Busy Mommy Media» Freelance Writing & Blogging

Blogger Opportunity: Cinch it. Blog it. Win it.

Rachel — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:29:03 +0000

Weight loss is clearly an emotional issue. I’m sitting here, at 35 weeks pregnant, heavier than I’ve ever been in my life, and one of my biggest concerns for the postpartum period is weight loss.

In a perfect world, I’d ignore the issue and allow myself to completely focus on my new baby, but weight is so directly tied to how we feel about ourselves as women that the issue is there, whether I choose to admit that or not. And let’s face it, the squishy postpartum period does little for the self esteem. If only belly fat was as cute on me as it is on a newborn.

I used to think that weight loss was about pant size.

Before I got pregnant, I was having success in my weight loss for the first time in a long time. I was finally losing baby weight that I’d been hanging onto from my last pregnancy – the one where my son didn’t survive – and the weight loss felt like an emotional release. The more weight I lost, the more I found that I didn’t care about pant size because I felt so much better about myself. I had more energy. I was more willing to do small things to take care of myself. I felt fully healthy.

As I gear up for making some healthy changes in my life, I love hearing about others who have successfully walked the path before me. Sommer, from Green and Clean Mom has been through an amazing transformation using the Cinch program from Shaklee.

I’ve tried many things in the past and I know that I always have more success when I stick with an established plan. Apparently I need to be told what to do sometimes. At least when it comes to weight loss. Cinch is a breakthrough program that helps you lose weight and inches without losing muscle, which is a good thing, because we need all the extra muscle we can get trying to keep up with kids.

CINCH® IT TO WIN IT!

Are you ready to lose weight and transform your life? Do you want to be healthier and to have more energy to enjoy life? Take the Team #Cinchspiration Challenge and turn your dreams into reality. Apply today for the opportunity to positively transform your life and to win prizes including a $2,500 gift card to Macy’s, an all-expense paid trip to the social media conference of your choice, and the opportunity to be the #Cinchspiration Bloggers Spokesperson for a one-year contract of $10,000.

If selected to Team #Cinchspiration Blogger, you will receive a formal agreement, along with products and resources to help you in your journey, including:

• A 3-month supply of delicious Cinch products

• A year-long subscription to CinchWellness.com

• An additional 3-month supply of one Cinch product a day and Vitalizer™-the ultimate nutritional foundation for a longer, healthier life.*

• Free Shaklee membership

Applications need to be submitted by May 25, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST

*This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, however, all opinions are my own.

Blogging: How to Make Money with Google Adsense

Rachel — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:22:22 +0000

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked, when it comes to blogging is, “How can you earn money from your blog or website?”. The answer is fairly simple, however, monetizing your blog can result in drastically different results based on a number of factors, including your traffic, how well you understand your readers, and the way you choose to monetize your blog.

Whether you blog purely for fun or are a professional blogger hoping to earn some money from home for your efforts, there are nearly endless options for monetizing your blog (although some are clearly better than others). One of the easiest, and most immediate things you can do to begin making money from your blog is to monetize it by using Google Adsense ads.

Don’t Expect Instant Income

Once you have a Google Adsense account, you’ll be able to create ads and insert the code onto your blog. Income from Google Adsense varies dramatically from site to site so while there are people making quite a bit of money through Google Adsense, many bloggers load the code and are disappointed to see that they are only making pennies a day. Don’t expect instant income but don’t give up home if you don’t see immediate results.

A lot of success with Google Adsense is directly related to your traffic, which will hopefully grow over time, but there is quite a bit you can do to affect your Google Adsense earnings in the meantime.

Experiment with Placement

Ad placement can make a HUGE difference in how much you earn with Google Adsense. The trick is, you won’t know what works on your site until you try it. Google allows you to track how each ad does and I highly recommend using that feature.

To create an ad, login to Google Adsense and click on “My Ads”. In that screen you’ll see a button that says “New Ad Unit”. That is what you want to click on to create a new ad unit for your site.

I like to give my ad units descriptive titles so I can easily tell which ones they are. I use locations because I tend to just create new ad blocks when I move things around but you could also describe colors or ad type and size.

