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Feb
23

Thinking Through Your Blogging Business Steps

By | How tos, Problogging

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Have you marked your steps towards blogging as a business?

Have you marked your steps towards blogging as a business? Photo by Lewandowski

“A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.” ~Proverbs 14:15

When bloggers begin to look for ways to increase revenue and income online it can be a tough road when you don’t know who to trust. There is SO MUCH out there – some ok, some good and some out-right horrible. What it means for those who want to take blogging beyond “personal outlet” and turn it into a business is that some common sense business principles must apply. Here are some thoughts.

Read Every Blogging and Writing Contract Very Carefully

Are you writing for someone else? You should have a contract. If you weren’t given a contract, run away. Quickly. :-) If you were given a writing contract, READ IT. Carefully. And then read it again. Be sure to clarify any confusing points, especially when it comes to your rights.

Ask Yourself What Rights You’re Willing to Give and at What Cost

If you are ghost-writing content for another site, and your name is not on it, you should be charging a premium price. That is freelance copyrighting. Not “blogging”. If you get your name on it and a brief bio and even a link back to your website, that may be of value to you so you could consider charging a lower price. If the client is taking full rights and you are giving them the rights to the content forever, you would want to charge more than you might if you were able to reuse the content in print or on your own website in the future. These are all considerations you should be aware of before agreeing to a certain price.

If it Talks Like a Business, It Should Act Like a Business

I’m just sayin’. If you call yourself a professional blogger or say that you want to turn this into a business, than do not treat it like a hobby. If you want to blog for personal enjoyment, by all means, do so. Just don’t call it a business if it’s not. And by all means – if you’re calling it a business, please, please, please act professionally. This means your speech. Your financial dealings. Your disclosures. Your dealings with clients and other bloggers.

Of course, sometimes these things sneak up on us – that’s what it means to give thought to your steps. When you find yourself in the position to accept advertising, or begin using affiliate links in your posts, you’ll need to think carefully to your steps. Think of yourself as a business from dollar $1 and you won’t find yourself stumbling in the future. Step wisely, dear friend, and the prudent path will be before you.

Feb
14

Blogging Session Notes Link-Up!

By | Conferences

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So, I am not the only one who has been typing up some amazing blogging conference notes from the workshops and training sessions we attended. Here is a gathering of the session recaps and blogging trainings, both here on AngEngland.com and on other websites.

From @JustHeather – Keynote Session w/Kevin Carroll - about blurring the lines between work and play.

From @TipJunkie – Connecting With Your Community of Readers – all about our readers and our community as bloggers. From @JustHeather – Liveblogged Version of Connecting Session.

From @AngEngland – Content is Queen – about high quality writing and finding your voice.

From @JustHeather – Getting Published - about publishing options, tips and tricks.

From @AngEngland – Problogging Session Notes – about taking your blogging to the next level. From @ChristineSatter – Evolving into a Problogger.

From @BostonMamas – Striking a Balance – a realistic look at balancing blogging and life. @JustHeather’s Liveblogged Recap

From @AngEngland – Advertising on Your Blog - examining ad networks and monetizing your blog. @JustHeather’s Liveblogged Version.

From @SGetgood – Disclosure and Slides from “You Should Know Better” - all about the financial, ethical and legal things you need to know as a blogger. From @modernmami Her notes on Disclosure, FTC and Accounting.

From @BeyondJEMS – Memoir Writing Session Notes - all about how to blog your own story.

From @AngEngland – Leveraging Social Media – how to use social media to build your business. @JustHeather’s Liveblogged Notes

From @JustHeather – Inspirational Writing Workshop – sponsored by HallMark, this workshop was all about inspiring others w/your words.

From @AngEngland – Using SEO Techniques as a Blogger – increase your blog traffic through well-optimized posts, w/o losing your unique voice.

From @JustHeather – Niche Blogging Workshop - about finding and maximizing your niche.

From @frelle – Wisdom Workshop Recaps – She has the notes posted from “What’s Your Story” media training workshop, the “Her Story” Writing Track Wisdom Workshop, and the “Social Media and the Women Who Love it” Wisdom Workshop.

I know there are other session notes out there, so leave a link in the comment and I’ll add the blogging session to our list! :-)

Feb
12

I’ve been Nominated! Calling all Okie Buds to Vote….

By | Personal Blogging

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So I recently found out that I’ve been nominated for an Oklahoma Blogging Award.

