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By Little Mummy, March 10, 2010 12:15 am

Write Ideas Down Straight Away

I get a lot of ideas last thing at night and first thing in the morning, regardless of when you get your ideas ensure you write them down or you risk losing them forever.

Write Posts at Naptime

This has always worked for me as it coincides with my best writing time, other alternatives include getting up earlier to blog or as a lot of parent bloggers do, go to bed later (eek!)

Finish Posts Before Reading Other Blogs

Don’t get suckered into reading your 100 blog strong RSS feed until you’ve finished your own posts. This is procrastination blog-stylee.

Write Posts in Advance

A classic tip that works especially well for mums as we don’t know when the next bout of teething will keep us from our second biggest passion in life is to write posts in advance and either schedule them to be published at a specific time using the date stamp in wordpress or publish them manually on the right day.

Don’t Get OSCD – Obesssive Stat Checking Disorder

This is a serious time suck and if you don’t want your blog to become sad and neglicted don’t even go there. Seriously. Beware. Steer clear of over analysing unique visitors and pageviews, spend your time writing good content instead.

Choose Only One or Two Social Media Sites

Choose one or two and focus all your time there, I enjoy twitter and facebook, for you it may be MySpace and del.ici.ous. The old adage rings true it’s quality not quantity that counts when it comes to these sites.

Mum Blogger E-Course

You knoew there was a plug coming Sign up for my free mum blogger e-course. The course is delivered by email giving you one lesson and tasks to work on each week keeping your blog on track and growing.

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By Little Mummy, March 4, 2010 11:45 pm

This is a guest post for ‘Guest Post Day’ by Babyrambles, a blog I didn’t read before guest post day but one that has found it’s way into my google reader already!

I’ve decided to travel 400 miles to sit at Erica’s desk. And some desk it is too. You should see this study I’m sitting in, it’s bigger than my living room at home. Erica came up with this brilliant idea of Guest Post Swap Day. But I’m not content with just swapping posts on each other’s blogs, I actually wanted to see what it would be like to be Erica. So I’m in her house. I’m lucky to be here, I almost didn’t get through the security on her gates. Oh and look, the butler’s just brought me some coffee. This Little Mummy lifestyle is a nice one.

How often do you put yourself in someone else’s shoes? I feel like I’m doing it today. It’s quite difficult because I don’t know Erica very well. That first paragraph was a bit of fiction by the way. I don’t think it does any harm to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, no matter how well you know them.

There’s an old saying, “Never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” I like that saying (and it applies to women too funnily enough). Billy Connolly added, “After that, who cares? He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes.” I like that as well.

My sister put herself in my shoes this week. She got married on Wednesday but I wasn’t at her wedding. I was so sad to miss it. Her wedding was in South Africa. We thought long and hard about going, but taking three little ones on a journey like that would have been too much for us. Phoning my sister and telling her we wouldn’t be going to her wedding was one of the hardest things I’ve done. She doesn’t have children and probably doesn’t appreciate what hard work they can be.

I worried my sister would be offended and hold a grudge against me. Missing her wedding was a tough and difficult decision to make. She was disappointed, but after some thought she understood. I spoke to her on her wedding day, she sounded so happy and I felt sad not to be sharing that with her. But she told me again that she understood why we couldn’t have gone. And that made me feel so much better. Our lifestyles are very different, but she was able to empathise with me. I appreciate that. It’s not a skill everyone has.

So today I’m in Erica’s shoes. I hope I’ve managed to do a reasonable job of filling them. And if I haven’t… well Erica will be back very shortly! Pretending to be Erica has made me think a bit differently. I’ve written a post here which I don’t think I’d have written for my own blog. I don’t know why, but I think I’ve enjoyed being a bit different for a day.