When you create your ad, you also have the option of creating a custom channel. Take advantage of that. This allows you to easily track how your individual ad unit is doing (and that gives me a good idea of how an ad will do in a certain spot if I’m experimenting with different placement).

I like to leave ads up for at least a few weeks at a time so I can get a good idea how they’ll do in a certain position. Make changes one at a time so you can clearly tell what works for your site. For example, if you have an ad in your sidebar and an ad within your post, but you want to see how different size ads do, only change one ad unit at a time. This will let you see which ad size does better in each space.

Play around with a combination of text ads and image ads in each location as well. Depending on your site readership, different types of ads may do better than others.

Experiment with Colors

Colors can make a huge difference in how ads will do on your site too. If you are using image based ads this won’t make too big of a difference but colors of text ads can make a big difference in your results. Many bloggers are tempted to use colors that match existing colors on their site. While this may work since the ads blend in with your existing content, you may also find it more effective to use different colors that compliment the other colors on your site. Again, change one element at a time until you find what works the best for your site.

Don’t Get Too Settled

Once you find something that works, don’t stop experimenting. Many factors can influence your site and will change the way your ads behave. I notice a change in Google Adsense ad performance as the seasons change, as my blog grows, and during holidays. Pay attention to those changes and mix things up a bit if your ad revenue goes down or you hit a plateau.

Be patient. Even if you don’t see immediate results, you can earn an income from your blog using Google Adsense. When I first started using Adsense, I barely made pennies at a time. It was discouraging. But as my traffic grew and I learned how to play around with Adsense, my income increased. Now I get a check from Google Adsense every single month and it’s a very dependable source of income for me.

Have you had success with Google Adsense? What have you done to make it work?

How to Write a Fantastic Product Review

Rachel — Fri, 13 May 2011 07:07:29 +0000

As a consumer, I do most of my shopping online because it gives me the ability to search around for the best deal – and my kids have a one-store limit when it comes to shopping. Before making a purchase, the first thing I do is search around for online reviews so I can get a good feel for what I’m buying.

I rely on accurate and honest product reviews because if I have to make a return it’s probably going to sit on my desk for months until I get around to packing it up and sending it back. As a blogger who frequently writes product reviews, I try and remember the things that I look for as a consumer so that I can create a fantastic product review and be a resource for my readers.

Read the rest at 5 Minutes for Mom

NaNoWriMo – Let the Insanity Begin

Rachel — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:52:59 +0000

Have you ever thought that you had a book in you? How would you feel about writing that book in a month. Yes, the whole book, start to finish. National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, challenges anyone who has a desire to write, to . . . well, write. 50,000 words to be exact. 50,000 words in a month. I’ve participated 5 years in a row and so far, I haven’t finished once. I probably shouldn’t admit that. The way I see it, though, is even if I wrote 20,000 words, that’s 20,000 words more than I would have written without the challenge of at least trying to reach 50,000 words.

While working as a full time freelance writer sounds idealistic, one of the downsides of writing professionally is that some of the fun is sucked out. When you turn something into a job, it becomes . . . well, a job. It’s precisely because I spend close to 40 hours a week writing that I am both insane for participating in NaNoWriMo and insane for even thinking about not participating. Writing is, and always has been, fun. It’s just easy to forget that when you’re on a deadline or you’re writing copy for something exceptionally boring. Not that anything I write is ever boring. I will, however, be forced to yank my hair out one strand at a time if I see another fact about childhood fevers.

One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is the support that you get. The forums alone are a wonderful source for fact checking nearly anything you want to for your novel and finding support from other would-be NaNoWriMoers. While the website itself will likely be difficult to get onto over the first few days, it has some great tools that keep you on task and prevent you from trashing your novel and spending November watching reruns of Grey’s Anatomy and eating your kids’ leftover Halloween candy.

Feel like joining me?

NaNo WriMo 2009

How to Run a Blog Giveaway

Rachel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:27:55 +0000

Running a giveaway on your blog can be a very effective way to attract new readers and they are a fun way to reward your existing readers. I always feel a bit like Santa Claus when I contact a winner, especially when the winners respond with such excited emails. Because you can promote giveaways in so many places for free, blog giveaways essentially give you the ability to advertise your blog for free, but many bloggers aren’t sure how to get started.

