I’m trying to figure out what the most popular places are for listing (and entering) giveaways – and I’m also just curious!

What kinds of directories do you search to enter giveaways?

Here are a couple of my favorite places:

www.onlinesweepstakes.com (I list them but don’t search there)

5 Minutes for Mom (Sunday link-up)

Where do you link up or find giveaways to enter?

Spotlight Saturday Premiers tomorrow!

Welcome to our new blog hop with a twist!  Every Saturday swing by to link up your blog and another blog you want to spotlight!  Did you find a new blog you liked this week?  Is there one you visit on a daily basis?  Well, simply link up your Spotlighted Blog right under yours.  We will Spotlight our favorite blogs of the week in spots 4, 5, and 6.

This is such a great way to get involved in the blogging community, support fellow bloggers, and get some traffic yourself!

How it Works:

1)   Link up your own blog.
2)   Link up a blog you want to spotlight for the week (Ex. “Spotlight: Crazy Daisy”) .
3) Follow your three hosts.
4)   Grab our button and post it on your sidebar or a Spotlight Saturday Post.
5)  Follow as many blogs from the list and leave a comment so they know you stopped by.
6)   Return the favor by following blogs that followed you.

(Be aware that URL’s cannot be duplicated so please have a second spotlight choice in mind. If your blog has already been spotlighted, just spotlight someone else.)

I hope to see you here tomorrow for some fun! :)

Why Create a Facebook Fan Page?

I’ve had a Networked Blogs Facebook Page for awhile now, but decided to do some research and find out if it was better to create a Facebook Fan Page for my blog as well.  Networked Blogs is awesome, but with a Facebook Fan Page, you have more options for interacting, updating, and allowing fans to update and comment.  I created my own Facebook Fan Page (join mine here!) recently and am thrilled with it!  I hadn’t realized what I was missing out on before.  I can definitely recommend creating your own!

What I love:

• You can connect to your readers/customers easily.
• Get the word out about your blog/products – keep it interesting! :-)
• Update automatically using feeds or manual updates.
• There are so many awesome add-ons: Photos, Discussions, Events, Links, and much more!  There’s even a place to showcase your Etsy store!
• You can even run contests and promotions from your Fan Page!

Sample Facebook Fan Page:

How to Create a Facebook Fan Page

Creating a Facebook Fan Page may seem intimidating at first, but really it’s very quick and easy to set up!

1.  Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and fill out the form as seen in the example below:

2.  Click “Create Official Page” and it will take you to your brand new fan page!

Now what?

Upload a photo or button for your profile picture in the top left-hand corner, then click on “Edit Page” under your profile picture to find a treasure trove of other options including creating a Facebook Fan Badge, a Facebook Fan Box (like the one in my sidebar), sending an update to all of your fans at one time, and adding and editing settings for your fan page add-ons.

Online Resources:

Facebook Fan Page Help Center
Mom Bloggers Club Facebook Fan Exchange

How Do I Find My Facebook Fan Page Again?

This was one of my questions, and there is a simple way to find it again.

Type the name of your Facebook Fan Page into the search bar at the very top of your Home screen (For me it’s Kindred Spirit Mommy).

Found it!  Yes!  :-)

More to come?

Definitely!  I have a few more tips and tutorials that I want to share with you.  :-)

Share your thoughts…

Do you have a Facebook Fan Page?  How do you like it?
Which Facebook Fan Pages are your favorites and why?

Most bloggers, at some point in their blogging career, experience burnout.  I have, for sure.  Burnout is horrible – you don’t feel motivated to write, you don’t know what to write, your blog-related email inbox is intimidating, and it all feels like too much.  You might seriously consider quitting, and you wonder if anyone out there really cares and if it’s worth it.

You may absolutely love your blog and your readers, but as with anything you love that takes effort, if you don’t pace yourself you’ll find yourself on the fast track to burnout.

I would like to share some of what I’ve learned in my two years of blogging.  I’ve fallen into the mom blogger crazy rat race before, but then I discovered that I needed an attitude change.  I’m writing this for you and me – if I write it down then maybe it’ll stay in my head and I won’t find myself dragging myself to my computer half-heartedly.  Since I’ve changed my attitude, blogging has been so much fun for me!  I have been able to write and schedule posts, make time for online communities and connecting with my readers, and I’m having fun doing it!  I really hope that the following thoughts help you do the same:

Find What Works for You!

♦  There are many articles online sharing tips and rules for running a “successful blog”.  Many of the tips are great, and I think it’s a good idea to expand your knowledge, but they’re not always realistic for you. Find what works for you and go with it!

♦  One of those rules is posting every day.  I have read that you should post every day to keep your readers engaged and your traffic up, but sometimes it just isn’t practical.  Believe me, I have a two-year-old and I know.  It’s better to post less often and have something to say that people want to hear than to post more often and not have good content. Many popular blogs post only 3 or 4 times a week, even less – and they have a great following.

