Parent Blogger News

5 Thoughts That Hold Back Your Blog

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Five thoughts that are holding back your blogBlogging is most often a solitary pursuit and as a result our success will often come down to whether we are able maintain our momentum and motivation. This means we have to be careful about letting our own thoughts get in the way. Here are five things I hear from bloggers all the time (myself included!) which hold them back and what you should be asking yourself instead.

I’ll never be as big as…

We all know there are some huge parent blogs (although they might not actually be as big as you imagine, that’s another story). The first thing to bare in mind is that, for them, blogging is very much a full time job (many even have staff) so you’re not necessarily comparing like with like but, setting that aside, it’s also important to remember that being ‘big’ is not an end in itself. Ask yourself How big does my blog actually need to be to achieve my goals? There are plenty of bloggers making money, working with brands and getting great opportunities without getting 250k views a month and winning loads of awards.

I’m not a good enough writer

Some bloggers write beautifully. Their flowing, imaginative, descriptive prose entrances their readers and more power to them, I say. For most of us though, a basic grasp of the English language and the ability to coordinate two fingers for typing will be sufficient. People read blogs to hear from real people in their own words and as time goes on we all improve and develop our own style. Ask yourself Do my posts communicate what I want them to? and if you’re really struggling with writing consider using more video or images instead.

Noone will want to read my posts

When I first started blogging there was a lady who wrote an entire blog about the Victorian trend of photographing dead bodies as if they were alive to act as a keepsake. If she can find readers then a blog about family life, be it activities, recipes or where you go at the weekend, has nothing to worry about! Ask yourself How can I find readers who share my interests? because they are out there and then set about getting your posts in front of them.

If I share my posts people will think I’m pushy

I’m assuming you didn’t strong arm anyone into following you. You’re not holding anyone’s loved ones hostage, right? Then people are following you because they want to. They are interested in what you do and say. Noone is going to be remotely surprised if a blogger shares their posts on their social media channels, in their newsletter etc. Of course, it’s best not to go over the top so mix it up a bit. Ask yourself What is the best way for me to share my posts? and use the right channels in the right way to give your readers what they want.

Brands never want to work with me

When you hear other bloggers talking about the approaches they’ve had from brands it’s easy to think ‘why not me?’ but you can’t forget how many parent bloggers there are now. Brands and PRs can’t undertake a review of all of them when they select a blog to work with. It often comes down to a combination of word of mouth, contacts and being in the right place at the right time which means if you’re a newer blogger and you sit around waiting for brands to get in touch then you could be waiting a long time. Instead grasp the bull by the horns and ask yourself How shall I go about pitching to brands I’m interested in? Make sure your blog and media kit are looking good and contact several brands with a well thought out proposal. They won’t all say yes but even those that say no will then have you on their radar next time they’re looking so a few days work now can pay dividends for a long time to come.

Resilience when you’re having a bad day will be just as important a part of your blog being successful in the long term as mastering SEO or networking at conferences so don’t let these thoughts hold you back.

Here are five things I hear from bloggers all the time (myself included!) which hold them back and what you should be asking yourself instead.5 Thoughts that are holding back your blog 5 Thoughts that are holding back your blog

What I learnt at the BlogCamp afterparty

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After today’s Birmingham BlogCamp I’m sure you’ll be seeing plenty of ‘What I learnt at BlogCamp’ posts over the next couple of days. I finally worked out how to use Snapchat thanks to Aly Hodge and, as ever, enjoyed watching Sally masterfully explain the Tots ranking system (and somehow manage not to gouge out her own eyes in frustration when people didn’t get it for the hundredth time) but I shall let others fill you in on all that. Instead I’m going to share the most valuable learning I gathered in the less than salubrious pub across the road afterwards. It’s always all about the afterparty, right?

  • It’s worth spending time on social media channels that help your blog or ones you enjoy, otherwise don’t bother, life is too short!
  • The pool of parent bloggers is growing, driving down the pay for sponsored posts for ‘average’ bloggers. If you want to make a living from blogging then diversify your income streams. Affiliate sales and selling your own products may be a safer bet.
  • If you want to work with a brand just ask. What’s the worst that can happen?
  • Play nice! Using a conference talk’s question session to grind your personal axes in public might make you feel better but you will look like a prat so save it for an email.