Finding a Giveaway Prize

The simplest way to find a giveaway prize is to buy it yourself, but this isn’t very cost effective if you are running a giveaway as a promotional tool for your blog. Once your blog is established and has a steady stream of visitors, you can partner with a company that has the same target audience that your blog does and ask them to donate a prize to giveaway on your blog. Be sure and offer full disclosure in compliance with the FTC guidelines if you received a product donation from a company.

Giveaway Rules

It is important that you clearly list the rules to your giveaway. Don’t leave any room for confusion or you may end up responsible for more than you planned on giving away. Be clear when your giveaway ends, who is eligible to enter, and where the prize can be shipped to (for ex. if you don’t want to ship the prize to Mongolia, make sure your readers know you are limiting shipping to the U.S. and Canada).

Giveaway Entries

If you want your blog readers to enter your giveaway, you have to tell them how to do that. You can keep things simple by having people comment on a post to enter. You can offer additional entries in exchange for your readers doing a little something extra, although there are mixed opinions about doing this going around the blogosphere.

Determine what your goal is in hosting a giveaway. If you want to increase your Twitter following, offer and extra entry for any reader who becomes a Twitter follower. You can offer extra entries for anything you want but be sure to keep the instructions clear so that your readers understand what the rules are. Some of the things that blogs commonly offer extra giveaway entries for are: blogging about the giveaway, tweeting about the giveaway, signing up for the blog’s RSS feed, signing up for the blog newsletter, and sharing the post through some other form of social media such as stumbleUpon or Digg.

You need to be aware of the rules if you are giving extra entries in exchange for your readers doing something on another site. Facebook, for example, does not allow you to require taking any action on Facebook, such as updating a status or uploading a photo, in order to enter the contest, however, you may condition entry to the promotion upon becoming a fan of a your Facebook page.

Choosing a Giveaway Winner

If you are drawing a random winner for your giveaway and not running a contest that allows you to choose a winner based on something they did, you’ll need to find a way to pick an entry at random. Random.org will allow you to enter the number of giveaway entries you have and give you a random number that falls somewhere in between that range. Once you have your random number, you can then go to that corresponding comment on your giveaway post and determine who the winner is. This is easier if your WordPress theme (or a plugin you are using) numbers the comments on your post but you can always do the same thing by counting down from the top.

If you want to simplify the process, there is a great plugin on WordPress called “And The Winner Is. . . “ (as mentioned here - 5 WordPress Plugins for Mom Bloggers) that allows you to label a blog post as a contest and will automatically pick a random comment as a winner.

Contacting the Giveaway Winner

Once your blog giveaway ends and you determine who the winner is, you’ll need to contact her to claim her prize. WordPress includes a field for an email address and even though this usually isn’t visible to all your readers, you can see the email address of anyone who comments in your WordPress dashboard by clicking on “comments”. If your giveaway winner is on Twitter or you are connected with her on Facebook, you can also notify her on there and give your blog giveaway some final exposure.

If you have any questions about running a giveaway on your blog, post them in the comments below.

Photo by Search Engine People Blog

Is the NY Times Jealous of Mommy Bloggers?

Rachel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:47:17 +0000

The mommy blogging community is up in arms over an article that was published in the NY Times titled “Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Building my Brand” that labels mommy bloggers as the “minivan set”. The article had a tone that sounded like it was written in the 50’s and mocking women for thinking they are smart enough to keep up with men when it comes to social media, SEO, and brand awareness. Traditional media is a dying business. Readers today are increasingly looking to blogs rather than newspapers for information.

Is the Term “Mommy Blogger” Derogatory?

Personally, I hate the term “mommy blogger”. It makes it sound as if we’re a bunch of young girls playing house and writing about it. I think people tend to forget that mommy bloggers are adults and we have more parenting experience than the marketing professionals that are paid big bucks to sell products geared towards kids (and therefore their mothers). What happened to people respecting motherhood rather than talking down to it and treating it as a cute little way for someone not smart enough to make it in the real world to spend their days.