♦  Remember that every blog is unique – I’ve noticed that the popular blogs are run differently.  The things that make them popular are usually personality and good content.

Review Bloggers, This is For You.

♦  If you are a reviewer, keep a list of the reviews you need to write either on a calendar, on your computer as a Word file, or as a Google document.  Don’t try to remember this stuff, or you’ll go crazy.  ;-)

♦  Schedule time to write your reviews, either a certain time frame (for example: every night for a couple hours after your children go to bed) or follow a schedule.  Find out what works for you!

♦  Don’t take on too much.  If it’s reviews, figure out how much you can take on before it starts feeling like you’re sinking slowly in a muddy mire.  ;-)  Limit yourself to that certain number of reviews a month.

Make Sure You’re Having Fun

♦  Make time for the fun stuff!  For me, it’s commenting on friends’ blogs, social networking with Twitter and Facebook, participating in forums, and writing posts like these.  Offline fun includes taking walks with my daughter, crafting, reading, and watching The Office reruns.  ;-)

♦  Don’t sweat the small stuff.  And I mean stats.  If you’re checking more than twice a week, you might be thinking about it a bit much.  Unless it’s just fun for you to check out keywords, where people are coming from, etc.

♦  Think about what stresses you out, and do it LESS.  This is your blog, it’s supposed to be fun!

If you’re starting to think about quitting or taking on a co-author so you’ll have less responsibility, you might want to take a step back and think about your blogging philosophy.  Chances are that you’ve put a lot of work into getting where you’re at now – do you really want to lose it all?  A change of attitude might be all you need to make it fun again!  Believe me, your readers don’t want to lose you.  I’ve seen popular mom bloggers quit only to come back when they’ve discovered how much they love it!

Take a break!

If you need to, take a short blog break!  Or cut way down on the reviews for awhile.  Give yourself time to think.  Doing this has helped me so much, and I’ve found myself thinking of more content-full posts I want to write much more often, too.  It’s like taking a vacation and coming back refreshed.  So worth it.  :-)

Do you have any tips or advice for bloggers to add to this list, things you’ve learned along the way?
What makes blogging fun for you?

Read about my blog burnout experience here:
The Joys and Trials of Being a Mom Blogger

Top Mom Blogger is fairly new to the blogosphere, but written by two great mom bloggers who want to share their expertise with you.  Well, maybe they wouldn’t call it expertise, but they’ve learned a lot since they started, and are generously sharing what they know.  You even learn from reading the comments!

The main topic there is monetizing your blog, though I’ve read some other nice posts on making your blog better – which does, of course, have a lot to do with monetizing.

I’m not terribly worried about monetizing myself, but through their ad network suggestions and monetizing tips, I’ve been able to get started making a small amount each month.  And when I say small, I mean small.  ;-)  But that’s okay.  Even if I can pay for just my web hosting ($8 a month), I’m happy!

♥♥♥

Here are some of my favorite posts from Top Mom Blogger:

You’re a Newbie Blogger (tips for newbies!)

5 Reasons You May Not Be Getting As Many Comments As You Should

Top 5 Questions About Monetizing

Blogger or WordPress (the age-old question…)

♥♥♥

Hope you find something helpful there!  :-)

Sharing my heart and my thoughts on being a mom blogger

I’ve been thinking a lot about my blogging goals and what I want to be doing with this blog right now.  It is HARD to know what to do sometimes.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve followed some wonderful blogs myself and I have an idea of how I want things to change so that I’ll be more like my favorite blogs.  Blogs that obviously care about their followers, use their blog for good and to help others, and aren’t just one huge toy commercial.  ;-)  The changes ahead will be good, and I’m hoping for your feedback on ways to improve!

My Story

When I first started my blog, it was right after Emma was born (May 2008) and I loooved it.  It was just a simple blog then, with very few followers and a free .blogspot.com address.  I knew nothing.  But still, I linked to a few Wordless Wednesdays and began to gain readers, other great moms who took an interest in my little family and self – from my birth story and my daughter’s first interest in books to just random thoughts on new mommyhood.  It was a wonderful way to connect with other moms and share all my hopes, fears, and mommy moments – and know that someone out there would understand me.  It was (and still is) awesome.

Then I got started doing product reviews – which I love as well… but I had no idea that there is so much pressure once you get going!   It wasn’t long before I began to feel pressure to make my blog prettier with a new and unique design, purchase my own domain, move to WordPress (and those were all good decisions, I must admit), and, of course, post something new and exciting that would fascinate my readers every day.   No pressure, right?

The Lightbulb over My Head

At some point, I began to lose some of my excitement for blogging – it became another thing I had to do.  Not that I don’t enjoy it – I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t!  But even things you love can become burdensome if you lose your focus.  I have no time to visit other loved blogs, stay connected with my readers, and take the time to visit a few of those Wordless Wednesday posts (unless you post a comment and I see it on my blog).