And most importantly:

  • Blogging friends help your blog. Not in a comment thread, tit for tat sort of way but by sharing their experiences, listening to your plans and giving their honest advice and encouragement. They’ll also hold your virtual hand when your marriage breaks down, share their contacts when you’re skint and send you messages in the middle of the night when you’re sitting by your kid’s hospital bed.

So thanks to the Tots100 team and their sponsors, Wood Windows Alliance, for a great day and thanks to these ladies, and many others, for being brilliant everyday.

BlogCamp blogging conference

(And thanks to Donna for letting me steal her pic)

How to polish your blog’s ‘About Page’

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How to polish your about pageUpdating an ‘About Page’ was one of the most popular tasks from PBN’s recent Big Clean 2016 e-course so I thought I’d reshare it as a post for everyone. Big Clean 2016 is now over but if you’d like to hear about out e-courses in the future make sure you sign up to our monthly newsletter over in the sidebar.

An ‘About Page’ is often one of the first a reader visits and one of the first a blogger writes. However, over time too many get neglected and become out of date. Not ideal when they can play a big part in how we make a first impression. So how can you go about updating your ‘About Page’ to reflect where you are now and lead your readers into your blog?

About Page or Start Here?

Before you dive in, it’s worth taking a minute to think about whether your blog would benefit from something like a ‘Start Here’ page rather than an ‘About Me’ page. It’s really a matter of preference. Both will cover much the same topics but the focus will be slightly different. You can see the PBN ‘Start Here’ page here as an example. As a rule of thumb readers would probably expect an ‘About Me’ on a personal blog to get to know you and your story better. Whereas a ‘Start Here’ page may suit more fact based sites, focusing on telling readers what they will find and guiding them to your main topics.

Questions to ask

It can be tricky to ‘big ourselves up’ but remember this is your opportunity to explain to a new reader why they have come to the right place. So don’t be shy. Read through your current ‘About Me’ page and then ask yourself:

  • Is it up to date factually?
  • Does it include at least one image, ideally of you by yourself or with your family?
  • Does it describe what your blog does for people?
  • Can it explain why you’re the right person to write it?
  • Does it mention and link to some of your key content?
  • Does it tell people how to contact you (or link to your contact page)?

Tone is important too

Finally, have a think about the tone of the page. Does it match the rest of your blog, be it friendly, funny, enthusiastic, thoughtful? It’s easy to become overly formal when talking about yourself. Then you lose the ‘voice’ you’ve been cultivating in the rest of your writing. Writing in the 3rd person, for example, can sound a little stilted. Breaking that personal connection with your readers.

We’d love to see your revamped about pages when your done. So leave us link in a comment below or tweet it to us @pbloggernews so we can take a look.

How to polish your about page - 6 questions to ask yourself when you review your 'about' or 'start here' page. How to polish your about page - 6 questions to ask yourself when you review your 'about' or 'start here' page. How to polish your about page - 6 questions to ask yourself when you review your 'about' or 'start here' page. How to polish your about page - 6 questions to ask yourself when you review your 'about' or 'start here' page.

A Cuppa With Stephie Chapman

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Today – Meet Stephie Chapman, author of Getting Over Jesse Franklin
A cuppa with Stephie ChapmanOooo goody, it’s time for one of my favourite PBN features. Pull up a chair and your baked treat of choice while we have a cuppa with the marvelous blogger turned author Stephie Chapman.

Hi Stephie, great to have you here. Tell us a bit about your sites.

I started off writing imcountingufoz.com, a food/parenting/lifestyle blog years and years ago. It was a little bit of everything because I’m a) indecisive, and b) generally a bit all over the place. I had a good run for a few years and then I got distracted with writing my first novel, Getting Over Jesse Franklin. I lost interest in the blog because I had this story that I had to get out instead, and that took priority. imcountingufoz.com is pretty much defunct now, but I do have stephiechapman.co.uk, which is my author site, and focuses on my books. It’s fairly new and I migrated it over from a Tumblr site, but there are some excerpts from the books, and publication information.