I attended Toy Fair 2010 in New York City and found it to be an interesting experience. I’ve worked with companies, large and small, over the years running marketing campaigns that get their products in front of a targeted audience, moms (who have more consumer buying power than nearly any other group), and I was excited to meet people in person that I’d had an online working relationship with. While Toy Fair was overall a positive experience, I was shocked by the reactions of some companies who obviously have no understanding of the way social media and viral marketing is changing their industry. I was physically blocked from entering one booth. Another acted as though I was running around looking for swag . They were shocked to hear that we have a waiting list for companies interested in having their product reviewed on Busy Mommy Media and that we don’t accept anyone willing to hand over free stuff. I was not shocked that I had never heard of those companies – a frustrating point for them considering that as a mom with 3 young children, I am their target audience.

Working Mothers vs. Mommy Bloggers

I’ve often wondered why it’s acceptable (and even encouraged) for a mother to return to work almost immediately after having a baby, but any attempt that a mom makes to earn an income from home is mocked as a hobby. Family and friends who consider blogging my “little hobby” are often shocked to hear that my hourly rate is more than they earn working full time outside of the home. While mommy bloggers are often criticized for taking time away from their families, working mothers are not. With a background in education and an English degree, I’ve had opportunities to work outside the home, but blogging has allowed me to use my skills without leaving my children. My children have never been to daycare and since I generally write about educational activities, my blogging has required me to do more with my children, not less.

Mommy Blogs are Big Business

Many mommy blogs, which were patronized so effectively in the NY Times article, receive the kind of traffic that many businesses can only dream about. Mommy blogs have a targeted audience of educated consumers that corporate marketing departments spend enormous amounts of resources trying to reach. I love what Kelby Carr, an influential mom blogger says on the subject, “We are women who are, perhaps for one of the first times, far better at something than men in many cases and far better in an industry that is making a major impact”

Despite the fact that the article clearly was aware that most of the topics discussed during a blog conference range from SEO to Creating an Effective Media Kit (topics that most businesses spend thousands of dollars on and still aren’t nearly as effective as most mommy bloggers), it was still described as “real-time girly bonding”. The article states, “Heed the speaker’s advice, and you, too, might get 28,549 views of your tutu-making tutorial!”

I’ve been spending far too much time learning about web development and brand recognition apparently. I’ve been slacking in my tutu-making. I’ll get right on that.

Real Work at Home Jobs for Moms – Freelance Writing

Rachel — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:42:44 +0000

Freelance writing is a wonderful way for moms to earn a full time income from home and keep flexible hours so they can be there when their kids need them. I meet many moms who would like to work as a freelance writer but they think that it is out of their reach because they do not have an English Degree. While having an English Degree does open some doors, it is very rarely required for freelance writing. If you have a passion for something, are knowledgeable about a topic, or know how to research, you are qualified to be a freelance writer and work from home.

Places to Get First Freelance Writing Clips

Most freelance writing jobs require some sort of previous writing clips. Some moms may have this from life B.C. (before children) but others may need to start from scratch. There are many places that moms can get some entry level freelance writing experience. Many of these don’t pay much but they will get you the experience you need to find hire paying freelance writing jobs.

Associated Content will give you some basic writing clips for some pay but depending on which direction you take your freelance writing, some companies look down on AC writing clips.

Bella Online is a great resource for women. They often take writers with no previous experience or with experience from Associated Content, however they do not pay. Writers can sometimes earn money on affiliate links as they build up traffic but some topics have hire affiliate earning potential than others.

Type-A Mom is a great website owned by Kelby Carr that allows moms to share their experience with other moms in exchange for a share of the advertising revenue. The site has a wonderful collection of mom writers with all types of experience.

Busy Mommy Media – Don’t forget that Busy Mommy Media has open writing positions for moms who have experience in one of our open topics. Training is provided for moms who don’t have previous writing experience. While the only payment currently offered is revenue share, affiliate commission, and free promotional products to review, there are plans for regular payments to writers in the future.

