Thinking of Starting your own Blog? Check out my Top Tips for Success

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Have you ever thought about starting your very own blog? It’s hard work…but incredibly rewarding. You might not want your blog to be found and read by others, you might prefer it to be a private online diary, or maybe you have an opinion that you’re desperate to share, or you have some advice that you know others will find helpful. No matter what your motivation for starting a blog is, it’s a wonderful creative outlet that is ideal for personal growth and for building your confidence!

Starting a blog is a great idea, but have you wondered what you might need to make it a success? 

Check out my 4 top tips for blogging success below.

You need the right tools

Of course you’re going to need a laptop and access to the internet but having a good set of writing tools at your disposal will also help you through the blogging process. For example, if you’re referencing someone else’s work or maybe a newspaper article then help with citations and referencing will be a huge help. Scribbr provides apa citation guidelines and advice on their website. Investing in proofreading software, as well as a programme that will help you with spelling, grammar and clarity will also prove useful. It will also help you improve your work.

Find your niche

You don’t always have to have a niche to make your blog enjoyable, however, having one will help you to gather a bit of a following and build on your blog subscribers. If you offer information on a range of different topics then some readers might dip in and out of your work rather than returning week after week for a new insight on one specific topic that interests them. If you have a unique perspective of a particular topic or varying degrees of experiences and advice from it all, then, by all means, go for it! Parenting, minimal lifestyles, health and fitness, eco-living, veganism, sport, travel – all are popular niches. Try to find yours!

Top 15 practical tips for new bloggers

Happy Sunday, wishing you a pleasant and relaxing day.

We have come to the end of New Bloggers Fortnight and I hope you have really enjoyed it. As with the other years there has been great variety in the posts I have hosted. We have been advised to blog in our own voice by My Two Mums, write about the things we love by Helen and Luci even went as far as to tell us to leave our blog alone.

Emma warns us about the perils of over monetising our blog, Lucy has helped us to understand how to make the best of our photos for our blogs and Ruth encourages us to try out video blogging, whilst Rachel reminds us it is so important to maintain a focus on real life as it is too easy to allow blogging time to spiral out of control.

Rebecca has been blown away by the sense of community she has found in blogging and Suzanne guides us through how we can immerse ourself in that community. Then Leoarna even goes as far as to say that blogging is good for our mental health, I sure hope so as I spend enough time doing it!

I think this years guest posts summed up lots of the key advice for new bloggers like being true to yourself, using your original voice and not getting hung up on the popularity contest and therefore to finish off this years fortnight I'd love to share with you 15 practical tips for making your blog as readable as possible -

1. Think about the way your blog looks. Dark font on a white background is best, at all costs avoid dark backgrounds under your text and any flashy images. There is nothing like that awful snow effect to drive readers away.
2. Tell the reader about you. I love to know who I am reading about and chatting with, an 'about me' page is great but it could just be a short piece in your sidebar if you prefer.
3. Then make sure you give an option of how I can contact you if I wish to, sometimes readers like to feedback to you without everyone else reading it or it might be that a company with to contact you to discuss working with you.
4. Make sure you have the ways I can subscribe to your blog easily on show. How can I follow you? by RSS feed, on email, twitter, FaceBook, G+, Pinterest and a thousand other ways. Think about those which you use frequently and make sure they are available for all readers to see.
5. Make your blog is easy to navigate - have you got a search box, archives on show, labels you are categorising posts by and perhaps using linked within to encourage the reader to more of your posts? You want them to stay with you as long as possible after all.
6. Are you making it easy for your readers to share your posts? You want to reach as many people as possible so all the share buttons should be easy to see on every post. Take a look at Share this which has easy to create buttons for free and even a non-techie like me could do it.
7. Make commenting easy for your readers, allow people to be able to comment without logging in to a system and definitely remove any kind of capture as that will scare people away double quick. Ensure you have a good spam filter and you will be fine without it. Bloggers built in one is good and there are plenty of plug-ins for Wordpress like Askimet.
8. Do you want to encourage conversation and feedback?  Then pose a questions at the end of every blog post, short and sweet works best, ask for feedback but don't make it too gruelling. Then when you get that feedback respond, don't let comments sit there unanswered as the reader will wonder if it is worth visiting again.
9. Link to your own blog posts, if you are mentioning things that you have already blogged about then link to that post and make it easy for the reader to move about the relevant content. Also, ensure you know how to make a word into a link rather than typing in a full URL - it looks so amateur and a quick google will tell you how to do it for blogger and wordpress.
10. Make sure you credit everyone and everything.  If you share anything on your blog - someone else's photo, idea, blog post, whatever - make sure you put a credit in with a link so that people can follow that line of thought and see the original.  The world of blogging is all about linking out and spreading the net.
11. Work on your writing skills, it is important that you take time with your grammar and spelling. Cross your i's and dot your t's, know the difference between your and you're and use the spell check, that is why it is there! You may have the best content in the world in your head but if it does not flow and articulate what you wish to say then no-one will read it. So read every blog post twice before you hit that publish button.
12. Think about how your words look on your page. Break up large blocks of text, use bullets or subtitles or photos - anything that breaks it up and makes it easy on the eye. A large chunk of text will often feel terrifying to a reader and they might just click away.
13. Think about your blog post titles, do they say what the article is about, do they catch attention and do they contain important keywords that people might put into a search engine looking for an article just like yours.
14. Schedule posts, you do not have to press publish when you are sat by the computer. Experiment with the times of day that your posts go live and see what gets the best response. It must have taken me over a year to realise their is a schedule option in blogger, doh!
15. Back up your blog regularly. You will spend a lot of time writing your blog so make sure you never lose it. It takes a few moments and is so easy!

I could probably share another 15 tips with you too but that might just be overkill.  I'm sure these ones will keep you going for now.

Remember building a great blog takes a lot of time and work and there is no need to rush it, work on improving one thing a week and stay consistent and in time it will all just click and you'll feel great about what you have lovingly created.

