Grow With Stacy

5 Steps to Building a Great Blog

Sep 03 2010

There are five vital steps involved with building a great blog. It takes time, effort, energy, networking, and education to build up a blog. I’ve put effort into all of the these and have been amazed to watch my readership grow!

Time is something you can’t do much about. If your blog is only a couple months old you can’t do anything to change that except to wait for time to pass for your blog to become older.

The CopyBlogger wrote a great article 20 Warning Signs That Your Blog Sucks and he discusses the fact that it takes at least six months for your blog to really hit it’s potential.

Effort is definitely something that we can do a lot about! Though it will rely on time because our efforts will make our blog better over time.

Many changes that you make can be appreciated by readers immediately! Set up a theme or layout that is easier on the eyes and adding better pictures to your posts are two things that will instantly improve your blog.

Take some time to look at your blog through a new visitor’s eyes and see how they see it. Also look around at other blogs and see what successful bloggers are doing to draw people in.

Energy is necessary to keep up the effort! Keep yourself excited about posting and updating your blog and your readers will see it and appreciate it.

New readers will naturally be drawn to your blog!

Networking is vital to building your readership. By networking I mean commenting on other blogs and getting active in forums in your niche. You get to see what people are talking about in your niche which will spark ideas for blog content.

You also get to show others that you have value to share and they will want to click the link to see your blog.

I’ve recently found Yahoo Answers to be a great way to get the word out there about my blog. I answer questions and then give the link to my blog. I’ve been chosen as the ‘best answer’ a lot already and I just started!

Education is necessary as well. I educate myself by reading the big blogs in both the personal development niche and also the big blogs on blogging since those are the focus of my posts.

Though anyone who blogs would certainly benefit greatly from regularly reading at least one of the big blogs on blogging. They have so much information on building a great blog!

As for the big blogs on blogging I recommend: ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, and Daily Blog Tips. Also comment on their posts as well to bring more exposure to your blog – be sure to post comments of value related to the post at hand!

That is what I’ve been doing since I started my blog and over the last month I’ve seen a dramatic increase in my blog statistics.

What have you found most helpful in making your blog great?

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7 Life Lessons I Would Like to Tell My Younger Self

Aug 31 2010

We all stumble through life trying to figure things out from the very beginning. One of the first things that we learn is that when we cry someone tends to our needs. Later we learned to put things in mouths, sit up, climb, stand up, walk, talk…

We all start at the same point and we all must learn about life through our experiences and through our interactions with others. These experiences can be positive or negative but either way it is up to us to decide what we will learn.

This is why I am excited to take part in Abubakar Jamil‘s Life Lessons Series!

I have learned a lot of lessons through my lifetime and many of them I wish that I would have known many years ago when I was much younger.

1. Don’t worry about what others think about you.

Everyone has an opinion and very few of them actually matter.

Especially the people who look down on you. They don’t care enough about you to find out what is fabulous about you. They are so stuck on their own insecurities that they need to look down on others in order to feel better about themselves.

It is not worth your energy, emotions or tears to give a second thought to the haters of this world.

Focus instead on the people who love you and want to build you up. These are the people to care about what they think of you – the people who are on your side cheering you on.

2. Your differences make you unique and amazing!

There is no reason at all to be a carbon copy of everyone else out there. If we were all meant to be exactly alike that’s how we would have been made.

Take a look around and you will see that is not the case! There are people of every color, shape, size, and talent imaginable! It keeps life fun and interesting! What a boring place it would be if we all looked like we stepped off the cover of Glamour magazine.

Love your differences, embrace them, be grateful for them! What a sad waste of time to feel sorry for yourself because you aren’t as tall as everyone else, have freckles, curly hair and make the Pilsbury Dough Boy look tan.

These differences are things that make you different and interesting – use them to your advantage! Find the advantages, they are there!

3. The ONLY person that you can change is yourself!

There are a lot of frustrating people in life! They are everywhere from your family to work to the store to out on the road.

