Here are some tips to help increase traffic to your site, make some extra money, and connect to other moms out there.
Use an email that is not connected with google. Google is a big corporation and is basically set up for dummies. Once you use your email address from google, it tends to take over EVERYTHING and connect to everything. I have a Gmail address and a Hotmail address, because of this I have to blog sites, one of which (the google address) I never use but sometimes I accidentally sign into it.
Traffic
Whether you are building a media platform like myself or needing more hits to your site to sell your products, join sites like http://www.twitter.com/, http://www.bloggymoms.com/, or http://www.mombloggersclub.com/. Twitter is key in gaining more traffic to your site. You can tweet about your posts and use what I call Hashtags.
When you tweet, you have 160 characters to get your info out there. So here is an example of what I tweet: "Don't ever grow up" Calling all moms, do you have a tween? #tweens, #moms.
- Hashtags is a way of connecting other people out there with your tweets, the # sign is put in front of your key word, which allows twitter and others to find your tweets.
- Bit.ly. If you have a long address site, I recommend using http://www.bit.ly.com/. This site takes your address site of your post and shortens it for tweets, text messages, and emails. For example: this post's address is: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2170888895829523596 and bitly shortens it to http://bit.ly/dH4AV4 . All you have to do is go to Bit.ly.com, copy and paste your website post after you've published it. This allows you to create as many tweets about your site as you want, bringing in MORE TRAFFIC. This is key and recommended for those of you selling products.
Websites that help break you into the blogging world are sites that I use. I use http://www.bloggymoms.com/ as well as http://www.mombloggersclub.com/. On these sites are connections called groups in which you can join and post about your latest product or post. These are key in getting others to review your site. I recommend using the "Following you, Following me" groups. If you are willing to follow someone else's blog, they are going to follow you back. This increases your traffic yet again and connects your blog with others.
- If you are new to blogging, these sites are great for support, advice, tips, and meeting other moms who are blogging about the similar things that you are.
Another way to increase traffic for products or to have your site recommended by other blogsites is to add a blogroll to your site that is seen. Most bloggers I'm connected with also write a post on a designited day like Blogroll Friday and post the address of your site for others to see.
- Blog hops, you will frequently see this on many bloggers sites and its a great way to pick one day of the week to "hop" on over to someone elses blog and follow. You can then add your site to thier list.
There are many moms out there who have supplemental income through using the sites I mentioned above, combined with twittering and Facebook to increase traffic. They post about the latest product they have either made or reviewed. They host giveaways on their sites and usually all that is needed to enter into the giveaway is someone visiting their site, following her blog, and leaving a comment. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for those with products to sell.
- The key to increasing traffic besides following others, be committed to logging on to bloggymoms and other sites you use daily and post a comment in the groups you follow. I do recommend to be sure to click the 'stop following' button at the bottom of the comment section otherwise your inbox will be filled to the max with other's comments from that day or from that post.
Another option to make money on your site is to allow adds to be placed on your site. Blogspot and google have made it easy. All you have to do is sign up to monetize your site. Go to the dashboard of your blog and click on the monetize tab. Google talks you through the rest. The downside is that in order for you to make money, your viewers have to click on the adds. Personally I find it tacky and don't use it.
Your best option is to set up a pay pal on your site and send out emails to various companies or other blog moms stating that for a fee they can advertise on your site. If you are thinking of going this route, email me and I can help you set it up.
Templates and Backgrounds
This is where it gets a little tricky. Some sites help walk your through it step by step to changing your background. You can either stick with Blogspot templates or if you are a bit more tech savvy, you can download different templates and upload them to your site.
1. http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ is a site I used when I first started blogging. You visit their site, pick your background. Copy the code. Next you log into your dashboard and to go the Design tab. Next on the page you will see a spot that says "grab a gadget", click on it and then follow the directions to add HTML/Java to your page. After that widget has been loaded onto your page, paste the code into that box and save it. You will then have a new background.
If you have anymore questions about blogging, let me know! Hope this helps my new fellow friends and mommies that have recently started blogging.
Okay so this is pretty basic and a lot of infomation to take in. Let me know if you need any help or if this advice was easy to follow. Enjoy your first few weeks as a blogger!
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