Happy blogging, Mich x

Geek Mummy - How to get started with video blogging

I'm really pleased to welcome Ruth to New Bloggers Fortnight today. We can't really call Ruth a new blogger as she has been doing it in one form or another for a long time now but Ruth is one of those people who really know their stuff and aside from that she is super lovely, so it is always a pleasure to have her guest post. Over to Ruth -

Hi, I’m Ruth and I blog over at www.geekmummy.com. I’m delighted to be able to join in with New Bloggers Fortnight again this year. Last year I answered some of your geeky questions, and this year I’d like to talk to you about video blogging.

Yes, video blogging. It’s not for everyone, I’ll grant you, but if you’re interested in trying something new with your blog it’s a great way to go. Blogging gives each of us our own unique voice, and by video blogging you not only allow people to hear your words in your actual voice, but also to see your body language as well. Did you know that our communication is 93% body language and other non-verbal elements, and only 7% words? Video allows you to communicate your words, story or message more effectively than written blogging alone.

Also if you’re interested in publicising your blog, and being found through search engines like Google, video blogging is a great way to go. A video is about 50 times more likely to appear on the front page of Google’s search results than a written post, and YouTube is now the Internet’s second biggest search engine. It’s a great time to start producing video.

“But Ruth” I hear you cry “isn’t producing video really HARD?”

Well, no, it doesn’t have to be. It’s certainly harder than writing, but it’s not as hard as I think many people fear.

First of all, let’s talk about equipment. If you have a smartphone in your pocket it’s highly likely that you already have all the equipment you need to make a video blog. Yes, if your smartphone can film video, you’ll get good enough quality to publish. Alternatively you might have a little Flip camera or similar, or you might have a digital camera which will also shoot video. All of these devices work really well for video blogging.

I wouldn’t use a laptop or computer webcam for video blogging – they tend to not be good enough quality.

The single most important piece of advice I can give you about filming video with your smartphone – please make sure you turn the phone on its side, i.e. to landscape mode. Filming in portrait mode will give you unsightly black bars at each side of your video when you upload it to YouTube, and it’s pretty much impossible to remove these after filming.

So the technology shouldn’t be a barrier to you having a go at video blogging. Much more of a barrier is having the confidence to stand up in front of a camera and film yourself. How do you get over that? Well, sadly there is no “magic wand”, no easy way to become confident in front of the camera overnight. It comes with practice - lots and lots of practice. There are a few things I recommend to make it easier to get started:

1.       Try audio blogging first – I use Audioboo.fm to record audio versions of my blog posts

2.       Start off behind the camera, maybe have your kids talking instead, or just record your voice.

3.       Get someone (kids? Partner? Next door neighbour?) to stand behind the camera so that you can talk to them rather than directly to the camera.

4.       Remember you don’t have to publish anything you’re not happy with. Even the pros make mistakes J

The other thing people worry about with video blogging is what to do with the video once its been recorded. Well, whilst it might look better with a bit of editing, you don’t have to edit – if you have been able to record what you want to say without stopping you can simply upload your video to YouTube and be finished. If you do want to try editing there is some good free software available – Mac users get iMovie with their system, and Windows users can download Windows Live Movie Maker for free. Both these products allow you to edit your video before you upload it.

Video is a really powerful tool, and can bring a new dimension to your blog – why not give it a go?

Thank you Ruth, why not indeed!  I can honestly say dear readers that I am not skilled in these types of things and I have done a few vlogs in my time. If you fancy a laugh take a peek at my vlog review for the Vileda 1 2 spray mop.  It proved to be pretty popular on YouTube! lol

This is sadly the last of my guest posts, tomorrow it is back to me to finish up our New Bloggers Fortnight.  I hope you have been enjoying!  Mich x

Monetising - Your blog or your integrity?

I have to tell you I was never more surprised to receive one of my new bloggers guest posts than this one from Emma.  Ages back she asked to join in and I confirmed that I would love to feature her here but in the meantime Emma had some bad news and is having investigations for cancer. Somehow she managed to send me this post after just being discharged from hospital - I think she must be superwoman (well she is a twin mum and that is pretty close!) Over to Emma -

Emma, 26, married, mummy to a 5 year old daughter and 8 month old old twin daughters, stepmum to a 9 year old boy, graduate, pub manager and all round passionate-about-life person. I blog at www.crazywithtwins.com where I tell our family tales, laugh through the good times, try to make the best out of the bad and blog every step of my journey through the magic of parenthood.

If you’d asked me about “monetising my blog” back in March when I first started writing Crazy With Twins, my response would have been an incredulous, “WHAT???” I had NO IDEA that it was possible to make money from blogging. I also had no idea quite how many people would want to read my blog!

I started my blog as an online family record, but after a few months realised it can be used for so much more... like raising awareness of good causes, campaigning, inspiring, making people laugh. Once I had an audience, I didn’t change my content of censor what I wrote, but I became more aware of what kinds of writing people enjoyed reading. I want this blog to entertain my family and friends, as well as keep them in the loop. I want it to be enjoyable for me to read too.  The additional readers were a hugely flattering bonus.

It wasn’t until September that I discovered bloggers could review items on their blog and keep the items for free. I was amazed, but at the same time, made sure I only chose review items that were relevant to us. I discovered that writing reviews is time consuming, and therefore decided that I should only review items that were worth my time. Was an hour’s review writing worth a product I’d never use, that retails for a fiver? No. But a product I needed worth £30? Yes. Each blogger has their own price, but what I think is important when monetising, is maintaining your integrity.

I may have posted a few reviews and giveaways, of products my family have enjoyed using, but I have always stayed true to my own voice, my own themes and have never let a brand influence what I write. I always include a disclaimer telling my readers what I was given in exchange for writing the post, but at the same time, reinforcing that the words and opinions are all my own.