Content Writing for Moms

Content writing is fairly easy to get into if you have experience in a particular subject matter. While the above sites are content sites, they are possible to do without previous writing experience. Once you have a few writing clips under your belt, these content writing sites offer more money and more prestige.

About.com is one of the few content writing sites that offers guaranteed income to writers. They now have guide positions and contributing writer positions. If you find a topic that you have experience in (and About.com does require extensive experience in the topic and previous writing experience) you can start going through the application process. You will need a relevant writing sample to submit with your application. If your application is chosen, you go through About.com’s prep process with several other writers and one writer will be chosen for the topic at the end of the prep period.

Suite101.com is a Canadian site but has writers from all over the world. They offer feature writer and contributing writer positions for a share of the revenue. I spent several years working as the Infants and Toddlers feature writer and even though I am no longer writing for the site, I still earn a fairly stable income from my articles posted there. Writers retain copyright to their work and are able to repost articles elsewhere on the web after a period of 1 year.

Examiner.com is similar to Suite101.com. Writers choose a topic, including topics specific to your local area, and write in exchange for a portion of the ad revenue. While I have never written for Examiner.com, I have heard good things from people who enjoy it. Examiner.com does not require as much previous writing experience as some of the other content sites so it may be a good option for moms trying to break into freelance writing.

Demand Studios.com – Demand Studios is a great place for moms who have a few previous writing clips to earn a stable income. Most articles pay between $15-20 an article but if you are a fast writer and knowledgeable about the subject matter you can easily write 2-3 articles an hour for an average of $30-$45 an hour. Demand Studios works with several websites to provide content so there are a variety of topics to write on. I rarely have a problem claiming as many articles as I want (except for a few weeks before Christmas when everyone wants to earn some extra money) and Demand Studios pays weekly via Pay Pal. For regular writers, Demand Studios now offers opportunities for health insurance and grant money for other projects.

Professional Blogging

Professional blogging is a field that has grown dramatically in the past few years and requires a post of its own. Mom’s who are interested in working as a freelance writer can start their own blog to develop freelance writing clips, just be sure that each post is your best work if you plan to use your blog as a professional reference. Many sites hire professional bloggers. I will touch on this subject more in a future post.

Freelance Magazine Writing

Magazine writing, whether online or offline (they are all starting to blur together these days) generally pays more than content writing or professional blogging but takes more prep work and generally does not pay until several months after the magazine issue is published.

Online magazines often come and go so you need to constantly be looking for new places to write.

Print magazines are a bit harder to get into and require extensive previous writing experience or extensive experience on the topic you plan to write about. Many magazines have writers guidelines posted on their website but some require you to write in for them. If you are serious about earning a stable income writing for print magazines (and many online markets) you will need a current issue of Writer’s Market. This book is a wonderful reference for freelance writers and will help you find publications that fit your experience.

Where to Find Freelance Writing Jobs

Searching for freelance writing jobs is a constant chore if you plan to make a regular income out of freelance writing. A little bit of time each day (or each week if you need a part time income) should be spent looking for new jobs. Even if you have a stable freelance contract, companies frequently close on no notice and you never know when a better job will become available.

The Freelance Writing Jobs Network not only provides daily freelance job listings, but it is an excellent source of information for new freelance writers and writers who have been around the block a few times and need to learn some new tricks.

Craigslist.org frequently has postings for freelance writers, although you do want to be careful there to avoid scams and extremely low paying jobs.

Indeed.com searches all the major job search engines and puts all the job listings in one place. Do a search for “writer” or “freelance writer” and see what comes up in your area. Many local web development companies hire freelance writers to write text for websites that they create. Many companies need writers and generally they don’t want to provide office space so they like to hire writers to work from home.

Do you know of any freelance writing markets for writers that I missed?

Are you starting a freelance writing career this year to work from home?

How Private is your Blog?

Rachel — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:57:08 +0000

I have to admit, the world is changing a bit too fast for me. Social media has changed the way we shop, think, and live our lives, but it brings new challenges in terms of our privacy. My son cannot comprehend that we didn’t get the internet in my home until I was 14. When he asks why, I tell him, it just didn’t exist, and that blows his mind.

