web analytics

How to secure a sponsorship for a convention

25 Oct By

 With conventions around every corner, bloggers are all abuzz about sponsorships, scholarships, and partnerships with companies to help pave the costly way.

I wanted to bring in a few ways to work with Public Relations and companies in order to secure sponsorships for the conferences that would benefit both parties. Do not kid yourself. Sponsorships are work. They do not come with a signed check for you to do what you want, but instead are based on an exchange and terms of the sponsorship.

Here are a few key points to assist you in your journey.

This article has moved. Please read more:

How to secure a sponsorship for a convention

Filed Under: Blog Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get into review blogging

24 Oct By

 As is evident here on momdot, there are bloggers of all types that are wild on the net. From mom blogs to adoption blogs, to specialized fields, and contest hosters, there is a bit of everyone. But no one is more revered then the Review blogger. The blogger with free product to test, to show, to give. It’s what Christmas dreams are made of, right?

Well. Sorta.

Getting into review blogging isn’t much different then getting into any other types of blogging. It simply takes dedication, time, and tenacity, but you have to have the drive to do it.

First things first.

1) To be a review blogger, I believe its fair to say…you should be fair! Don’t just take “free” products and say wonderful things-especially if they are not wonderful. Nothing is worse then a sell out. While its honorable to find the good things in each item, its also smart to let your readers know if there are parts of what you are sharing with them, that you don’t like. You want them to come back to you as a reputable source of information.

I know I have done reviews on items and have had visitors say they purchased based on my review. I know I can stand behind those purchases and try to give as much information as I can.

2) Second, be fair to your sponsors. While its up to the sponsor to decide if your a good fit for their product, if you don’t like it, contact them and let them know, send them reasons why you didn’t like it, and give them an opportunity to make things right. I always try to give the sponsor a heads up to make sure there wasn’t a unique problem with the product I received first. I have had shipping errors or even my own mistakes in usage that have affected my view.

3) Third, review blogging is not as glamorous as it seems. It takes time, dedication, willingness to really test out a product and find its pluses and minuses, and then conveying that to a reader in a way that they understand the product. It sometimes takes me hours to write a review post. Make sure you take personalized pictures of the item, which are so much better then just a pro shot from the sponsors site, so your users can really see the product in “real life”. You should use professional editing programs like Adobe.

Many people do vlogging reviews as well. On products that really deserve some testing, like a stroller, its nice to see the product in action. Also, don’t take so many reviews that you are overwhelmed and cannot give proper attention to each product.  I have been there and it can be frustrating. The second you feel like its a bother, you need to take a step back. Its OK to say NO.

To assist the beginning blogger, there are quite a few companies out there that work with bloggers on reviews, that you can sign up for.

1) MomCentral: Mom Central has a mom testing panel and they send out products and information for bloggers to blog about. They guide you with the links they want shared and the company information. You also generally get paid in amazon gift certificates for your assistance. You can accept what you are interested in, and not sign up for the rest. They send out a variety of helpful links and products weekly and can be great for a mom who not only wants to review products, but to make a few amazon dollars in the process.

2) Team Mom: Team mom sends out samplings to its bloggers directly to their house, wtih press kit information on the product and gives you a time frame to blog it in. In the past, I have worked with them on Cabbage Patch and the Bubble Maker. Team Mom allows you to be open and honest about your opinion and encourages both sides of the story

3) MomDot! We host a VIP network on our momdot blogging forum and a review network via Brandfluential.

Now you will find reviews all over the net, paid, unpaid, free products, or even moms reviewing prizes they won or products they bought at the store. Keep adding content, keep working on your craft, and keep building your traffic.

A great way to start is to actually pick products around your home that you love and you hate and talk about them. Make sure you link back to company websites and provide information on where to purchase the products. Eventually, google picks you up and you start to attract PR reps, who are constantly on the prowl for online talkers.

PR reps can really be wonderful for a blog. They offer chances to work with large prizes, and have multiple giveaway winners. They often come to you many times a month and give you many opportunities to review awesome products and great giveaways. You can accept those if they pertain to you or pass and wait for the next one. MomDot currently works with 100s of PR reps and they have brought this site amazing product, trips, and ambassador programs. PR reps can be a wealth of information.

But single handedly, the best way to get reviews, is to ask for them. Its not really a mystery behind finding a sponsor. You simply find the type of product you are interested in, and approach the company in doing a review. In the beginning, you may hit some road blocks like low traffic, but doing exchanges and getting to know other bloggers is a great way to boost that. There are so many social networks like twitter, ning sites, facebook, and StumbleUon, that the opportunity is always out there to bring in new people to your site if you work at it. Providing good, changing, and honest content is one of the best ways to keep people returning time after time and build a network of interested consumers. Also, working with small mom based companies or hand made products, is a nice way to get started.