Monetising goes further than review posts. I recently took a contract for advertising. I considered the space available on my blog for ads. I didn’t really want my blog littered with ads unless I was going to get fair compensation for it. I was approached by a brand, which offered me a very fair price for a new blogger, and I accepted. I placed banner ads on my site for them. It was agreed that if I didn’t like any of the ads displayed, they would remove them. My blog is important to me, I worked hard to build it up and it’s full of very personal stories. Do I want those shrouded by an advert for the sake of a measly £10 a month? No. But some might. Would I consider selling ad space for a figure just shy of £40 a month? Yes okay! You need to consider what you are willing to accept before you make a deal of this kind. Ensure a full contract is in place, so you know what is expected of you and what you can expect in return. I also vetted the ads. I wouldn’t allow ads of a sensitive nature or adult content on my blog.

Reviews, banner ads... whatever next? Sponsored posts that’s what! I decided I would accept sponsored ads on my blog but only within strict terms...

1) The product or brand MUST be relative to my blog. I’m not about to promote a product for teenage boys, when my blog is about my baby girls. I have read other blogs where sponsored posts hit my inbox which have absolutely no relationship to the blogger promoting it. For me it took a portion of that bloggers integrity with it. They sold a portion of their blog for a fee, with no consideration as to where it took their readers. After several of these, I unsubscribed as I realised that blogger had lost their voice and was only blogging to make money. It was no longer interesting to read and the purpose of their blog – talking about their family, seemed to have waned.

2) Limitation. It’s not enough for sponsored posts to just be relevant to your blog, you need to decide how many you are prepared to sell. Whilst I would LOVE to make lots of money from my blog, my integrity and reputation as a writer is so very important to me. I don’t want my blog to be a platform for advertising. Again it’s purely down to bloggers preference and how much they are prepared to risk upsetting their audience or spoiling their blog. I have vowed never to do more than two posts per week which are sponsored or reviews, but I try to keep to only one a week. In a way this is also a bonus to the brands, as they are effectively being showcased, as opposed to being part of a long line of pointless ads.

At the end of the day, it’s all down to integrity. My blog is my voice, my integrity, which I value highly, and it is what governs all monetising I accept. If you look back on your blog in ten years time, do you want to read about airlines you’ve never flown with, products you’ve never used and finance packages for someone twice your age? Or do you want to read about your family memories, the products you tested and the brands you loved? Is your blog worth selling down the river to make a quick buck or would a little money often, and a good quality blog make for a happier trip down memory lane?

Obviously the price you put on your integrity, will depend on the type of blog you write and the passion within it. Nobody can tell you what is right or wrong to accept, but from a new bloggers perspective, the ones who seem to have lost their way, are those who monetised their integrity.

Thanks so much for your perspective Emma, I found this a real interesting read. It is important for us all to make our own decisions and set our own boundaries of what we will and won't do and of course transparency is of the utmost importance.

Join us again tomorrow for the penultimate post of the fortnight. The very knowledgeable Geek Mummy will be talking about vlogging or video blogging for newbies!

My Two Mums - Blog with your own unique voice

We are Kirsty and Clara from My Two Mums, we started blogging in Jan 2012 to document Clara's pregnancy and our adventures into parenthood. We've been married 2 years and live in the gorgeous countryside with our little boy, born in July 2012. We both bring different views to our blog. Kirsty loves photography, gadgets and playing Xbox whilst Clara loves Theatre, music and swimming. We adore being parents and can't wait to have more children.

We’ve been blogging over at My Two Mums for almost exactly a year, but feel we’ve learnt a lot in 12 months.

When starting out, neither of us read many blogs. We had a few that we read every so often but we didn’t realise how big the blogging community was. Our blog was born from an idea  to document our journey into parenthood and also as a place for families in the same situation as us, looking to start a family.

It can be daunting starting a blog, especially if you have ambitions for it to become a great read. Once you’ve written your first post and clicked publish, it can almost feel like you’re sat waiting for someone to read it and tell you it’s great. Realistically if you’ve not told anyone about your blog apart from those you know, the only person likely to read it is your Mother (that’s if your Mother is lucky enough to be told you have a blog). We found ourselves reading more and more blogs each week and commenting and building up relationships across social media. If you want your blog to be read, you have to put yourself out there. But just don’t fall in to the trap some new bloggers tend to do.

There will always be big blogs with big readership who are funny, take great pictures and tell fantastic stories. They have worked hard for their readership and I’m sure are appreciative of each and every reader. What they will not appreciate is a new blog attempting to replicate their blog in every way possible.

The best advice we can offer is to blog with your own unique voice and in a way you feel comfortable. People will want to hear your stories, told in your voice. If every blog looked and sounded the same, people would stop reading what you had to offer. Don’t feel like you have to be something you’re not to succeed. Even if just a handful of people read your blog every week your readership will start to grow through word of mouth or via social media sites. It can be difficult at first to truly find your voice, especially if you’re not a natural writer. Neither Clara nor I come from writing backgrounds yet I feel we are able to put across our adventures quite well. We feel this is entirely down to practice and enjoying writing about what we write.

You may find your writing style changes as you progress; our first blog posts are very different from our posts today. When we started out, we were writing the way we thought people would be most interested in. The posts ended up very bland and quite rigid as they lacked either mine or Clara’s personality. We fell in to the classic trap of trying to blog in a way that wasn’t our ‘voice’. As we grew more comfortable with sharing our adventures we began to write how we spoke. If you’re a regular reader of our blog you should start to recognise which of us wrote a post before we reference the author. When writing I like to imagine I’m speaking the words I write to someone present in the room, if I can’t hear myself saying something a certain way, then I won’t write it.

A few months in to blogging I feared I was starting to lose my ‘Voice’, after I published one of my favourite posts “The Journey has begun..” The post was published as part of an annual LGBT linky. I wanted to put together a post talking about our first attempt to get Clara pregnant without sharing too many graphic details. I told our story in a way I felt would be fun to read, but it still to this day feels very different to the rest of our posts. I feel this was due to the pressure of a linky. There was potential for our post to be read by a lot of bloggers I respected and I felt pressured to write something outstanding. Rather than concentrating on putting my voice into the post I wrote what I felt people would want to read. It proved to be a popular post, yet I remained unsatisfied with the way it was written. It was after writing this post that I realised I was much happier with posts we’d written with no concern over who read them.

