Last month, I gave a presentation on the Disney Fantasy Cruise on using Pinterest to gain traffic for your blog and increase brand recognition. The crux of my presentation was sharing the discoveries I have made through trial and error pinning food, lifestyle, and DIY photos for the purpose of driving web traffic. I cautioned people to learn from a mistake I made last month in trying to make our photo's pin-able. What I found is that being pin-able does not always translate to being click-able. Which is the goal of most people trying to use the pinterest platform to drive traffic. Mind you, I use Pinterest for many reasons other than traffic building but as pointed out all over the web, for some lucky sites Pinterest now drives more traffic than google +, linkedin and youtube combined. Case in point are two DIY posts that I orchestrated the social media behind (a relationship that has since ended) As you can see from the graphic, the Skip The Frosting post was repinned approximately 62,000 times and resulted in 89,000 pageviews while The Lorax Dinner Makeover had a great Pinterest showing of 48,000 repins but only 9,000 pageviews. Looking at a sample of ...
Investing In Your Blogging Career #blissdom At HOME
Through the years, I have tried to write posts that help new bloggers reach their goals. This is a hard business to break into and few bloggers truly make a living at it.....well, a living that includes more than Tide coupons and free movies. But I would say for most 'mom bloggers' the goal isn't to make a full time salary- we do it for more personal reasons. One of those being, we find our bliss in it. Last month I was able to go to the Blissdom Conference in Nashville. The level of talent among the speakers there was amazing. But I couldn't be everywhere at all times and there were plenty of sessions I missed, most regrettably the Photography Track with Me Ra Koh. Thankfully, as a Blissdom Community Leader I was given the gift of a membership to Blissdom at Home so now I can take my time and work through all of the sessions at my own pace. Blissdom at Home is just like being there. All the sessions were taped and you can watch the videos of the presentations, listen to the audio (I fell asleep last night listening to Shoot Like a Woman session) and have all the handouts and slideshows as if you were sitting there. This year Blissdom at Home is trickling the information in ...
Connecting Offline-The Importance of Blog Conferences
Nothing makes me as insecure as a blog conference. The time when your online personality meets the offline. The time when you can't hide behind an avatar. The time when you have to make conversation in more than 140 characters. The time when you can't draft and edit your thoughts before publishing. I obsess for weeks before: how much weight have I gained since the last conference? What are my latest successes? How many people know about my latest failures? Was everyone reading my twitter stream that one day I just went off? Will I be the only one wearing a dress? Are jeans OK? What if everyone in the room ignores me? UGH! Why do I do this to myself? And then I take a deep breathe, put on my spanx enhanced big girl panties and get on with it. And something amazing starts to happen. After the first few hours of squeals and delights and big hugs to everyone, I settle into my calm. I find a comfy couch in the corner of the room and even though I may know half the room, I connect with just a few people on a deeper level. I catch up with old friends, make some new ones, really listen to what is going on in their lives. That is where I find my bliss. I find my bliss in ...
If You Give a Blogger Some Ambien…
If you give a blogger some ambien and set her loose on Etsy, she will find a pretty font she likes. The font will remind her she really needs to do her signature. Which will lead her to spend $15 on a premade logo. The premade logo will remind her how much she likes brights colors. She will begin to realize she made a mistake creating such a bland personal website. Then she will decide to redo it because all her boys are sick and there is a big snow storm coming. When she puts the pretty logo on the new site, she is inspired to do something different. Which leads her to another night of graphics shopping. Now, sleep deprived, she decides to completely redesign the site. Happy with what she is seeing, she realizes she needs new business cards. She decided to buy a bunch of other branded crap she doesn't need while she was sucked into the Vista Print sales. Then she remembered that in order to really re-brand she would have to create a new timeline template and twitter background. Which sent her template shopping. While she was there she realized her slider frames suck. So she bought some more. And you know, when a digital mom buys a new ...
Tips For Making #Blissdom Blissful
In a few short weeks women from all over the Blogosphere will descend on Nashville, TN for the 4th annual Blissdom Conference. I've had a long and storied history with this conference in that every year I have planned to attend, and every year I have had to cancel. Last year, literally the day before. Being a mom always comes ahead of getting your #bliss on, right? Super excited to have a chance to finally attend, I will be there as a Travel Niche Community Leader. Which leads me to my post today... While I will be new to Blissdom I am certainly not new to travel or blog conferences. And when I travel alone, I tend to leave my brain at home. I am super organized when my family travels, but when it is just me, my chaos flag totally fly's! SO, here are some tips to avoid some of the situations that have either happened to me, or an unfortunate blogging friend as you get ready for #blissdom! Stop worrying about what you are going to wear. No one is going to care. I promise. They are more worried about if they look OK. Worry instead about your luggage! All the outfit planning in the world isn't going to help if your bags get lost. My suggestion is to bring a carry on ...