But no matter how much they frustrate you, no matter how much they try to control you there is nothing that you can do to change them. Nothing. Not one little thing.

The only thing that you can do (and this is a BIG thing) is to control how you react to those people. Once you understand this concept and put it into practice you will be a lot happier and handle difficult situations with much more ease.

4. Most people aren’t out to get you – they are merely out for themselves.

A lot of times it can seem that people are out to get you but most of the time they are not. Most of the time other people are too focused on themselves to worry about you.

When they do things that make your life more difficult than it needs to be chances are really good that they are looking at their own interests and not even giving any consideration as to how their actions affect others.

What seems to be malice is just thoughtlessness.

5. Focusing on anger is a waste of your time and energy, plus it costs your physical health.

As Dad often said, “Life isn’t fair” and he was right. If you go through life expecting everything to be fair you will continue down a path of disappointments.

People and situations will always disappoint and also many things which feel unfair aren’t even a matter of fairness. Stop keeping score and you’ll be so much happier!

If you focus on being angry it will actually affect your physical health. Take it from me, I used to get sick from being so angry because it would literally eat away at my immune system. I have been so much healthier since I have chosen the path of gratitude rather than anger and resentment.

6. Stop trying to be perfect!

You will never be perfect, life is a process of learning and growing. You will do much better to focus on learning and growing rather than perfection. It’s a flawed goal because it can never be reached.

You can aim for doing your best, for learning what you can, for all kinds of things. But please don’t make perfection your goal or standard. You will only cause yourself a lot of frustration and pain. Not to mention the damage done to your self worth!

Also don’t pay attention to anyone who expects you to be perfect. I guarantee you that they don’t live up to their own expectations!

7. You can’t make everyone happy.

Everyone has their own ideas of how life should go, everyone has their own opinions and ideas, everyone has ideas about how they want others to be.

Many people have MUCH higher expectations of others than they do of themselves.

You will drive yourself insane trying to make everyone else happy – and you will never ever succeed, either. Ever. You can make some people happy some of the time. But you will never make everyone happy all of the time.

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Are Blog Niches a Thing of the Past?

Aug 30 2010

I have literally seen three posts on the topic of the usefulness of blog niches in one day so it is a hot topic in the blogging world. Or at least it’s headed that way. People are asking and people are responding!

The three posts that I read bring up some good questions to think about if you want to ditch that niche for your blog.

Every blogging guide that you read says choosing a niche is completely and 100% necessary if you want a successful blog. Including my own very recently released ebook, Blogging Basics. So what questions could possibly be brought up - isn’t having a niche a complete no-brainer?

The first post that I came across was Heather Stephens asking the poignant question Is Focusing on Mompreneurs and WAHM’s cutting my Audience in Half? She has a readership that is largely male based upon her top commentators so it would appear that it hasn’t hindered her readership! But she did have some great questions in her post that are worth thinking about.

Heather’s post was inspired by Steve Nicholas’s blog post Are You Cutting Your Audience in Half? where Steve brings up points about how having a blog niche can be limiting if the niche is too specialized or too narrow. He brought up some good points for bloggers to think about.

Then I thought I was done reading on the topic when I went to my google reader list and clicked on the Daily Blog Tips newest post. That’s when I saw the title Why Choosing a Blog Niche Might Not Be a Good Idea. After having just read two other blog posts on the topic and leaving thoughtful comments on both I couldn’t resist reading this new post on the same topic.

Glen’s take is that having a blog niche isn’t relevant anymore in most cases. He believes that defining yourself is a waste of time because it is the content of your blog that really matters above all else. If you provide value people will continue to come back and also the content itself shows the readers what your blog is about. He says that nobody is going to think that your blog is about health if all you post about is money.

All three of those blog posts give good points and they are definitely worth reading.

But the question really does come down to this…

Are blog niches a thing of the past like that old bag phone in your attic or are they still relevant and necessary for today’s blogger??