Don’t be afraid to grow and change your voice as you progress, it can by worrying to want to change the way you write for fear of losing readers. But many readers will follow you on your journey as you establish your voice. Doesn’t be afraid of losing readers along the way, this can be a huge worry for many in truly finding their voice. But in the same way you don’t get on with everyone you meet in life, some people who read your blog will end up deciding it’s not for them. We’ve found at times when we’ve had mini rants on our blog they can prove to be controversial and at times have lost us followers on twitter. But just as in life we have rants and get frustrated we share this on our blog too, staying true to our ‘voice. As long as you stay true to yourself and blog from the heart you will enjoy blogging much more than trying to be someone else and please everyone.

Your blogging voice can always change and grow in direct reflection from your audience. This is why we encourage new bloggers to go read and comment on as many blogs as they can. It’s important to support other bloggers if you wish to be supported yourself. Just as you would tell a story to your family in perhaps a different tone to your friends, you may find yourself blogging in a different voice depending on who shares and comments on your posts.

All big blogs had to start somewhere and may have taken years to get to where they are now. Just enjoy sharing your stories and photos whilst reading and commenting on all your favourite blogs and remember to support the smaller blogs you come across as they can be fantastic hidden gems.

Thanks so much ladies, I cannot agree more that is is important to remain you when you are writing a blog.  People turn up and read because they like and get YOU!

Come back tomorrow and join in with Reasons to be Cheerful, where I share some blogging gems with you.

Mother.wife.me says Leave your blog alone!

Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh is a mother, wife and writer. She is based in London and started her career in journalism before accidentally languishing in PR for too many years. Motherhood allowed her to change track and get back to what she loves – writing. Luci has two blogs. Her personal blog, mother.wife.me, is about all things parenting, marriage and anything else that piques her interest. Her other blog, Ma Puce, is part of her Ma Puce website, an online resource to help parents teach their babies, toddlers and young children French as a second language.

Luci can regularly be found loitering with intent on Twitter as @motherwifeme and @mapucebilingual
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Take your hands away from the keyboard, disengage your brain from thinking in ‘Post Mode’ and step away from your blog. No really, you can do it. Now take a long, slow, deep breath in and exhale. Feeling better? I do hope so.

Blogging can be a wonderful thing, especially when you first get into your groove, your blog traffic starts going up and the comments are flowing. There may be times when you feel like you want to be blogging 24/7.

But at other times you might feel burnt out, pushed for time to spend on your blog or worse still… bored of blogging. The danger being that if you are bored of what you’re writing there’s a great chance that your blog visitors won’t be finding it enthralling either!

I’ve taken time away from my blog on a couple of occasions and it’s served to make me come back feeling clearer headed about what I want my blog to be and surer of how I go about it.

The longest time I had away from mother.wife.me was last summer, when I started working on my Ma Puce website. The fact it was so easy to let go of mother.wife.me for a while proved to me that I needed a break.

Running a blog, keeping up with post writing and all the associated sharing of your most recent posts is extremely time consuming. Especially if you set yourself an intensive schedule to establish your blog in the first few months.

Leaving your blog alone for a while gives you time to reflect on how far you and your blog have come, look at whether your blog is what you want it to be or whether you’ve gone off on a tangent. Maybe you like the tangent, maybe you’ll realise you want to get back to why you originally started blogging. All these things can be considered at leisure whilst you are on a break.

After my summer break from mother.wife.me my mojo returned quite suddenly one day, igniting a renewed passion for blogging. But instead of carrying on as I had before, I gave myself a loose blog posting schedule, something that was achievable and stress-free.

It’s great actually because the schedule acts as a natural filter; now I have given myself parameters there are some post ideas that a year ago would have gone flying onto the blog that simply don’t make the grade to be included, that’s got to be a plus for both me and my blog visitors!

Of course you may be reading this post in horror, wondering how you could possibly leave your blog unattended and run the risk of it falling out of the blogosphere as hard won rankings and visitors fade away.

In the first instance, you can make sure to tell everyone that you are planning a break. If you have an idea of a timeframe you can manage expectations about how long you are going to be gone and when you are coming back.

There are then several ways to handle your break from blogging. One would be to write extra posts and schedule them in advance of your break – a big ask if you have time constraints. Or you could just write the same amount of posts you normally would and then schedule them to go live further a part than normal.

Another option is to open your blog up to guest posts. Plan your break and put out a call for anyone who would like to guest on your blog. This is a great way for fellow bloggers to reach a new audience and for you to maintain blog traffic, everyone wins.

Of course leaving your blog alone doesn’t mean you need to vanish from Twitter altogether. I continued to tweet because tweeting is a way of life for me! But this also served to keep my blog in people’s minds.

That said, you could simply use the kamikaze method that I took and just shut off for a while. I have to admit it felt most liberating. Yes, my traffic did go down, but it didn’t completely fade away and when my blogging mojo returned so to did site visitors, in fact more so than ever before.

So, if you have begun to feel that you’ve reached a plateau in your blogging or that it doesn’t feel as joyful a pastime as it did when you first started, you may find that some time away from your blog could be the perfect tonic. It could replenish your creative juices, renew your passion for writing, allowing you to come back blogging better than ever.

I can safely say that I agree with Luci, I've had many breaks from writing Mummy from the Heart, even a full 6 week break for Lent in 2010 and I might just do it again this year, it is very good for your wellbeing!

Don't forget to stop in again tomorrow for another great post as part of New Bloggers Fortnight. My Two Mums will reveal why it is important to blog with your own unique voice.