What first inspired you to start blogging?

Getting over Jesse Franklin by Stephie ChapmanI’ve always just liked writing. It’s really as simple as that. I’ve always written stuff. When I was a young teenager I used to write fan fiction about bands I liked at the time. I would stay up until the wee small hours in the school holidays and at weekends tapping away on the computer after everyone had gone to bed. I used to embellish it with word art like the nineties adolescent I was. It was fancy! I started writing a novel when I was 19, but never finished it because I simply didn’t have the life experience to carry it off. It’s on a USB stick somewhere. Part of me wants to find it and read it, but it’s probably so bad I’d be cringing into the centre of the Earth. So, I suppose the blogging was a way to get writing out there quickly. I’m definitely more comfortable with creative writing than opinion pieces or articles, though.

What have been the highpoints of your blogging journey so far?

I’ve had a couple of lovely holidays out of it. I went on a cruise with Alice Judge-Talbot a few years ago, which was a lot of fun. More than that, though, I’ve made some epic friends through blogging and really love the community feel that there is with it. I was overwhelmed with how supportive and kind people have been about my books, too.

What do you find hard about being a writer?

I found it really hard to write in my own voice. It never really felt like I was writing for me the way that writing Getting Over Jesse Franklin and Jetplanes to Jupiter have done. I felt like I had to censor myself in a way that I never had to writing fiction. I’ve also felt less and less comfortable writing about my children as they are growing up. My daughter is a fairly private kid and only just about copes with pictures of her on Instagram. Put it this way, the transition from blog to novel hasn’t been a difficult one for me, and I’ve enjoyed disappearing off into my own little fictional world in a way I just never did with my blog.

What are you excited about right now?Jetplanes to Jupiter by Stephie Chapman

My new book, Jetplanes to Jupiter, is published on 30th May, although it’s available to pre order now. Arrggh! It’s the sequel to Getting Over Jesse Franklin and is told through a series of flashbacks as well as present day. It’s still unabashed mushy chick lit which is my absolute favourite, and I adore writing about love. It’ll be available on Kindle and, if Amazon ever get around to sending me the proof, paperback. In any case, I really hope people like it. It was a lot of fun writing it. It delves a lot deeper into all my American characters. As I mentioned previously, there are a couple of excerpts on stephiechapman.co.uk, so click on over for a read.

What is your top tip for a new writer?

Ooh wow, that’s a tricky one. I guess, find your voice. That’s really important, and I think where I let myself down with my blog. It will certainly feel more authentic to both the reader and the writer. And I think that can be applied to people wanting to write books, too. But mainly, MAINLY, just go forth and write. The rest will come!

Stephie Chapman AuthorYou can buy Stephie’s first book, Getting Over Jesse Franklin, and pre-order the follow up, Jetplanes To Jupiter, on Amazon or check out the excerpts on Stephie’s website. You can also find her on twitter and facebook.

Don’t forget to check out the other great bloggers we’ve had over for a cuppa.

Books for Bloggers: The Badass Blog Planner Giveaway

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The badass blog planner by Sarah MorganI love a good planner. So much of my blogging time is spent on the laptop but there is still something very cathartic about sitting down and actually putting pen to paper to clarify where I’m at and what I want to do next. This week I’ve been putting ‘The Badass Blog Planner’ by Sarah Morgan to the test.

Sarah Morgan is a web designer and consultant and the Badass Blog Planner describes itself as ‘your guide to defining your purpose, creating clarity and building a year of killer content’ which is no mean feat so does it live up to that hype?

The planner takes you step by step through all the areas involved in running a blog including:

  • posts and pages
  • social media channels
  • newsletters
  • advertising
  • design
  • finances

You make all your notes in the book as you go and what’s really important is that it encourages you to review what has been working in each area before going on to ideas for the future which I think is vital to make properly informed plans. It has space for both long and short term plans as well as actions broken down my month and quarter. It is set up to cover a year but you can start at any point.

badass blog planner portraitThe structure is really easy to follow (although you wouldn’t necessarily have to do each section in order, you could pick out your priority areas if you prefer) and the colourful layout give you plenty of space to get down all your thoughts as you go through.

