Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

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Why You Should Start A Blog In The New Year

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Why You Should Start A Blog In the New Year

2016 is almost here! Have you thought about your goals? What about starting that blog you keep thinking about?

I have totally been there. For months and months, I thought about starting a blog before I actually did. Then one day, I started a blog and I am so glad I did. Starting a blog can be a great way to have your own place to write, to connect with others and to bring value to people in the world.

A lot of people want to start a blog because they feel like they have something to say. Others think that what they have to say isn’t important enough for others to read. This simply isn’t true. The internet is a big place. Even if you feel like what you want to blog about is unique, there are other people out there that can relate to what you are saying, you just have to find them.

Blogging is your place to write.

It is your canvas on which to put your words. Even if you don’t think very many people will ever read it. You can just write in a private journal, I do that too. But when you have something to say, sometimes you really want people to read it. A blog can give you that freedom.

With comments you can have conversations with other people about what you are blogging about. You can ask for input or read about others who have gone through something similar. Having that type of interaction is nice and you can’t get that from writing in a private journal.

Blogging allows you to connect with others.

When you start a blog and start posting and sharing, your words are going out into the world. Through blogging you will be able to connect with other bloggers and readers. You will be able to make friends this way and learn more about blogging and your world. Once you have started your blog, look for blogging communities to connect with. Find other bloggers on Twitter and Facebook. Not only will you learn more about blogging and your niche but you will also make friends with those who are doing the same thing you are, writing in a blog. I have really enjoyed all the people I have met because I decided to start my blog six years ago.

By connecting with your readers, you become a real person. You can do this by talking to them on social media, responding to their comments and just recognizing that they are there. It can be very fulfilling having a relationship with those who follow you.

Blogging can bring value.

Whether you blog about motherhood, photography or any other topic, your posts can bring value to others. Sometimes you won’t even know how many people you will touch with your words. There is something really fulfilling about pouring out your heart on a certain topic and then hearing that it touched someone. Blogs bring value in lots of different ways. By bringing value to others you can help and inspire them. It’s a great feeling to know you are able to do that just by writing a blog post.

Blogging is a great thing to do. If you have been putting it off, 2016 is your year. Even if you start slow and don’t get a lot of writing done, you should at least get started. Think of a theme, a title and get going with it. You will be so glad that you did.

Will you start a blog in 2016? What will it be about?

The Art of Work by Jeff Goins Book Review

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The Art of work

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. affiliate links were also used. 

The Art of Work A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do by Jeff Goins

I had the opportunity to review the book Art of Work by Jeff Goins. In his book, Jeff Goins explains how to abandon the status quo and live a life that matters with true passion and purpose. Through personal experience, a lot of different stories from people in different parts of the world and research done on the mysteries of motivation and talent, the author shows readers how to find their vocation and what to expect along the way.

I really enjoyed this book because I am not quite sure yet what my calling might be. This book helped me think about figuring it out in a different way. I took a lot of notes when reading this book and I don’t always feel like I need to do that with a non-fiction book. One of messages I got that really stuck with me was that having a calling doesn’t mean that it would be easy to follow it. Sometimes I think that if something is meant to work out it will be easy to get there but that isn’t always the case. I loved the personal examples he gave to back that up.

Another great truth I read about in the book was that every calling is marked by a season of insignificance. A period of time when nothing make sense. How many times have I felt like this?

I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a little help of help figuring out what they want to do in their life and needs to read about other people who have figured out what their life purpose was going to be.

Have you read the Art of Work yet???

 

 

On Simplifying and Realizing I Can’t Do It All

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On Simplifying and Realizing I Can't Do It All

On Simplifying and Realizing I Can’t Do It All

I can’t believe it is going to be 2016 very very soon. 2015 has been an interesting year for me. It’s been a hard year. It’s be frustrating. But now it is almost over.
As I think ahead to 2016 a word keeps coming to mind…

Simplify

I know a lot of people pick a word for the year and I think mine is going to be “simplify” for 2016.