My opinion is that having a niche is still necessary because you want to have a focus on your blog. You want your readers to know what to expect from you. If you post about clock making one day, scuba diving the next, marketing the day after that, cooking the following day your readers will be confused and will probably decide not to come back.

Mind you, I’m not saying that you have to have a super narrow niche where you only discuss one topic. If all that you discuss in your blog is sales funnels both you and your readers will become bored.

Make your niche as broad as you need to in order to meet the needs of your readers and keep your creative juices flowing. By all means have different categories that fall under your niche. Take mine for example, my niche is Personal Development but there are many categories and topics that I post about.

Lately my topics have been blogging and and basic personal development. But I have also posted about entrepreneurs, health and wellness, relationships and given reviews. I like the fact that I am open to post about a variety of topics and there are others that I want to add that also fall under the umbrella of personal development.

As with all things in life I really believe that balance is the key. Don’t have a niche that is so broad that it confuses your readers but don’t have something so narrow that you could not possibly find enough topics to post about over a span of time.

That’s my opinion. What’s yours?

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My First (Free) E-book: Blogging Basics

Aug 27 2010

I am excited to announce that I have created my very first e-book and I am giving it away as a gift to my readers!

The e-book is a basic guide to blogging covering topics that I have covered in this blog, a “best of” this site type of book.

Plus I have added other information in there that is not on my blog.

Including an announcement about an upcoming e-book that I am going to write that has information that is not on my blog.

So without any further ado here is the download link, no opt-in required! (…Yet!) Though if you haven’t already subscribed to my feed or blog posts I would really appreciate if you would do that so that so that you can be alerted of all new posts!

Click to download:

Blogging Basics

Thank you and enjoy!

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Moving From Negative to Positive Thought Patterns

Aug 25 2010

I understand how it feels to be stuck in a negative thought pattern. I spent a long time speaking negatively to myself, thinking negative thoughts, believing negative beliefs. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt…

One thing that I have learned is that what we allow ourselves to think becomes our entire belief system and also our reality.

Let me say that again in case you didn’t catch it.

The thoughts that we allow ourselves to think and focus on become our entire belief system and also our reality.

If you expect negative things you will not only be on the lookout for them but then when something that you perceive as negative happens you will also tell yourself, “I knew that would happen!” and you have completed a self-fulling prophecy. You will then continue in the cycle with each event and thought that you experience.

But if you allow yourself a different set of thoughts you will react differently to the same negative things that happen in life.

Instead of giving into the negativity of it you will be able to say, “This is a challenge to overcome” and you will look for the good in the situation and you will find ways that you can grow and learn from the experience. It will indeed become a positive experience because of the action that you took. When all said and done you will feel on top of the world!

The only difference between those two scenarios are the mindsets. I have seen many instances where two people go through the same difficulty and the negative person digs themselves deeper into a hole whereas the other person comes out a better person. The second person isn’t better than the first, they just chose to handle their thoughts differently and therefore their actions are completely different allowing them a different outcome.

To move from negative to positive thoughts I suggest the following:

Think of about three to five beliefs that you want to believe but you don’t yet believe.
Then write those down on note cards and read them at least 5 times a day.
Go a step further by saying them out loud each day.

You will eventually start to believe them and you will be able to create a new belief system for yourself! You probably don’t even think that it will make a difference (I’ve been there too!) but you will surprise yourself when you start to see changes in the way that you think and look at things.

The thoughts that you think have so much power and they even wire your brain into different patterns. It’s amazing how it works! I recently read a very powerful post on this topic called How Positive Thinking Rewires The Brain. I highly recommend you read it! But before you do please comment and share this post if you found it interesting or helpful!

PS: Be on the lookout for my next post, I have an exciting announcement about my first e-book free for all of my readers! So make sure that you’re subscribed to my blog posts or feed so that you don’t miss it!