While it can be nerve wracking to simply ask a company for a review, remember that most companies need to put their product in front of an audience and gain exposure through google ratings, links, and branding. Be confident in what you are providing, let them know your interest and why you believe that product would be beneficial to your user, and overall, sell yourself! I try to take the time to personalize my pitches just like I enjoy when PR takes the time to personalize a pitch to me. Get a media kit and keep it updating. You can edit PDF files and search pdf files and its easy to attach them to make it easy for PR firms to keep on file. Remember, the worst someone could tell you is no.

One thing I like to do, is run a contest along side a review. I love to test a product and then give someone else an opportunity to win it. While its not a requirement by any means, I always ask a company for a review AND a giveaway side by side. Its usually a stronger feedback over all for our sponsors and also allows you to build up some contests on your blog as well. Plus, its fun to be Santa Clause on some days.

The more you start to do reviews and giveaways the more organized you will need to be. Make sure you have a program like excel or even get onto google where you can create spreadsheets to keep track of your posts, winners of contests, dates of publishing and all your pertinent information. If you do it on google, its easy to online document review and download your tables into a file on your computer for further research and updates.

One last thing. While it may not be proper protocol to go to a bloggers site and click on all their sponsors and ask them each for a review or giveaway, its a great way for a beginning blogger to know which companies are outright sponsors of blogs. Check out the sidebar links of review and contest bloggers to find a good start of companies that are interested in supporting and participating in mom bloggers. Remember that as a blogger, its our job to get the information out there if you are a review or contest blogger, so you should welcome when another blogger discovers a link on your page and helps that company move forward to a new spot on the web. We should not be selfish or afraid or upset when we see our sponsors on a variety of sites, but rather, excited that we had a part in a company getting their name out there.

My motto is Desire Creates the Power. So work at it, live it, breath it, and it will become!

Happy Reviewing

Filed Under: Blog Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mom Blogging Platforms

24 Oct By

When you are first starting out to create a blog, its very important to decide exactly where you are going to put up shop….basically, the biggie…Wordpress or Blogger.

You first need to decide what you are DOING online…

Are you looking:

  • to make friends
  • blog about your life and kids
  • are you a hobby or a professional
  • are you going to monetize

Defining your reasons and goals in the beginning will allow you to narrow down where you should go first. While I am used to WordPress, I did take the time to check out Blogger and Typepad when I first became a blogger.

There are many hosted services like Blogger, WordPress (.com), Typepad, and LiveJournal, but the two big ones are Blogger vs. WordPress.

Blogger:

One of the most widely used blogging platforms, of course, is Blogger by Google. Blogger tends to get indexed in search engines a lot more quickly then other spots; this is because its owned by GOOGLE. So easy there…

With Blogspot,  you receive your name for free, but it will include a “Blogspot” name (example: http://5150mommy.blogspot.com ) in the title. While you can buy a domain name and set the nameservers, not nearly enough bloggers take advantage of that customization option. If you choose Blogger/Blogpsot, make sure you do. You also will have access to its very easily used software, and be able to add free or cheap templates to personalize your account. One personal complaint for me about blogger, is that it has no way to create true categorization. This can result in long lists of keywords on your sidebar or having to fix your blog by months, rather then minimized selections, or worse, no categories at all. If someone cannot easily navigate and find material, chances are they wont hunt it down. How often do you go searching through the “old posts” button? I like a very minimized search tool on a blog and a clean set up, and this type of sidebar would drive me nuts.

Keep in mind that when you use free templates, it takes a lot more work to define yourself. Its often better, especially if you are branding your blog, to hire a professional. I recommend my designer, which you can see in my footer if you are interested.  Other options are to purchase a premium template and for round $100 and some CSS skills, you can make your blog pleasant, easily navigated, and have a presence of a personal touch. This also helps define who you are so you are not compared with everyone else out there. I cannot tell you how many blogs I have come across that use free templates and I start to get confused on which one I am at. It makes them unmemorable to have a design that is recognizable and makes you feel good about your own site. If you want your blog to be noticed AND remembered, its best to invest in it. If you are partially HTML savvy, you can join places like our forum, where we have designers that are part of us, and offer free advice and help for those “stuck”.

