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Energizer Bunny's Mommy Reports

Nov 23, 2009

Energize your Blog with Dominique (Week 5)


This is the 5th and last article from the 5 week series by Dominique Goh from 'Learning with Dominique'.

If you missed reading the last article, click on the link below to visit the same.

Week 1: How to make your Blog Unique
Week 2: Boosting your Readership
Week 3: Linking via listing on blog directories.
Week 4: Joining forums

I won Dominique's blog giveaway a while ago and part of the prize package was 5 guest post articles. I thought a topic that would benefit all of us would be how to build a blog that appeals to more visitors. Dominique jumped on it and has beautifully titled the series- 'Energize Your Blog' .

Feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions below each post.


Week 5- Juicing up your blog through Carnivals and Memes

Looking for a quick way to add a burst of traffic to your site? Drop links to your blog posts at Carnivals and Memes

Blog Carnivals are themed collections of posts which are posted on a periodical basis. During Carnivals, the host blog gathers posts from various bloggers and posts them together on a list for everyone to view. It is similar to doing a blog roll but more specific in nature as it is based on more focused topics like personal achievements or personal highlights.

A Blog Carnival is also a place where many Blog Carnivals are listed. You can join Blog Carnivals which may relate to what you are blogging about by clicking on the listings there. By adding your link to the Carnival you get your post listed among other great posts in the same topic.


Joining memes

There are many different memes on which you can write about.


http://www.5minutesformom.com/ is a site that I visit weekly to join their Tackle-it-Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday memes. These memes have the highest rates of partipation as there are hundreds of links left weekly.


How can you get your post highly visible on the list ?

The trick is to get your link within the first 10 on the list and it will help to boost your visibility. I personally do Memes and have seen how they help boost traffic and encourage comments being left on my blog.

I too have created my own meme -Weekend Reflections where I write about my thoughts for the week. I invite you to join me every weekend and share your thoughts

Just leaving your link is not enough to boost your traffic. Coupled with commenting on several other blogs on that list, will increase linkage to your blog and you never know, you may be building up strong friendship bonds with other bloggers in the process.



Dominique Goh is an elementary school teacher, Mommy to 2 active little boys, cake decorator, internet consultant and the life behind 'Learning with Dominique' and her parenting site 'From Dominique's Desk'

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posted by Marina@EBMR @ 7:25 AM 0 Comments

Nov 16, 2009

Energize your Blog with Dominique (Week 4)

This is the 4th article from a 5 week series by Dominique Goh from 'Learning with Dominique'.

If you missed reading the last article, click on the link below to visit the same.

Week 1: How to make your Blog Unique
Week 2: Boosting your Readership
Week 3: Linking via listing on blog directories.

I won Dominique's blog giveaway a while ago and part of the prize package was 5 guest post articles. I thought a topic that would benefit all of us would be how to build a blog that appeals to more visitors. Dominique jumped on it and has beautifully titled the series- 'Energize Your Blog' .

Feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions below each post.


Week 4- Joining Forums


Forums are easy places to drop links to your site and participate in the discussion topics. Ning has the most number of socially devoted forums online. If you wish you can even set up your own Ning forum. They are FREE and relatively easy to set up. I myself have set up my own Ning site-Savy Hip Parenting to test out Ning's functions.

Here is a list of other NING forums for moms which I have joined and found to be beneficial:

Mom Blogger Club

Momlogic
Mompreneur Cafe

Twitter Moms

Babble Playground

Besides these Ning sites there are many other different types of forums around based on your particular focus topic. For example: search using the keywords 'parenting forum' and type in your town/country, you will be able to see a whole list of relevant forums to join.


How to drop links in a forum?

As with joining any site, you will be required to fill out your profile and maybe include a signature.

It is in your signature that you can link back to your site.


If the forum that you join allows html formatting within signatures or hyperlinks, you can add a clickable link to your site

You could also link to key posts on your sites in your posts on the forum. Be wary about too much self promotion as it maybe regarded as SPAM by the moderators or other forum members.

By setting up a common signature across different sites and even within your own e-mail system it will definitely make your signature (i.e. your calling card) more prominent.

Anyone who reads your post and is interested in what you have written would be inclined to click on your link and visit your site. This would in turn work well in boosting your traffic from external URLS.




Dominique Goh is an elementary school teacher, Mommy to 2 active little boys, cake decorator, internet consultant and the life behind 'Learning with Dominique' and her parenting site 'From Dominique's Desk'

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posted by Marina@EBMR @ 11:15 AM 1 Comments

Nov 9, 2009

Energize your Blog with Dominique (Week 3)

This is the 3rd article from a 5 week series by Dominique Goh from 'Learning with Dominique'.

If you missed reading the last article, click on the link below to visit the same.

Week 1: How to make your Blog Unique
Week 2: Boosting your Readership

I won Dominique's blog giveaway a while ago and part of the prize package was 5 guest post articles. I thought a topic that would benefit all of us would be how to build a blog that appeals to more visitors. Dominique jumped on it and has beautifully titled the series- 'Energize Your Blog' .

Feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions below each post.



Week 3- Linking via listing on Blog Directories


Before you can get others to link back to you there must be a bait there to attract them.

One of the best ways is to host contests and giveaways on your blog. Where there is a chance of winning something for FREE there will always be an interested crowd. However just listing a giveaway on your site is not going to bring in the traffic if your blog is relatively new.


There are a few ways by which you can build traffic for a new blog.

  1. List your blog on blog directories/social media sites.

  2. List your blog on Mom directories



Listing on blog directories/social media sites.