Suzanne tells us there is Beauty in Community

Today we welcome Suzanne to the blog and in a short time she has become one of my favourite bloggers, writing some excellent posts which really resonate with me. Probably my favourite so far is one titled Weeding. I'll let her give you a little lowdown on herself -

My name is Suzanne and I blog at 3 Children and It .  As the title suggests, I have 3 children and 1 ‘It’ (the dog, not the husband!).  I started my blog approximately 9 months ago, mainly to satisfy my desire to write but also to document our family life and hopefully impart some of my parental “wisdom” gained over the past 12 years….judge for yourself whether I achieve that or not!

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As any intelligent human being knows, it takes 9 months (give or take a few days!) for a baby to develop in the womb.  Interestingly, I have recently discovered that it takes approximately the same length of time to nurture and develop another kind of baby – 9 months ago I welcomed my blog into the world and what a 9 months it’s been!  I’ve had sleepless nights, teething troubles and regularly questioned my significance before this baby was born.  But as with any new baby, I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Since finally plucking up the courage to embark on the world of blogging (I think I had written at least 100 mental posts before convincing myself to have a go!), I have learnt so much.  One of the things I had never considered or even prepared myself for, was the amazing community that blogging creates.  Being a sociable person and one who thrives on communication with others 24/7, this was a pleasant surprise and one which I have embraced.

Maybe I am blinkered, but I can honestly say that I have not come across any hostility.  There is no evident rivalry amongst bloggers (perhaps I’m too ‘green’ to have noticed yet!) and anyone I have come into contact with has been nothing but helpful, welcoming and full of encouragement.  Even the rather daunting ‘big’ bloggers, the ones who seem to have 7 gazillion followers and 50,000 page views per day, have been so lovely and not at all worthy of the ‘scary’ label that I had given them – Mich being one of them!

Not long after I started blogging, tragedy struck the parent blogging community when a very popular and well-loved blogger, suffered a sudden and massive brain haemorrhage.  I watched from the side lines as the understandably stunned community came into its own - emotional and practical support were offered to her family and to one another, twitter prayer vigils were organised (which trended incidentally) and it was just beautiful to watch the virtual community dispel the myth it seems to have created.  This was not born out of ‘false friendships’, it was an instinctive reaction by people who cared.

I was equally amazed when many from that very same community rallied around another blogger who had sadly been forced into bringing up her family in a squalid council property.  Again, bloggers not only offered emotional support but practical help too, succeeding in transforming her run-down council property into something habitable and ultimately a home - truly inspiring.  

Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this?

If you’re new to blogging and now questioning how on earth you tap into this amazing community of bloggers, here are my top tips:

1.       Linkies (or Bloghops).  You will find many of these taking place during the week.  They are basically an opportunity to link up your post and take part in a ready-made community.  Some of the more prominent linkies are: Silent Sunday (Mocha Beanie Mummy), Saturday is Caption Day (Mammasaurus), R2BC (run by our very own Mich!), The Gallery (Sticky Fingers), Project 365 (The Boy and Me).  There seems to be a linky out there to meet everyone’s interest - don’t be shy, have a go!

2.       Commenting.  I can’t stress highly enough the need to visit and comment on other blogs. Look for those that inspire or interest you, people who you have things in common with.  Quickly they will become regular visitors to your blog and your very own little community will be born.  If someone leaves a comment at the bottom of your post, the blogging etiquette appears to be: comment under it and then visit their blog in return (it took a while for me to realise this!)

3.       Twitter. If you have a blog, you must join Twitter! I’m not too ‘up’ on all the other social networking sites but this one should be a priority. Share your posts, engage with other bloggers and retweet their posts.  The support is phenomenal - I’ve had my child’s homework questions answered, parenting advice given and tea and sympathy offered (virtually of course!)

4.       Forums. There are many different forums and networks designed especially for bloggers.  The best (and most welcoming!) ones I have found are Britmums, Netmums and Love All Blogs (there’s even a designated area on this website for newbies).  Sign up, introduce yourself and start linking up your blog posts.  You will soon find some friendly voices to interact with as well as gaining new readers.

5.       Blogroll. Set up an area on your own blog which features blogs that you enjoy reading.  Make these a priority to visit every time a new post appears. You will quickly find that the support is reciprocated and a small network of trusted bloggers will begin to develop.

6.       Blogging events.  There are many blogging events which take place throughout the year and I get the impression that they aren’t just about learning!  This year I am plucking up the courage to attend ‘Britmums Live!’ taking place in London in June.  If you asked me a year ago if I would even consider attending a conference not knowing a soul, you can imagine the answer - I just hope these bloggers live up to my expectations!

In a nutshell - don’t be a stranger.  Introduce yourself, start commenting and don’t be put off by seemingly ‘more popular’, ‘more professional’ and ‘more experienced’ bloggers. Everyone was a newbie once and most people will remember that.   Come and visit my blog, I’m always up for new ‘friends’ and will certainly make a return visit to yours J

Go on, visit Suzanne, she is a diamond you won't regret it!

Thank you Suzanne, tomorrow we have another great post for you as part of new bloggers fortnight. On a different slant new blogger Leoarna shares with us how blogging is good for your mental health.

Love in Words from All At Sea

Today we are welcoming Helen from All at Sea, she has a really distinctive blogging style and voice and it is my pleasure to have her here as part of New Bloggers Fortnight.

Helen Braid is 36 years old and lives on the Scottish West Coast with her husband, their children and an over-active imagination. She is a graphic designer who started blogging and has been unable to stop. Helen has grand designs on a stone built cottage by the sea. Watch this space...

For almost 6 months I’ve been writing a blog. I began the morning my little boy started school. Whilst my baby daughter slept I wrote about the emotions of the day, how unfamiliar - and important - it all felt.

A story to match the photograph. To remind me - once I have long forgotten - how it was to be a mother sending her grown-up baby boy to the classroom and the world.

And so I became hooked. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t started blogging sooner. How odd I didn’t realise years before how much I love to write. To weave our day into little stories which become capsules in time. An interactive diary - enjoyable to create, and a wonderful resource for future days.