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By Little Mummy, March 2, 2010 11:05 am

The first video below is just a wee bit of Guest Post Day info, please excuse my puffy eyes, I’ve not been too well!

and here’s the ‘live’ draw – see, no cheating

1. Craig McGill and Nene

2. Laura ‘Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy @LauraAWNTYM and Sharon

3. Barb ‘diabetic snacker’ and Young Mummy @YoungMummyUk

4. Sandy Calico and Sam ‘mumazing’ @samthewlis

5. Diney ‘Older Mums Are Fun’ and Manda ‘Flying Start Mag’

6. Claire ‘20 Something Mum’ and Lady Who Lunches @theladylunches

7. Mummy Limited @mummylimited and Linda ‘You’ve Got Your Hands Full’ @LindaSJones

8. Rosie Scribble @RosieScribble and Englishmum @englishmum

9. New Mummy @caroljs and Bumbling @BumblingTweets

10. Iain Gilmour @iaingilmour and T-J Hughes

11. Vegemitevix @vegemitevix and Karin ‘Cafebebe’ @cafebebe

12. Victoria ‘It’s a Small World After All‘ and Vic ‘Glowstars’

13. Nickie ‘Typecast’ @Nickie72 and Lisa ‘Deeply Flawed But Trying’ @slummymummy1

14. MrsW ‘Clinically Fed Up’ and Bare Naked Mummy

15. Antonia ‘Family Friendly Working’ and Babies Who Brunch

16. Felyhooton and American Mom in England @silentbeauty

17. Meandering Mother and Kim ‘Four Teens’

18. My Baby Adventure and Becky Willoughby

19. Jo Beaufoix and Magic Mummy ‘Frugal Family’

20. New Day New Lesson and Readily a Parent

21. Prendsletemps and Slummy Single Mummy

22. Sleep is for the weak and Angels and Urchins

23. Dulwich Divorcee @dulwichdivorcee and Ella ‘Most Least’

24. The MadHouse @Mum_TheMadHouse and A Place Of My Own

25. If I Could Escape @ificouldescape and Mari’s World

26. Brighton Mum – Teenage Angst and Sticky Fingers

27. Mummy Do That @cartside and Tattie Tats

28. Insomniac Mummy @insomniacmummy and Child Organics

29. Diary of a First Child and Ordinality

30 Fired4U and Sarahlscott ‘The Fifth Street Palace’

31. LaptopMums and Foodie Mummy

32. The Alice and Evie George

33. Family Affairs and Notes From Lapland

34. Mediocre Mum @mediocre_mum and The Thought Bubble @bubbleboo

35. A Mother’s Ramblings and Baby Budgeting

36. Very Bored in Catalunya and Geriatric Mummy

37. And Then All I Thought About Was You and Super Single Mummy

Comments (103)

By Little Mummy, February 27, 2010 12:29 am

Listen up, 5th March 2010 shall be Guest Post Day.

Guest posting is a great way for you to put your writing in front of a new audience and gain new readers, it’s a tried and tested technique in increasing a blog’s audience – and it’s fun too!

Here’s how it will work;

1. Submit yourself by leaving a comment on this post with your blog name before midday on Monday.

Update: Please use keyword ‘aqua’ in comment so that I can find any entries that go to spam. Ta

2. Return here tuesday and watch the ‘televised draw’ and see who you’ve been matched with.

3. Contact that blogger and arrange for a way to swap posts by email and by what time etc…

4. Write your BEST POST (let’s face it, your dross isn’t gonna gain you any new readers so put your best out there people) and give it to your blog swap partner.

5. Everyone post the guest posts on Friday 5th March.

Easy, yah?

Post suggestions – funny story, recipe, craft activity, ‘how to’

Okay, submit yourself below in the comments (don’t forget to include your blog name! you can leave your twitter @ too if you wish) and then spread the word…. the more the merrier!!

Comments (29)

By Little Mummy, January 23, 2010 9:29 am

We were going to achieve so much, we were going to have such fun, we were going to make new friends…

So far it’s been a disappointing year. I haven’t yet commented on the goings on anonymously or otherwise. These are my thoughts on what I believe to be the issues.

New Bloggers

It’s hard to be a new blogger, we get it. Join BMB, there are hundreds of bloggers waiting to connect with you there. Join my e-course, weekly lessons will gently introduce you to this crazy blogging thing. Ask other bloggers, most will be more than happy to help. Don’t expect everyone to fall over themselves to be your best friend though, life isn’t like that and relationships take time to build, but you know that, right.

Tagging

Whether you’re tagged in a meme or not is not a measure of your popularity. Some people tag the same people, that’s because they don’t read many blogs. There’s no rules when it comes to tagging, don’t lose sleep over it, as if you would…

Cliques

What may seem like a ‘clique’ is probably merely a close friendship, one that has been built up over time from literally thousands of interactions, online and off. People have friends, you can’t be everyone’s friend. You can’t be in everyone’s group. You won’t be privvy to every ‘in joke’. I won’t make excuses for having friends, but always feel free to butt in on my conversations on here or on twitter.