I have recently come to the conclusion that I can’t possibly do it all. Not all at the same time anyway. There is a lot going on in my life. I have a lot to do each and everyday. I am also one of those people who needs to have some downtime too. If I don’t get it, I get extremely anxious and frustrated. So I have to be careful about my scheduling.

I have three boys, 11, 8 and almost 5. I want them to be able to do what they want to do but within reason. My oldest two are not too big into sports but they do like swimming. My youngest will probably be starting soccer too. There is also homework to think about. Also, my 8-year-old with Asperger’s has a hard time when his after school time is not spent the way it normally is.

I have a husband who is gone a lot of the time so I don’t have that extra help. Most days I do all the cooking, homework time, bedtime and any cleaning that needs to be done. My boys have chores which helps but there is still a lot to do in the house.

I work from home as a writer and blogger and while I love this very much, balancing everything can be difficult at times. I have to make sure I keep up on what I need to do each day even when the boys have a day off or a long weekend.

I want to work on decluttering my home more than I did in 2015. We hope to move in the next few years and it will be easier to do with less stuff. I have already gone through a lot of my clothes but the toys could use another purge as well as random things we don’t even use anymore.

I want to focus on paying down debt because the less debt you have the simpler life becomes. I have been listening to the Enjoying Life on a Budget podcast and they have been really inspiring to me as they have been able to pay off a lot of debt and learn to live a simplier life.

I also plan to focus more on my writing, blogging and social media work as that is where my heart is. I feel like there have been some distractions and I need to let them go. This will be hard but it is something I have thought about for a long time now and I think 2016 is the year to focus and move forward in the direction I need to be going.  In the fall I will have all three boys in full-time school so that will help with my work hours.

I want to find ways to simplify my everyday life. I know there are things we can do and change to make this happen. It might take some work but it will be for the best.

As I think about all the things I want to do in my life I have to remember I can do some of them later. I don’t have to do them all right now, in the phase of life that I am in. It would just be too difficult to make it happen. I can do a lot, I do more than some but I can’t do it all and recognizing that is a big deal.

What about you? Do you ever feel like you are trying to do too much? What ways can you find to slow down and simplify your life a little bit?

The 3 Social Media Sites That Bloggers Should Be Using

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The 3 Social Media Sites That Bloggers Should Be Using

The 3 Social Media Sites That Bloggers Should Be Using

When you start a new blog it is important to also set up social media accounts to go with it. I actually did this differently. I had a Twitter account before I had my blog. It came soon after but still. I decided to join Twitter on a whim back in 2009. I am not even sure why. I started connecting with others, mostly photographers. It was fun to share my work there and see what others were doing.

Once I started my blog I ended up finding other Military Spouses on Twitter and connecting with them. I also started a Facebook page for my blog and a few years later a Pinterest account.

There are a lot of social networks you can join but there are 3 sites that bloggers need to make sure they are on and using on a regular basis 🙂

Twitter- Twitter is a great place to connect with others and share your blog posts. I also like to find other blog posts to read on there as well. It moves very fast and has the biggest learn curve but it is worth checking out. I don’t just tweet about my blog. I tweet about pretty much anything that comes to mind. I use lists to keep up with the people I follow and I also set it up to share my blog posts on there throughout the day.

Facebook- Starting a Facebook page for your blog is pretty easy. You can just use your blog’s name and get it going. Start off sharing the page with your friends and family members. Then their friends will see it and you will start to get likes. You should then talk about your new page on your blog as well as other social media sites. You can join Facebook groups to help get you likes. The Milspouse Blogger’s group I am in is great for this. Growing your Facebook page can be difficult. I still haven’t totally figured it out but there is a lot of advice out there on what to do. I really like Hollie Homer’s videos about how to grow your Facebook page and different tips and tricks to use.

