For more Wordless Wednesday posts visit 5 Minutes for Mom and 7 Clown Circus. Mister Linky will be back next week, sorry about that. In the midst of figuring out all of this homeschooling stuff with my daughter I’ve forgotten to renew my subscription with them.

Related posts:

1. Wordless Wednesday: The Queen of Dress Up
2. Wordless Wednesday- Perfect Bribery
3. Wordless Wednesday: Being Goofy At Blissdom

Community Chest: Learning From Community Powerhouse Sites

• Be as authentic as you can be.
• Be generous, genuine, and respectful.
• “…your blog is like your home…” – Steph (Adventures in Babywearing)
• Comment on other blogs. Give back.
• Keep comments fitting and relevant.
• Comment unto others as you want commented unto you.
• Share yourself.. your trials & your triumphs.
• Never turn down the opportunity to do a favor.
• You don’t have to compete with eachother.
• Join together when your passion is the same. Build blog alliances.
• Feature your readers and top referrers (for example; Top 10)
• Create a landing page whenever you get featured in something.
• Do a re-cap of your top 10 posts of the month.
• Create a meme. Do something you enjoy to bring people together.
• Be original.
• Think of your readers before accepting opportunities and forming business relationships.
• Protect you and your readers- be cautious in accepting opportunities and read through entire emails before accepting those opportunities.
• Build up a list of emails to create a email list.
• Network with other community leaders.

Blogging With The Stars: Snapshots of Four Successful Blogs

• Comment and link to other blogs. Be a part of your community.
• Establish relationships with all bloggers. That includes the new bloggers, bloggers that are in about the same place you are, and the “bigger” and “older” bloggers.
• Your blog should have good photography, good ideas, and good writing that stirs emotions whether that be happy, sad, etc.
• When you write talk like you’re sitting next to someone, not just like you’re talking at them. It should be “conversational.”
• Schedule your posts in advance and edit!
• Question: Has your blog helped you become who you wanted to be?
• Be more confident in both your writing and socially.

Evolving Into A Professional Blogger

• “You are going to have your own path (to success). You determine what that is.” – Kim Moldofsky (Hormone Colored Days)
• “Identify who you are and others will start to notice that.” – Barbara Jones (One2One Network)
• Be yourself when you’re blogging.
• When writing reviews include both pros and cons but don’t be disrespectful. There’s a difference between helpful vs. hurtful.
• Contribute to newsletters for companies.. be a content provider.
• It’s OKAY to say no and to tell a company that you don’t have the time to take on anything else at the moment. Be honest and they will come back.
• Everyone in PR is watching you and they network too. According to Nancy Smith of irobot they do keep lists and they “network” and share too.
• Everything that you say and do- everybody will know!
• If you’re passionate about a company come to them with your ideas.
• Product reviews are fine but companies may also want creative content and to hear your ideas. Think outside the box.

Content Is Queen

• “Quality writing comes out of living.” – Amber (The Run Amuck)
• Bloggers are reading blogs.
• Give yourself permission to write quality content. You don’t necessarily have to be a niche writer. People want to read what you’re passionate about.
• Write a series of posts. Include a mister linky or something similar so your readers can write about the topic and link up. Link back to posts that are relative to yours.
• Keep your readers first.
• Does your post add value to your reader?
• Have purpose and focus! Don’t stray from what your blog and general idea is all about.
• Don’t write to make someone else happy.
• Think about what posts and comments have meant the most to you.
• What makes this feel like work for you?
• If you could have a blog about anything what would it be? THAT’S the one people will probably want to read.
• You can still have humorous product reviews. Make whatever it is you’re writing entertaining for your readers.

Memoir Writing

• What makes a memoir different? It’s short, in first person, snippet of your story, has structure and elements, a resolution, and it’s honest.
• Can you find yourself in it?
• A resolution doesn’t mean that everyone’s going to be happy in the end.
• Quality and content- entertain, be clever, don’t drone on and on.
• Don’t be scared to write longer posts.
• Do you feel like you own your blog?
• Share your experience.. “this is what happened to me and this is how I felt.”
• Give children permission/editorial control over which stories you do and don’t share. Think of it this way- to what extent is this MY story?
• Read good blogs and good stories. Find a “teacher” for yourself.

