Parent Blogging Basics- The Baby Spot

Do you offer giveaways to your readers? Giveaways are a great way to get new dedicated readers and establish a good bond with your following.

YOU ARE A WRITER. Thats why youre on this page. Thats why you do what you do. Watch this.

Christmas is coming up and your readers will be thinking about shopping, family gatherings and more. a lot of motivation for some great holiday specific posts. Though they are not EVERGREEN posts, or posts that can stand up for the whole year, the holiday season is popular. When do you start writing holiday posts? What kind of topics do you plant to write about?

#MondayMotivation Pinterest Tip: We have always said Pinterest is a great way to get more readers and your posts out there. A great way to keep things organized is through TAILWIND. https://www.tailwindapp.com/ Its a Pinterest schedule, analytics and marketing tool. So much to learn about Tailwind as it is always building and has so much to offer!

Be aware of online ads stating they can teach you how to make money online. They disguise themselves as parent bloggers but it is really a pyramid scheme. You pay them money to get access to ask other people to pay you money. Making a full time living wage from your blog is possible. Its hard work but it is possible. When these people take the PASSION for helping others out of the equation (an insert pyramid schemes) , they do a DISSERVICE to blogging, DISCOURAGE great future bloggers and DISENGAGE audience from current bloggers. If you ever have any questions, pose them to us here or email us and we can keep it anonymous. We dont want you to get misled or discouraged on your blogging journey.

Today is National Bosses Day and we want to give thanks to all of you blogging to help others so you can be your own boss! Run your blog with passion, the want to help others and to create a business out of your blog.

Coca Cola has an excellent campaign on Instagram and they are looking for influencers that have over 10,000 followers. Comp: $550 USD

http://thebabyspot.ca/parentblogger-starting-a-media-kit/ If you have not started a media kit, its time to do it NOW!

Having your own product to sell on your website is one of the best ways to make an income. What product would you create? A help book for your audience, a product parents need or something else?

The Parent Blogging Basics book is going great! We have everything from starting a blog to picking the right affiliate right down to copyright laws and protecting your blog. What are some ideas that you believe are essential for bloggers to know or something you would like to know? Sound off in the answers below. We will be offering all of our affiliates the book for free to read so they can believe in the product that they are selling.

In order to start a business, you have to learn from the failures of others. Read about mind and others on Thrive Global! https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/40911-career-failures

HAPPY MONDAY! There are exceptions to every rule, but generally a new blog has 3 themes. (Ex. Exercise, healthy mind, healthy recipes). When a blogger deviates randomly from their set formula, it does not bring in new readers but confuses the current ones. The themes should bleed into one another. As your blog grows, you can add other themes if you like and when you have your audience that is captivated by your every word you can try out new themes without risking losing them. SIDE NOTE: Dont rely on a guest blogger to cover your themes (ex. healthy life philosophies) guest bloggers come and go and you dont want to build up a new theme and have that person suddenly stop writing for you. We will talk more about guest bloggers this week.

Before you give up and think you have failed as a blogger, before you are convinced that no one is listening to what you have to say on your blog, remember: There is no other family like yours, there is no other person in the blogsphere with an opinion just like yours! Whether you have one reader or one thousand, someone has let your blog enter their life to learn from. Write for the passion and not the money and you will be a success!

@daddypoppins has been doing a series of interviews with Dads, including our blogger of the year One Hull Of A Dad. His advice is always to tailor your interview questions to the person you are trying to highlight. We love that advice! How do you make your interviews stand out?

POST STEALERS- It happens whether we like it or not. Pinterest is a great way to bring in the readers, but it is also a hot spot for post stealers. Why would someone steal your post? Well, it takes potential readers to your site and directs them to their site. Now they are getting your readers from pinterest. How can you keep track of people stealing your posts? Well, they just copy and paste your pins on pinterest. We caught a high profile blogger stealing our posts becaus...e we have a hashtag (#thebabyspot) on every pinterest post. This individual copied and pasted our entire post description, including our hashtag. We were able to track it through pinterests search engine. In a few minutes, the post is reported and her pinterest was shut down. Moral of the story: Create a unique hashtag (use your blog name! #yourblogname) and you can periodically search your posts.If you see an offending post, simple click the three dots at the top of the picture and report the post. We hope this helps!

We will be offering 3 affiliate opportunities to sell products on your blog. #1 is our parent blogging basics book, which you will get a free copy and can sell to other bloggers (Jan 2019), making a percentage of the cost for yourself, #2 our Dad Joke Mugs (Nov 2018) and #3 our clothing line for babies and parents our Season 1 "I love you more" tee shirts and onesies.Earn some extra side income with us and choose products and books that you believe in!

