I was very happy to connect with Beth and more than pleased to have her cover this topic here. I know I have participated in more than a few “what are you doing” conversations in my parenting time. For a homeschool mom I sure haven’t been writing much on the subject lately. I have, however, been noodling some posts I want to write soon on all the different ideologies and philosophies that have phased in and out of my kids education. But until the noodles cook into a good post, read what Beth has to say on the pressure us moms (and dads) can go through.

Beth, a home school mom and teacher, lives with her adorable son and yummy chef husband on Johns Island, SC. She loves her life and sharing her time and energy with parents and kids as they home school. She currently has two blogs, www.classesbybeth.blogspot.com (home school) and Every Spiritual Blessing at www.bethhempton.blogspot.com where she currently features excerpts from her upcoming book.

Peer Pressure in Home Schooling – I Mean…Really?

How many homeschool moms does it take to choose curriculum for one child?

One, but only after she has surveyed at least a dozen other moms for their opinions!

Peer pressure runs rampant in home school circles even though it is only discussed in hushed tones and whispers because we really don’t want to admit it exists. However, we have a responsibility to expose it for what it is! I’m not referring to peer pressure among our teens and students. I’m concerned about the peer pressure among our moms!

All joking aside, I first began to realize that that peer pressure existed when I started attending home school support group meetings over a decade ago. Having previously taught in a private school, it took me by surprise to discover that home school moms aren’t overly confident. They are bold in standing up to the government and school boards, unsupportive family members and friends, but struggle with making serious decisions for their home schools and their children without seeking out their peers. In some situations, it seemed that even spouses were considered less influential than other home school moms!  Consider the following:

• Reasons for home schooling – A few years ago, one of our local private schools lost a significant number of families to home schooling. When I spoke with some of the moms, I discovered that at least a portion of them had decided to home school because other families were taking that route in response to a disagreement with the school headmaster. At that time, I wondered how many would home school for more than a year. By the next year, several of thsoe families returned to the school because they didn’t realize what they were getting into with home schooling. They didn’t really comprehend the absolute commitment required! Reasons for home schooling need to be personally grounded within your family. It is definitely not the time to try to keep up with the Jones’!
• Number of children – As a mother of two, I found myself explaining to other moms that I had tried for more children, but God chose to give me two. With so many friends having four or more children, I often felt like that girl who just couldn’t afford the latest fashions. I wanted to be belong, but I really couldn’t make myself like the other moms. I have spoken to other moms with one or two children, and while there are more smaller home school families today, sometimes you feel pressured into a having a larger family or feel less than perfect if you don’t.
• Curriculum – I have many home school friends with shelves and shelves of curriculum. Every year, they seem to second guess what they previously used. As well, if one mom mentions that she has experienced success with a particular curriculum, ten other moms run out to purchase it. I remember my first curriculum convention in Dallas, Texas. I had taught school for over eight years and I felt extraordinarily overwhelmed by all of the options. I couldn’t imagine how moms without any education experience waded through all of the choices!  I solved this issue for my family by writing my own curriculum. For some families, it may not be a particular curriculum, but rather a teaching philosophy such as unschooling or the Charlotte Mason method. I belong to several small groups online designed for those who follow CM methods. Early on, I noticed that many of the moms really didn’t understand CM or what she espoused, but like the “idea” of CM because they had friends in the small group. For some, it could lead to a better understanding, but for others, the time might be better spent.
• Scheduling – As a mom who is considered experienced, I often get asked about how we schedule our day. This question comes up every year in our support group and I am always surprised that families struggle with how to schedule their school day. I wonder how they scheduled their lives before home schooling. Did they ask their neighbors or family members when they ate meals, bathed, did yard work etc? I doubt it! My advice when moms ask is to design a schedule that fits your family’s values and lifestyle. Many home school families have unique situations like a parent that works at night or a parent with a chronic illness. No single schedule works for everyone and trying to adapt your family to the majority may only cause frustration.
• Outside activities – You have probably laughed when people ask about your children being socialized. If anything, it seems like homeschoolers socialize in relevant ways more than most kids. Our kids don’t just go to outside classes together, they do service projects, athletics, holiday parties, field trips and more! Since they don’t spend all day with their friends, this time together is even more valued. However, the peer pressure issue bubbles up when moms start talking about what their children do outside of home schooling. So many moms feel pressured to not allow their children to miss out on any experience. I often hear moms complain about schooling in the car because they have so many activities and classes for their children. I teach classes in literature, history and writing. While I encourage parents who need my expertise to put their children in my classes, I don’t think that my classes are for every child. I have noted that in the past, I have greater enrollment among moms who know one another and discuss my courses. On the surface, that sounds wonderful, but the key to all of it is the motivation behind attending my courses. I’ve had parents want to enroll students when they’ve already had the subject matter in another way simply because other friends have enrolled their children. Over-scheduling our children because other families do so ultimately results in frustration and fatigue for both you and your children.