Perfect then, to be given the chance to write a post for New Bloggers Fortnight. When I enjoy blogging so much, there must be a hundred suggestions or pointers I can put your way.

Yet ironically this post has been the most challenging thing I’ve written to date.

What on earth to say?

I cannot tell you how to blog. I know not your story or your approach. Or most importantly - what inspires you to write.

The best I can do is tell you mine.

Quite simply - love.

Everyday love. The little stuff - domestic affairs of the kitchen sink. In a busy world, full of busy lives - people and relationships remain our most important drive.

They are my focus. Those I love become that of which I write. And in vastly different circumstance we can all relate to matters of the heart.

I do not plan my blog. No routine in place to post every day or twice a week. If something happens to strike a chord  - I write about how it felt to me.

How liberating then - when I have never been one to talk of love. To assume instead, that family and friends know that I care. That they understand - without saying - the gaping hole they should leave if they suddenly weren’t there.

My blog has taught me to write it down. My comfort zone to getting it out.

So my message simply is -

This year write of love. In whatever its form. Find inspiration in the places and the people to whom you belong. Tell us of all that stops you in your tracks and lights up your day.

In routine life extraordinary beauty is often found - write it down. The best part of reading a blog for me, is not the when or where we’ve been. But who we were, what we said and how we felt.

We all search for that to which we can relate. Write honestly and from the heart. I guarantee you - that now or then, and here or there - we’ll all have felt the same... x

Thanks so much Helen, such great advice to remember to record all those little moments and to take joy in those we love.

Tomorrow as part of New Bloggers Fortnight we will welcome Suzanne from 3 Children and It, she will be talking about immersing yourself into the blogging community.

The Beesley Buzz - Finding support where you least expect it

I have a very new blogger posting here today, Rebecca has been part of our community for about 4 months now and gives us a very open and heartfelt account of why blogging has become really important to her. First a little about Rebecca and her family -

Rebecca blogs at The Beesley Buzz with husband Richard and her three children. The Beesley Buzz is very much a family effort and you’ll see all the family getting involved. J, her eldest, is great at maths, loves reading and is the worlds’ biggest Moshi Monsters fan; he also happens to be on the Autistic Spectrum. D, her younger son aged 6, is The Brilliant Chef  and loves to cook. Both boys are home schooled. Last but not least is T, 9 months old, who adores her two brothers.

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In my excitement at recently discovering the wonderful concept that is ‘New Bloggers Fortnight’ (and wishing I had come across it before we started blogging), I enthusiastically agreed to write a post for this year’s New Bloggers Fortnight and then started reading through all those great posts from the previous years.

Then it dawned on me… what had I done?!? All these bloggers actually knew what they were talking about… and I really don’t. So I don’t promise any real wisdom but just our experiences of how blogging has opened up a world of support and understanding that is sadly lacking in other areas of life.

When we first started blogging 4 months ago, I hadn’t realised just how many other bloggers were out there who had experienced similar situations to us having a child on the Autistic spectrum. But the more I read, the more I came across situations that seemed to mirror experiences that we had – some of the difficulties our son experienced at school, the reactions of others when he has a meltdown in public, how siblings in the family are affected, some of the tensions in friendships and relationships when there is a lack of understanding about Autism.

So many times, I thought I could have been reading about my own life. How could these people so accurately understand what we’d been going through, the emotions we’d felt, the feelings and frustrations we had?

The sense of relief… So often when your child is different… when they don’t fit in at school, when they struggle with the little things that other kids just fly through, you are left wondering what is ‘normal’ for a child like mine.

Sometimes in real life, you are left feeling that your child is the only child who is capable of having a meltdown so huge that it seems that the whole world has stopped to stare and you just want the ground to open up and swallow you, just to stop yourself feeling so judged, so inadequate as a parent, so helpless.

And then I tuck the kids into bed, turn on the computer and I realise I am not alone. Sometimes I might blog about the bad days myself (although often I find I don’t because as therapeutic as I know it would be to get it out of my system on those days, I don’t have an ounce of emotional energy left to give any more output). More often I read. I see what everyone else’s day has been like and I feel comforted, I feel supported, I realise that I am not alone in feeling like this.

The times I have been able to type a few words whether in a blog post or on Facebook, I have been so encouraged by the words of kindness and understanding shown by other bloggers. Some understand because they are going through similar situations, others understand because they have a good awareness of the issues from the blogs that they read – but the important thing is they understand, they care, and they don’t judge me.

And I could go on. I could tell you about how impossible I find it to get to any support groups locally because those held during the day would mean I would have to drag along three children who really wouldn’t want to be there, and those held in the evening just feel impossible to get along to when to have spent the day just managing to get through to bedtime and the last thing you can face is getting yourself out the house at the end of a long day.

I could tell you about the ‘friends’ that suddenly disappeared pretty much as soon as my son received his diagnosis (we do also have some truly wonderful friends who we do stay in touch with and I am so grateful to them for loving and accepting J for who he is regardless of his ASD).

I could tell you about how those we should be able to trust the most in real life, those in responsible positions of authority in the education system, those we had initially assumed would be there to help our son fulfil his potential and not be limited by his condition, let him down so badly and didn’t seem to have any knowledge of how to effectively deal with children with ASD or special needs. And when we wanted to shout out from the rooftops about the positives, those little achievements (that are actually big achievements for J) – a calm day, being focused, coping with his school work – it just seems meaningless to those who don’t really understand.

Yet so many bloggers do ‘get it’. They understand. They celebrate the good days with us and stand alongside us on the not-so-good days.

The dictionary definition of a ‘Community’ is “a group or society helping each other” and our experience of the blogging community has been just that. And I want to thank the blogging community for the true sense of community I have found here – whether you realise it or not, so many of you have helped me at the times I have needed it most – thank you.

And thank you Rebecca, I expect every one of us reading this can relate to how much the community has helped us at one time or another. Great to have you posting here!