As we slowly started using the internet for more and more things, privacy became an issue. I was always told never put any personal information on the internet. None. I thought that was stupid. Then my smart 14 year old self shared our AOL username and password with a chat window that popped up claiming to be from AOL and never thought to wonder about the 4 or 5 new screen names that appeared in our login window until the bill came. And that was the nothing compared to internet sex offenders, child abductors, and identity theft that happens today.

Is Blogging Personal Information Safe?

Then came blogging. How do you blog without sharing any personal information? I’ve tried sharing everything and I’ve tried sharing nothing. Both ways have failed in their own way. The problem with social media and blogging is it requires a certain amount of openness, which by its very nature, leaves you vulnerable to the dark side of the internet. Share no personal information and your blog dies and you are just wasting your time typing away for nobody at all. Share too much personal information and you risk offending family and friends and putting your family’s safety at risk. So where do you draw the line? Where does your right to share your story with your readers start to trespass into the lives of your family and friends?

And that is the part that I haven’t quite figured out yet. It is always going to be impossible to make everyone happy. The only way to come close is to be boring to the point that no one wants to read what you have written. Blogging requires you to become comfortable in your own skin, comfortable enough to share your emotions as life carries you through challenges of all flavors. The trick is to do it without breaking down and deleting your blog if one friend, family member, or anonymous reader is offended. It’s either accept the fact that anyone, and I mean anyone, can read what you have written or pack it up and go home.

It’s human nature to share more things with certain people than others. Everyone has people they talk to about kids, people they talk to about relationship issues, and people they go to when they want to vent. When those people overlap in a weird social soup, such as on a blog or on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, strange things happen. I heard a quote once that said something like, “Social Media is like a high school party. It ends when the parents show up”. I laughed, then I gave an awkward chuckle, then I realized my mom was my friend on facebook and I started limiting my facebook updates to what I ate for breakfast and our general geographic location.

Social media actually forces you to do something that is very emotionally healthy in a way, even if it is rather awkward getting comfortable with – being the same person no matter where you are or who you are talking to. Instead of having a certain image you display for different people, you have to just decide who you are and find a way to be comfortable with yourself.

One of my earliest memories is when one of my relatives met one of our neighbors. I was at an awkward in between stage. I always acted younger around my relative because I still wanted to be the baby but I always acted older around our neighbor because I wanted her to think I was a big kid. They were never in the same place at the same time so I never had a problem making myself into whatever I wanted to be at the time. One day my two sides collided when they met at my house. If I acted like a baby the neighbor would think I was a baby. If I acted like a big kid, the relative would stop babying me. My poor 6 or 7 year old self was so confused I ran and hid in my room.

Social media doesn’t allow you to hide yourself, or even parts of yourself, from selected people in your life. It’s all or nothing, and I have to admit that I’ve still been trying to determine how I feel about that.

What is Safe to Share?

Common sense plays a big part in social media. You have to be yourself, but be aware of things that you say that could hurt or offend other people. Sometimes the truth hurts, but do you want to be the one to share it? I’ve heard many mom bloggers worry that sharing steps in their child’s potty training process will affect their future job prospects. I’ve personally never worried about that. Everyone poops.

You have to use some common sense though and avoid sharing any information that could put your family’s safety at risk. Don’t share your address, the name of your children’s school, or where you are going to be at specific times. I’m torn on the last name issue. As a freelance writer, my last name is everywhere, but it also makes it very easy for people I know in real life to find me online and people who find me online to find me in real life, so I’ve begun to limit how freely I share it. Pen names can be useful as can using nicknames for your kids online. Every mom blogger has to determine what she is comfortable sharing on the internet and unfortunately, often doesn’t realize which practices are safe and which are not until something happens to change her mind.

Sharing Media Online

Sharing photos and videos through blogs and social media sites is a great way to add personality to posts and create reader interest, but is it safe? Pictures should always be resized for web use and include a watermark, even if you think it’s a photo that no one else would want. Family photos have been known to show up in marketing campaigns overseas.