Controversial Posts

Some people write funny posts, some people write sarcastic posts, and some people like write controversial posts. Posts that stir up debate. If you don’t like that style you can always unsubscribe…

Which brings me onto my final point, don’t waste your time criticising other people’s tweets and posts, quite frankly they don’t care. If you don’t like it you can unsubscribe, block or unfollow.

The Pond

I think it was Dan who said that there were no big fish and no little fish, there were just fish. Anyone who seriously thinks otherwise is deluded. Some of us have been ‘lucky’ I’ll grant you that, but that is all. So never feel like you can’t approach someone because they’re a ‘big fish’.

If you find yourself ’sizing up’ bloggers based on their Top 100 position, then stop it. The person who creates the list admits this table is just a bit of fun, any change in the metrics used would throw the whole lot up in the air and they wouldn’t land in the same place so take it with a pinch of salt. Yes, some people get more traffic than others, but it’s quality not quantity that counts (unless you want to make money!)

So with all that being said, may we now move on and perhaps start over?

Start by unfollowing or unsubscribing from those people that don’t resonate with you, there are plenty of other fish in the sea. Gravitate towards the blogs and tweets that make you smile and ignore the rest.

Anyone who likes a bit of banter is willing to join my ‘clique’ anytime

* None of my points relate to anyone specifically, they are my general opinions collated from reading many posts on many blogs.

Comments (27)

By Little Mummy, December 17, 2009 9:54 am

This discussion accompanies lesson six of the mum blogger e-course – blog etiquette & commenting.

One of the questions that has come up regarding commenting is whether as a blog writer you should reply to every comment left on your blog.

Some bloggers I know respond to every comment, others reply to some and yet others never add comment replies.

If you’re an established blogger what do you do and why.

If you’re new to blogging what are your thoughts.

As a commenter do you like a response or doesn’t it bother you.

Leave comments below and discuss…

I respond to comments if I have something to say, I don’t answer every comment. Sometimes I don’t feel I have anything to add so I’m comfortable not commenting as I wouldn’t leave a comment on someonelse’s blog if I had nothing to say.

Comments (3)

By Little Mummy, December 9, 2009 3:41 am

I’m sure most of you are aware of the e-course I launched at the end of November. Well it’s grown wings (is that the right saying?) and is now a 35 week course featuring beginner, intermediate and advanced sections. If you haven’t signed up you can still do so for free – Free Mum Blogger E-course

Well, although all the feedback has been excellent, and I’ve only had one ‘unsubscribe’ (from a nice lady who has got herself a new job with more hours – Good Luck in the new job!) there have been a few people asking about going through the course quicker. So I’ve created the Mum Blogger Beginners Workbook which is a 35 page workbook compiling the first ten lessons as well as twenty five tasks to guide you through the process.

You can purchase it below, once you’ve paid your money you will be given a link to download the workbook to your computer.

Find out more about the content of the workbook here.

Comments (24)

By Little Mummy, November 23, 2009 12:35 am

Wooooohooo! Launch day is here!

Today’s the launch of my FREE Mum Blogger E-course

This course will provide you with all the steps required to create your own blog. Here’s how it works;

You simply sign up here (your email address is strictly confidential);

Once you’ve signed up you’ll receive a confirmation email. You must make sure to confirm your membership by clicking the link in that email.

Once confirmed you’ll receive a welcome email and the first e-lesson will be sent the next day. Thereafter you’ll receive one lesson a week. I’ve tried to write the lessons so that someone with no blogging knowledge at all can easily understand them, ie no jargon (at least in the beginning!). Of course this means that for people with blogs the first few lessons may not apply but I wanted to design this course so that it was inclusive and anyone could start a blog. Each lesson builds upon the last so that by the end you’ll have all the basic tools to have established your own blog.

This course is delivered automatically so you can join at any time, however, I can’t guarantee that it will be available forever. For the moment it’s absolutely FREE so I’d take the opportunity to join now, even seasoned bloggers may pick up a few tips and ideas to improve their blogging. Some of the information I’ll be sharing I learned during a course like this and I really enjoyed the process and format, so I hope this will be enjoyable for others, feedback is welcome as I’d love this to become a great resource for new mum bloggers.