I think it would be perfect for someone who has been blogging for at least six months to a year and now wants to review what they’ve achieved and take their blogging to the ‘next level’.

We have a copy of The Badass Blog Planner to give away to one lucky PBN subscriber. Just use the rafflecopter widget below to let us know the email address you subscribed with to enter and then you can make any extra entries you like. The giveaway will run until midnight on Sunday 8th May 2016.
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How Categories Help Your Blog

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How categories help your blog - 4 reasons they are important.

When it comes to selecting categories bloggers often fall into one of two traps. Some add a category as an after thought often using the same one repeatedly while some go to the other extreme, adding loads of rather specific ones leaving their blog full of category archives with only a couple of posts in most of them. Here are four reasons why a carefully selected range of categories is good for your blog.

Categories maintain your focus

While it is obviously possible to have a successful blog by just writing whatever takes your fancy, sticking to a handful of topics that work together gives your blog consistency. It lets people know what to expect from your blog allowing you to build up a loyal readership.

Categories make it easier to develop an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar can be anything from planning and scheduling a months worth of content ahead of time to just generally trying to post a review on Mondays, a recipe on Wednesdays etc, depending on what works for you. Wherever you find yourself on the spectrum of organisation, having a set of topics that you know you write about regularly makes it easier to plan ahead, spacing out similar types of posts.

Categories help people navigate your site

Some of your readers may enjoy particular topics you write about and want to find more of them. They might want to find crafts specifically for the preschool age group or all your UK family day out reviews. Being able to find all posts from a category makes that easier for them and gives them more posts to look at than using your search bar for a specific term (so more potential page views for you).

Categories improve your SEO

One advantage of categories we don’t always consider is that using well chosen categories that relate to your niche and the keywords you want your blog to rank well for should improve your SEO. This also means how you name your categories is important. Going for something specific like ‘preschool craft’ is likely to attract more  search hits than ‘what we made’ or ‘sticky fun-times’.

All in all, it’s definitely worth spending a little time thinking about your categories to make sure they are the best fit for your blog.

How categories help your blog - 4 reasons they are important. How categories help your blog - 4 reasons they are important.

How to revamp an old post

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How to revamp an old post - 7 steps to breathe life into your back catalogue.The more we blog the more we refine our approach. Developing our own style as well as learning what works for our audience. Most bloggers will admit they look back on their early posts with a bit of a cringe. Some even consider deleting them completely but what a waste of your hard work that would be when revamping an old post can keep bringing you traffic for years to come.

Try and make time in your schedule to look at one old post a week. What little tweaks can you make to get it up to scratch? The key areas to consider are:

Content

Could your post be updated or extended? Maybe it could be expanded into more than one post. Would it benefit from adding a downloadable resource like a checklist or worksheet. Might an infographic better illustrate the information?

Images

A fresh header image can give a post a new lease of life. Not to mention improve your chances of getting traffic from social media. Don’t be afraid to look at stock photo sites if photography isn’t your strength. Aim for a consistent style across your posts.

SEO

Getting to grips with keywords takes a while so early posts can often use some improvement in their SEO. There’s no shortage of tutorials online if you need advice. The most important thing is to keep in mind not how you would describe your post but how are people likely to be searching for content like this.

Pinterest

Ensure your images are pinterest ready to make it as easy as possible for people to share them and send you traffic. Have at least one vertical (tall and narrow) image, complete the alt tag with a caption including keywords and consider adding a ‘pin it’ button.

Internal Links

Adding links to other relevant posts you have written is both good for SEO and helps to keep people on your site, reducing your ‘bounce rate’. Linking to one or two other posts within the text is normally easy enough. You could also consider a plugin like ‘Related Posts Thumbnails’ that will automatically add a range of posts from the same category at the end of each post.

Call to Action

It can feel a bit odd at first to ask your readers to do something for you, be it share your post or visit your facebook page. However, often your readers are more than happy to help you out. They like your blog after all or they would be there in the first place and just need a little prompt. Get in the habit of adding a friendly ‘call to action’ at the end of your posts. You’ll be surprised how many people will respond. Don’t forget to make it easy for them by providing social sharing buttons, ‘tweet this’ links etc.

