BubbaMack

Why do I suddenly feel like I’m a college junior and the time has come when I have to declare a major? Up until now, I’ve skated by dipping my toes into different niches, but if I’m going to meet and exceed my goals in 2012, it’s time for me to get down to business. As if my own goals weren’t enough to motivate me, the investments I’m making by deciding that I will be attending Blissdom are definitely a wake-up call that my actions on my blog aren’t currently meeting my dreams.

One month from today, I will be leaving BubbaMack Daddy with the kids for four days while I jump on a plane and fly to Nashville. No, it’s not like I’ll be sipping Mai Tai’s on a beach while they’re sitting at home, but it IS the biggest step I’ve made in this crazy career path called blogging. I will no longer be a mom sitting behind her screen in the wee hours of the morning rambling, I will be going to soak in as much information as I possibly can in an effort to find the focus that I know I need and the ways to get all of these thoughts swimming in my head onto the information superhighway in language that doesn’t sound like I’ve been awake for days and I’m on my third bottle of wine for the night.

The problem is, there are several “tracks” and it sounds like there are going to be different gatherings depending on which niche our blogs fall into. The scary thing there is that I feel like the theatre major whose friends have all declared pre-med as their major. The connections I have made to this point are primarily in a niche different from anything I would classify myself as at this point in life. So, if I’m to follow my track for BubbaMack, I’m going to be walking into rooms where I know no one. I will see my “friends” in passing and during mixers, but then it’s a matter of finding them in a sea of strangers.

Honestly, I have no clue what I’m going to do at this point when I get to Nashville. I did have a moment of clarity tonight regarding my own blog as I was designing new business cards. I still need to work out the details before I’m ready to announce what I want to do in 2012, but I think it’s going to be fun.

Wow, maybe I need to start blogging in the morning rather than last thing before I go to bed! This probably makes sense to no one other than me!

Today, parts of the internet blacked out in protest of SOPA. At first, I was completely on-board with the idea of blacking out my site to show that I am against SOPA. There are far too many things wrong with the bill for it to pass with the way it is currently worded. The more I read and the more I thought about it, I realized that blacking out for the day was not the best way for me to make my voice heard. If anything, blacking out for the day would silence my voice.

As much as I would love to think that BubbaMack going dark is going to be noticed and make a difference, the simple fact is that it’s not. What WILL make a difference is putting my opinion on here for everyone to read in hopes that others will look into the bill and its flaws and contact their representatives.

Even though I’m 34 years old, it wasn’t until a year ago that I fully understood the power of one’s voice. Living in Wisconsin, life was very interesting in the early months of 2011. There were protests that I can only compare to the pictures I have seen of Vietnam protests, although much more peaceful. It was the people making their voices heard that forced some short term concessions and a long term look at the changes that were being proposed. If those thousands of people shut up and shut down, the changes which were being proposed would have passed swiftly and there would have been immeasurable long term consequences for our state as well as others that decided to follow suit.  Oh, and yes, I’m being purposely vague on the issues because I don’t want to start a heated political debate and I’ve learned that even a year later, this is a hot topic.

So, today, it was not quite business as usual for me. I did my normal work and then I took time to contact the lawmakers who are supposed to represent me. I put it in personal terms for them, letting them know what was at stake for our family if this bill passes and I was unfortunate enough to get caught up in the midst of a SOPA shutdown.

I would be out of work. Part of the joy of where I am right now in my career is that I have fewer “eggs in my basket” because I now have larger eggs than I had a year ago. Yes, I know it was my choice to work  from home and have an internet based career, but honestly, it was the best move for our family.

Last year at this time, I was dealing with the front wheel coming off my car while driving home from work, struggling to pay any of our bills, never knowing where daycare money or grocery money would come from and being away from my kids over 10 hours a day and seeing my husband for a few hours one day a week because of our schedules.

A year ago, we had just gotten approve for Medical Assistance and I was in the process of filing for daycare assistance and FoodShare. The car breaking was like a sign to me. I didn’t have the $1000 to fix the car, I dreaded the thought of having to rely on the state for assistance in providing for my family and I did something about it.

How many other families can relate to a story like that? We are all sitting here doing what we need to do to make sure that our families are taken care of. For many of us, that means taking the plunge to create a blog and monetize, use the talents we have been given to write for others and design, etc. What happens if we have to constantly live in fear that the sites we work for/with will be shut down? Or even worse, what if we’re lured into a false sense of security and it happens with no notice?

SOPA is definitely scary and it’s a very real threat to the livelihood of many bloggers out there. The key is, we need to make our voices heard, NOT silence them!