Free Blogger Professional Design:

Some things to remember on free services like blogger.com and wordpress.com:

1) its FREE

2) the software is about near idiot proof. Already set up, its like a plug and play mentality. You need almost zero knowledge to become a blogger

3) No pesky updates to worry about. Every 2 months I notice an “upgrade” button inside my blog since I am self hosted and its FRIGHTENING to upgrade. If you don’t upgrade, you face potential security risks, so either way, its scary

4) you have LESS control over your blog. You often times have no control over to monetize your blog if you get to that point or to put in specialized templates. Remember…they own the content there, so they don’t just give you free reign with FTP

If you decide to self host, many hosters already have a Fantastico set up, which also allows a one button set up of your blogging software. This means you wont need to go through setting up a database and connecting it and all of that, just to get it up and running. Hit a button, fill out your name, save, and Voila! Blog appears! Self hosting in a snap. I like to do things the hard way, so I downloaded my software and set it up on my own.

Self hosting can be very beneficial, especially as your blog grows, and you want to add more features. Right now we host a chat room and a forum which is on our host. Its easy to connect them all together and we have complete control. If you start on a hosted site and want to move to a self hosted, it can sometimes be painful and scary. We recently moved our self hosted from one hoster to a self hosted on a new hoster and it was a LONG, LONG day. Its better to make that decision sooner, then later, if you notice your blog growing and you want to stick to this “blogging thing”.

WordPress

WordPress offers free hosted and also self hosted software. I personally believe that wordpress is more for the professional blogger then most blogger programs out there. However, that comes with a price as there are less wordpress designers and it can be tricky, and confusing, if something goes wrong with your site. I cant stress enough to keep a backup of your blog before you start messing around. WordPress comes with hundreds of templates to utilize, that are easily customized by just overwriting the pictures with new ones, or changing the color codes in the CSS template. There are also thousands of plugins to use to customize your blog for whatever your purpose is. From adding in video, to polls, to automatic signatures, its as simple as downloading, adding, and hitting an activate button. What I like about wordpress too, is if something is incompatible, it doesn’t just load it. It shuts off the plug-in and lets you know that it cant be loaded.

WordPress also has a very easy import button where you can bring over your blogger, moveable type, and more right into its software. My only glitch when I was changing blogs from my old one to this one, was that my exported files were TOO BIG to actually upload them and I couldn’t send large files to my hoster. If you have 100s of posts, and thousands of comments, it can be very difficult to work; it didn’t for me. However, again, I like to do things the hard way, so it was probably user inflicted error.

WordPress is also set up to have multiple authors. We have over here admin, editor, contributor, author, and subscriber and you can share files and posts. With a multi person blog like MomDot, this allows me to give specified blog access to all of my writers, depending on their role with our blog.

I hands down think that wordpress is the most customizable, personalized blogging software out there, buts it not all roses. Although they have a very supportive community and a forum to turn to should you face a problem, wordpress designs and customizers don’t come in the 1000′s, nor are they cheap if you face a problem. Here is a sample of FREE professional wordpress design:

Again, BACK UP before you start screwing with the HTML. Everything I have learned on wordpress, I have done myself, but it also means that I have “blown up” about 10 blogs before this one.

Like Googles Blogspot, you can get a hosted account with WordPress.com and also purchase a customized domain name. If you are looking for a great host, try this host here.

My opinion is if you are going to keep your blog a small hobby then Blogger may never bother you, but if you are looking to grow and have monetization goals and more, skip it all and use WordPress out the gate.

~Trisha


Filed Under: Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dinner on a Budget

20 Sep By 1 Comment

Do you balance your budget when it comes to food?

I have to be honest I am more of a “buy what I want” kinda of girl and having only one child has made that easy in the past. Now that I have two I am sure I will be more food conscious but right now with just baby food and formula, I still think its a ways out.

To be honest, left overs make me cringe.

However if you have more than one child and know that cutting coupons and cooking meals that stretch are important, you can join Daphne Brogdon, Caroline Murphy and Christine Koh and find out their tips regarding Dinner on a Budget.

And don’t forget to join RAGU on Facebook and get involved in all the round the table dinner discussions by your favorite bloggers!

If tweeting is your thing, you can join the conversation by hashtagging #momstheword!

 

See you there!

~Trisha

 

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tips for Newbie bloggers

15 Sep By 13 Comments

Its been just over 3 years since I became a blogger. And I have learned so so much. So much that I feel like I am constantly telling friends to start up a blog and join me.

Recently I was encouraging one of my neighborhood friends to create a blog and she had quite a few questions. As much as my intentions were to have her come over and help her get started, Phoenyx isn’t making that easy so I wanted to write a few things down to help her….and anyone else that may be researching opening their own blog.