Check each photo for identifying information. Make sure your kids aren’t wearing t-shirts that display their school name, sport team name, or location. Check the background for street signs and house numbers that could lead unwanted visitors to your doorstep. Keep family calendars and schedules out of pictures.

Photos of public places often contain pictures of other people who may not be a fan of having their surprise photo displayed on the internet — I generally try and leave pictures of strangers offline or photoshop them out. Close up shots of art projects or food is usually fairly safe as are most pictures of your family as long as you are aware of the background and identifying information.

The internet makes the world a very small place. It allows us to have access to more information and resources than we ever could have imagined even a few years ago and it makes us more vulnerable to internet predators and identity theft that ever. The world is changing and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. So what is right and what is wrong? What information is ours to share as blogs and social media becomes the norm?

Twitter, Tweeps, Tweeting and Following: Why and What?

Guest Writer — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:19:01 +0000

Oh Twitter how I love thee! With the emergence of WordPress plug-ins like “TwitThis” and the various twitter badges found on numerous blogs throughout the Internet, it is obvious people adore Twitter. Just what is it that makes this social networking site so lovable? If you aren’t on Twitter and you don’t “tweet” it might be hard to understand but read on and maybe you’ll understand more.

Who Uses Twitter and Why?

The question posed by Twitter, “What are you doing?” has become almost as popular as AOL’s “You’ve got mail.” So much so that it has even caught the eye of offline news mediums such as USA Today, CNN, and ABC. This helps to make the application popular all on its own, whether they use it the same as I do is another story! Those who think Twitter is just a place for computer or Internet geeks can rest assured it’s nothing of the sort, grandma, teens and just about everyone and anyone who is somebody is using Twitter these days.

For many, Twitter is a way to interact with like-minded individuals and quickly with only 140 characters or less. Whether one is a stay at home mom who craves adult conversation, an at home worker who misses the water cooler chit-chat from past jobs, or the business owner who wants to reach more of their target market, this form of social media fills a need. It makes it easier for people to connect with others in a way they might not have previously been able to. Easier and mind you faster, making this very popular because time is of the essence.

Twitter is Easy to Use and Accessible

Normal 0 Want to use Twitter even when you’re not at home or don’t have access to your computer? No problem because any tweep can you it on their phone now! Inside your account you can choose whether to have messages sent via cell phone or instant messenger programs, just so you don’t miss anything important. Just browse to your settings and choose the devices tab and in a few steps you’re good to go. This feature makes it possible to tweet on the go and if you’re ever lost or in trouble, Twitter could save you! This is perfect for those who travel frequently or while out and about come across something interesting or amusing that they’d like to share with their followers. I’ve seen people tweet about what is on a menu and not understanding what it means to giving friends a heads up on a sale.

Twitter Applications

Twitter’s arrival has also lead to the creation of different platforms and applications to make it appealing to just about everyone. Popular applications include, Twitter Fox, Twhirl, TweetDeck, and TweetMyBlog. Twitter Fox and Twhirl give users who are prefer the instant messaging look and feel a way to use Twitter in somewhat the same manner. Twitter Fox is an extension for the Firefox browser and Twhirl is a desktop application. Personally I am a fan of Twhirl and TweetMyBlog but everyone has their favorite so I suggest trying them all out to find what works best for you.

TweetMyBlog is a way to automatically post updates from a user’s blog to Twitter. In order to use it all one needs is a Twitter account and an RSS feed from their blog. It will automatically posts a tweet using your account when your blog is updated. Remember, it’s simple.

Tweet Deck is another desktop application that allows for more organization of updates. Instead of posting all a users tweets one right after another; it allows the user to organize tweets into separate columns within the application. For those who have customers and friends on Twitter this is a great feature.

Following on Twitter

Take some time and head on over to twitter and and while your their, follow me and I’ll follow you back, I’m @greenmom.

By Sommer

Blogging for business: tips, advice, money making ideas and more!

Guest Writer — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:16:08 +0000

When it comes to blogging there’s the question of making money and whether you should blog for money, accept paid reviews, have advertising, and if it actually works. Frankly, I’m experimenting with all of this myself. Can I promise you it works and it’s the best business in the world? No. Is it working for me today? Yes. Do I make a ton of money? No.

