In my earlier years I had a few jobs in data entry type work just to get thru school. After that, I didn’t have to worry about technical stuff because I wasn’t in that field. As the years went on, I became spoiled with “Tech Help” wherever I was employed, and even at our own business, the accountant and other employees used the computers… the only tech skills I needed was using e-mail and cruising the net to order merchandise from wholesalers and keeping up with trends. I didn’t even have to think about how things worked, I just expected them to work.
Since I bought MomsCashBlog, I’m learning new tech things every day… and it’s fun, but frustrating at times. One of my good friends is a neurologist and she says it’s great for the brain too, so that’s an added bonus. The more “new” things you learn, the more cells light up in your brain. But there’s a down side to being too technical…… studies have shown that people who use only the technical parts of their brains can be lacking in creative thinking and social skills (and we all know if you don’t have social skills, you’re screwed!!) lol
So, if you’ve always relied on your secretary, or the college interns at your work to come running the minute you need them, maybe it’s time to try it yourself. I know how easy it is to just step aside and let them load that software, fix that spreadsheet, or even change the ink jets in the printer, but if you continue down that path, you become a tech-dummy. I can tell you from experience, there will come a time when you’ll wish you had paid attention and tried to become more proactive in the tech process at the office.
Challenge yourself every day! Try something new with your computer, or online. Instead of reaching for the phone to have someone help you……take a deep breath and try it yourself. You will feel good knowing that you’re using both sides of your brain.
On the other hand, if you’ve been immersing yourself too deeply into the world of all things technical you should try something artistic for a change. It is that side of the brain that provides us with great ideas or enables us to solve problems without even trying. Einstein called them “Eureka” moments….and he had plenty of them because he used both sides of his brain at the same time.
Never underestimate the power of FREE! I partnered a successful retail business so I know what that one 4- letter word that starts with “F” can do. Using the word “free” can bring people out of the woodwork…and that’s what blogging’s about isn’t is? We all want new blog traffic, because let’s face it, they are the ones who will potentially use your services, buy your goods, push those buttons…whatever it is you want from them.
I bought MCB knowing how valuable the Free Blog Tutorial would be to the newbies in the blogging world. I have new people coming, using the tutorial, and loving it, and they are using the other resources that MomsCashBlog has to offer too.
Some day I will try just posting a big headline “Free Blog Tutorial” with a link and nothing else, since that’s essentially how I’m getting new peeps to my site. I’m going to give that a try and watch my traffic…and mostly my accounts, to see what happens. Should be an interesting experiment in blogging for me.
The New MomsCashBlog is for people who want a blog and want to make money with it, but don’t know where to start…so that’s why the Free Blog Tutorial is so valuable to me. The new traffic YOU want might be different from mine, so tailor your “free thing” to whatever your own niche is. I’m sure you have some information that people would pay for. Of course, just using the word FREE won’t make viewers stay long enough to matter. That “free thing” you give them must have some value or it could backfire and aggravate your customer or viewer. Just as happens in retail, if you give it away free and it’s good, they will take it, and they might even want everything else you have to offer!!
It’s hard to believe I’ve only had this blog for a week…it sure feels like a month has gone by! Since this is a Learning Blog, I am going to reveal some mistakes and problems I have encountered, just to give you an idea of how it’s been going for me…I am hoping it will be helpful for those of you who are THINKING of starting a blog, but feel intimidated by the whole process, just as I did before I started.