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How to Get Your Picture on Your Blog Comments

Aug 23 2010

I see a lot of bloggers who comment on blog posts who don’t have their picture show up next to their post. If that is the case for you and you would like to see your picture up I have good news, it is very easy and I am here to show you how to do it! It’s called a gravatar which means Globally Recognized Avatar. You can set yours up quickly enough to come back here and post and show it off!

Let’s get started shall we?

First you choose a picture that you want to show up by your posts. You will want to put a little bit of thought into this as this picture will show up by all of your comments. Do you want a professional photo? Do you want a silly photo? Do you want a photo of you with your dog or kids? You may want to take some pictures of yourself if you don’t have one that you want to represent you by all of your comments. Or perhaps you will want to alter a photo in some way, make it black and white or add text.

You may not want a photograph at all, if you are feeling camera shy you still have options to have something else as your gravatar. You can pick out a regular avatar to use or you can use a photo of your favorite pet or a sunset. If you have a badge for your blog then that definitely works! Have fun, be creative.

Once you have your image picked out head over to gravatar.com. Once you are there it only takes a very short time to set up a free account. Then you upload the image and fill out the details (your website, email address) and you are set!
Head back here and post your comment to try out your new gravatar!

That’s it! You probably didn’t expect it to be that easy did you?

Happy commenting!

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Simple Ways to Re-Engerize Yourself

Aug 20 2010

We all run into times when we need some extra energy and though it may be tempting to grab a mocha, energy drink or candy bar to give us that quick burst of energy we all know that those are not the best ways to energize ourselves. The crash that inevitably comes is a clue that our bodies need something else.

Thankfully there are many different ways that we can naturally give ourselves a physical and mental boost of energy when we need it!

The next time that you need some extra energy or are stressed try some of these simple ways to re-energize yourself:

Stopping to take several deep breaths

Sitting with your hands upright in your lap with your thumb and first fingers touching to form a circle (it’s been proven to tell the brain to send out relaxing feelings to the body)

Listing things for which you are grateful

Laughing: google jokes, watch a favorite comedy TV show or movie, read a comic strip, read a funny blog, etc.

Exercise, even something simple can be done at the office desk or grocery line such as certain stretches

Look at pictures of beaches and other places that are relaxing, if you imagine yourself there you will really start to feel relaxed

Make the conscious decision to let go of things that you can’t control, it’s all too easy to get worked up over things that are not in our control

Smile when you don’t feel like it, it tells your brain that you’re happy and you’ll eventually feel happy

What are your favorite ways to re-energize yourself?

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Kick That Complaining Habit to the Curb

Aug 18 2010

Have you ever thought of complaining as a habit? Complaining is actually an addictive behavior. One complaint leads to another and and another. After enough complaints your mind begins to desire and crave those thoughts.

It’s very similar to the way your body works with other things such as food, exercise and even drugs. If you eat healthy foods and exercise regularly your body will want more of that. If you eat junk food and your only exercise is pushing the buttons on the remote then your body will crave that as well.

How much more true is this for drugs and other stimulants. If you are used to a daily caffeine fix what happens when you skip a day or decide to go cold turkey? Your body will fight back, you will probably get headaches, you will be tired and grouchy and perhaps even get the shakes depending on how much your body craves the caffeine.

Complaining can actually become a habit that can get so bad that it can ruin relationships. If you make a habit of complaining you will find that people won’t want to be around you. You might even find that you don’t want to be around yourself.

If you have ever spent time with someone who makes a habit of complaining I’m sure that eventually you did not want to spend much time with them. I know that I don’t enjoy spending time with people who want to find the one little thing to complain about in every situation that comes their way.

One problem that people run into with complaining is that they believe that they can’t stop complaining. They hold one or more false beliefs:

They believe that the way they see things is reality and that any other thinking is Pollyanna-ish
They believe that they have no control over their thoughts
They believe that they are stuck in this pattern and feel helpless to get out

The good news is that as with any other habit or addiction it can be beat! As with anything worthwhile it will take some effort but it will be well worth it! There was a point in my life when I was certainly a chronic complainer and it took effort and work but I can tell you without a doubt that it was more than worth it. I would not want to go back to my complaining mindset for anything! What a miserable place to be.