You must live in Oklahoma to vote for me, but you’ll notice that not only was this site, angengland.com, nominated in Best Writing Blog category – Untrained Housewife was nominated for Best New Blog of 2009!! What an honor! Both of my big sites nominated – I must find whomever snitched on me and kiss them.

Meanwhile, please consider voting for me if you are an Oklahoman blogger! Click the link above to find out how.

Thanks,

Angela <><

Feb
11

SEO Tips For Bloggers – Merging Humanity With Technique Blissdom Workshop Recap

By | Conferences, SEO Tips

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This is the teaching outline and merged notes from the Blissdom Wisdom Workshop on SEO and Stats that was taught by Kelby Carr (@typeamom) and myself, Angela England (@AngEngland). Thanks to @econemicliving who shared her copy of the notes – the basic teaching outline was created ahead of time, but the Q & A’s came from the audience and helped guide the session outcome!

Writing Good SEO Does Not Have to Hide Your Humanity. Photo by Ivan Petrov

Writing Good SEO Does Not Have to Hide Your Humanity. Photo by Ivan Petrov

Kelby -Understanding SEO for Bloggers

SEO does not have to mean geeky/soulless. You do not have to choose between writing for humans and computers.

Reasons SEO is important to bloggers

Look at SEO as a different style of writing, just like newspapers, books, TV, radio, etc. are all media with their own styles. Cover basic standards for web/SEO writing: clear, concise, on point, etc.

Ask Yourself: “What Would I Search?”
Go to Google and do a search before you start writing – what comes up is probably what your title should be. (What is this about?)
-Slight tweaking of a phrase can make a big difference

Researching and choosing your keyword phrase (with demo of doing keyword research)
-Ex: mommy blogger, mom blogger: MOM BLOG, top 10 mom blog
(Google – keyword tool –click on global monthly search volume (keep use synonyms checked) – be sure people are searching it.

(Angela’s Note - one of the best features of my ebook is the step-by-step visual guidance on how to do this. If you are “stuck” on this portion of keyword research, or still having trouble applying it to your specific situation, that may be a resource for you to consider.)

Angela – Implementing Human-Friendly SEO on Your Blog

Understand the ABC’s of Web Writing

  • A – Active Title “No Cutsey” – Start with a good, clear title (should ALSO be title tag next to Mozilla/IE symbol)

  • B – Bolded Subheading – Use Heading (Angela uses H3) setting vs just bolding

-Subheading for clarity, helps catch the eye
-work some of the words in your title into your subheading

  • C – Cut Away Rambling Fluff (narrow focus)

Things that help with SEO also help with human readers -(Sub heads – bullets – scan )

Don’t be Afraid to Tailor SEO to Site  and Situation - (demo of posting book review  to three diff sites)

SEO in Action – Formatting the Post

Tag your photos too – people search for photos- google image search – use hypens between your words – alternative text to increase SEO. Do intro paragraphs for videos and then embed it

From Kelby -Categories = chapters and Tags = index

Takeaway Handout – post from my blog/ebook w/article template for web writing

HUB PAGE – a post to send people to other posts – put your links in a keyword sentence

(Angela’s Note – By popular request, here are some sample hubpages. This is the round-up post for the Ten Habits of Successful Blogging Series on my site. This shows Popular Children’s Books for Preschoolers and here’s one Kelby did about Traveling in the Summer. )

How Can You Improve SEO Now?

  • At the end of post – call to action (what do you think, post a comment, read this) Link to other people
  • Weave your keywords/title throughout your post – words in title should be in first paragraph
  • Google pagerank, firefox browser extensions, seaquake, pagerank
  • Optimize your past posts – will re-index your SEO’s, including your page titles – rework old content
  • When you repeat posts (Freebie Friday) put more interesting title at beginning (CVS freebie – Freebie Friday)

A Word About Stats and Analytics

  • Install Google Analytics – look at referral from google (if under 50%, there’s a problem)
  • Get Clicky – to see what people are clicking on when they leave your site
  • Take advantage of seasonal content
  • Social Bookmarking (wikipedia and digg = no follow links)
  • Curtsey, mom share, propeller, facebook fan page, stumbleupon.com, Hubpages website are follows (This sample from Hubpages includes another example of a round-up page designed to get On-Topic links back to other posts and articles).
  • Google.com/webmasters

-set preferred domain
-Claim a sitemap (please use rss feed as a sitemap) – not ideal, but a place to start

Angela says: Content attracts, relationships keep

Search WP extension: “redirect” if you’re going to start changing page names

Create HUB PAGE with lots of resources – with links – and put in side bar

People love Top 10 Lists

(Angela’s Notes – I couldn’t take exact transcriptions on this session because my mouth was open the whole time so I hope you’ll all forgive the rather abrupt and “bullet pointed” type of notes. The information is, of course, still helpful I hope. :-) Kelby and I bounced off eachother so much through the session it was hard to note who said what sometimes. For Mommy Bloggers SEO Advice, please check out Kelby’s upcoming book which will have more specifics on SEO tips that WON’T make you sound like a robot!)

