The Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife: The How-To's of Blogging Series- Part 2

Today we continue with Part 2 of "The How-To's of Blogging Series". I am hosting this awesome series with Two Shades of Lovely so make sure and visit there blog as well. This entire week will be filled with posts on how to make you a "better" blogger, so make sure to come back because there will be a new topic everyday. You can find out who will be posting this week by clicking here. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

Hello readers! I'm Kelly from Live Laugh Rowe.

I'm tickled silly that Melissa asked me to be a part of her series. If you aren't familiar with me or my blog, I {love} spreading the 'how-to' bloggy {love}. I {love} encouraging bloggers to Dream Big! I'm a big dreamer. Why not? Right? Back in February, I spearheaded a Grow Your Blog Series and I continue to post other bloggy tips and tricks to help bloggers out -- especially the newbies. Trust me, I know how overwhelming it is in the beginning. For some, it's like learning a foreign language.

However, blogging is a world of fun with a fabulous growing community! It can, however, start to feel like a juggling act for a lot of us. We're busy... work, family, school activities, sports, church, and so forth. Soooo, it's important to know how to make the best use of your time, posts, opportunities, etc. I thought I'd share some tips I recently learned directly from Laurie, the Tip Junkie, at Bloggy Boot Camp (held here in St. Louis). Are you ready? Grab that pen and paper... let's go!

We've all heard of it and some of us have even done it . Sometimes it's successful and other times, it sucks {booooo!} What we don't think about is this -- who we're guest blogging for is giving us a piece of their virtual 'retail space' to use. WOW! They're giving us exposure to their readers, their SEO, their social media, their traffic, and so forth. That's a pretty BIG DEAL. Wouldn't you agree? Therefore, we want to make that guest post shine and 'work' for us in hopes of getting us a little more exposure. Here's how we want to do that:

{one} Clearly communicate and understand what the expectations are from the invitee. Do they want new material, or can it be older? If you're providing newer material -- when can you re-post it on your blog? Be courteous and respectful of what they expect and/or ask of you as the guest blogger. For myself, I like to ask that guest bloggers wait at least one week before publishing it on their blog (and that's if they choose to even to do so). {two} Pictures. Introduce yourself with a picture! Maybe its a candid, a family picture or your logo/avatar -- or both! Let the readers see how stinking cute you (or your blog) are so they can put a name with a face (and your blog). Also note that if your post is a tutorial and will include pictures, make sure they're good pictures. You don't want to ruin a perfectly good guest posting opportunity with sub-par pictures. {three} Link back to your blog at least four times. A lot of time we're guest posting in hopes of gaining readers, meaning we want them to visit our blog. A simple text post is NOT going to do that. So reference other items of interest or relevant posts from your blog that might interest those readers. {four} Plan ahead. Let's say you're guest posting on the painting technique you used to paint your study. Maybe the week or two before your guest post goes live, you can post about how you picked the color to paint your study. So, when you're guest posting on your painting technique, you can back-link to the post on how you picked your paint color. Does that make sense? {five} Teaser. At the end of the post, put one TEASER. Use a fabulous picture of one of your most popular projects/posts/ DIY/tutorials. Entice the reader. WOW them... make them want to click on over to your blog and see what you're all about and what you have to offer.

There we have it -- some Guest Posting tips that will help your blog get a little extra exposure and {love}.

With that being said, I hope you'll take some time to swing by my corner of bloggy land. Thursdays we par-tay at Live Laugh Linky -- and anything goes! Be sure to stop by and link up your crafty, inspirational, tips and tricks each week. You might enjoy some of my crafty tutorials as well. I am in love with all things vintage/vintagey, such as this:

{Vintage Scrap Fabric and Twine Banner}

Thanks again for having me sweet, Melissa! Hugs!

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GIVEAWAY COMING! Dana from Wonder Forest has been so kind to offer all of you a FREE copy of her very own e-book for bloggers "Blog Wonderful". Stayed tuned for the giveaway at the end of the series!!

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May 29, 2012

The How-To's of Blogging Series- Part 2

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