Please don’t get me wrong…I believe that supporting one another through home schooling makes so much sense. There’s a great deal of anxiety related to being solely responsible for our children, but faith in the fact that we were meant to teach our children and no one else could love them more should be our primary focus!

Have you had times when you felt pressured to do certain things or behave in a certain way as a home school parent? Or do you think I’m completely off base? I’d love to hear from you either way!

Please welcome Tamara as our fabulous PR Mondays guest poster today! She has some wonderful insight on conferences for you. This summer I am planning to be at the following conferences: EVO, Savvy Blogging Summit and BlogHer. I wrote a beginners guide to BlogHer last year.Let me know if you are going to any of those and please leave some wonderful comments below with your own advice to newbies or questions/thanks to Tamara!

Tamara is the voice behind The (Un)Experienced Mom and Blog Conference Newbie. In addition, she is the co-creator of Our Mommyhood…where motherhood meets bloghood! If she’s not online chatting or connecting others, she’s probably working out, sleeping, or changing a poopy diaper.

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Why Newbie Bloggers Should Attend Blog Conferences

When people first get into blogging, it usually starts off as a casual hobby. Some people post when they can while others start off posting daily. But no matter how often you write, the realization that blogging is a bit addicting and can require a lot of time eventually hits us all.

In the short time I’ve been blogging, I’ve learned a lot about the craft. There are blogs for every hobby, topic, or stage in life. There are personal and professional bloggers. There are even blog conferences. I was actually very surprised to learn just how many blog conferences there were. Before I created Blog Conference Newbie, I figured there were a handful of conferences at most. But I have since realized that in addition to the bigger conferences such as BlogHer and Blissdom, there are newer conferences emerging each year, many of which are specific to a blogging niche.

What I’ve also realized since networking with newer bloggers is that many assume that these blog conferences are only for experienced bloggers or ones who are making money from blogging. My own experience and those that other bloggers have shared with me proves this point: blog conferences are beneficial for newer bloggers.

Still unsure if you should spend the time and money to attend one? Let me explain why I believe you should.

• Connections: Blogging is not just about writing; it’s also about connections. So many of us enjoy reading others’ blogs and get excited when others comment on ours. While it’s easy to make connections with bloggers online, you’d be amazed at just how much stronger those connections become when you meet those people face-to-face at a conference. Even if none of your online blog friends are attending, I can assure you that you will still walk away with those real-life connections. At Blissdom this year, I roomed with someone I had never met before. I felt comfortable enough to be her roommate without having met her and am so glad I did. Not only are we great friends now, but the two of us met three other gals that we are now close with as well. When a large group of blogging women are put together under one roof, you’re guaranteed a good time and new friendships.
• Knowledge: Of course, one of the main reasons to attend a conference is to learn, and blogging conferences are no different. The couple of days you’ll spend at the conference will be jam-packed with useful tidbits, helpful hints, and downright important information. Many conferences educate bloggers on topics such as finding your passion, utilizing social networking platforms, monetizing, increasing readership and traffic, and how to write creatively. Don’t want to earn money off your blog? Only blogging for fun? You can still learn a lot from a conference. For instance, the Casual Blogger Conference is geared towards those who blog as a hobby. In addition, many of the conferences offer various tracks, focusing on the topics you find helpful; you can pick and choose which sessions are a fit. Writing, business, photography, and creating communities are common tracks. There is something for everyone at these conferences.
• Confidence: Attending Blissdom this year renewed my confidence. My confidence in my writing, my purpose for blogging, and my passions in general. The mix of having a weekend away to focus on myself and spending time with those who understood my hobby are what impacted me the most. I think most new bloggers feel very anxious leading up to the conference they are attending and start to question why they are even going. But once there, they realize that this was actually one of the best decisions they made. There really aren’t words to describe the blog conference experience other than fulfilling, fun, and fabulously rewarding.