GOALS

I think when we all start blogging we have a goal in mind and that goal can seriously vary from person to person.  We are of course individuals and all have a very different reason for being online. We may be just wanting to connect with others, share a story, expand on a hobby, or the biggie that I hear quite often, create a steady income.

Ah, income.

Wouldn’t it be nice to work with home? I know it’s something many people, especially moms, dream of. To sit in our our cushy comfy house, take frequent pee pee breaks in a toilet that is cleaned more than once a month and be here to raise our kids, all while bringing home the bacon.

Cooking the bacon while bringing it home. I kill me.

As someone that creates a full time income from home, I can tell you that while the money can be good, the hours are long, you will never have to be more disciplined in your life to get things done and you do a lot of waiting. You wait for PR, you wait for other bloggers, you wait for trips, you wait for ads, you wait for products to arrive, you wait for sponsorships, you even wait for inspiration. And in all that waiting, if you are any good and take your job seriously, you are out there gunning it every minute. Your pee pee breaks are infrequent, your twitter, facebook, networking and blog lists are long, and you work hard. Nose to the grind hard.

 

This article has moved. Read the rest of this article by clicking on the link:

Tips for Newbie Bloggers

Filed Under: Blog Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5 Must Have Pieces of Fitness Equipment

5 Sep By 3 Comments

5 Must Have Pieces of Fitness Equipment

We all know that having a pile of unused fitness gear lying around not only is a pain because of the clutter it actually hinders our chances of getting motivated by taunting us and reminding us of our failures.   The following 5 pieces of equipment are small enough to be tucked away and pulled out for workouts and fun enough that they won’t ever get banished to the basement.

Jump rope – It’s not just for little kids.  Jumping rope is an effective cardio workout, less damaging to joints and also helps strengthen arms and shoulders.  It also is a great way to work on coordination and balance.   Jumping rope is also a great workout for all levels of fitness.

Interval Timer – I never saw the value in an interval timer until I got more serious about fitness.  It’s a great thing to have on hand if you are doing circuit training, jump rope, running and so much more.  In a pinch it makes a great egg timer too.

Yoga Mat – A yoga mat is something everyone should have on hand.  It’s not just for yoga anymore.  Use a Yoga mat for pre workout stretches, while jumping rope to add a bit of extra cushion, yoga, Pilates and more.

A good pair of shoes – Unless you are into barefoot workouts like the Ugifit, Yoga or Pilates having a good pair of shoes is an absolute necessity.  I am guilty of going cheap or buying shoes on clearance not realizing that they were last year’s shoes or even older making the cushioning brittle and weak.  I paid for my mistake with joint pain and injuries.  I’m going to save you from the same fate by offering this advice.  Go out to your local fitness store try on a selection of shoes suited to the type of workout that you are planning.  Pick the pair that is the most comfortable, jump in them, and run a couple of laps around the store.  You’ll feel like a fool, but you’ll thank me later.

You – Your body and its weight is a great piece of equipment.  By using your own weight as resistance you can do a variety of workouts like Zumba, yoga, and circuit training without ever having to buy anything.  One of my favorite workouts to follow is BodyRockTV.  Every day she puts up a new or old video for you to try, diet tips and more.  Most of the workouts require no equipment and I tell you, looking at her physique will motivate you to get up off the couch.  There are many of these types of workouts online and with a little research you can find the one that is right for you.

There are so many different fitness options out there; these are just a few of my favorites.  You have to find the workout and equipment that suits your needs.  These are ones I found keep me interested and none of them broke the bank or cluttered up my house.  Before starting any workout it’s a good idea to discuss it with your physician.

I would love to know what your favorite workout or piece of equipment is.

Julia

Filed Under: All About Trisha, Guest Writers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Rayovac, my privilege of being a blogger

1 Jul By 4 Comments

Every company on the market does promotions. Whether it be coupons, products, in store sales, or PR releases there are numerous ways to learn the ins and outs of your favorite products. As a blogger, I often get the privilege of learning some of those facts due to participation and its so exciting at times to really get a handle on what makes a company tick.

Right now I am a Rayovac blogger. I have had more than one phone call with Rayovac and we have really got to learn exactly how Rayovac batteries are so successful and why they work so well. I wish I could share with each and every one of you how incredibly in tune this company is and how very proud they are with what product they put on the market for your family.

I used Rayovac long, long before I became a blogger for them. In fact, I became a blogger on this campaign directly due to my own satisfaction of a product I used in my home that was always there for me.

Now over on the Rayovac Facebook page, you have many options to get involved yourself.

You can join the VIP page and know when there are new store promotions, online contests, coupons and more!

You can download coupons directly from their page:

You can find out the latest and greatest deals online:

 

So head over and join up on over 230K people who already know that Rayovac Lasts Longer than Duracell…and COSTS LESS!

