about from day to day, or thinking “maybe I should write a tutorial,” I know basically what I need to be thinking about to fill my week. And it’s already happening pretty naturally. Something will happen during the week that will be great to write about for a Monday, or I’ll be doing something and think it would be perfect for a Thursday post.
It makes me more creative. Knowing that I need to have a tutorial every Tuesday and something I made from Pinterest every Friday means there needs to be more crafting built into my schedule. But beyond that I’m thinking like a blogger more, seeing post possibilities everywhere. I find myself trying out new things more often and taking lots of pictures and notes so I always have a steady stream of post ideas at the ready. I’m also visiting more blogs, learning from other bloggers and getting more ideas to try.
It helps me stay focused. I started this on January 4 and managed 17 posts in January compared to just seven in December, when I thought I was trying to post more often. More often than not, I’m posting every weekday now. I usually know at the beginning of the week what my posts are going to be about, which means I’m already thinking about them before I start writing. That makes the actual writing go a little faster, and a couple of times I’ve actually managed to do a little writing in advance.

I won’t say a schedule is foolproof, and I’m sure there will be slipups, vacations and days I just don’t get to the blog, but on the whole I love my new arrangement.

I’m getting more posts written, getting more blog traffic and having more fun. Who wouldn’t love that?

Sarah E. White is a freelancewriter, editor, blogger, wife and mom of a 2-year-old based in Fayetteville.She’s the Guide to Knitting for About.com and writes about her crafty life at Our Daily Craft .

Recent Winners on ARWB

Arkansas Women Bloggers has been at its new home for three weeks and what a whirlwind it has been. We have been giving prizes and hoping to entice the 400+ members of our old site to head on over and join us here. If you have not taken the time to join us yet, we hope you will soon! There is power in numbers and we have several deals in the works that will be sweeter, the more members we have. If you have joined us, THANK YOU! We hope you will continue to encourage all your bloggy friends to join us as well.

We want to take a moment to congratulate all of our recent winners and to sincerely thank all of the sponsors of the great giveaways that we have had so far. We will be having many more giveaways and exciting events in the near future.

Recent Winners on ARWB

Jackie W. won the Cooks Illustrated – Best Make-Ahead Recipe from Lyndi of NWA Foodie.

Whitney S. won a Flip Camera courtesy of Shannon and Gwen of NWA Motherlode.

Stephanie H. won a $100 Visa Giftcard compliments of the Collective Bias Team.

Jasmine B. won 2 show tickets courtesy of the Walton Arts Center.

Heather N. won an autographed copy of the The Pioneer Woman Cooks courtesy of Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.

Karen W. won an autographed copy of the The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels courtesy of Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.

Shana W., Christy J., Stephanie H., and Amy B. all won handmade Christmas ornaments from Julie at Eggs and Herbs.

The Pinterest Challenge Wreath Giveaway, sponsored by Gina of Desperately Seeking {Gina}, is still in progress. Please click here for more information on how you can enter to win.

Please help us to show appreciation to our sponsors by taking a moment to visit their websites and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

We Want YOU to Write for Arkansas Women Bloggers

We want YOU to write for Arkansas Women Bloggers!

One of the easiest ways for you to get involved in the Arkansas Women Bloggers community is to write for us. We have said this before but I want to remind you that ARWB is about YOU, our members. Our goal is to provide a community where you can connect with other like-minded women. We want you reading each other’s blogs and a great way to let everyone learn about you and your blog is to write a feature article for us! Hopefully we can offer some answers to the questions you may be having about writing for ARWB.

Why should I write for ARWB?

In every article you write for Arkansas Women Bloggers we will provide a short bio of you along with links back to your blog. Many ARWB readers will click through to your blog. This helps to build your personal readership.

Guest writing for another blog can also help to build your writing skills. When I (Julie) began guest posting on other blogs I brought my writing to a whole new level. I became more aware of my ‘voice’ and more aware of my writing style. I wanted my pieces to be their absolute best. This
new found quest for ‘perfection’ carried over into my own blog and I found myself writing more meaningful pieces all around.

What can I write about?

Write about what you love. You don’t have to change your style or your preferred genre to write for us. Write in your own voice, make it
authentic. We are open to myriad topics but will also provide you with an editorial topic each month to help you get started. We intentionally leave the topics slightly vague to allow you to interpret it in your own way. You can find the list of upcoming topics in the sidebar of our website.

Upcoming editorial topics:

Handmade Holiday (December)
New Year, New You (January)
Love Story (February)