There are obviously other reasons to attend a blog conference and I honestly could write another couple of pages worth. However, the purpose of this post was to provide you with some food for thought and encourage you to at least consider attending a blog conference this year even if you are a newer blogger.

The next obvious thought after deciding to attend a conference is “How do I pay for it?” followed closely by “How should I prep for the conference?” I invite you to head over to Blog Conference Newbie to read tips on these topics, as well as how to save money on your blog conference trip and what to expect while you are there. In addition, the site offers a list of blog conferences, need-to-know dates, and interviews with conference coordinators themselves. Blog Conference Newbie is your go-to-guide for all things blog conferences, whether you are a new attendee or not!

And please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter also. I enjoy helping newer bloggers with general insights or blog conference-related topics. You can connect with me on Twitter (@unxperiencedmom) or by adding the #ConferenceNewbie hashtag to your tweet.

This is another wonderful guest post from my friend Maryann. She told me this story one Saturday and I asked her to please write it down for all of you since I loved it so much! It is the perfect post to participate in the Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop which is a wonderful program where bloggers can help raise $5,000 for Children’s Miracle Network. Children’s Miracle Network has helped to make so many of Carters surgeries and hospital stays so much better and easier for him. I am happy to be helping with this important campaign.

Maryann lives in Littleton, CO with her wonderful husband, their two fabulous (most of the time) teenagers and a large assortment of lovable pets. She is currently interviewing artists for her upcoming book.  Her blog is www.artists.50interviews.com

When my little sister and brother and I were young children, my single mother struggled to make ends meet and we didn’t have a lot of extra money for luxuries like sweets.  Her idea of a great dessert was a bowl of instant white rice with maple syrup poured over the top.  Or sometimes, Mom would mix powdered sugar with milk and a drop of red food coloring and spread it onto graham crackers.  But each spring, we looked forward to a very special sugary treat.

Our neighbor a few doors up the block was a traveling candy salesman.  Each year after the Easter holiday was over, he would present my mother with a big bag of leftover foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies.  Oh what joy!  We knew it was time again for “DEAD RABBIT SUNDAES!”

My sister, brother and I would sit at the kitchen table with a pile of chocolate bunnies in front of us and we’d begin carefully peeling away the foil wrappers.  The naked chocolate rabbits would be piled up into a large metal bowl.      Mom prepared a make-shift double boiler of the metal mixing bowl propped over a saucepan of boiling water.  She gently placed our painstakingly peeled rabbits into the bowl and we all stood watching wide-eyed as the rabbits slowly melted and grotesquely distorted.  “They are dying!” my little sister would scream.  Of course it wasn’t all bad because we knew what was to come!   Mom used the spatula to swirl around the melted chocolate rabbit mixture until it was smooth and creamy.  When it was melted to perfection we’d dish up our bowls of vanilla ice milk (the cheap ice cream-like product they sold back then) and Mom would pour on the warm, aromatic chocolate.  Then it was time to dig in!

Almost forty years later, my siblings and I still fondly reminisce with Mom about our “Dead Rabbit Sundaes”.   I don’t know if any other dessert could every measure up to that memory.

Other ways to reach Maryann

WEBSITE: www.CreativeMarketingCafe.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/maryannswartz
LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannswartz

As part of the Blog Hop I am passing the basket onto the following bloggers and asking them to please help as well.

Hersheys Better Basket Blog Hop

• Toni-Lynn at Delightful Chaos
• Corine at Complicated Mama
• Rachel at Quirky Momma
• Lori at Lori’s LOLZ
• Laura at Living the Sunny Life
• Christina at Cutest Kid Ever

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

• Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
• Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
• Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
• Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
• Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

I have been busy interviewing lots of amazing bloggers who monetize and work with PR well over the last week (in between being sick, house hunting with my mom and attending services). So, I am THRILLED to have Rachel back with us this week talking about her AHA! Moment in how to stand out from the crowd.