There are many free blog directories where you can list your blog. Some may require a link back while others do not. I recommend getting your blog listed in these directories.

- Technorati ( http://technorati.com)

One of the most comprehensive directories which allow you to search content for all its blogs on specific subjects/topics.

- Blog Catolog( http://www.blogcatalog.com)

This is a social networking site and a blog directory which I use. Like other social bookmarking sites you create a profile and make friends on this site. I list all my blogs on this site and their feeds are constantly updated giving the reader an idea of the content I have on my sites.


Listing on Mom directories

- Blogarama (http://www.blogarama.com)
- Blogamama ( http://www.blogamama.ning.com)
-Momdotcom (http://www.momdot.com)
- Everything Mom ( http://www.everythingmom.com)

*These are only a few mom directories out of the thousands out there. You just need to google search “ mom directories” to see which one would be the best fit for your blog.*

- Dominique Goh is an elementary school teacher, Mommy to 2 active little boys, cake decorator, internet consultant and the life behind 'Learning with Dominique' and her parenting site 'From Dominique's Desk'


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posted by Marina@EBMR @ 11:18 AM 0 Comments

Nov 2, 2009

Energize your Blog with Dominique (Week 2)


This is the 2nd article from a 5 week series by Dominique Goh from 'Learning with Dominique'.

If you missed reading the last article, click on the link below to visit the same.

Week 1: How to make your Blog Unique

I won Dominique's blog giveaway a while ago and part of the prize package was 5 guest post articles. I thought a topic that would benefit all of us would be how to build a blog that appeals to more visitors. Dominique jumped on it and has beautifully titled the series- 'Energize Your Blog' .

Feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions below each post.


Week 2- Boosting Your Readership

I'm sure as a blogger your wish would be to have a growing and responsive readership. There are a few ways by which you can grow your readership.

First of all before you start there are two questions you need to ask yourself:

1. How much time can you spend online?

It is important to note the amount of time that you have each day (or week) to spend on building up your blog profile and adding content to it.

It is essential to have a blogging calendar set up so that you can systematically and efficiently work on adding relevant posts and schedule out what is needed to market and run your blog.

2. Who are your targeted readers and where can they be found?

You need to spend time analyzing the demographic details of your readers and what they are sourcing for within your blog. If your aim is to build up your blog you need to know how and where to find the right audience.

Forums and related blogs are some places you can venture to search for your potential readers.


Now that you have answered these two important question it is time for you to take some action.


Here is a 5 step plan which you can implement to boost your readership:


Step 1- Create descriptive and interesting post titles for your posts.

Step 2- Post regularly.

Step 3- Respond to comments on your post.

Step 4- Engage your readers with questions, contests and assignments

Step 5- Add social bookmarking widgets on your blog


- Dominique Goh is an elementary school teacher, Mommy to 2 active little boys, cake decorator, internet consultant and the life behind 'Learning with Dominique' and her parenting site 'From Dominique's Desk'


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posted by Marina@EBMR @ 7:27 AM 0 Comments

Oct 26, 2009

Energize your Blog with Dominique (Week 1)


Starting this Monday, for 5 weeks, Dominique Goh from 'Learning with Dominique' will be a guest blogger on Energizer Bunny's Mommy Reports.

I won Dominique's blog giveaway a while ago and part of the prize package was 5 guest post articles. I thought a topic that would benefit all of us would be how to build a blog that appeals to more visitors. Dominique jumped on it and has beautifully titled the series- 'Energize Your Blog' .

Feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions below each post.


Week 1- How to Make Your Blog Unique

Many blogs are “born” daily as many take to blogging online to express their thoughts and socialize. There are millions of blogs around in the blogosphere. How then can you make your blog unique and not just another cookie cutter blog?

The look of your site is very important. When a visitor surfs up your website it must be able to captivate their interest or else they may click away in less then 2 seconds.


How to make your site appealing?

There are some elements you need to take note of for your site to be found appealing.


1. Template Design

A personalized header with clear graphics make a great difference to your blog. It reflects your personality and also gives you the “feel” of what the blog is about. Also if your blog template is clear and allows easy navigation it would definitely be captivating for your audience. Use fonts that are legible and in a dark colors to make easy reading.

2. Linking within and out from your blog

One of the most annoying things would be to have broken links in your blog. I personally find it irritating to click on something and find that it reads 'page not found'. You can easily address this matter by installing the 'Broken Link checker' plugin if you are using a self-installed Word Press blog.

Linking to key posts or other related posts within your site will make it easier for readers to find other related reads. You can use the 'Link Within' widget or the 'Related post' plugin for Word Press blogs to enable this feature. Installing such a feature will tempt your readers to stay longer on your site as they may be interested in reading other articles which you may have.

3. Make it easy to contact you.

Have your contact form visible on the tabs on your blog. Sometimes you may have readers who may like to contact you and it can be frustrating if they are unable to find a way to do so.

4. Make it easy to find content on your blog

Have a search function and also categorize your blog by using topic categories. You can also list your most recent posts on the sidebar so that your audience gets a feel about what is happening on the blog.

5. Declutter

Remove unnecessary videos, links and buttons on your sidebar. It not only slows down the time taken to load up your site but also makes your site look messy.


- Dominique Goh is an elementary school teacher, Mommy to 2 active little boys, cake decorator, internet consultant and the life behind 'Learning with Dominique' and her parenting site 'From Dominique's Desk'


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posted by Marina@EBMR @ 8:13 AM 4 Comments