Archive for Blogging
February 24, 2008· Filed under Blogging
THE blogging conference of the year will be held May 2-4, 2008 in Chicago, and will be hosted by Liz Strauss of Successful Blog and a team of really knowledgeable bloggers. The SOBCon team is running a contest and the prize is the registration fee plus hotel stay.
As of yesterday, I am in 5th place. I really would like to go for FREE and you can help me do it. All you have to do is visit the SOBCon site through one of my links at my other site, Essential Keystrokes. You don’t have to do anything else.
Now, if you are serious about blogging as a business or an extension of your business, this conference is for you. I wrote a list of 10 Reasons Why You Should Go to SOBCon, just in case you need a little more incentive.
January 29, 2008· Filed under Blogging
It doesn’t matter whether you are a stay at home mom, work at home mom or work out of the home mom, chances are you are online and wanting to connect with moms just like you. But where do you start? Last year I compiled the Ultimate Guide to Where the Moms are Online - highlighting many of the ways that moms are connecting and using the internet to share advice, get inspiration, support and even make money. Since the online world is ever changing, I decided it was time for an update! The following list is far from complete and in no particular order, but it should give you a really good starting point.
- Blogher - This mega site is home to a multi-author blog, forum, directory, an ad network, and they host an annual conference too.
- Work-It Mom - My new favorite site for connecting with other professionals. Includes member posts, discussions, forum, quick conversations, polls and more.
- eMoms at Home - One of my favorite people, Wendy, has really taken her eMoms site to a new level in the past 6 months. She has added 6 blogs to her site and really started to develop a community for both moms and dads while being the blog for internet business resources. I don’t want to give away too much, but keep an eye on her site in the next few months as even more cool community resources are added.
- Mom Blog Network - Has a Digg-like voting system, blogs, forums, and is part of the ParentsClick network.
- Sk*rt - Social voting site for women. A great place to find new blogs to read.
- 5 Minutes for Mom - Contests, multiple authors, a directory, uses Mr. Linky for quite a few weekly features.
- Divine Caroline - Magazine style site focused on women, not just moms. Tons of content and extras, including its own ad network.
- Crazy Hip Blog Mamas - Another multi author blog, CHBM has over 1,000 members and has daily events (themes).
- Momlogic - Magazine style site with a good mix of news, fun, and plenty of Mom smarts.
- Shakadoo - a network of niche sites all related to your life from family, work, pets, your home and more.
- Maya’s Mom - A rapidly growing community for mom’s to share thoughts, advice, photos, and more.
- Rocks in My Dryer - Home to Works for Me Wednesday, Bloggy Giveaways and other group projects.
- I’m an Organizing Junkie - Laura’s Menu Plan Monday is a great way to connect with other moms, get inspiration for feeding your family and get organized.
- Ladies Who Launch - Entrepreneurial moms will want to check this one out. Features include the magazine, members only areas, classifieds, and events.
- Start Up Princess - Another wonderful resource site for entrpreneurial moms!
- The Mom Blogs - List your mom blog for free and find more moms to connect with.
- Regional Mom Blogs - Silicon Valley Moms, DC Metro Moms, Chicago Moms, New York City Moms, New England Mamas, and more.
I am sure I have missed some! If you have a favorite online “mom spot”, please feel free to share it with us. Meanwhile, have fun making some new connections.
December 6, 2007· Filed under Blogging
Just a few quick notes and links today:
We got our first snow of the season yesterday. It was fun to watch it come down and luckily it didn’t really stick or cause the kids to have a snow day today. It wasn’t even enough to build a snowman, but the kids had fun making their own Virtual Snowman on the Ben & Jerry’s website.
I have some posts on my other blogs you might be interested in:
Meanwhile - don’t forget to stop back in tomorrow for Casual Friday. We have something different planned and it will be fun!
November 7, 2007· Filed under Blogging
On my to-do list this week was to give this site a new look. I loved having my site pink for October in support of Breast Cancer Awareness, but it is time for something different - something inspired by what I see when I look out my front window - the glorious changing colors of the leaves.
Keeping with the theme of my past few designs, I used custom brushes in Photoshop to achieve the look I wanted. The brushes I used this time are high resolution leaves courtesy of Bittbox.com.
Once I recreated my header graphics, the change over was all done in the CSS - I changed the background color, link color and changed out the RSS button. I love WordPress and CSS for this purpose exactly!! It is so easy to give a site a fresh new look in a matter of minutes. All in all - this reboot took less than 1 hour from the time I opened Photoshop to create the header to the final tweak.
So, how do you like it? (RSS readers - come on, click through and take a look!)
October 17, 2007· Filed under Blogging
Have you ever noticed that you can look at your own work and miss something so blatantly OBVIOUS to the rest of the world? I do it all the time.
The theme template I am currently using here has a little RSS feed button to make it easier for you to subscribe and stay up to date with what’s new here. However, it was so tiny and unusually placed, I’d bet most of you have missed it. Thanks to a few of my blogging friends, you can now find the subscribe links easily - check the top of the right hand column. See that fancy pink chicklet? Hopefully that will make it easier for you and all of my new readers to find the subscription method that works best for them and subscribe.
Why would you want to subscribe instead of just bookmarking the site? Well, it all depends on personal preference really. If you bookmark all your favorite sites, you have to remember to go back to each one individually. If you subscribe to the RSS feed of your favorite sites, you can get everyone’s updates when they occur and view them all at once in an RSS reader or get them in your email inbox.
How is this different than subscribing to an enewsletter? The great part about subscribing via RSS is that you don’t have to share any of your information with the site’s owner. It allows you to monitor your favorite sites on your own terms.
The absolute BEST explanation of RSS that I have seen to date is the video by Common Craft called RSS in Plain English. If you are even the slightest bit confused as to what RSS is all about or need to explain it to someone else, this is the only video you need - and it takes less than 4 minutes!
If you are having trouble seeing the obvious on your own site and need another set of eyes, ask a friend - chances are, they will be willing to help you out. Or better yet, ask Easton! Easton at Business Blogwire has offered to give anyone who asks 5 free tips on their website as part of his blogging birthday. I have been lucky enough to be the recipient of Easton’s advice on more than one occasion - and it is all good. What are you waiting for? Go ask him, now - right after you subscribe to Casual Keystrokes!
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