Pinterest- If you are not on Pinterest yet you should get on over there, especially if you have a blog. It can be a great way to generate traffic but it is also a great way to share other’s work as well as find new ideas. I try to always have a photo in my posts that could easily be pinned. Then I make sure to pin it myself to get it started. My hope is that others will repin it either from Pinterest or from my site directly. I started off with a personal account on Pinterst but switched to Business once they started offering that. Changing over is easy to do and you should do it if you are using Pinterest with your blog.

I also really like Instagram and although I am following a lot of people I have met through blogging, I don’t use it as much for my blog. Some people do and have great success with that. I find that because I can’t post a link when I post a photo that it is hard to connect the two. I enjoy sharing photos I have taken, quotes I enjoyed or anything like that. I didn’t include Instagram in my list because I think you can get by without it as a blogger but it can add to your social media experiences when it comes to blogging.

What about you? What are your favorite social media sites to use with your blogging?

More Than Just A Mom

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more than a mom

I always wanted to be a mom. I always wanted to get my college degree. I wanted to find a good man, get married after college, have some kids and stay at home with them. That is exactly what I did too. I have three boys that call me mom, I have been married for 13 years and I have been able to be home with them the whole time.

However…

For most of that time I have been a Work At Home Mom. I had an Ebay business back when I just had one little boy. These days I do a mix of blogging, writing, social media and my Scentsy business. I have three kids in school for three days a week. So I have chuncks of time to myself where I can get work done.

I am more than just a mom.

But sometimes…

I don’t feel like I am treated that way.

Sometimes I feel like people see that I have three boys and think that is all I could possibly have time for or all I could emotionally want to do.

But here is the thing. My boys are difficult sometimes, they do take a lot out of me but they are also not babies and I am more than just a mom.

I picked up my first camera at the age of 12. Years before motherhood began, but when I went on a photo walk a few years ago, one of the other photographers made a comment about how great it was that moms were picking up their cameras to take photos too. Really? Because my love of photography came before becoming a mother. So did a lot of other things.

I love my boys dearly but I am more than just their mother.

I am a writer. I am a reader. I am a blogger. I am a photographer. I am a friend. I am a wife. I am a business owner. I network with other work at home parents. I bring in an income and I am helping keep this family together and work towards our dreams.

And here is the thing. Whether you are a work at home mom or not, you are more than just a mom too. You are STILL the person you were 10, 15, 20 years ago. You might have changed a bit. You could have different beliefs about things but you are still that person and you are allowed to have a life beyond your kids.

You are allowed to read. You are allowed to find a job. You are allowed to go out with your friends. You are allowed to take a shower. You can do ALL of these things and still be a loving and wonderful mother.

I know my jobs might seem weird to some people. Some might not get how I could make money blogging or sharing a post on Twitter but I do. I make money. I pay taxes and I am a working member of society.

So next time you hear someone talk about working from home, believe them. Believe that they have a career too. That they are working towards a goal. I don’t care if they only make enough to send their kid to soccer camp every year or if they are bringing in $100,000+ a year. The jobs we do matter and shouldn’t just be ignored.

Do you ever run into the attitude that you are “just” a mom? That anything you do outside of it doesn’t really matter? How do you handle it?

 

Why Bloggers Need Social Media

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Why Bloggers Need Social Media

Bloggers need social media! Are you a blogger too? Awesome! Are you on social media? You should be. For a few different reasons. Social media can be good, it can be bad but you need to be on it if you are a blogger.

There are three main reasons for this. To connect, to promote and to make money. Yes, you can make money on social media if you are a blogger. Pretty cool huh?

To Connect

This is the most important reason that bloggers need social media. To connect with others. To connect with other bloggers and to connect with your readers or possible readers. You will do this in different ways depending on the platform. On Twitter, you will set up your account and start following people. Then start replying to what they are talking about. Start retweeting what you like and your numbers will start to grow. On Facebook, start a Facebook page for your blog, connect with other bloggers to gain followers, share with all of your friends and put the page on your blog. There are many ways to connect with others on social media. Just keep doing it. Not only will you make friends but you will help get your blogging name out there.