Why did I write this course?

I like to learn from others and I like to share what I’ve learned with others too. ‘Mummy Blogging’ has really taken off in the UK over the past year and is receiving a lot of mainstream press coverage, I figured there may be a lot of people out there that may like to start a blog but don’t know where to start, rather than post this on my blog where many of my readers are already bloggers I decided that an e-course would be a great place to share my knowledge and help others enjoy what has become my main hobby. I don’t profess to know everything and I’m not an ‘expert’ but I believe my blog was among the first UK mummy bloggers and I’ve learnt a lot along the way. Where I think my knowledge is limited I’ll provide links to materials to help you extend your knowledge. I also invite fellow experienced bloggers to share their expertise which I’ll happily create a ‘lesson’ from and insert into the course. So if you think you have something to offer, please contact me.

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By Little Mummy, October 11, 2009 11:49 pm

We all go through it, don’t we?

Those times when you wonder why you bother. Any number of things can bring it on, a slump in traffic, a nasty comment, the housework piling up around your ears (just one more tweet and then I’ll do it). If you’ve ever found yourself wondering if now is the time to make your blogging exit try these tactics, and if you still feel like giving up then you probably should

1. A new theme/widget

It might be that you’ve become tired with the look of your blog, perhaps it doesn’t reflect the current you. It might just take a new photo, an updated about page and a few new widgets, or it may need a bigger overhaul, it’s all the rage you know, over the summer English Mum, Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy? and Dulwich Divorcee have all had makeovers, as have I.

It’s a bit like your hair though, a tidy up can perk you up for a while, until suddenly you decide to get a number two all over and die it red, ok maybe not that drastic (caution woman at work will warn you about making rash decisions) but you get what I mean, be sure before you start pulling the HTML apart

If you’re feeling lacklustre about your blog try a makeover. On wordpress it’s as easy as installing a new theme and customising a bit, but if you want to go all out it’s time to call in the web designers (a wee bird tells me that Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy Laura’s hubby is the go to guy for a facelift of the blog variety, or just a little botox if you’d prefer).

2. New blogs for the reader

Has the community you were once a part of progressed and you feel like you’ve been left behind? It may be time to look outside your current circle and find some new blogs to read. Check out your current blogs reading lists and see who you aren’t already reading. I’ve found some new blogs this way, Insomniac Mummy, Being a Mummy and Rosie Scribble to name a few.

The blogosphere in Britain is growing and it’s impossible to keep up with all the blogs, unless you make it your full time job so another idea is to immerse yourself in the blogs that are local to you – Hi Mother at Large, Mummy Do That and Clinically Fed Up – just a few of my fellow Scottish bloggers.

3. Read blogs in a different niche

Sometimes if we only read blogs in our own niche our own writing may become stale, the same stories and memes go round and round and you run out of fresh ideas and wonder whether you’ve reached the end of the road. Try adding a few blogs that are in a completely different niche, they give you lots of new ideas for posts that you may not have thought of. I read blogs about cookery, finance, blogging, business, entrepreneurship and marketing. None of them are part of the parent blogging community and most of them aren’t based in Britain.

4. Pick a different topic to write about or start a whole new category

Over time your interests change and your kids grow up, when I first started littlemummy.com it was heavily focused on sharing practical information with other new mums. This stage is behind us now and I find myself writing about wider parenting issues but I’m also enjoying dipping my toe into blogging recipes, I may not be that good but I’m enjoying it. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t get stuck in a rut if you’ve exhausted a topic move on.

Linda has been a great example of this, she had a blog which only focused on news and information about twins, there came a point this year after writing hundreds of posts on the subject where she felt she’d had enough of writing solely about that topic, she re-branded her blog as more personal and now writes about anything from parenting to business and even short stories. Her blog has soared up the Top 100, it can be done, don’t give up before you’ve explored all avenues or you may regret it.

5. Look back over old posts

Reviewing old posts often reminds you why you started, y’know before the spam, the bad pr pitches and everythingelse that’s crap about blogging.

6. Step away and take a break. Take the week off.

If all else fails it’s time to take a hiatus. If after a month you still can’t be bothered it’s time to make your blogging exit.