There are hundreds and hundreds of mommy blogs out there, blogs filled with griping, blogs filled with humorous stories, blogs filled with delicious looking food and recipes.  There are so many blogs out there.  How can we make our blog stand out?
This is the question I asked myself for a number of weeks.  I worked on my layout, on my fan pages, on interaction… and then I realized I missed the point!  What will make my blog stand-out from the masses is finding a niche and building in it.

To do this I first have to ask myself, what am I interested in?  What would be the easiest thing for me to write about.  I obviously picked my kids, that is why I am a stay-at-home-mom, right?  Now in the realm of kids – that’s a really big market of moms who are also interested in “kids”.  How can I narrow down the field of my “niche”, all mommy bloggers have kids!  Can I limit it by age range?  How about by a special circumstance (like raising a child with food allergies or step-children, etc)?  Can I narrow my focus in my presentation style (ex: mommy-goof ups, or expert tips, or photo documentation)?  Once you have an idea of your niche or what the purpose of your blog is going to be you should come up with several search-able phrases that fit your niche.  I like to think of myself as a blogger to moms of preschoolers.  The search-able phrases that I came up with are: “Fun learning activities” or “learning activities for preschoolers” or “preschool arts and crafts”.  Now is the fun part.   We get to figure out if people even care about that niche.  It is one thing to create a niche about “learning activities for preschoolers” but if no one wants to read it, I might as well just keep a private notebook at home, rather than maintain a public blog!

To find out if your niche has any value, check out the Keyword tool from Google Adwords.  It is free!  Type in your key phrases and add the cost per click (CPC) function.  Then look, are people searching for that phrase?  My keyword phrase “learning activities for preschoolers” is rarely ever searched and when it is the CPC is low, meaning it is not a valuable term for me to be investing my time and energies on – I probably won’t be able to find advertisers willing to sponsor my posts.  I can change it to “kids learning activities” or to “preschool learning games” and suddenly people are actually looking for the information.  For me, I blog so people can read it!  By tuning my blog towards a niche market I am able to get traffic that is looking for what I have to offer and will hopefully come back as I fulfilled their informational need.

The final step, once you have figured out what niche would interest you and what phrases you would target, is to come up with 50 potential posts.  Just brainstorm and fill up a notebook sheet.  Are you having problems coming up with 50 ideas?  Well, maybe you should change your niche to something more interesting to you.  Happy blogging!

Rachel is mommy to three preschoolers and blogs about their learning adventures, fun kids activities and tips that help her keep her sanity at Quirky Momma.  Have any blogging questions?  Feel free to contact her via twitter @quirkymommasite

Hey all–have been super sick this week so not much energy to post. However, my friend Maryann has an awesome story to share! Hope you all love it as much as I did!

Maryann lives in Littleton, CO with her wonderful husband, their two fabulous (most of the time) teenagers and a large assortment of lovable pets. She is currently interviewing artists for her upcoming book.  Her blog is www.artists.50interviews.com

A Pink Frosting Birthday

We really lucked out with the weather that day.   When the rain began, I worried it may ruin our backyard birthday party.  Our daughter Stella and friends were celebrating her third birthday, and she was quite ready for cake.  Soon the sun burst out and a brilliant rainbow arched above.  Parents pulled out cameras and snapped away.  The rain dried up as fast as it came.  Cake eating could commence!

Stella, the birthday girl, was proudly wearing her favorite lacy, pink Barbie dress and couldn’t have been more excited to notice she matched the Barbie cake I had so painstakingly crafted that morning.

These kinds of baking projects always look easier than they are.  The inverted 8 cup measuring glass produced a gorgeous skirt-shaped cake.  Unfortunately, Barbie only sank up to her thighs in the soft white cake mound.  It turned out to be easier to make another cake than to cut off Barbie’s legs.  I know, because my husband and I tried!  Needless to say, wire cutters, pliers and a steak knife weren’t up to the task of rendering a shorter Barbie.  I then hastily prepared a small cake to place on top of the first cake.  It was soon trimmed to size and set into place.  I frosted the cake around a carefully positioned Barbie.  The pink of the frosting matched Stella’s dress to perfection.  White frosting was stuffed into the cake decorator to embellish Barbie’s full length pink skirt with garlands and rosettes.  Two big puffs of frosting were applied to her ample chest and Barbie was ready for her birthday debut.