Have you ever wondered why people blog? If you are a blogger, do you remember why you started blogging?  I have a feeling there are nearly as many answers to these questions as there are niches out there, possibly more. Sure, some people got into blogging with a specific goal in mind and never lost sight of that goal, but for many bloggers, this has been a fluid process that has led us on journeys we never would have expected. Here are a few of the common reasons I’ve heard for why people start a blog:

Blogging for Personal Reasons

Many times, this blogger sets out to keep in touch with friends and family who live far away. It may be a means of updating the grandparents on how quickly the kids are growing up, what they’re doing and a way to post recent pictures. Sometimes, it’s a couple planning a wedding trying to keep their guests in the loop.

Some of the best written blogs out there are the ones that weren’t written with the thought of anyone ever reading them. There’s something fascinating about reading an online journal of a pregnant woman’s life and relating to it or reading the trials of a mom who is trying to find an outlet for her frustration. When these bloggers choose to share what they are going through with the world, there is something pure and raw that resonates with others.

Blogging to Express Opinions

My dad is a prime example of this type of blogger. He’s had the same site for almost 5 years, his posts are rarely over 100 words and there is absolutely no design to his site. He says he gets under 50 page views per day and that’s fine by him. He blogs about his political opinions and reads blogs from others who are doing the same. While he may not be a “popular” blogger and not everyone wants to read what he’s saying, he has a strong site and a strong core of readers.

Other opinionated bloggers simply want somewhere to put their feelings out to the universe without having to get into a heated discussion with someone who may have a different point of view. Sure, it still happens in comments, but it takes out the chance that you’re going to alienate someone close to you who refuses to see your point of view. Not saying it’s right or wrong, just that it’s there.

Blogging to Share Information

Many of the bloggers I know personally started out in this category. Perhaps that’s because I’ve firmly planted roots in deal land, but I live very much in the information world. Most deal bloggers don’t get into what they’re doing because they want to make big bucks.  And while some do, it’s a good thing that bloggers aren’t overly focused on the money, otherwise many of them would shut down shortly after starting. And as I typed this, I realized that it probably happens every day!

Other “information sharing blogs” are run by homeschooling moms, cloth diapering and green living families, parents of children with different special needs and many other things. The reason for this is simple, it goes back to when you were told in school to “write what you know.” While you may not be an expert on a topic, you are an expert at your life within that topic. And as your site grows and your life goes on, you learn more and you share more. Behind personal blogs, these are some of the best written blogs out there.

Blogging for Money

Yes, there are some people who get into blogging simply for the money. Many times, these are small sites with limited, rarely updated content once the site is live. The key to doing this is to keep making new sites, doing research on the hot keywords and hoping that everything will pay off in the end. And there are some people who do quite well with it, but they’re also not writing in hopes that people are truly reading the content.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog for the money, you need to know something… it’s not as easy as it looks! This isn’t The Field of Dreams, they’re not going to come just because you built it. Unless you’re focusing on niche sites devoted to nothing other than trying to get people to click on the ads, you’re in for a lot of long hours in front of the computer, writing, planning, reading, networking, commenting, promoting, etc. And even then, there’s no guarantee that you are going to have the magic formula.

For the past week, I’ve been working with a great group of bloggers to make their blog even more than what it already is. I can tell you, I’ve had an absolute blast getting to know all of them and their personalities and it’s great to have people who truly want to learn how to build and grow their site.  One of our big topics has been how to promote a blog post to get new eyes reading the blog.

One of the first things I taught them was the value of Stumbling posts. I have seen good results from this, the trick is to choose what is stumbled and not “thumbs up” every post you do. Not only that, but YOU shouldn’t be the one repeatedly submitting your own articles. The point of Stumble Upon is for readers to like things they find and then move on, so if you’re the only one stumbling your posts, you’re suddenly the kid in school who does nothing but brag about how amazing he is. You remember that kid, right? And do you remember how everyone would roll their eyes at him when he turned to sprint to the next group of people to praise himself?  Yeah, not cool.

Pinterest is very much the same. It can be a great tool, but you need to be careful about how you’re using it. Don’t pin all of your own stuff and hope that no one will notice that you’re actually a narcissistic so-and-so who can’t help but fill their own page with everything they’ve written, including that one post about the frozen pizza for dinner.

The best way to utilize both of these sites is to join up with others and pin or stumble for each other. Don’t just expect them to blindly do so because you asked, give them something of high quality to read and be able to honestly help you promote.

Beyond that, you can ask friends to share it with others on Facebook or Twitter. Another hot tip, if you write something you think is awesome and you post it to your wall or feed, others might just share it without you even begging them to! Again, it’s something that you need to do within reason and not make it seem like you’re desperate for page views.

Want to know what NOT to do?

• Don’t post your link to Facebook pages without asking.
• Don’t start leaving useless comments on every blog you find where you can leave a link back to your site.
• Don’t start leaving comments with nothing more than your link on things that have nothing to do with the topic of your post.
• Don’t post it to your own Facebook wall 27 times in a day.

Basically, don’t turn into a spammer just because you think you have something that everyone should read. The only thing you’re going to do there is turn people away when they see nothing but links to your post everywhere they go!