Please add any other ways you’ve combatted blog fatigue…

Comments (5)

By Little Mummy, July 22, 2009 3:21 pm

I have quite an interest in small businesses, especially when they are run by parents, you can read about businesses like this in my mumpreneur series.

I’ve made my points about PR people contacting me with various promotions, and it isn’t the PR people themselves but their approach that has been the issue. On a more positive note I’ve had some great direct communications with small businesses with which I’ve done interviews and promotions with, like my recent relationship with Frugi. We’ve done an interview which helps them tell their story but the reason I like doing them is to inspire and educate budding mumpreneurs, Frugi also sent me some samples of their product for Erin which I’ll get around to photographing soon. What I’m getting at is that this is the kind of organic relationship I like to encourage, something for everyone and I’m sure that Frugi and Littlemummy.com will work together again sometime in the future, the door has been left open.

If you’re a small business owner and want to promote your business via parent blogs I’d recommend you start by reading my post on the three things that need to be present to make a blogger want to work with you.

Here are some further points to consider when approaching blogs;

1. Quality not Quantity

Don’t just go after every blog you can find, consider your product or offering and do some research to find a good fit. Approach blogs that have children the correct age for your product or try and get a feel for the bloggers hobbies, tastes and interests. Given the size of the parent blogosphere I don’t think you want to work with any more than around ten blogs, and I would say that is an absolute maximum, if I were in your shoes I’d go after five that were an excellent fit and make your offer to them and their readers more special. If you have a very exclusive offer choose one blog and let them know they are the only blog that you have approached, this is a particularly good option depending on the kind of promotion you’re thinking of.

2. Do Your Homework

Email your ‘chosen ones’, keep your first contact brief. Introduce yourself and your business. Demonstrate your knowledge of their blog, don’t say ‘I really like your blog’, we don’t believe that crap anymore, instead describe what you have to offer and refer to the information you have gleaned from your research. Say something like; I noticed you live just outside of Edinburgh and you have a preschooler, I have a four year old myself and know how difficult it is to keep children occupied over the summer and wondered if I could send you my product X to try. I would appreciate any feedback. You should avoid asking for a review where possible, bloggers blog, and if they can find something remarkable to say regarding your product they will, and if they can’t, well…sometimes it’s best they don’t blog about it, if you know what I mean

3. Promotional Strategies

Have a specific promotional idea in mind but be open to suggestions, the blogger knows their audience the best and will know what will and will not go down well. Most promotional activities to date have revolved around unpaid reviews, usually for free samples. Here are some other strategies you may consider, what bloggers are open to will vary wildly so proceed with caution and try and figure out what sort of promotions they have done before.

Unpaid Review – This is the most common and involves you providing a complementary product that may be reviewed by the blogger, a positive review can never be guaranteed.

Paid Review – You provide a product and pay the blogger a fee, which may range from £20 – £50 to write a review, a positive review cannot be guaranteed, however most bloggers carry out honest and balanced reviews.

Competition/Giveaway – You provide a ‘prize’, the blogger carries out the competition on your behalf. This model has been predominantly unpaid, however, I think we may begin to see a move away from that shortly due to the effort involved. A fee of around £25 – £75 may be considered an acceptable range. These giveaways can be promoted on the blog, in a newsletter, via twitter and facebook.

Banner – A more traditional form of advertising involving displaying a hyperlinked graphic in the sidebar. These are usually sold by the month/quarterly/yearly for fees start from around £20

Advertorial – You provide an article or feature and pay to have this placed as a post on the blog, usually with linkbacks. This isn’t something that has happened much yet but I’d estimate that a fee in the region of £25-£50.

Newsletter Marketing – Only a small amount of parent bloggers currently have newsletters. Newsletter adverts could be placed for a fee of perhaps £25 and upwards.

Blog Sponsor – This would involve being the sole sponsor of a whole blog, this may include your logo in the header, a banner advert as well as ongoing joint promotions. I’ve only heard this model being used in America. I’d hazard a guess that a fee in the region of £500 – £2000 per year would be sufficient for this to happen.

Promotion via parent blogs in Britain is still fairly new but if you want to grab some serious attention do something different, something groundbreaking. Disney did it with their bloggers trip but it doesn’t take a huge budget, build the relationship and be creative. Good Luck