Thursday, June 17, 2010

Breaking into the Mommy Blogosphere

For the past two months this New Breed Mama has been working her tail off trying to break into the Mommy Blogosphere! On Twitter, I rub elbows (well exchange tweets) with some awesome, amazing, high-status mommy bloggers. I read their hilarious stories about children throwing up in their mouths, making toilet paper torpedoes when Aunt Flo comes to visit while at Ikea, and crazy visits to their shrinks.

Seriously, I mean these women rock! THEY ROCK! I don’t know how they do it! Many of have managed to create their very own blogging empires right from the comfort of their own living rooms! To illustrate, let me tell you about Mommy Moment Blog . This blog is only 3 ½ moths old, folks, and now has 700 followers! 700. OMG. Not on Twitter, but on her actual blog! Amazing! And the Mommy Moment Blog fan page on Facebook is taking off – 776 “like’s” at last count! On Twitter, 1,555 followers!

A New Breed of Mom Blog cannot even compare… If you scroll down you will see I have a whopping 20 followers. (BTW feel free to follow me!) I was quite proud of how my little blog was coming along – until I talked to the ladies at Mommy Moment. The New Breed Mama is on Twitter, and that is going ok, 369 (ha 69!) followers, but The New Breed of Mom’s Facebook page – a sad 17 followers. 17. SAD.

How are these women doing it? If you are reading this right now, and you are one of these stellar mommy bloggers, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! , comment on this post and tell me what the secret is! When I’ve asked others how to gain a following on my blog and build traffic, I get responses like, “Just keep writing and posting regularly – it will happen.” and “Talk to people on Twitter. Read other women’s blogs and post comments.” I’M DOING THAT ALREADY!!

Then, there’s all the companies, who are like, “You need to have a higher page rank.” and “Make sure to post in a manner that will help with SEO.” I was like WTF is a page rank?!!! And who the hell is SEO?!! I now know page rank is some crazy algorithm that Google uses to determine who should come up first in their search engine, but I think it really means "I want to make $$$ off of you!!!" For real – how sneaky!! And SEO, that stands for "search engine optimization", but what it really means is "sell-out earning opportunities”!

Yeah, so, in summary – it is TOUGH to break into the mommy blogosphere!

17 comments:

Jessi Arias-Cooper said...

LOL!!! I feel ya. And I'm so happy to know that I'm not the only woman who still chuckles at 69. I hope I never grow out of it either. Someday when we're granny bloggers, we'll still be laughing...and have a ton of traffic because of it!

amy turn sharp said...

What are you wanting out of blogging? Money? Fame? Connections? Local opps? Writing opps? Daily practice for writing? A platform? I think it is vry important to know what you want out of this space. I also think you should not be discouraged and compare yrself to others. Followers just mean someone clicked a link. It does not mean community or friendship or real readership. Promise.
You should try to attend some blogging conferences and meet more folks. I think you have a great blog L. xoxo

Lindsay said...

Jessi - Granny Bloggers! That's great! Bahaha! Some day we will be sitting on top of our own blogging empires!

Amy - I started this blog to get my name 'out there' bc my ultimate goal is to write and publish a book. After getting into the blogging thing, I realized that I could possibly make money at it, which would be awesome! Some day I want to work from home! :) Thanks for the encouragement!

Anne said...

Great post - it really is inspiring to see so many success stories that started out with the exact same resources (financial as well as non-financial) that we have.

Keep putting up content and I'm sure it will happen for you.

Cheers,
Anne

AnnaKnows said...

I really enjoyed your little story.. I'm one of those wanna be mom bloggers.. I'm new to the blog world period and wonder the same things you are talking about and also so amazed at all the cool and successful blogs out there. There are all these FOLLOW BACK days but I don't think everyone follows back even if you let them know you are following them. When I see a page on twitter that maybe has over a 1000 followers but is only following 100 themselves.. doesn't seem fair...but hell life isn't fair right.

Well I'm going to just keep going and keep posting and maybe it'll all come together.. Good Luck to you NEW BREED MOM.