Feb
10

Leveraging Social Media to Market Your Business – Blissdom 2010 Session Notes

By | Conferences, Social Media

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This Blissdom Blogging Conference Session was Saturday morning and taught by @JulieCole, @youcanmakethis, @LisaLeonard, @Dooblehvay, @KimbaASPTL, and @JesseKateDesign.

Building a Social Media Community can Help Promote Your Business - photo by Davide Guglielmo

Building a Social Media Community can Help Promote Your Business - photo by Davide Guglielmo

1- Build the buzz
You want people to start talking about it now

2- Be Yourself
Don’t be afraid to be imperfect – just be YOU

3- Be Specific
Sign up for the newsletter; ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT (Go and register, get the free ebook, subscribe to the feed, leave a comment, etc.)

4- Bring on the Bookmarks
Social bookmarking. Put it on product pages and posts, etc

5- Be Appreciative
They don’t have to give you anything – thank them for their trust with their email, etc.

What social media tools have been most important to promoting your business and why?

Kris – Know your audience. We survey our audience quite a bit – surveymonkey.com. When surveying you have a better feel for which social media tools they are using. Their audience = 80% using Facebook vs 9% MySpace. Their niche had a lot of audience using yahoo groups.

How do you manage social media?

She does ALL the social media for the business herself – thinks it’s really important because she wants it to be very genuine and doesn’t know how that would happen if she were outsourcing that work. (Angela’s Note – When I have worked as a personal assistant I usually sort the emails, do the “office tasks” that don’t require the boss’s unique voice. Her advice is spot on, in my opinion.)

Building relationships to build relationships is key.

How much time is the right amount of time?

Kimba – Since my blog is my business I probably spend a higher percentage of time than some of the others. There’s a balance but she spends a couple hours a day on the blog usually.

Caitlin – Social Media for Mabel’s Labels means that social media IS my full time job. Reply to everyone, thank everyone. “It’s all about spreading the love”

Most successful social media campaigns?

Amy – Twitter has been very successful. Has a personal blog too. Contest to name the new bear, etc having the audience interact and have a personal role in what’s going on.

Can you share an experience with unsuccessful social media campaigns in the past?

Caitlin – Transparency is KEY. If someone posts something negative you need to address it personally to THAT PERSON but make it public in that same public space. You can change that situation around and creates an impression about how you handle things. Loyalty is important and vital – small readerships, small businesses, etc. Who knows where they will be in two years.

Network up, network down and network side to side – but NETWORK OFTEN.

“One ad and one giveaway does not a business make.” You have to build up your brand awareness over time through multiple efforts.

How do you find your voice and do you have rules?

First and foremost – a writer and not JUST a toy-maker. This panelist wasn’t afraid to put herself out there as a PERSON in addition to a business.

How do you monitor your business in the Social Media arena?

I had to stop trying to police the internet and put that energy into creating something new and to help my audience.

Google Alerts helps you monitor what others are saying about you. Address what needs to be addressed and leave the rest behind you.

Service selling vs product selling via social media?

  • Learn to talk about our service more objectively – sell your SERVICE, not yourself as yourself.
  • Sell yourself as a person PLUS your service.
  • Add your professional activities on your Linked In profile to build up your online resume.

Entertainment + Education = Engagement

Feb
09

Is Your Blog Ready For Advertising? – Blissdom 2010 Session Recap

By | Making Money

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Are you ready for advertisers on your blog? Let them know!

Are you ready for advertisers on your blog? Let them know!

The “Wizard of Ads” session was presented Saturday Evening at Blissdom 2010 and designed to help explain some of the mysteries around advertising and monetizing your blog. Speakers were @thestilettomom, @adramaticmommy, @michellelamar, @simplemom, @paulabruno.

Content is King

What are you writing? What is your information? What are you presenting? Is your blog cluttered? Clean? If advertisers are paying for real estate they need to be seen.