Affiliate links

If you’re a member of an affiliate programme you may be able to add a relevant link into the post. Even if the post doesn’t include a specific product, is there a book you could recommend for further reading? Something you were using that inspired the post? Something that could be used with your craft? A storage solution for the ingredients of your recipe? Think outside the box a bit!

Finally, once your post is looking all shiny new share, share, share! Schedule it to go out to you social networks over the coming weeks. Buffer is great for this and a plugin like ‘Revive Old Post’ will keep your back catalogue going out over time. Pin your new images with detailed, keyword rich captions and add it to any suitable linkies, share days and round ups.

If you have any other approaches you use for revamping an old post do let us know in the comments. If you found this post useful it would be great if you shared one of our pins below. Now off you go, these posts aren’t going to polish themselves!

How to revamp an old post - 7 steps to breathe life into your back catalogue. How to revamp an old post - 7 steps to breathe life into your back catalogue. How to revamp an old post - 7 steps to breathe life into your back catalogue. How to revamp an old post - 7 steps to breathe life into your back catalogue. How to revamp an old post - 7 steps to breathe life into your back catalogue.

A Cuppa with Emily Leary

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header featuredIt’s time to settle in for our monthly cuppa with one of our favourite bloggers. This time we’re welcoming all round domestic goddess Emily Leary from A Mummy Too. I don’t think my usual custard creams will cut it here. I’d better get the oven on…

Thanks for joining us Emily. While I whip up some brownies why don’t you tell us a bit about your blog?

A Mummy Too is all about food and lifestyle for busy parents. I guess it’s more of a magazine than a blog, in that rather than diary-style entries, I tend to share daily recipes, tips and video guides from a personal perspective. It’s aimed at anyone who believes a shortage of spare time shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy beautiful, delicious things.

What first inspired you to start blogging?

I was already aware of the parent blogging scene through work (I was a digital marketer for 12 years) so while on maternity leave in 2011 awaiting the birth of my second child, I decided to create my own blog.

It wasn’t intended as any kind of big enterprise, just a place to record the things we discovered as a family and to celebrate that as well as being ‘work Emily’ who typically faced the world as a marketing consultant/speaker, I was also a whole person with passions, hobbies, loves and a gorgeous family outside of work. Hence, “a mummy too”!

What have been the highpoints of your blogging journey so far?

Becoming a full time blogger in 2013 was a huge highlight. I’ve always been comfortable as a working mum, but to step out of office life and into a career that began as a hobby was a dream come true.

I still work long hours, but I adore my work. My family are often able to get involved rather than work being a separate part of my life, and the hours are flexible enough that I spend more quality time with my loved ones than ever before.

What do you find hard about being a blogger?

I’d say the challenges of being a blogger are the same as they are for most creative freelancers: being disciplined about your work schedule, learning to put work down and take a break, working with clients, managing expectations, getting yourself out there and not underestimating your workload. My husband is a designer in the music industry and he sees all the same challenges, so it’s par for the course I think, but well worth it for the freedom (creatively and financially) that comes with working for yourself.

What are you excited about right now?

I think blogging is always exiting because the online work is constantly shifting and evolving. No one could possibly ever know everything there is to know because what works today might not work tomorrow.

We bloggers are all balancing finding the secret sauce that makes our content soar vs maintaining our personal voice and love of blogging that made us start in the first place. I love that – it’s thrilling, and working for yourself means that if you want to, you can be responsive to a new trend so fast it can make your head spin.

What is your top tip for a new blogger?

Find a supportive community. And by that, I don’t mean one that seems full of dos and don’ts, shoulds and shouldn’ts. Find like-minded bloggers who will support you and guide you through but never hinder you as you find your own voice. Find a community built on celebrating each others successes and supporting each other’s growth.

A supportive community will also be able to steer you through legal pitfalls (such as disclosure – a real must if you work with brands!) and help you get your head around the more techy aspects of running a blog.

