I have now been blogging for 5 months & 3 days. Not that I’m counting or anything. I literally started with 4 google followers, one was my sister, one my former roommate, one my current roommate aka Todd, & I have no idea who the fourth was–it could have honestly been me. haha Then in March I started reading a friend’s blog (Ericka at Alabaster Cow) and saw the Top Mommy Blogs button flashing on her page. So I clicked it & boom I saw this whole new world of blogging, saw some really awesome blog designs, & decided to become a “serious blogger.”
And in these 5 months & 3 days of blogging I have learned a lot of things & I thought I’d share:
*I joined networking sites where I could find other bloggers like me. I would then peruse their followers
Examples: SITS (need I mention them?!), Theta Mom, Top Mommy Blogs
*I got a better layout & cleaned up my sidebars.
If you don’t want to hire a designer, go into the blogger template & select the one of new layouts that they now offer. Try to steer clear of the Minima Templates. They can be super distracting!
*I visited at least 3-5 blogs a day, left a comment ABOUT THEIR POST, I DID NOT ask them to come back by my blog & follow me back (if you want to follow me back, go for it. If you don’t want to, that’s fine.) But people are much more receptive to a person commenting about their posts instead of a person writing about their own blog in the comment form.
*I found other bloggers with the same numbers as me, googled followed & read their blogs. In the process I got to know them. We started friendships (I miss some of them, the summer got SOOOO busy for all of us–I’m talking about YOU Laura at Melodramamma & Debbi at This Lovely Life!)
*I started a facebook & twitter account. I know this sounds super overwhelming & trust me, it can be. I don’t twitter that often, but 75% of my readers come from referral sites, aka Facebook & Twitter. If you don’t want to start a fbook fan page or a twitter account, just use your personal facebook page if you have one. Most of my peeps come from my personal page as opposed to my fan page anyways.
*I got feedburner email subscription box because I realized that’s how I read all the blogs I comment on regularly. It’s so much fun to open my email & see a blog post from Joey, Liz, Corinne, Maureen, Kay, Ryan, Nolie, Sherri, & so many more! (**Update** Totally forgot to add Laura at Gringation –I read her every day too!)
*I responded to comments. Right now I can tell you that Shelby from First Comes Love is one my favorite peeps because she & I will email all throughout the day! It’s so much fun–we have a dialogue going a few times a week & I look forward to reading her posts & her comments every day! But I will also tell you that the summer has been UNBELIEVABLY crazy so replying to comments has been my biggest area where I’ve been slacking. But, I honestly do try! And if they have “noreply” turned on then I try to visit their blog in return.
*I have FUN with it all! If I start to get overwhelmed, I take a few days off. Or if the ideas aren’t flowing then I just don’t write (I have been feeling stumped for days!)
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Last week, Kerri from the blog Living with Chronic Illness contacted me because she wanted a blog makeover. She had seen the work I did at A Dance with the Dragon and wanted to know if I’d be interested in doing the same for her. Kerri requested that she gets lots of purple, teal & yellow. I sent her to Designs by Krista, she picked out the kits she liked, and I went to work.
So I hope y’all will go take a look at Kerri’s site! She’s way more awesome than her design is–she also has the same chronic illness as my mother-in-law. This is an illness that only 35,000 people in the United States have (stats via Todd). It’s very rare, very difficult to live with, and it’s not fun to see people struggle with it. And some of you might recognize her because she had her SITS day not too long ago!
You will start to see some changes around here at Mommy Monolgues. First up, will be a new design, made by Moi! Second, you will see the start of a Blog Design Tab in the menu bar titled “Cutesy Couture” where you will be able to buy all your hottest blog fashions and it won’t be the cost of a designer label (for blogger blogs only, wordpress someday!)
Can’t wait to get everything going!
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I ALSO have some awards that were given to me and I will be writing about them next week!
Hope y’all are having a great Wednesday!
Having FUN is the most important part of it all 🙂
A new design AGAIN! Damn woman. You are almost as bad as me. Seriously though stop designing and all that crap and move over to wordpress.
Great tips! I just changed my blog design for the first time {since I had a real design} and am loving it. Can't wait to see yours!
Thanks for the tips! And I love Kerri and her new design is really nice:)
Great tips! Love the blog designs and also, I can't believe you just started blogging 5 months ago!
Thanks for the tips! It seems so hard to try to get followers! My 7 are great and most are my family right now! It is nice to know that other bloggers have gone through this as well!
Great ideas!! I agree… the best thing is to leave comments. But I try to make sure it's only blogs I LIKE 🙂
Thank you Kate! I have been thinking about all those things and was wanting some advice/direction.
i love the list! i, too, started in that same way! i remember when i used to try to find blogs to read! and now i can barely keep up! ha, ha!
thanks for the shout!
Great list! You have lots going on, but it sounds like you are having so much fun with it all. Can't wait to see all the cool new things!
Never checked out Top Mommy Blogs…hmmm, better check it out!
It's amazing that you've learned so much in just five months… and three days.
Thanks for the shout out – I enjoy seeing your email subscription too. It really streamlines my commenting process.
I love blogging tips! I also love the dialogue we share and def look forward to our emails back and forth! You're also a fantabulous writer so I thoroughly enjoy reading every.one.of.your posts!
Also, I have been thinking about doing a new blog design for awhile now but have been A. dreading the price and B. its crazy around here haha! How much do this usually go for?!?
These are great tips! I haven't been blogging that long and I still have no idea how to create a button LOL. I am going to check out some of the networks you suggested and I agree that this summer has made it really hard to comment as much as I would like to. We have been very busy! I can't wait to check out your new blog design and Cutesy Couture! Hope you are having a great week!
Those are some great tips! My biggest problem is also responding to comments. My inbox is so ridiculously full because I mean to, and then just run out of time.
Great job with designs Kate!! I can't wait to see your new design!! 🙂
Great post! Amazing how far you've come in such a short time. SHEESH!!! I love that you have such a following, you've worked hard to get there.
Ok, I'm not kidding when I say…I NEED a blog makeover and I literally have NO idea how to do it. I want it to be bigger, mine is so narrow. And,well, I suck. So, if you wanted to help a sister out. hahaha
Alessia – I want to be #20 for you guys So many congratulations to you both she is coeptmlely and utterly the sweetest little thing!& that teddy hat picture is my def favourite.Enjoy her while she’s still so tini-tiny I hear they grow incredibly fast! .great shots Jenn!.