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Related posts:

1. What I Learned About FTC Guidelines and Accounting At Blissdom 2010
2. 25 Blog Post Ideas For Mom Bloggers
3. My 100th Blog Post! 10 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging

FTC & Accounting Tips:
Unfortunately I missed a good majority of this portion of the conference due to the beginning of a migraine and having to hunt down some sort of headache meds within the hotel. I did manage to pick up a few things here and there that I found to be good information.

• on accounting: Don’t wait until you’re making money to start tracking it.
• Know what you make so you can increase it
• Know what’s coming in as well is what is going out when it comes to money.
• on Disclosure Policy: Follow your own policy
• Treat your blog as a business
• Many people who find your blog find you via google so be clear in each post about whether you’re sharing your opinion and experience or if you’ve been compensated.
• Comply with FTC at all times.
• Incorporate your blog to reduce liability.
• PR reps and companies do read your disclosure policies.
• Be clear about your policies and business practices.
• Be clear about affiliate relationships
• Let your readers know if you’ve accepted product to write reviews, etc.
• FTC guidelines: ask us to disclose of relationships with companies and if we’ve been compensated.
• Products count as compensation.
• Be clear about whether an item was purchased or if you were sent product.
• Don’t make false claims about a product.
• The FTC isn’t necessarily after individual bloggers BUT if a company you’re working with comes under review for not complying with the FTC they will be investigated and bloggers that have worked with them will be too so BE COMPLIANT. Don’t give the FTC a reason to look at you.
• Suggestions for being FTC compliant: Have a blanket site policy, include a statement/disclaimer within a post or before the post, categorize or create a tag for posts (ie “sponsored”)
• For twitter create an easily identifiable hashtag like #ad or #sp
• Don’t include your disclaimers at the bottom of posts or in PDF form. (I was not aware of this.. up until now I’d included it at the bottom of my posts so I’m really glad I now have the chance to make things right just to be safe.)
• It’s best to write your own disclosure policy and statements.
• The FTC does not require a disclosure policy but they do ask that we’re being transparent about reviews, products, and what our relationships are with company.
• Don’t worry about what others are doing, worry about yourself.
• resources: ftc.gov and blogwithintegrity.com

Related posts:

1. What I Took Away From Each Session at Blissdom 2010
2. My 100th Blog Post! 10 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging
3. Huggies® MomInspired™ Grant Program For Moms

Be sure to head on over to 5 Minutes For Mom for more Wordless Wednesday participants. While you’re here add your WW URL to the mister linky below.

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1. Wordless Wednesday: A Lucky Girl
2. Wordless Wednesday: One Creepy Insect!
3. Wordless Wednesday; Feeding The Dolphins At Seaworld

Lessons From The Playground

1. Commit to it. Don’t talk about it, be about it. “..You’ve gotta WANT to chase your dreams!”
2. Seek Out Encouragement. Sustaining your life’s work cannot be done alone.
3. Work Out Your Creative Muscle. Embrace your inner child. Look at things as if it were through the eyes of a child. Turn your ideas into reality.
4. Prepare to shine. Trust that hard work never goes unrewarded.
5. Speak Up. “A closed mouth don’t get fed.”
6. Expect the unexpected. Expect and respect the unexpected.
7. Maximize the day. Each day contains 86,400 seconds- That’s 86,400 opportunities – To chase, kick, catch, and run after your “red rubber ball.”

Isn’t that some amazing advice? It makes you think about things just a little bit different and it’s inspiring.

Related posts:

1. What I Took Away From Each Session at Blissdom 2010
2. What I Learned About FTC Guidelines and Accounting At Blissdom 2010
3. Blissdom 2010 Pictures

Related posts:

1. What I Took Away From Each Session at Blissdom 2010
2. What I Learned About FTC Guidelines and Accounting At Blissdom 2010
3. Lessons From The Playground; Blissdom Opening Keynote With Kevin Carroll

It came with the cute Orville Popcorn bowl, some popcorn,  TONS of coupons for free food all nicely organized in a coupon holder and the brand poken all thanks to the amazing sponsors of Blissdom 2010. ConAgra Foods really went all out for us. We also received a really cute recordable card from Hallmark and some more free product coupons from Blue Bunny Ice Cream and Oroweat/Arnold as well.