~Trisha

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nursery Makeover….a soft place for the baby to sleep

30 Jun By 17 Comments

You would think that doing a nursery would be fun, exciting even. But wow! It has been hard to have one theme in your head to have ten more show up.

I had originally planned a beach theme, a beach theme that included soft sands, and soft walls, and white furniture, and I am still going that way. But I keep finding adorable items that end up more on the “tiki” or “surf theme” and while they both include water, they totally clash.

Lets start with the crib.

We finally got that crib up. Happily, the crib was the easiest thing I had to do! Even though I went with a white crib which can traditionally be thought of for a girl, I love how the lines on it are all straight across which give it more of a masculine feel. My daughters crib was all fancy and curvy, and also white, but they are so different that it still works for me and this theme.

This crib is in Vanilla and you can see that I have laid in my starfish bedding and organic cotton sheets. My only disappointment was that as much as I liked the crib, and liked the bedding, they dont seem to go together. You cant see the lovely ruffles on the bottom of the bedding set, but they seem to make a great hiding place for the cats!

Also, my daughter Charlotte has started to get into the game and surprised me with a few additions of her own on the walls, including this seahorse I found taped in the room today.

I do believe I will frame it for his room from his big sister.

Now with the walls, going from that dark purple mural to blue was quite a treat. It made my daughter cringe a bit since this was her playroom, but ultimately I do believe I achieved a beautiful wall color that is pleasant to the eye, not too soft, but also dark enough to feel like the ocean.

My thoughts from here were to put wainscoting on the walls and really give it a finished look, but would you know after buying $200 in wainscoting and chair rail, driving it home w/ the hatch up on my truck, and dragging it up the stairs, and I thought it was far too stark next to the white furniture.

So of course down the stairs, back to the truck, back to the store.

And back to square one. My new thoughts now are to perhaps get a mural. I just emailed them today to find out how long it would take to ship, but I do believe it might really finish the room behind the crib.

Right now I am considering this “Florida Skies” mural, which I believe may compliment the color and theme of the room and also give the baby something soft to look at when he wakes up:

If for some reason that would take a few months and I cant get it in time (can you believe the baby will be here in 12 weeks? EEK!), my back up plan is paint a stripe around the room to separate the top and bottom, so thats also still a possibility.

I have looked at a ton of “wave” rub ons and even sayings like this one I found, but overall making a commitment has been so hard!

One commitment I have made that I do love however is my glider. I didn’t get that with Charlotte, so I wanted to make sure I had a place to rock the baby for the middle of the night feedings.  I absolutely fell in love with this Glider in this soft cream and matching ottoman, where I can rock or kick my feet up. It just feels so lush and when I sit on it I can almost imagine looking out over the Ocean.

Come to think of it, that reminds me, I totally have to find some ocean sounds to play!

From this point forward, what I have to do is decide between a mural or stripes, or even leaving those blue walls the way they are. I have to get in some of my left over furniture like Charlotte’s old nursery dresser and start fixing up some shelves. I also need to clean out the excess toys from the closet and figure out some real storage.

In short…I have to do everything still!

Through it all, the Chase Slate card has been keeping my purchases straight and I can track them on Blueprint anytime I need to which gives me peace of mind and the ability to control my budget each month. Of course having the Chase card with Blueprint makes it easy with all those upcoming purchases as well. I can easily find out what categories my money is being spent in, set up payment plans to make it easy to pay my debt down or off, and its one less thing on my mind with all these nursery designs and plans.

Signing in has been so easy. Finding out my balance, knowing what the upcoming bill will be based on how I want to pay, and using all the budgeting tools has made this project extremely low key as far as stress is concerned for me.

Don’t forget, this is a challenge! The Blueprint Baby Challenge! The Blueprint Baby Challenge is where three bloggers, including myself, are competing to redesign a room in our house into a nursery to win up to $3000 with our amazing designs. Chase has given us $2000 in order to complete this makeover task as well. So not only do I have to make this nursery perfect for my little one, goodness knows he will be the last, but I have to edge those other mommies beautiful designs out to win.

The Pressure! The Pressure!

I cant wait to share the finished product…when it’s finished that is!

~Trisha

*disclosure: This post is a part of the Chase Blueprint Baby Challenge where I am in competition against 3 other bloggers showcased on Parents.com for a nursery makeover.  This is a compensated and sponsored post. To learn more about Chase, please go here. To read more about the other bloggers, go here. To read my first post in this challenge, visit Chase Blueprint Baby Challenge: Homage to my Gulf Coast Roots.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,