You probably hear up, down and sideways that Pinterest can drive mega traffic to your website. While it is true, it’s triple-y true for the last three months of the year! Are you ready for it? Last year, 38 MILLION PEOPLE pinned holiday content. In fact, from August onward, the number of holiday-related pins went up with an average increase…
Simple is best when it comes to design. That’s something I say in Blog Design for Dummies. It’s something I say when it comes to writing . (Why say “utilize” when “use” works just fine?) But sometimes we equate complexity with value. Complex sentences mean we’re more intelligent. Complex designs means we’re more talented. That’s…
I admit it. When I first started blogging, I was naive. I thought that blogging really just involved writing stuff and making friends with other bloggers. I had no clue there was so much extra “stuff.” Any blogger will tell you that actually writing posts is only part of the blogging world. You also need to promote…
There are tons of blogs written by women out there. And I know many of us are considered “mom bloggers” and there are lots of people who share that title too. With so many blogs out there, how can you stand out in a sea of bloggers? Well, I’ve got some ideas you may wanna…
Time for another fabulous guest blogger. I’ve known Eve of Beautiful Spit Up for a while now and just adore her combo of marketing smarts and wittiness. She recently started a second blog called Mama’s Hungry to write one of her passions, making healthy, naturally delicious food. If you’ve ever considered starting a second blog, this post will give…
The 10-Minute Touch Up is a quick, weekly challenge to get you DOING, not just reading about doing. Consider it a way to touch up your blogging just 10 minutes at a time! Brainstorm a Project Challenge: Brainstorm a new project for your blog. Do a brain dump of the ins and outs. The who. The why. Why: One…
A few weeks ago I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit and got my learning on. One of the sessions I listened to was about the constantly changing dynamic between brands and bloggers. Trust me: this is stuff you want to hear if you do any work with brands (or plan to). Liz Gumbinner (@coolmompicks) led the panel,…
Search engine optimization comes up so often in the blog critiques I do so I know you’re itching to learn more about getting your content found on search engines. So today I thought we’d into a little SEO tip regarding anchor text. What’s Anchor Text? Anchor text is a clickable word or phrase that’s hyperlinked to a web…
You’re stumbling on a new blog for the first time. You land on the homepage, but is this blog worth checking out? Does it talk about the topics that interest you? Maybe you came there for a beauty tutorial you found through a search engine. Was that a one-off post or does this blogger churn out…
Creative Ways to Tell Your Stories No one cares what you did last weekend… unless you tell one hell of a story. A lot of us write personal blogs. We tell stories about sleep deprivation, summer vacations and other “everyday” things. Let’s say something happens and you decide it makes good blog fodder. The easiest way…
One of the compliments I get most often is from Twitter followers who love reading my tweets that look like this: I hear everything from how helpful those posts are and what a great idea it is to share older posts. However, it often comes as a surprise when I tell them I’m not slaving…
I’ve been writing Blog Design for Dummies for over five months now. My book will be… wait for it… 352 pages and full color. That means I want to feature many, many awesome blog designs in all their glory. But I’ve run into a problem. So many blog designs out there are pretty, beautiful, vivid, bold, or…
Time-starved. We all are to varying degrees. In fact, I wrote about letting go that seemed to hit home with lots of bloggers. But while I’m all about taking things off my to-do list, I also know that sometimes stuff just has to get done. So I try to work as efficiently as possible. Being busy isn’t…
It’s Day 4 of Bloggy B-Card Week! Be sure to catch on this week’s posts: what to put on a blogger business card, If That’s Your Business Card, I Can’t Wait to See Your Blog and Seven Trends in Blogger Business Cards. You’ve been telling me how much you were looking forward to learning about QR codes so let’s get…
Do you remember how you used to find things like recipes, home decor ideas or parenting advice before blogging came around? We relied on the so-called experts: a popular cooking show chef, home decor magazines, a best-selling parenting book. Before blogging became popular, we had fewer options to find ideas, inspiration and education. Now, we…
When designing (or re-designing) your blog, it’s easy to get carried away with the fun fonts and colors. Problem is, one very important area of your site often gets thrown together without much thought: the navigation menu. The 10-Minute Touch Up is a quick, weekly challenge to get you DOING, not just reading about doing. Consider it a…
If someone came to your homepage today for the very first time, what would they see? A post that really shouts “hey- this is ME and what I blog about!” or a post that whimpers because you wrote it in ten minutes? Oh yeah, you forgot to spell check it too. With each post that…
When I announced my book deal writing Blog Design for Dummies, I had some of you tell me that you wanted me to write about the book writing process. Well, this is the post. Consider this your official behind-the-scenes type look into writing a 352 page book! In case you haven’t heard, writing a book…