The sun was shining and it was time for cake!  I picked up Stella and plopped her upon the picnic table.  Her plump, little, bare feet poked out of her lacy pink skirt.  The Barbie cake was ceremoniously placed in front of her and her proud smile was caught on film for a cherished family memory.

The little pink dress is now tucked away in my daughter’s scrap-box of mementos.  That home and big backyard are just a memory too.  It’s still there; it just houses another happy family now.

I’ve made many cakes and enjoyed many rainbows since that day.  But that particular day with my family, including both a rainbow and a cake, remains one of my favorites.

Other ways to reach Maryann

WEBSITE: www.CreativeMarketingCafe.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/maryannswartz
LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannswartz

Can you believe that it has been a whole month of PR Mondays already? In January we concentrated on getting your ways to get exposure to your blog and we have one more awesome article for you on that from Holly. I have been busy interviewing PR reps for major companies and for the rest of Feb I will share their thoughts directly with you. If you missed any of the Jan posts make sure to go back and get your blog ready!

By Holly Hamann, 1.30.2010

holly@theblogfrog.com

What is BlogFrog and how did it all start?

Every wonder how BlogFrog got its start?  I’m delighted to be guest blogging for Barb and I thought I’d share a little bit of background on what BlogFrog is and how it all got started.

BlogFrog is the brainchild of Rustin Banks, who developed the beta product in 2008 during nights and weekends while still a full-time engineer at a local Aerospace company.  Banks said he got the idea from his wife, a casual blogger who used her blog to keep their friends and family updated.  There was no simple way for blog authors to have real discussions with readers and interact on their blogs. “A blog might have thousands of like-minded readers but what if I want to ask another reader a question or share my own blog content?” he used to ask his wife, Tara.

Rusty recruited me to help build the company and launch the service to the blogosphere. In early 2009, we both quit our jobs to run BlogFrog full-time.  Within months, BlogFrog’s social widgets had struck a chord with mom bloggers, who have become the company’s largest market.

People often ask us why women and mom bloggers have become such big fans. Our social features really resonate with them because women are inherently community and service oriented.  Women and moms tend to be more social online than men and also tend to form stronger online relationships.

There are 120,000 new blogs created every day and the total number of people engaging with blogs is expected to reach 150 million by 2012 (source: Technorati).  Every person has a unique story to tell and people are gravitating to blogs as a way to share what they know.  The social web is evolving from large, single-destination social sites to an integrated network of millions of smaller, niche blogs, all connected by a common platform.  Our vision is to be the common social platform that connects all blogs.

By cross-pollinating content within a single network of blogs via the social widgets, BlogFrog helps bloggers increase exposure and traffic for their blogs.

So how exactly does it work?

BlogFrog serves both bloggers and blog readers.  Blog authors can add widgets to their blogs that let them see who visits their blogs (the Recent Visitors widget) and they can let their readers interact with each other by adding a community (Community widget).  The Community widget lets readers ask each others questions, see each others’ blog posts, and each other’s content from social networks like Twitter.  You can see what these widgets look like here:

BlogFrog has quickly grown to over 25,000 members, making it the largest, integrated network of mom blogs on the internet. The network grows because whenever a member visits another BlogFrog blog or community, their profile picture and blog URL shows up for all visitors to see. So the more BlogFrog sites and communities a member visits, the more exposure their own blog gets.  You could also call this “viral growth”. BlogFrog has taken off as the best way to create a way for blog readers to interact.

You can learn more by visiting BlogFrog!

I am grateful to have Rachel from QuirkyMomma.com post today on how links can increase your blogs reach. One of the things that PR people use to evaluate your potential involvement in campaigns is your ‘reach’. They want to know how influencial your voice is beyond the blog. Rachel has a great way of explaining the different types of links and their value to you. Thanks Rachel!