Clean up Your Act

Make it EASY for advertisers to want to advertise on your blog. Clean looking. (Angela’s Note – this is important I think. If your ad space is one of a million it isn’t as valuable. On Untrained Housewife, for example, I limit the side bar image ads to four. That’s it. Advertisers know that their ad will BE SEEN.)

Be Careful What/How you Review

Be picky and stick to your brand image. If, for example, I were to review Merry Maids service on Untrained Housewife, that might spoil the whole point of the entire site which is to empower moms with the knowledge they need to be succesful on their own.

Know Your Site Stats

Know your blog, audience and tag-line/elevator speech.

Know Your Blog or Site Statistics for Advertisers photo by Dominik Gwarek

Know Your Blog or Site Statistics for Advertisers photo by Dominik Gwarek

Be able to speak to your “influencer” status – Not just page views, also loyalty and influence in some way. In some ways you present yourself as an influencer and then you BECOME one. Look beyond *just* your blog stats.

Key Phrases you need to know to speak to advertisers -The Advertising Vocabulary

  • CPM – Cost per thousand pageviews. It can be anything from $1-$15. Usually the CPM goes up the more focused your niche is. If the CPM pay is $5 and you get $5 for that month.
  • Market averages
  • Unique vs Pageviews – Unique is one person who comes to your site, they are counted ONCE PER MONTH and that’s it. Pageviews is the number of page views.
  • CTR – Click Thru Rate – it’s how many times your audience clicks through from your site to their site. With a very low click-thru-rate you might contact the advertiser and suggest a new image.
  • CPC – Cost per Click – You get paid only if/when someone clicks on the ad.
  • Comscore – The Gold Standard among ad agencies.

Increase page views with “Linked Within”

Are your readers interested in your reviews or not? Not every site is an appropriate venue for product reviews and descriptions. Angela’s Note – You’ll notice I do very, very few reviews of any kind here on this site. But on Untrained Housewife the review articles can sometimes be some of the most popular pieces as readers are looking for helps and solutions for a particular problem.

An Ad Network or On Your Own – Which is right?

What is an ad network? Groups together a bunch of sites within a certain category and sell the sites together to create a larger base and then sells those sites advertisements collectively to advertisers.
BlogHer, Glam, JuiceBoxJungle, Lifetime, RGN (real girls network) (Angela’s Note – Did I miss any? If you know of a blog-friendly ad network please leave it in the comments section)

Pros and Cons – Pros, you have a team of seasoned ad sales executives selling your site FOR you. They collect the money. They pay you. They market the ad sells.
Cons – You don’t always have control over ads that are showing up.

(Angela’s Note – While Google Adsense was specifically mentioned as being an ad network that throws up inappropriate ads I contest this observation. Using even the minimum keyword research and basic SEO principles, as described in my Making Money Blogging ebook and on this blog, a website and blog owner can greatly increase the number of appropriate ads in a piece – and thus the number of clicks on those ads – and thus their revenue via Google Adsense.)

What does the network expect from you? Communication, timely placement, etc. Exclusivity usually.

Different ways to make money – through editorial postings on your blog about something.

How will ad networks pay you? About half of the income will be yours. You give them 50% to be your business manager.

When will they pay you? 90-120 days out. You won’t get a check right away.

READ THE FINE PRINT – what is your plan for the next two years. Compare some various networks to see which is most appropriate for your particular site, statistics, readership and situation.

Try to do two – above the fold and below the fold.

Compare multiple ad networks

Going it on your own – Setting up and Selling Ads on Your Own

- Where do you find the advertisers?
Find blogs similar in niche and readership and look at their advertising. Contact the advertisers about your blog and present your pitch. PITCH YOURSELF!

Develop a relationship with your client. – Easier to keep an advertiser than to FIND a new advertiser.

  • Make sure you have a page set up for them to find information about advertising.
  • Length of contracts to propose and how you price is.

She charged $1 per CPM to advertisers based on the past month. Offers 10% discount for three months or more or does buy three get one free.

Offers a small-business discount.

Cons – You do it yourself. Doesn’t take as much time as she thought that it would. Angela’s Note – I have found this to be true with Untrained Housewife as well – the actual installation of the ads and links, etc takes very little time for the return on investment. And I keep 100% of the ad revenue instead of splitting it. :-)

Angela’s Summary – The one thing that I disliked about this session was the implication that Google Adsense is a waste of time and always throws up the wrong ads. If a blogger is getting unrelated ads on their blog posts it’s because they are not writing good quality SEO and using keyword research. In this case, you probably are not only getting unrelated Google Ads, but also getting unrelated READERS from Google. Your bounce rate will probably be very high because people are coming to your site expecting one thing, and getting another. Personally, my bounce rate is relatively low and my adsense account pays quite well as a residual income stream for me.