Far From Home Mama - Real life goes on...

I am really pleased to have Rachel here today to kick off New Bloggers Forntight. She is someone whose blog I always find to be warm, friendly and authentic. I'll let her share a little about herself -

Lost in Switzerland, with a toddler and newborn in tow, Rachel spends her days trying not to eat chocolate and macaroons for every meal. She blogs at Three Years & Home, chronicling her family’s adventures and counting down the days until they return home to North Wales.

You can also find her on twitter as @farfromhomemama
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I started blogging in January 2012, for two main reasons. One, because we live abroad and I wanted to chronicle some of the ups and downs of our expat life, and two, because we live abroad and I often get homesick and thought that writing might help me through it.

Initially, it felt like I was talking to myself but I found the exercise of putting my thoughts in to words hugely therapeutic. I joined twitter and found others in a similar situation or with similar interests and slowly but surely built up a readership for my blog. A handful of daily readers turned in to double and then treble figures and a few even started leaving comments for me. It felt great … even for someone like me who rarely craves attention, preferring to hide away behind the scenes.

With a husband who often works long hours and a son who can’t keep his eyes open beyond 7pm, it means that I spend a lot of evenings by myself with just a computer, television or book for company. My blog and the online community served to fill a somewhat lonely void and I felt like I always had friends to call on. A problem, a question, a thought … ask and countless people will answer you. Share a photograph or a pleasant memory and you’ll receive a lot of ‘awwwws’.

The instant feedback is wonderful but it has a strange way of drawing you in and becoming addictive. Writing two, three, four, or however many posts a week can quickly turn from an enjoyable hobby in to a feeling of ‘must’ or an obligation, wanting to keep your stats up and comments coming in. Half an hour on twitter once that kids are in bed can turn in to a whole evening passing before your eyes before you remember to look up from the computer and blink.

In my case, it got to the point that on the nights when my husband wasn’t working, I found myself continuing with my blogging/twitter routine when I should have been catching up with him instead. And when in the summer, I suffered from horrendous all-day morning sickness, it was my blog that I felt more worried about neglecting rather than my home. I think it was only because the sickness lasted for a couple of months and by that time I was exhausted with juggling home, work, a toddler and an expanding bump that it finally sunk in that something had to give … and no … that wasn’t my husband ;-)

In June and July, I wrote a total of just ten posts and rarely spent any time on twitter. I still continued to receive lovely supportive comments from my new online friends but being forced to take that break helped me to realise that real life goes on and it was my husband stepping in to keep everything going, nobody else.

We hear lots of talk about a work/life balance but I really believe a blog/life balance is essential too. Here are my top five tips:

1. Your blog/your rules. You’re under no obligation to post a certain amount of times per week so keep it fun and just post about something when you want to or have something to say.

2. Your audience has no set expectations. If people find something in common with you and enjoy what you write, they will come back to visit your blog whether you post every day or just once a week. Personally, it’s rare that I will subscribe to a blog where the author posts every day. As a reader, two to three times per week works best for me as there are quite a few blogs that I like to keep up to date with but don’t have the time to be continually reading.

3. Don’t let statistics rule you. Notice that your visitor count drops if you don’t post for a day or two? Don’t let this be the reason to post something new. Forced posts often take a lot longer to write and I think readers can tell if your heart isn’t in it.

4. You don’t have to be like anyone else. Some people have thousands of followers, post more than once a day, and are offered hugely exciting opportunities by brands courting them. While I sometimes think this sounds wonderful, my main thought is that this takes time … time to build up that kind of reputation … and time to maintain it. Think things through very carefully if you want to take this path. It will inevitably be at the expense of something else.

5. Virtual hugs are no substitute for real-life ones.

..... and how right she is. Now go on, go and hig the ones you love. The blog will still be here when you get back!

Tomorrow we have Rebecca from the Beesley Buzz blogging for New Bloggers Forntight, she'll reveal how she never imagined the support you could receive from the blogging community.

Welcome to New Blogger Fortnight 2013

Hello, welcome and thanks for joining us. Over the next two weeks I'll have some great posts for you, all packed with real-life experience and advice from a group of new bloggers who have generously come forward to share their experiences with you in the hope that it will help you grow and enjoy your blogging journey.

NBF nearly did not happen this year, I have been experiencing a bit of blogging overload in recent months. With blogger journeys to Ethiopia in October and Belarus in December I felt I was heading for the scrapheap and then when I saw a whole new blog was being dedicated to posts for new bloggers I lost my mojo and thought why bother?

I had already engaged a couple of fairly new bloggers to write a post for me and I went back to them to break the news and both were sad that I might not host. One of them nearly had me in tears though, she talked about how last year she had been a brand new blogger and had been a part of NBF as a recipient and got so much out of it. She mentioned that I had started the chat about NBT in advance on the BritMums newbie forum and that she was still in contact now with those bloggers she started to chat to last January as part of NBT. She told me the warmth and personality of my blog was what made NBT fortnight and that a new blog would not have that same community.

Reading just the few lines she wrote made me know in an instant that this would go ahead.  Decision made - I'd take a break for January to recharge my batteries and then dive right back in and enjoy NBF 2013.  So here I am and I'l kick this two weeks off with a post from me -

I almost lost me.....

Blogging, in my experience is like white water rafting, like travelling alone down these scary rapids that are twisting and turning so fast that you have no idea what to do or how to steer. How do I make sure I stay on the right path and don't plunge over the waterfall into the abyss, never to be seen again?  Good question Mich.

I'm not the type to seek thrills - bungee jumping and such holds no appeal to me, I prefer the safer and more predictable things in life and I think if I had realised how turbulent and all-consuming blogging could be I might never have taken that plunge.

I've been writing my blog for about five years now and there are times when I love it and adore the community and others when I could just run for the hills and hide, never to write a post again. In January I have been enjoying some down time and not blogging much, I find I have to take some rest every few months for fear of burning out or losing my grasp on reality.