Linking is often a confusing and frustrating part of blogging, and yet, links can be a very fruitful way to increase your blog’s credibility and traffic as more people are able to find you!  I credit the growth of links as the reason my blog has grown.  A lot of my readers would not have heard of my Preschool Activities Blog if it weren’t for another site advising that they come check me out.  My page rank (where I show up on Google searches) would have remained low (ummm, non-existent) and I wouldn’t be getting any search engine traffic if it weren’t for links, as Google would not have seen me as a valuable site.  There are several different types of links, I thought it would be handy to explain the various types of links, the perks and some of the negatives of getting or making them:

* What are incoming links? These are links that others make to your site.  They are highly ranked from search engines if they come from the first page of a blog, with in-content links rated higher than links coming from the side-bar, but really, we can’t be too picky!  Any incoming link is a good one!  You can find what links you have coming into your site either in your dashboard, if you have that capability, or by creating a Google webmaster account.  With Webmaster you can see exactly what Google thinks about you.

* What are outgoing links? These are links leaving your site.  Examples: links on your blog rolls, links to advertisers, links to authority sites, etc.  You want to be careful to not link to a spammy site (check google’s list) and links to higher ranked pages are better than to lower ranked ones, but Google says on their webmaster course/videos that “link bleeding” is a myth.  You are not penalized for linking too-often as long as those links are relevant (aka have similar keywords that you have in your site).  It can actually help you to link to authority sites.  Many times they are checking their incoming links and can find out about you (maybe even give you a curtesy link back), also, it makes you look like you know what you are talking about.  Like a research paper, Google likes it when we credit our sources.  Examples of “linking up”:  You write an article about a great cookie recipe that you adapted.  The original recipe was on Food Network, but you substituted a few ingredients and changed a few things making the recipe yours.  By linking to the original you are showing that you are “on par” with the Food Network.

* An Explanation of NoFollow/DoFollow links:
NoFollow is the default method of linking used by the majority of blogs.  NoFollow is essentially a code that Blogger, WordPress and other platforms have added making comments, and sometimes sidebars, not crawl-able to search engines.  These links Google “supposedly” does not travel from.  When the Google bot gets to your site they crawl all your pages, when they come to a NoFollow link they “supposedly” do not follow it to that site in an effort to make their bots more efficient.  NoFollow is good for the blog owner as it means they do not have to moderate links as heavily, however, it is not giving a “vote of confidence” to the sites you’re linking to.  Are NoFollow links worthless?  I don’t think so (but I am not an expert).  I find it hard to believe that Google doesn’t keep track of NoFollow links, they just may not weigh them as heavily as other links.  The easiest way to gain NoFollow links is by leaving comments on other people’s sites or by being in blogrolls (many of these are not crawl-able either).

DoFollow links are the ones where the bots come across the link and then go scout out the site that you are mentioning – these are also called “backlinks” or “incoming” links as the bot comes “back” (or “in”) to you.  Bloggers and webmasters alike obviously want more of these types of links as they increase credibility.  The more sites sending “backlinks” to you, the more you look credible or like an authority according to Google.  The easiest way to gain DoFollow links is by guest posting on another person’s blog.  Most blogs do not have “NoFollow” codes over their content area.  Some blogs (like Barb’s and my kid activity site) are DoFollow in their comment area as well.  The perk of this is that you get to reward the people who comment on your site with link juice, the negative is that you have to moderate comments a bit more and delete ones that are irrelevant or from “spammy” sites.  If you want to know if a site is DoFollow in their links, check out this FireFox Add-on (I love firefox!!!).  If you do have a DoFollow blog, there are a few things you don’t want to link out to (ex: giveaways, paid advertisers, etc.), but that list is for another day and another post!

Leave a comment if you have any questions I’d love to answer them as best as I can. I have not been blogging for long, but I love jumping in head-first and learning everything I can about whatever it is that I am doing.  These were just the meanderings of my blogging journey!  If any of you want me to share some link juice with you, feel free to stop by Quirky Momma.  I love to feature other relevant blogs!

Rachel

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Tara Anderson. She is one very smart cookie and has some amazing advice for you on getting to know your readers. Knowing who your readers are is very important when working with PR! You will need this information when pitching and determining which pitches will work well on your blog. Let’s give our guest lots of comment love-which by the way is now do-follow:) Our guest blogger next week will explain why that really helps you!