The mistakes I have made, mostly pertain to the posts, so you all got to see them! Lucky me! Like the first post that was all in bold ( I did that on purpose by the way! Not, and I obviously didn’t proof it very well.)When I woke up the next day I opened my laptop to look at my site and said “who wrote that?” (and I swear I wasn’t drinking!) When I saw the “read more” line at the end, I clutched my heart and said….”Oh no! There’s more?”( I still couldn’t believe it was ME!) but I took a deep breath and bravely read on. It was pretty painful to see all of those glaring misspellings, typos, redundant words, bad grammar, and rambling on and on. I remember one of my sisters telling me on the phone to write my post in a document draft, print it out and read it, make corrections and read it again and repeat. She worked in publishing for 21 years, but I didn’t listen to her cuz I know how to write and proofing is easy! Right? Why I can do that with my eyes shut..( and it sure does look like my eyes were shut.) (more…)
Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008 by momscashblog | No comments yet
I know, I am always telling you guys to be “unique” and to try something new with your blogs…but I am serious. I can’t even count the how many people email me everyday asking me for advice on making their blog more successful. They will usually send me a link to go check out their blog and once I get there, I just shake my head because they usually end up having the most plain Jane – boring blogs I have ever seen! I will now yell this from the rooftops, so pay attention…
MAKE YOUR BLOG UNIQUE – BE DIFFERENT – STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD – ADD BLOG FLAIR…
Okay, so I have come up with the term “blog flair” because that is really what it is – flair for your blog. Here are a few ways to add some flair quickly and easily:
Add images, animations or clip art to your blog posts – see an example of one of my old posts here…
Start video blogging, people love it and it keeps them entertained – they will come back for more ; )
Add videos to your blog posts, go to Youtube and hunt out cool videos to share in your posts!
Share photos of yourself or your life somehow – capture their attention and invite them to get to know you as a blogger…people want to feel connected to their “favorite blogs” so this is a good way.
Try adding audio clips or podcasts – audio is good!
Add a quiz or a contest – This will allow your blog readers to interact with you and invite them to participate in something you have set up.
Ask your readers in your blog posts for their feedback in the comments section regarding the subject you covered, this gets you a ton of blog comments – they want to share their opinions, just ask!
Try using different fonts, colors and sizes for your blog titles, this will capture their attention and eventually your blog will look very colorful and fun – just don’t over do this or you could scare them away. Color is good, but too much brings a bad vibe.
Try using these different methods of blog flair and notice the difference…your readers will notice the change, respond well and you can thank me later, LOL ; )
Want to see something interesting…just a sample of what you could share!
This is a must, and I can’t believe I have never thought to post about it prior to this…even though I used to mention it frequently on my LIVE show…it is PINGING your blogs. Either you know how or you don’t…and if you don’t – you MUST! Now this is really easy to do and you can even set it on auto pilot so that you don’t have to remember if you wish ; )
How and when to start pinging…
once you’ve updated your blog (in any way), you should let such a service know that you have your blog has been updated. For this, you send a PING to the service. Most of the blog software platforms have the ability to ping on their own. However…pinging a dozen such services could become time consuming.
It is VERY important to ping the big boys like Google, Yahoo and MSN…
Alright, so I confess. Every now and then I like to take a day off from blogging. Well, you’re probably thinking…when do you do this Krysti? There seems to always be a new blog post here on Moms Cash Blog daily! Yes, but that doesn’t mean that I actually blogged that day! Hmmmm…now I have you thinking huh?!
What I do when I plan on taking a day or few days off…is simply BLOG AHEAD of time. There are a lot of people who don’t realize that the can do this, and it really is very helpful to any blogger. We all need a break sometimes yet we know that if we don’t post a blog post, our readers may disown us…Really.
It is important to keep your blog fresh, interesting and full of good quality frequent posts…so what I do is take a block of time (usually an hour or two…or three) and write or record a few blog posts. Then instead of clicking publish when I am done, I just click save and it gets saved as a draft. So on that day I want to take off, or go on vacation or allow myself the time to be sick in bed on those yucky days…I just access my WordPress admin, go to manage…choose the blog post draft and publish it. Wha-La – I can post a good quality blog post in a blink of an eye and it is awesome! I recommend that if you do not have at least one back up (draft) blog post saved, to do so immediately. Because you never know when you’re going to need a break…and you don’t want to leave your peeps hanging. Just a fun fact from Mom’s goody blog bag. If you need help you can email me at krysti@momscashblog.com anytime…or if you want your blog hosted on WordPress platform or need to create a money making blog like mine here and don’t know how – CLICK HERE for my FREE blog tutorial.