What am I most looking forward to at Blissdom 2010?

• The conference itself. The sessions sound amazing and there’s something for everyone whether it be the newbie bloggers or us bloggers that have been around for awhile.
• My sister is coming! (The Blue Zoo) She is EXTREMELY excited about Blissdom since this is her first ever blogging conference and the first time she’ll be meeting other bloggers face to face. Since we live in different states and don’t get to spend time together very often it’s safe to say that I’m really excited to have my sister as my roommate at Blissdom.
• Seeing old bloggy friends and meeting others that I talk to online often in real life.
• Making new friends.
• The Parties. I absolutely LOVE to get dolled up and wear my cute dresses to a cocktail party. I mean, really, how often do we as mothers get to dress up, talk without kids screaming at us, AND see Harry Connick Jr.?
• NO KIDS! Whatever will I do with myself? Oh yeah! I’ll get to do my hair, AND wear makeup, AND wear clothes that have not been spit on, puked on, stained, or torn by my rambunctious little ones!
• Being with like-minded people. There’s no twenty questions and no weird looks when you tell people what you do. It’s such a nice change to be around so many other women that completely understand and ask for nothing more than a business card, your blog’s name, or your twitter handle.
• Nashville, TN. I can’t wait to get out of this town and into that gorgeous hotel!

What are you most looking forward to at Blissdom 2010?

*My travel expenses and conference fees are sponsored by an amazing company I’m working with, White Cloud. Be sure to find us 5 mom bloggers at Blissdom and follow us on twitter. We will have some amazing things in store for you that you aren’t going to want to miss!

*The Blissdom gift package in the picture above was provided for free by ConAgra Foods as an official sponsor of Blissdom 2010.

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1. White Cloud Rate The Rolls Challenge #3
2. Rate The Rolls Challenge #1 Big Reveal & Money-saving Coupon
3. I’m a White Cloud Mom Blogger!

However I’m not stupid enough to give up 2 years of work on my blog to pass up every opportunity that comes my way just because I’m scared of airplanes. So I spend weeks mentally preparing myself for the terrifying hours spent on the plane ride and constantly have to remind myself that “it’s okay, people fly ALL the time”, “How many planes ACTUALLY crash? NOT that many and not that often!” and other crazy things like that when people are trying to convince themselves that there’s nothing to be afraid of.

BUT THEN..

I open up my morning newspaper and read stuff like this!

Bird-plane collisions may pass 10,000, a first

…….. The government’s tally for all bird strikes last year could reach or even exceed 10,000 for the first time – which would represent about 27 strikes every day. There were at least 57 cases in the first seven months of 2009 that caused serious damage and three in which planes and a corporate helicopter were destroyed by birds. At least eight people died, and six more were hurt……. full story here

Are you kidding me?! Is it necessary to actually print this information?! I didn’t need to know this. Hopefully you aren’t all terrified of planes because I’m assuming you’re not and this little bit of information won’t really bother you which is why I’m venting to you. I get it, it’s newsworthy I suppose but I personally didn’t want to read it. I wish it’d been written in fine print and placed beneath an ad so I hadn’t seen it. I’ll admit it, I’m a giant weenie! I don’t actually need anyone to tell me that. I’m scared of planes, I’m scared of falling out of the sky, and I’m scared of humiliating myself should the plane hit a little turbulance. What if I actually have to use the barf bag on the airplane?.. in front of fellow passengers? Is it possible to die of embarrassment? Is it possible to die from fear? What if I cry during landing like I often want to do? Thankfully planes make me so scared I can’t even cry, I think that might be a blessing. At least that’s one less thing to worry about.

I know I’ll live, I know the birds aren’t likely to hit my plane, I know my plane ride will be just fine and run smoothly and I have faith in myself that I won’t cry or get sick during the landing process. At least that is what I’m going to tell myself until I step onto the ground in Nashville, TN for Blissdom.

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2. We’re Back From Orlando!
3. Win a Ergo Baby Carrier!