Where do you find PR firms to work with? They are located in every major city. New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Toronto and Montreal are great places to start. A quick google search of PR firms and (major city center) will help you get started. You will also discover other potential brands you never would have considered before! Wanting to work with a popular local brand? Chances are they are represented by a PR firm that is in your local city. Check their twitter page and who they are following and you are bound to find who they represent.

Many big brands actually have PR firms do business with bloggers. Connecting with PR firms in your area can bring in big brands to your blog, creating a relationship with the firm who represents the brand. That can be a real asset for you and your blog!

Do you HAVE to share pictures of your family, friends and lifestyle to be a parent blogger? We have seen it work both ways! How do you keep your family safe when sharing their stories online?

We cant believe how many "fake bloggers" are out there, trying to write an article just to get their sponsors backlink on your page! We have even seen them published in huge publications. Has anyone ever approached you for a sketchy guest post? How did you handle it?

When a company or brand does sponsor you, or you get the opportunity to review a book or product, do not commit to impossible deadlines. We think this sums it up...

What was your biggest surprises when you started blogging? Here were our pleasant and not so pleasant surprises. Positive 1. How many amazing people we would meet and become friends with. 2. How passionate strangers are about sharing a great article... 3. Companies will meet and make deals with you over social media. 4. How social media can get you involved with helping others 5. Meeting like minded people from all over the world. Negatives 1. How hard it is to grow an audience. 2. How companies only care about the big numbers. 3. People can be very negative online. They forget that a real person is on the other side. 4. How opinions can cause such fights with others. 5. How hard it is to grow your blogs facebook community. What are yours? Tell us in the comment section below...

Give some love to that one follower who supports you and likes all of your posts! Remember that one follower will grow into many, but we always are thankful for the people who were there in the beginning and supported us as we grew.

Having a private policy on your site lets your readers know that they are protected when interacting with your blog. An outline of a private policy is available to all wordpress users. If you dont have one now, get one! You need to protect your readers and also protect yourself.

Our favorite (sarcasm) emails from brands: We wont send you this product for review, but can you give it a great rating? Ummm... no. We are not in the business of dishonesty and misleading our readers. #weget100emailslikethisaweek. What is the oddest emails you get from "brands"?

Is your site GDPR Compliant? Just because you are not in the EU, doesnt mean you should not comply... Big News for Bloggers! https://www.csoonline.com//general-data-protection-regulat

When picking your stock photo pictures to accompany a post, always use images that are "no attributions required" and "free for commercial use". Bloggers get themselves in trouble by taking pictures on the internet and you need to do your due diligence.

Remember to send us your instagram link below so we can start our instagram pod! Lets GROW together!

Instagrams rules have changed. Have you noticed less engagement on your instagram? Should we start an instagram pod where we comment and like each others posts so it brings up our engagement and causes Instagram to show our pictures to a bigger audience?

Its Website Wednesday! Did you know that comments on a blog post can help your overall blog ranking? Place a link to a recent blog post of yours below. Be sure to comment on all of the other blog posts.Like each post once you have commented. This will close at 6pm ET tomorrow! After 6pm on Thursday, after you have commented on all of the blog posts, reply "done" under your comment! This is your tribe who is going to begin to help you build your blog!

Your EMAIL has your most IMPORTANT list. Why? Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are amazing ways to connect with people, but if they ever become unpopular, change algorithms or shut down all together, you lose everything and your connections to your audience. With your email list, you OWN it. It is yours to promote, enjoy and engage with your audience. Always build your email list FIRST.

Baby Spot Contributors, we are so excited to be launching a parent blogging basics group! We are going to give you all of the tips, tricks and more to connect with your readers, make money off of your blog and support each other! This will be a mastermind group, a place for information and we will be offering courses to help parent bloggers reach their optimal audience. Baby Spot contributors get freebies and discounted tickets to courses and are the first to know about giveaways!

What list is most important to grow? Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Email? Weve got an eye opening week for you! Put your guesses in the comments section below!

What is your ideal sponsor for your blog and why?

#FridayFeeling! Gain More Followers Tip: Which social media platform do you invest the most time in promoting your posts? Now, check your google analytics and see which social media platform brings you the most readers. You will be SURPRISED who is actually bringing you the traffic! Let us know in the comment section below what you have learned!

Pencils ready! #WednesdayWisdom. Watch out for LOOOOONNNG SENTENCES. Please SEO and do not have more than 30% of the sentences in your blog post over 20 words. Run on sentences and very descriptive sentences are not favored on seo. Follow the KIS Method. KEEP IT SIMPLE! That means you have some spring cleaning to do and fix some old posts. Its worth it. Practice this with all of your blogs and it will help bring more readers.

Happy Easter to all of our favorite bloggers! Have a great long weekend.We hope you get to relax! You deserve the break.