The solution? Not to self-promote but my ebook does cover this information in depth, including screen shots of a keyword research session I went through so you can see very step-by-step how to tailor your keyword research for your particular situation.

Also, I will be posting the session outline from Kelby and I’s SEO Wisdom Workshop for those of you who didn’t attend Blissdom or missed the workshop day. :-) So subscribe on the right hand side by typing in your email, and stay-tuned for that post.

Feb
08

Problogging Session Notes – Blissdom 2010 Recap

By | Conferences, Problogging

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This session was presented at Blissdom 2010 on Saturday afternoon with @AlliWorthington, @BarbaraJones, @kimmoldofsky, @AudreyMcClellon, @SSmirnov, @nancydsmith

Earned media – traditional – not paid. via pitches and open.
Paid media – Content that is paid, sometimes video, articles, campaign, consulting, etc.

Sometimes one thing leads to another. Just because an opportunity doesn’t pay, doesn’t mean it won’t lead to something else. Think of everything as an evolution and as a stepping stone.

You need to be YOURSELF when you’re blogging. Working with the PR rep about the best possible way to reach your readers might be.

Nancy – Paid Media – If I am paying you I am giving you talking points. The content is MY choice. You’ll get talking points and you can’t stray from your talking points.

Alli – “Rock what you got – find your own way”

Real life meet-up to host a party for a brand. Paid content, sponsored posts, etc.

Nancy says – we’ll need to know the Return on Interest. There are things that are valuable – influence over readers, a new segment that can be of value to tap into and raise awareness to, reach, etc.

In a focus group – prior to the event. Nancy got enough insight to feel it was worth the price of admission. If you offer something special to the brand like an event meetup, a focus group, etc

Have a case study ready – Barbara says “what was the objective. What was the solution. What was the results” We wanted to do this. We did this to get there. And this was the result of the campaign.

EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO SHOULD HAVE METRICS ATTACHED TO IT

Companies are looking for a social media footprint – a social media mom. Can you do a twitter and a flickr and a facebook and your blog AND youtube. Overall knowledge. Overall reach. Everything counts beyond the traffic number on your one blog post review.

Invest in your strong relationships with companies and social media folks, etc. Sometimes these PR companies they are still lobying and pioneering these recommendations and trying to convince the others of the importance. THEY are the ones that are fighting for you. Don’t make them look bad when they have been putting their necks out for you.

When you reach out to PR’s be specific. Not “Hey I want to review your product and here’s what I’ve done in the past”. Mention the brand, your plan, what you have in mind.

Build a resume for yourself in terms of your social media footprint. Prove your worth. Expand what you have out there and your reach.

Be aware of who you are speaking with. The PR is usually not the person who has the budget. ASK THEM who the right person is to talk to for a paid media campaign if you think you have something of value to offer.

There’s always a way to make money for good ideas. It should feel full and integrated and robust. When pitching an idea make sure you present a complete overview and be prepared to wait to hear back.

With a paid content the product has to be vetted and approved. You can’t say whatever you want (Angela’s Note – Watch for future posts on treating your writing like a business. Writing for money, whether you are generally a blogger or not, makes you a FREELANCE WRITER or copywriter…know what that means and entails!)

Present an honest and balanced viewpoint. It’s tone. Don’t go to Twitter and post some passive-aggressive rants. Nancy keeps a list of the vindictive and purposefully hurtful. A negative is totally ok – it can be a helpful post even with negatives or “things they could be improved upon”.

Everything that you do online creates your digital landscape.

Angela’s Note – I think this was a really important session that left some things out because it was SO MUCH information to cover. I’m working on a post in my “Blogging by the Book” series with some additional pro-blogging tips. I was glad at the end to hear Alli remind everyone to READ THEIR CONTRACT and look it over carefully. Web content writers are used to checking out what rights, if any, they retain. Most of the bloggers that I have talked to personally, are NOT. That’s not a bad thing – just an area to be aware of. It’s also one of the reasons why on Untrained Housewife I do not take any rights from a writer at all. Because I AM so aware of these issues.

Anyway – more on all this is to come, as well as additional Blissdom session recaps. So if you aren’t subscribed yet, put your email in the sidebar widget on the right!