To Promote

Social media is great for bloggers because it is an easy and free way to promote your blog. Although you can pay for some of it, you don’t have to. You can just put it out there for the world to see. Make sure you have a strategy of some kind. Some people like the posts to automatically end up on social media. Others would rather have control over that. You might need to try a few things before you figure out how you want to do it. Use tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to help you schedule your posts. Don’t forget to go back into your social media accounts in real time. Your followers want to know you are a real person and that you are really there, even if some of your posts are scheduled.

To Make Money

Once you start to get a good following on social media, you can actually make money with it. I do this in a few different ways. People can buy Twitter mentions from me from my blog. I also get offers from Izea, Sverve and Advowire. Each of these sites operate a little differently.

  • Izea– Here you connect your social media channels and then check for offers. Some might be for your blog or Instagram, most of them for me have been for Twitter. You bid a certain amount and have to wait to see if you will be accepted by the company. Sometimes you are and then it allows you to write your tweet right there on the website. Then it will be Tweeted out after it is approved. Other times you won’t hear anything so either they didn’t pick you or they dropped the campaign. It is hard to really know. It is a good idea to pay for one of the plans. The cheapest is only $1 a month and it will allow you to bid on a lot more campaigns.
  • Sverve– This is more of a blogging community where people share their posts but they also have campaigns. They have them for blogging, Twitter and Youtube but I have only done blog campaigns as well as Twitter ones. The pay is a lot lower than you will find on Izea but you can Tweet the campaign once every 24 hours until the campaign ends.
  • Advowire– I like this place because they always have something you can Tweet out. They give you points and then you turn in the points for prizes. I like to get the movie tickets because we love going to movies and will always use them. You can move up and get paid a little more, the more tweeting that you do. You can only use this every 12 hours but I try to go there at least once a day.

I am also able to do Facebook or Twitter campaigns through Blogher and MSB New Media. If you are a Military Spouse Blogger you must join their network.

As a blogger, there are a lot of tasks I do on a regular basis. Social media is one of them. It is the best way to get your name out there while connecting with others. And let’s face it, in most cases you would be on social media anyway, why not make it work for your blog too?

What is your favorite thing about social media as a blogger?

 

* This post contains affiliate links! 

6 Things Bloggers Should Do On A Regular Basis

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6 Things Bloggers Should Do On A Regular Basis

Blogging is such a great way to get your words out into the world. Whether you are blogging as a hobby or doing it as a business. Whether you have 100K followers or just your family and a few friends.

However, if you want to grow your blog, if you want to make money from blogging, if you want to make it into more of a business, there are certain things you have to do on a regular basis. I haven’t always been the best about completing this list on a regular basis and I could see the difference.

Being a blogger is more than just writing. It is a mix of using your blog for good, for writing from your heart to connecting with people and putting yourself out there.

So what should  you be doing on a regular basis?

Here’s my list of 6 things bloggers should do on a regular basis:

1. Write posts. You need to be writing on a regular basis. For some, this would mean just a couple of times a week. For others, it means every day. What you don’t want to do is write and then wait 3 weeks to write again. If you want to grow your blog and get out there, you need to be posting regularly.

2. Write for other sites. This might mean guest posting or it could also mean writing for other sites for free or pay on a regular basis. By writing on other sites you might be able to write about a different topic and you can gain new readers who head on over to your site from the site you wrote on.

3. Update old posts. My blog is about six years old. Which means I have a lot of older posts I have written that need to be refreshed a bit. I wrote them before I even thought about Pinterest or what type of photos would be best. I need to go back through and update some of my older posts and reshare them. By doing this I am able to promote some of my older content in a new way.