Here’s how I see it…I’m going to blog regardless because I just love the networking, researching, creative writing and learning. If I’m going to do this, I might as well make an income. Enough to pay a bill or two pay for my internet, hosting and anything else is just great. If I actually clocked my time spent verses money made, yes I’m making pennies per hour but like I said, I’d do it anyhow. I have many things in the works and many social experiments taking place that are being made into an e-book, I hope to have out for my first anniversary of blogging, September 2008!

I continue to get emails and questions about what services I personally use and how I am making money. Most of these are going into the e-book but I know that many readers are just moms like myself and to help save some of you time and money I’m going to offer a few suggestions.

If you have a newsletter I hands down recommend icontact. The reason being they have an auto responder system that works wonderful and this saves me time. Time is money. They have a great support team, easy to use templates, surveys and a great tracking system. Many systems don’t offer auto responders but icontact does. To read more about newsletters and whether they’re for you and your blog or business I recommend this reading an article from Pro-blogger.

Hosting

The wordpress hosting I chose was Aiso. They are completely solar powered and they don’t just buy carbon offsets. I run a green blog so I wanted 100% green hosting. They were more expensive but if you look at who uses them and that they never go down because of they’re awesome back up system, it is worth every penny. They’re service has been awesome and I personally know most of the people there on a first name basis because I call so often. Yes, you get a real person and that make the money worth it too!

Blog Advertising

Advertising is a tricky subject but if you look at who uses what and who’s making money it comes down to three options. 1) Google adwords 2) Sell your own advertising 3) Go with an advertising agency to sell ads on your blog. So what is best and what should you do? I do all three but I have the traffic so it works for me. If you do Google adwords you have to do some learning about how to optimize it. Again, I direct you to Pro-blogger. I personally have not optimized this avenue and make next to nothing with Google. I use blogads and they take 30% of everything I make but so far I like them. You have to get an invitation to join though. Most networks require invitations or 25,000-50,000 page views per month if not more. For selling my own advertising I use OIO Publisher because it’s a plug in and it works. John Cow uses it and he makes tons of money online. I think this is hands down the best way to go because nobody but you profits. Again, you have to have traffic to sell advertising. Traffic and how to get it is another topic for another day but just because you slap an ad up doesn’t mean you make money! So for OIO Publisher you pay a one-time fee for the plug in and then it’s yours. You have to be using wordpress.org for this and have a self-hosted blog.

Affiliate Programs

The next thing you can do is sign up to be an affiliate. I use share a sale and Affiliate Future and with great results. I only use what pertains to my site and I try to switch it up and not use what I see everyone else using. To make money with affiliates you really have to do a lot so it isn’t a great moneymaker for everyone, from what I can see. For more great information on how to make money as a affiliate, Sparkplugging is the place to go. Again, there has to be traffic, you need to put affiliate links in your posts and newsletters and work it or nothing comes of it.

Sell a Product of Service

Another useful tip, sell something yourself and this happens to be my biggest money maker and source of income. I have a business completely separate from blogging and I integrate it into my writing and blogging. Yes, it’s a MLM but it isn’t evil and neither are MLM’s! Just because you do a network marketing business doesn’t mean you have to hound people and be obnoxious but I’ll write more about this later. Donald Trump even admitted on national television that if he wasn’t doing what he was doing now, he’d do network marketing. People laughed at him and his response but he simply replied that the laughs explained why he was where he is and the people laughing are sitting where they are. Ponder that. This business allows me tons of freedom, no stocking and no inventory. As a Shaklee Independent Distributor and business leader I can teach others to do what I’m doing, make money from it and have a separate source of income from blogging. Multiple sources of income with this economy is necessary.

I have many more tips and things I have learned in the last year (almost) of blogging, internet marketing and networking. Such as moving to wordpress from blogger, blog design, search engine optimization, Google page ranking, social network sites, how to have a giveaway, how to find giveaways, starting a social forum and more. Until the e-book or next time (which ever comes first) happy blogging!

By Sommer