My name is Tara and I’m a stats junkie. While acknowledging is the first and most difficult step, I haven’t always been this way. It really started when I took a job at Lijit and began to understand the power that useful analytics have. There is no excuse, in this new decade, not to know as much as possible about your blog readers.

[Disclaimer: I work for Lijit. I check Google Analytics occasionally and only understand them at the most basic level. If you’re looking for an explanation of GA, I’m the wrong person. And this is the wrong post.]

You might have heard some talk or read some posts about “reader intent”. The most basic definition of this is exactly what you might think: what is a reader doing on my site. I hope they’re laughing at my most recent attempt at humor, but I don’t know that for sure. I also want them to get a better feeling of who I am, but that’s another thing I can’t be certain is happening. What I do know, if I have Lijit installed on my blog, is what my readers are doing with that search box.

And that, my friends, is where the power of the Lijit stats comes into play. Let me show you what I mean…

Think you don’t have readers in other countries?

Think again. With the world getting smaller, chances are better than ever that your page views are coming from a variety of places around the globe. Turns out I have way more readers in Spain than I ever thought.  Also…with this stat, I ALWAYS know when my mom has been reading my blog. Tell me, that’s not useful information.

Curious about how people are finding your blog?

Who isn’t? This list tells you exactly what people are typing into Google, Bing or Yahoo in order to end up on your site. In addition to being highly entertaining, it gives you a window into what people, or at least the search engines, think you’re an expert in. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, I was an extra in the movie Office Space.)

Care about community?

What kind of a blogger would you be if you didn’t? We let you know what other blogrolls you’re showing up on so that you can return the favor, or at least send a note of thanks. Lijit has over 2 million blogs in our network, so while there might be a few omissions from that list, we know about a LOT of blogs. We probably have you covered.

At this point, you might be scratching your head and wondering to yourself, “Doesn’t Lijit provide search for my readers?” Yes, in fact we do, and that is where the analytics around reader intent become most interesting. Especially if you’re a stats junkie like me.

What are people searching for on my blog?

This is the bucket o’gold, folks. Unless you’re paying big money for a stats package, you’re not going to be able to find this information anywhere else. Your readers are actually typing terms into your Lijit search box…this is ENGAGEMENT at its finest. (Well, besides comments, which we all love…) But taking the energy to find out more about your content means that your readers are actually doing something other than just reading your blog—perfect example of intent. They are looking for more and Lijit is helping them to find it.

What should I be writing about?

The million dollar question, right? While my personal Lijit stat doesn’t include anything on the above list, let’s say that the term “blogging” was on there. If someone is searching for blogging on my site and not getting any results, that’s a huge lightbulb and the very next thing I should be writing about. Because I care about my audience and because they think I know something about blogging…which may or may not be true. J

In the interest of space, I’ve shown only five examples from the many different stats we provide. We also let you know what search results your readers are clicking on the most, what search engine they’re most frequently coming from and how much money you’re making on ads. You didn’t think I was going to skip over the money part, did you?

Our service definitely helps your readers to find even more of the awesome stuff. That’s important. But, in my opinion, our true value lies in how we can help you, the blogger, to be an even better blogger. You don’t have to pay anything for Lijit and the information we give you…priceless. (Not to mention that we make things super easy by emailing you a weekly stats summary every Sunday night!)

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment (we listen!) or tweet something out (we care!). I’m happy to help as well, so shoot me an email (tara@lijit.com).

It’s easy to sign up and install Lijit. You can do so here, if you’re interested: www.lijit.com

I appreciate Barb giving me a chance to explain a bit about the stats that Lijit offers and if you’re still wondering about Lijit, give our search a try at the top of her blog. She’s using our WordPress plugin, which allows you to hijack your default WordPress search bar. (Insert blog terrorist joke here.)

Thanks again and I hope to see you all Lijit soon!

About Tara:
Tara’s been a public school teacher, restaurant manager, stand-up comedienne, massage therapist, and is now the Marketing Manager for Lijit. She spends her days reaching out to new and potential Lijit users along with maintaining the company’s blog and Twitter account. When not figuring out new ways of growing the Lijit community, she enjoys backpacking, running and writing about funny things that happen to her over at her personal blog, TallTara.com.

Would you like to be a guest blogger for PR Mondays? Send me an email.