After near five years I have learnt who I am and how I want to come across on my blog. It is important for me to be authentic and to stay true to my Christian beliefs. Yes the worldly part of me escapes at times and wants to move up the blogging charts, win an award (or two) and go to the best events but then the grounded Mich kicks in and reminds me that really I don't actually want all the things that come associated with being a popular and well-ranked blogger and that the green-eyed monster is very ugly indeed.

I do realise that I have come very close to 'losing me' in my blogging journey, it is so easy to get caught up in things and to go with what feels like the flow for so many people. Some bloggers are more vocal and dynamic than others and you find a clan start to emulate them and to desire all the things they desire. Writing styles start to mesh into one, there seems to only be a few key blogging voices and everyone is tackling the same subjects or that is how it feels when you are in the middle of it. If you don't tweet ten times a day, do a Google + update and check in on 14 forums then you are failing as a blogger. What a crock!

Nowadays I feel like a bit of a Granny when I watch the newer bloggers arrive on the scene, they have their own great style and way of blogging and then they find the community and with that comes some great things - friendship, support and opportunities  Then also the not so great - as so many start to do what I did and question themselves and their blogs and their own uniqueness starts to fade. Time and time again I hear - I need to go self-hosted, I must get my own vanity URL, my blog needs a make-over, should I be on Pinterest and Google +, I need to start a linky? and on and on it goes.  I want to shout at them and tell them to stop and cherish who they are, if they are not careful they will lose their soul on this journey to be the most flashy and well-read blogger.  I am sure very few of us start out on our blogging journey to be stars of the parenting blogging world and really, why would we ever dream that is desirable?

Blog because it makes you happy, blog because you find support, blog as therapy and even blog to get reviews if that is what floats your boat but be honest with yourself and keep focused on why you started out because it is so easy to get lost.

Now you might want to get lost, I don't know.  You may find that it is beneficial for you, it certainly has been for me. For years the strapline on my blog has been 'Join me on my imperfect Christian journey' and that is exactly how I see this life, as a journey. This is where I am being moulded and learning to be the best person I can be. Blogging and even getting lost along the way has helped me with that, I see that now.

As long as you can keep perspective and balance, blogging can be the most rewarding of activities. You will learn who your real friends are and to not bother with the ones who sap your energy and make you feel sad.
If I was to give every new blogger one piece of advice it would be to stay true to you and what you want for your blog. Do not get swept along with the crowd, stand out! Question yourself each time you go to make a change - am I doing this for me? Does this make me happy? Is this detrimental to anyone else? Is this a balanced thing to be doing? You'll know the right answers, you just have to have the courage to be individual and to stick by what you think.

You'll be a much better blogger for it. Good luck, Mich x

Come back tomorrow for a great post from Rachel (also known as Far from home mama), who blogs at Three years and then home. She will be talking about keeping a good blog/ life balance - so important!

Confessions from a normal mummy blogger

Just after Christmas I read a blog post from Her Melness Speaks which she had published back in July 2012, it was a great post and one I know resonated with lots of bloggers. In that post Melinda expands on a  tweet she had sent, which read 'Your blog does not have to change the world...it need only be relevant to your world'. This is so true, so many bloggers worry that they are falling short of the bar that they believe exists and some of the more unscrupulous bloggers would probably let them believe does.

We are all different and our motivations are unique and as such we need to stay in touch with ourselves and why we blog. It is all too easy to compare ourselves to others and I have fallen into this trap many times over the last four years. Why does X get more comments than me, why does Y get the better approaches from the PR's and why is Z everyone's favourite friend on twitter? It was probably only in 2012 that I really found my confidence and realised that I am me and I can only be me and that is just perfect.

Over the last year I have heard myself referred to 'blogging royalty' and as 'one of the big bloggers', which does make me smile, as at a size 22 that is probably pretty accurate. Apparently I'm inspirational and of course I have been on two amazing journeys abroad which came about due to my blog. So I do understand that newer bloggers will find the kind of opportunities that have been open to me awe-inspiring but I have to chuckle as of course I know me well enough to know who I really am and all the flaws that come with being Mich.

I thought it might be fun to take a closer look at myself and to fess up to some faux pas from this normal/ average/ ordinary mummy blogger. I hope that it will be reassuring to any blogger who is having the 'am I good enough?' wobble and remind them that they are just fine and to keep going as they are.

Right, confessions from Mich -

• I have never shopped at Boden, the White Company or Zara (and chances are I never will).
• When the Blogfest conference announced Caitlin Moran would be a keynote speaker, bloggers everywhere wet their pants with excitement, I pondered who on earth she was.
• I have never read any of William Shakespeare's works, yes I know I should...
• I honestly could not tell you the last time I read a newspaper and I don't think I have ever once read a broadsheet.
• When it gets to election time I ask my husband who I should vote for.
• I have no idea what big words mean, I have to look them up. I'm just not particularly smart at general education but I rock in many specialist areas such as HR, hospitality and sales.
• I know the name Gaddafi but I'm a tad ashamed to tell you that I could not tell you one thing about who he was or what he did. 
• I'm not sure I've ever been to an art gallery.
• I've hardly travelled in the UK at all, I know where I like and that is where I have been. One day my horizons will broaden I'm sure.

I'm not particularly clever, nor well read, nor cultured, nor fashionable but I am me and I'm OK just the way I am.  Every one of us is different and that makes our little space on the internet interesting and irreplaceable.

There is room for us all.  Please be yourself, stand tall and be authentic.

From Monday 28th January I am hosting New Bloggers Fortnight. This is the third year in a row that I will give my blog over for two weeks to guest bloggers all with blogging advice for new bloggers by new bloggers themselves.

Check our the posts from NBT 2011 and NBT 2012 and come back next week to read posts about finding support in bloggging, engaging with the community, keeping real life at the forefront of your mind, using images in your blog posts, maintaining your integrity when you undertake sponsored content and loads more.