Find a group like that, and you’ll be friends for life – I met some of my best friends through blogging!

What great advice, thanks Emily. Now can I tempt you with a gooey brownie before you go?

profileYou can find Emily (and a mountain of deliciousness) over at A Mummy Too and don’t forget to check out all her social media channels:

Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / YouTube / Instagram

Achieving a Blog/Life Balance

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Blog/Life Balance - Can you have a successful blog and have time for a real life too?

Blogging can really take up as much of your time as you allow it to. Many bloggers find that as their blog grows all the writing, editing, sharing, socialising and planning can really cut into the time they spend doing all the things that they started blogging to write about in the first place.

While it’s safe to say that a successful blog will require you to put in some work, it is really important that you set your own boundaries to stop blogging taking over and ruining all the fun. Everyone’s system will be different but you could consider:

  • Only working on your blog at certain times (9-5 or no weekends for example)
  • Allowing yourself a set amount of time to work in any one day or week
  • Restricting blog related activities and social media on mobile devices so you don’t find yourself working accidentally
  • Specifying certain times or events when you’ll always have your phone or tablet turned off, maybe the first hour after school or every Saturday afternoon
  • Planning proper ‘blogging holidays’, a couple of days or even a couple of weeks with *shocked face* no blogging at all. It is possible with some organisation, I promise!
  • Agreeing not to work in the evenings when your partner is at home
  • Making the bedroom a blogging and social media free zone

Only you can decide what will work for you and your family but it is definitely worth spending some time thinking about how you can fit in your blogging. PBN asked some long term bloggers about their approach to balancing their life and you can seen their thoughts below.

Achieving Blog/Life Balance - Can you have a successful blog and have time for a real life too?

Thanks to Helen, Laura, Maggy, Stacey, Annie and Cass for sharing their thoughts.

Have you found a good way to balance your blogging with your family and personal life? We’d love to hear what sort of blog/life balance works for you (or what you find tricky) in the comment section below.

BlogLife Balance - Can you have a successful blog and have time for a real life too?Blog/Life Balance - Can you have a successful blog and have time for a real life too?

Join the PBN ‘Big Clean 2016’

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PBN Big Clean 2016 email course sign upFancy joining in with a blog spring clean? Sign up for the PBN ‘Big Clean 2016’ to get your blog in tip top shape and give yourself a motivation boost in just 10 days.

Many people make New Year’s Resolutions but I think January is more a time for hibernating on the sofa with hot chocolate and something good on the TV. For me an April Spring Clean is the way to go. When the weather starts perking up, the bulbs are flowering and the kids head back to school after the Easter holiday I always get a surge of enthusiasm for blogging, tidying, exercising and just life in general.

This year I’ll be sharing my annual blog blitz with PBN readers, taking you through a bit of a blog MOT. We all know that writing your posts is only half the story when it comes to blogging but it’s easy to forget those little jobs that keep everything running smoothly and let you really make the most of the opportunities blogging brings. When did you last update your media kit? Have you checked your records on Webmaster Tools recently?

PBN Big Clean 2016 email course sign upSign up for the PBN Big Clean 2016 below and starting on Monday 18th April (so we can all get the kids off to school and recover from the Easter hols a little!) you’ll get:

  • 10 daily emails each talking you through a task that will help keep your blog spick and span
  • Downloadable worksheets (don’t worry, nothing too strenuous)
  • Printable checklists
  • Links to helpful resources
  • Lots of encouragement from a team of sparkle-clad cheerleaders (ok, not strictly true but working together is a great way to stay motivated!)

Sound good? Just register your email address below before 18th April and wait for the daily tasks to drop into your inbox. I can’t wait to get started!

Tweet: Time to spring clean my blog! Want to join me for the Big Clean 2016? http://ctt.ec/unZXT+Once you’ve subscribed why not let other bloggers know you’re taking part with a tweet? The more the merrier!

I’m afraid Big Clean 2016 has now started so you can no longer sign up. I’f you’d like to know when we next run a course like this make sure you subscribe to our newsletter via the widget in the sidebar and you’ll be the first to know what’s coming up on PBN.

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