Feb
07

Content is Queen Blissdom 2010 Session Recap

By | Conferences

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Content is Queen Blissdom Session Notes 2010 Pic by Christian Svensson

Content is Queen Blissdom Session Notes 2010

This session was presented by @debontherocks, @emilychats, @amberrunsamuck, and @isabelkallman on Saturday afternoon at #Blissdom 2010

Deb called us “Digital Publishers”. I love that. Love it.

Emily – Chattingatthesky.com – no ads, writes for the writing.

AlphaMom – it’s an online parenting/blog with evergreen content written in a personalized way.

Amberrunsamuck – “My blog has become a good place to come to meet me.” She meant even for HERSELF to meet her and I love that mental picture.

How do you bring out your authentic voice and personality into the blogosphere?

@isabelkallman – Lots of evergreen content – about 90% Wants to be relevant two years from now. Wants people to find you and then stay!

It takes a lot to write well and write well consistently. I look for people who can make a shopping list interesting. Who can write well and write with personality and truth and passion.

How do you create consistantly high quality writing?

Amber – Good writing is truth writing. Writing often helps to develop your own personal voice. To have an authentic voice you have to LIVE LIFE.

Find those other writers and bloggers who’s content is authentic – whether you agree with them or not you can definitely study the writing. The good writing.

Emily – questioned who she was – do I need a niche? Do I need a specific focus? Isn’t it enough to JUST WRITE? (Angela’s note – I LOVED THIS. I could very much relate to this questioning and I have determined that part of the reason I chose “Renaissance Woman” as a tag line is because I have the niche of many niches. And I’m ok with that. Now. I OWN myself, my tendencies and my personality traits. No limits!)

Quote – Howard Therman – “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is people who are alive. ”

How do you “edit” yourself to that high quality? How do you promote to that high quality?

Writing a series and knowing what your plan is. Creating that expectation. The Linky thing – setting the expectations. Having a passion about the story. Writing for yourself and challenging yourself to push the next level. Approach those topics and be raw about those things.

@emilyspeaks – Some people don’t edit but I do. I want my writing to be well-presented and I’m very economical with my blog posts. Does each sentence say something unique.

Does it add value to the reader is the main question that Isabel asks because the site is NOT a personal blog. Has it been posted a LOT already? Or should it be re-presented because it’s an important topic. Does it add value to the reader. Does it have value. Period.

Amber suggests Aholyexperience.com – Controls her readers breathing. She continues – I don’t have “great thoughts” – if I’m not prepared as a writer to jot down a note to myself out and about, I WILL forget it. It gives me the cue for when it’s time to write and I’m not stuck staring at a blank computer screen.

Creating content throughout the week that has a designated entity or identity. Having a purpose and identity to my blog is key for knowing what to put there.

“I can’t be mother-in-law conscious when I write”

  • Which post do you write that your finger quakes before hitting publish?
  • Which post are you exciting to share with others?
  • Which posts are you interested in reading what other people comment about your post?
  • Which posts feel like WORK?
  • If you could write about ANYTHING without any readers at all, what would it be?

Lindsey’s Snuggie Review is suggested by Deb (I think it was) as a review that was amazing and creative. Creativity can be an amazing review – any kind of content can be creative and interesting. :-)

NEVER LIMIT YOURSELF – any time you think “this is supposed to look like THIS” you are limiting your writing and your content will be less creative and less memorable.

What do you see up ahead in the struggles?

Amber – If I click on a link from my cell phone and the post is huge it’s hard to read. Being a reader of other blogs will keep you in touch with trends and changes.

Commenting on other blogs will feed the community.

In our attempt to monetize our efforts we cannot lose what made us powerful in the first place – our unedited voice. Our authentic voice. Our person and personality BEHIND the information!

Isabel – Knowledge is not the same as understanding. We have the knowledge – putting the voice with that, it helps increase UNDERSTANDING.

Emily – “I’m seeing mothers emerge as writers. Crafters emerge as small business women.”
Said she felt it an honor to see the growth in the community.

Angela’s Thoughts

I loved this session. You guys know my background is web content creation. Yet even through that I’d like to think that my personality comes through. I was thinking about all my sites – the Untrained Housewife, this blogging/writing how-to site, my coming Pregnancy and Infant site…..what is the common thread through them all.

I think the driving passion – what makes me feel alive as Emily shared – is EMPOWERING OTHERS. I love to see others take a tiny spark of fire from something I shared, and turn it into a raging powerhouse of force and energy to drive some kind of change. It is the common silver thread that connects the many-colored tapestry of my various interests and passions.

I wonder. How can I help empower you more? I want to know.