4. Schedule Social Media. Some of my social media I write live and other posts I schedule. I do this to save time and to always have something going out. I use Buffer, RoundTeam and BoardBooster to do this. Buffer is my favorite and I go on there everyday to add new posts to share. Both my own and others I have read that I want to share with my readers.

5. Respond to comments. I can say I am not as quick at doing this as other people are. I am working on it though. But isn’t it nice to get an email back after you leave a comment on a blog post? So I do try to go through and do that too.

6. Visit Facebook Groups. I am apart of quite a few Facebook groups for bloggers. My favorites are the Mil-Blogging Buddies group, Blogger2Business and The Business of Blogging. I have learned a lot from these types of groups and I have also been able to meet and connect with other bloggers through them. I recommend joining a few, especially if you are a new blogger and just getting started.

7. Visit Other Blogs. I use Bloglovin to keep track of other blogs I am reading. I try to go through and read a few everyday. I am never going to read every single post of every single blog I am following but it is fun to go through them. I also click on links I see on social media for posts that look interesting to me.

Are you a blogger? What would you add to your list???

 

* This post contains affiliate links! 

Three Simple Ways to Grow Your Twitter Account

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Three Simple Ways to Grow Your Twitter Account

I love Twitter. I am not even sure why I first joined the social network in the first place but I am glad that I did. I joined in the summer of 2009 wanting to share my photography. When I started my blog in 2009 I figured that I should have an account for that too.

These days I just have one Twitter account that I update. I have almost 7,700 followers. I feel like I have worked hard to get there and have also made a few mistakes along the way.

If you are first starting out with a Twitter account you are probably overwhelmed with it. I have a lot of friends that don’t quite get Twitter at all. 140 characters? How does that even work? What in the world does RT mean? How do I get people to follow me? Is it rude to start chatting with other people who are in the middle of a discussion? What is the point of Twitter anyway?

Twitter is certainly a different animal then Facebook is. I see Facebook as a place where my friends are, where I can connect with them on a more personal level. I see Twitter as a place to make new friends, connect with others and share what I am doing.

If you have a blog or a business, it is a good idea to be on Twitter, even if it scares you or you don’t understand it. It is a great place to connect with others, find new blogs and promote your own. It is a great tool if you know how to use it and it shouldn’t be ignored.

So, how do you grow your Twitter account?

Here are three simple ways to do so:

Twitter Profiles#1 Make sure your information is filled out. I rarely follow back anyone who doesn’t have a profile filled out. I also never ever follow back people who have the default picture as their photo unless I know them in real life. So you have to make sure you at least change that. You don’t have to add a photo of you, it can be your logo, your dog, a flower or anything that works. Just make it something so you appear to be a real person and not just a bot. As for the profile, just write a little bit about yourself. You can see what I have written in the photo on the write. You want people to be able to find you based on what you are into.

#2 Add people daily. When you add other followers, a lot of them will add you back. You can find new followers using a few different methods. If you go to the Twitter website, it will give you some suggestions. I like to go there everyday and add a few people who I think I would like to follow. You can also do a search. If your blog is about knitting, you can go and search, “love to knit” or “knitting” and Twitter will give you a list of people with that in their profile as well as people who have talked about your keywords. You can also find some of your favorite, more popular people you follow on Twitter and see who are following them. This tells you that they like that person too so you probably have something in common. When you go ahead and add people daily, you will get new followers from the people who are adding you back.

#3 Interact. It is important that you interact with others on Twitter. You can do this by asking questions, making comments, replying to others and retweeting them. Favorites is also a nice way to tell other people who that you enjoy what they are posting.  You want a mix of interactive tweets with your promotional tweets. It is the best way to use Twitter and to get to know others. It also doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. You can go onto Twitter a few times a day and see what people are talking about.

Are you on twitter? I would love to connect with you there too 🙂

How have you gained Twitter followers?