Energize Your Blog…Starting NOW!

Bloggers everywhere are going to be rejoicing today…really. One of the biggest challenges of a blog is to keeping it fresh with new content and driving traffic. Well, at long last, Lynette has launched her Blog Energizer and it is the perfect resource to cure those blogging ails.

You can sign up, for FREE, and receive access to:

• Freebies you can give away on your blog
• Blogs that are looking for guest bloggers
• Bloggers who might just want to write for your blog
• Podcasts that are looking for people to interview
• Traffic boosting ideas for your blog…and more

To get your account, just click here to sign up for free.

Free Download: How Do I Get Traffic to My Blog?

It’s a question a lot of bloggers want the answer to. How DO you get traffic to your blog?

Lynette Chandler has a free guide that gives you “18 Traffic Generating Blog Activities You Can Do Right Away“. It’s a quick 6-page guide with practical ideas to bring to your blog to attract attention and drive more traffic.

Click here to download yours.

As always, another handy-dandy tool from Lynette.

Free Download: Beginner’s Blogging Guide & Blogging Calendar

I’m taking the day off from Sweetie Saturday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get cool stuff. Since last week’s Buzz Topics report by Lynette Chandler was
a hit, I wanted to make sure you were able to get your hands
on two more blogging goodies.

GOODIE #1: Get Started with Profitable Blogging

If you’re new to blogging, thinking of getting started or even procrastinating because you feel overwhelmed by the idea…this is something that might help.

It’s a step-by-step 16-page guide to setting up and making money from your blog. It covers everything from how you can make money, setting up your blog, software to use, tracking your traffic and maximizing your results.

This one is put together by John Yeo, a part-time blogger who earns a few thousand dollars per month from his blog:

Click here to download it for free (PDF)

Plus, if you like the guide, here is some information on how to brand it and give it out as well.

GOODIE #2: Printable Blog Calendar

Lynette’s at it again. Now you can print out a really cool printable blog calendar that gives you timely topic ideas for the entire year.

Go straight to the download at this link.

It’s super handy to have lying around whenever you’re planning blog topics or are simply just stumped as to what to write about.

Enjoy those…I know you’ll find them useful.

FREE DOWNLOAD: 12 Buzz Topics You Should Blog About Right Now

This one’s from my tech gal, my blog go-to person, my save-my-butt-from-tech-disaster woman…you get the point. Lynette Chandler has put together a highly-useful report entitled:

“12 Buzz Topics You Should Blog About Right Now “

…It’ll help you generate more ideas than you can possibly write about. Plus, these are ideas that people will talk about, generating more BUZZ and word of mouth for your blog.

The downloadable report is comes at no charge or any kind of obligation whatsoever. You don’t even have to opt-in to get it. Just go here.

Then get blogging!

(By the way, if you want to give this report away to your readers, join Lynette’s affiliate program :-))

Blogging When You’re REALLY Out of Ideas

Every mom has a repertoire of easy dinners she can pull out of her pantry when she’s out of groceries or out of ideas. You know the ones - those easy, never fail, always please family favorites you can throw together with a can of this and a box of that. Great for those busy nights or when you’re feeling tired.

When it comes to blogging, it’s also a good idea to have some blogging “cheats” for those inevitable dry spells. Here are a few ideas that have worked for me and other bloggers:

• Recaps. This might look like a “week in review” roundup of excellent blog posts you’ve written or read in the last week. This one is great for establishing goodwill with other bloggers you admire. You might like this one so much you decide to do it on a regular basis.You can also publish your greatest/most commented on/etc posts on a particular topic. This is particularly valuable to your new readers who may not have read some of your best work. It allows them to see some of your archived content.
• One year ago… Similar to a recap, this one is a list of some of the popular posts you published one year ago. It’s easy to simply search for all the posts you wrote a year ago inside your blog’s control panel. Find the best ones and spotlight them.
• Twitter roundup. Consider copying and pasting some of the best, funniest, or most interesting Tweets that are relevant to your market.You could also ask a question of your followers, and paste their answers into your blog. Lynn Terry, Kelly McCausey and our very own resident Sweetie Alice have all done this with success.
• Ask a question. Oh this has got to be the easiest of all the cheats! Simply ask your readers a thought provoking question and leverage the power of your blog as a survey tool. Let THEM do all the work creating content for a change!You can also publish a question your subscribers or readers have emailed you. Get their permission first or publish it anonymously. People love to feel like they’re helping others. Let them be the experts.
• Memes. Participate in memes like Wordless Wednesday (and Tell Me Thursday), Thankful Thursday, Monday Motivation, and others. If you’re feeling a bit of blogger’s block, these are great for keeping things fresh.
• Interview someone. Have you read a great book lately? Email the author some questions and post the interview on your blog.Is there a reader who leaves great comments on your blog? Introduce them in your post. Publish success stories, case studies, etc… these again create goodwill but also give you interesting content that you don’t have to work really hard for.
• Be an editor. Instead of always being a writer/blogger, consider serving as editor from time to time. Accept content and publish it if that makes sense for your market.For instance, on a parenting blog, you could accept parenting tips and advice, funny stories or photos, embarrassing moments, birth stories, product reviews, etc. For a wahm blog, publish wahm success stories and press releases.