Mommy Moment said...

You are too sweet - I think I was just lucky, really. There are so many wonderful blogs, I'm not too sure why some get more followers sooner thank others.
We put a bit of money into our blog to make the design nice and made sure to have a posting schedule - we try to have something for everyone, I know we will never be the best, but that's ok.
I try to connect and help others- I put together an online auction to help a little boy named Luke.
I made sure to join lots of Mom networks and really get myself out there.
Please do not be discouraged though - there will always be someone bigger and better. It is sad when blogger envy starts to creep in.
I like to say be kind to others and they will be kind to you!
(hugs) my friend!
~Jody

christy aka imfreckles said...

nice post.

I will follow you, you follow me

www.frecklesthemom.blogspot.com

Lindsay said...

Thanks ladies! I'm sure if we all keep on writing it will happen for us! Plus I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs too!!

Lisa Noel said...

lol great post and i am no help. i've been blogging for 2 years and am no where near that level!!!

i'm not following you

http://www.ohboyohboyohboy.com

Michele said...

I don't feel like I have a great following (in terms of numbers) but I seem to have a core group of readers, which really makes me feel like what I'm doing is of some value. I've also started looking for guest posting options, which can help to bring in new readers. I have one today, which I ended up doing a review of another website. That's not what my blog is about, but I was able to get myself in the post a bit. The next one coming up is more relevant because it's really about my life, which is what I write about. I know a lot of blogs I see do giveaways, which bring in a lot of readers. I have nothing against that but it's not what I want to do on my blog. I'm more interested in the content.

Anonymous said...

I adore Mommy Moment. I have since I first started reading, and no lol it's not because I've won three of their giveaways but that is a nice added bonus.

I wish I could help you break into the blogosphere. I blog, but I blog for ME. I blog to keep my thoughts in order and to keep track of the special things involving my children, my husband and our family. I don't care who reads my blog, though it's nice to know that there are some people who do read it and some who do comment.

If you want to check out another really awesome blog, you should try The Real World: Venus VS Mars (http://realworldvenusmars.blogspot.com). This, along with Mommy Moment is a daily read for me.

Lindsay said...

Thanks so much for all the ideas and words of wisdom! Best of luck to all you gals and your blogging endeavors! I will be sure to check out everyone's blogs who have left me links! :)

Bree, Home of Blogmania said...

You attracted a lot of traffic with this post...I found the more real I am the better the response. Honestly, not one of those larger blogs has done it on pure posting and commenting love. They have either joined mommy bloggers club, the Theta Mom, a link up for twitter followers or posted their giveaways on the 10+ weekly link ups. Now, once they have numbers they comment back, they send shout outs back and they genuinely are nice! Once your following grows you can back off some of blog hops and 'work' with some sweet people you have met. Keep it up- - - feel free to join in on our hop on Tuesday, we have a quick posting to get to know each other better and people can follow back those they seem to enjoy....Have a great week! www.BreeBee.com (I am still growing mine but what I mentioned has caused some growth for me quickly, I am also growing for PR reasons, I want to attract local advertisers for my macaroni kid site and for giveaways, in addition to building on some amazing relationship I have begun to form with my readers.)

Lindsay said...

Bree, I'll definately be checking out your blog hop on Tuesday!

Kimberly said...

I don't know how they do it either.....I just started a little blog that will be about my 1st year as a preschool teacher....I'm not really so worried in my case to have a lot of people reading it as I am just using it as a platform to write mostly!!!! LOL....I'll follow you and see what you post in the future!!!! Looks like you have a great start!!!!

Devan @ Accustomed Chaos said...

It takes time - honestly. For the most part the huge blogs have really been writing for a long time and are honest and real. I am struggling a bit too with how to get out there - but the key i think is if you love what you are doing - it will shine through and people will read

Following you now ♥

Anonymous said...

I didn't read all the comments so I might duplicate. Check out problogger, savvy bloggers, lady bloggers society. I am a new blogger too and find them all helpful for improving.

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