Isn’t that why I started blogging?

I really do love testing products, taking photos, and being able to offer products to my readers for free.  It’s really a lot of fun – unless you take on too much, that is.  And that I definitely have done in the past  – remember everything going on at Christmastime?  I had noooo idea what I was getting into, lol.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a fantastic Christmas.  But I found myself surrounded by all of this cool stuff that I didn’t need.  And honestly, although Emma really likes a few of the toys (mainly the wooden kitchen and Melissa and Doug rocking horse), she doesn’t need all of those toys. 

And I don’t want to send the message that your kids won’t be happy unless they have all the new toys and gadgets out there.

It’s so not true.  Emma is most happy with a coloring book and crayons (from the dollar store), measuring cups and pots and pans, and boxes that the packages come in. And a few choice wooden toys and special stuffed animals that I’ve come across.  But honestly, she doesn’t need everything she has and I’ve sort of overdone it in the past.  The nice part is that I’ve been able to share toys with friends and people who have children.

Oh, the trials of being a mom blogger and trying to keep up with the crowd.

Really, it can be easy to fall into the vicious circle of trying to get more page views and readers so that your ads and reviews get clicked on, and so that PR will contact you about reviewing products.  And if you want the bigger, better products you have to have a lot more page views.  Can you see how this can get crazy?  It’s not easy to be a mom blogger if you’re going to get competitive.  It can be done, of course, and many bloggers do it brilliantly!  But I’ve recently discovered that I don’t want to do it.  I’m tired of worrying about what everyone will think, losing followers, getting my page views up so that PR will be more likely to work with me, etc.  I think the keyword here is tired.  lol  I’m tired!  I have a toddler going through the terrible twos and she’s wearing me out, too.

Changes!

So there will be some small changes around here.  I’ve already been winding things down, you may have noticed.   I’ll be doing maybe two to five reviews/giveaways a month instead of … 20.  lol  And that’s just a goal, there will probably be more or less some months depending on my energy level and whether or not I think you’ll love the product.

Don’t worry though, there won’t be less content!

I’m just trying to free up time for the things I love to do and blog about like crafting, entertainment, cooking, and more things like that. And I still want to review things that we love and need like children’s shoes, clothing, and some of the nice toys out there, but I won’t be saying yes to everything anymore.  I’m going to be a little more picky. Which is good for you because then I’ll have nicer reviews for you to read and products for you to win!  And it won’t be all sponsored reviews, either.  I have a pretty big list of things I’ve purchased in the past that I want to share thoughts on and recommend/warn you about.  It just hasn’t been at the top of my list of priorities.  But that will be changing soon.  :-)

Okay, I’m going to end this here because it has gotten pretty long.

I will be posting later, though, with some questions for you. If you have a moment and can think of something you want to see more of or less of, or if there are any problems with ads, etc – let me know!  I’m really interested. But there will be a dedicated post for that later in the week, too.  And I’ll be finishing up some of my reviews in the next two weeks, too – so there will be quite a few.  But then things should slow down on the product review end.

I’m really excited about getting to know you all better and being able to post some things that really interest us mommies!  And I want to say that  I really appreciate all of you and your comments and faithful following.  You rock!

One of the things I’ve loved about moving from Blogger to WordPress are the WordPress plugins.  There is an area in your WordPress dashboard dedicated to adding new plugins that will improve your blog – so much better (and easier) than anything Blogger has to offer!  Although organizing and choosing your plugins can seem daunting at first, you catch on to how it works pretty quickly, and really appreciate the options you’re given to customize your website.

So here they are – the WordPress plugins I can’t live without (not in any particular order):

Akismet – The most-downloaded comment spam plugin.  It does an awesome job of catching spam before it gets through and putting it in your  moderation queue for you.

CommentLuv – I have a great fondness for this one.  It gives the commenter the option of leaving a link to their last blog post underneath their comment. I love that it makes it easy for me to visit the last blog posts of the people who comment on my blog.  It’s a great way to connect with your readers!

All-In-One SEO Pack – A must-have if you care at all about your site and content being found via search engine.  This plugin might take some research before you get everything , but it’s worth it!

Options page for All in One SEO

You’ll find these options on every “edit post” page.

Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering – This one not only numbers your comments for you, it puts them in threads and pages – everything looks neat and organized!

NoFollow Free – This is a great way to reward your faithful commenters.  It removes the “nofollow” attribute from the comment author’s links. I have mine set so that after someone has commented (and been approved) three times, the “nofollow” is removed.  (Click here to find out more about what “nofollow” is.)

Subscribe to Comments -  This plugin allows commenters to subscribe to, or be emailed when more comments are made on the post.  I wanted to add this because I frequently reply to comments directly on the post and didn’t want my readers to miss anything.  :-)

And that’s it for now.  I still have quite a few additional plugins to share with you, so stay tuned for part 2 of this series!

Until then, what are your favorite plugins?