Even the most prolific blogger occasionally runs out of ideas. Keep these ideas in your virtual pantry and pull them out to create something tasty for your readers.

Making Fast Work of Blogging

A little while back, I was feverishly working on scheduling my blog posts so I’d have plenty of content before the birth of baby #3. I had managed to schedule 20 posts in about 2 1/2 hours and some of my Twitter friends were dumbfounded. They said 1 blog post could take them up to that much time - how could I do 20?

If you’re interested in making fast work of blogging, here are my 3 thoughts on getting more (GOOD) posts done in a short time:

Plan your topics and make notes ahead of time. I regularly get my notebook out (no, not my laptop…an actual paper notebook) and write down my ideas ahead of time. I keep the notebook with me at all times and I plan posts a few weeks (or in my recent case, a couple months) in advance.

If you prefer to use your PDA, go for it, but I do recommend getting away from the distractions of the computer to start your brainstorming. If you need to do research, that’s fine…but do your final planning away from that computer.

Novels are not required. There is no length requirement for blog posts. In fact, some of my shortest ones ar the most popular with my readers (ex. the whole Tough Question Tuesday category). Sure, sometimes you have a lot to say on a subject, but overall - keep it short, sweet and to the point. Your readers will likely appreciate and you don’t have to be chained to your computer for just 1 blog post.

Use the scheduling feature of your blog. You probably do use your scheduling to some degree, but really take advantage of it. If you plan a few weeks in advance and realized you don’t need novels, you can load up your blog with plenty of fresh content to roll out over the next few weeks. Just doing everything in chunks (a bunch of planning and then a bunch of writing), makes it a whole lot easier.

Time to write this post: 8 minutes.

Do You Have Blog Envy?

Several weeks ago Alice Seba wrote a great article asking if any of her readers had blog comment envy.

I admitted that yes I do sometimes envy people whose blog posts get tons of comments. Her point was that popularity isn’t as important as results.

Being a popular blogger who gets hundreds of comments on their blog posts is kind of like being the most popular kid in high school. It really doesn’t matter once that kid gets to college or once they enter the adult world.

When it comes to your blog, the important thing is the bottom line. Is your blog accomplishing what you want it to?

Still, I’ll go farther and admit I have a twinge of general blog envy.

Occasionally I come across a blog that makes me want to cry because of its awesomeness.

Ok perhaps it’s more admiration than envy but still. When I feel that way, I take a minute to figure out why the blog in question is eliciting that particular response from me. I’ve noticed that there are a few things that those blogs that have in common.

Focus
Good enough to bring tears to my eyes blogs are very focused. It only takes a second or two to know what they’re all about.

Uniqueness
Is that a word? You know what I mean anyway. Really great blogs are unique. Really great bloggers are not afraid to be different. They aren’t afraid to make you laugh, cry or get mad. They’re not afraid to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. They’re honest and more than a little bit transparent.

Content
Simply put, great blogs have awesome content. Content that makes your life better in some way. That doesn’t mean each post is a tome… a mixture of long, spill-it article length posts and quick thoughts is nice too. In addition to blog posts, there is additional content available in other formats such as audio, video, ebooks, reports and the like.

Clean
Great blogs are organized well. They are uncluttered and clean. They look modern (not like they haven’t been updated in years). That doesn’t mean you have to change your theme every week though. Consistency is a good thing. Clean also means you know where to find everything that the blogger has to offer with just a couple of clicks.

So the next time you get blog envy, what can you learn about bloggers who rock?

Why The Scratchback Widget Was Discontinued on The Sweetie Blog

Some people have noticed that the Scratchback Widget has been removed from my blog. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about. It was the widget off to the side of my blog. Basically my visitors were able to send me a “tip” for the content provided on the content for the blog. In return, they received a javascript link on the widget. Old links were bumped as new tips were made.

I had some trouble making a decision on how I should discontinue to the widget to be fair that those who tipped. Since this is a third-party service, this means I couldn’t edit the widget to show the links for a while (and not take payments) AND I don’t have access to contact information.

Anyway, as a last bit of thanks - here is my widget as it was earlier last week. PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT TIPS AS THE WIDGET WILL NO LONGER HAVE SITE-WIDE PLACEMENT ON THE BLOG. I am simply giving my tippers one last bit of exposure before I put this baby to rest.

But Whether You Tipped or Not, You Might Wonder WHY I’ve Removed The Widget

In short, over the few months that I sported the widget, I didn’t feel it was a worthwhile use of the space. Although, I really appreciated every tip that I got, it was an experiment to see how the whole thing worked. I was also never completely comfortable with the fact that it was a 3rd party script that I didn’t have complete control over.

And although I’d considered getting my own script installed for a similar purpose, using Scratchback was a way to see if it was worthwhile. For me, it just isn’t worthwhile. I would rather use the space to build more lasting benefits than a one-time tip (ex. subscribers to my newsletter or Sweetie Saturday Report Club).

To be clear, I think that Scratchback creator Jim Kukral has created a great service. Outside of a minor glitch we came across a couple months back, the service has been reliable and payments were always made on time.

So good bye Scratchback…we had a good run. And hey, if you’re reading this blog post…check out those who tipped me above. They’ve got some great websites and offers.

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