Steps to kick that habit to the curb:

Accept Responsibility for Your Thoughts. You are not a victim to your thoughts, they do not control you – you control them!
Call The Thoughts What They Are. As soon as you recognize a negative thought passing through your mind or your mouth stop and call it out as a negative or complaining thought. It will lose some power just by being named.
Throw Away Negative and Complaining Thoughts. After you have named the thought discard it and don’t let it back into your mind even if it tries to come back, which it may very well do.
Replace it With a Positive Thought. The negative thoughts will have a much harder time returning if they have been replaced by something better. If it hasn’t been replaced it may even come back with some of it’s buddies giving you an even harder time.
Focus on the Positive Thoughts. Repeat them to yourself at least five times but as many times as necessary. Don’t just say them once and think that you are done with that negative thought. You will really need to focus on them and you will need to believe them over the negative thoughts.
Keep Positive Thoughts Written Down. Be prepared! Write down some positive thoughts on note cards and keep them close by. You know what negative thoughts you struggle with the most, come up with positive thoughts that will fight the thoughts you know you struggle with the most.
Rinse and Repeat. Keep it up each and every time that you have a negative thought and complaint. Keep in mind that the hardest work will be at the beginning. Once you build this habit of positive thinking this whole process will become natural! That’s when the hard work pays off!

You can do it! You can have all new thoughts and feel like a new person if you diligently follow these steps! Also, don’t beat yourself up if you fail. Failure is not permanent. Dust yourself off and start over again!

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Recap: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (31DBBB)

Aug 17 2010

Take a close look at the badge on the left, it’s different from the others that I have put up on my other blog posts as I have gone through the ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge (31DBBB). Notice how it says, “I survived…”! Woohoo, I made it through the entire 31 day challenge and I’m done!

Since I finished the challenge I have already accomplished a few things that I had wanted to get done.

First, I changed the theme of the blog to something brighter and more flowing. I hadn’t posted about changing the theme but it’s been something on my mind especially since I wanted to create a new header.

Which leads me to the Second thing that I changed, I created a header for the blog. It’s nothing fancy but it’s got a little color and is more personal than the generic header with the theme. I initially tried this one which didn’t fit into the header space for some reason:

Third, I also created a couple badges for the site so that there is a badge in some links to the blog. Particularly for the sites that you can use to vote for my blog. It’s not required to have a badge but it does make it look like you are more serious about blogging. The badges came out a little more fancy than the header and so far I’ve only used the third but I’m thinking of switching to a different one.

These are the ones that I have created:

Grow With Stacy GWS badge2 GWS badge3

Not too bad for a short time just playing around with my very old version of Photoshop and also tinkering with Photobucket.

Fourth, I made a favicon – that little image by my url which now has my picture!

Fifth, I spent some time posting on a forum in my niche. I found that I really enjoy that! Not only is it fun and rewarding to reply to people’s posts but I have also found some other great blogs in my niche through the signatures of other forum members. Also I find myself getting inspired for new post ideas for the blog because when I write out a longer reply it’s a wonderful starting point for a blog post! Very cool!

Sixth, I have spent some time posting comments – and to more blogs in my niche which again has been fun. It’s great to see what others are posting about. I’ve learned a lot and it’s great to meet new bloggers and interact with them. I’m having a lot of fun with this too.

I’ve had a couple of days to do all of this, which is why I’ve been able to get so much done. Although the graphics didn’t really take up too much time.

I also have plenty more ideas of improvements and other things in the works. It’s all very exciting! I’ve been looking forward to being done with the challenge (which has taken up most of my allotted blogging time for the last month) because of all of things that I want to do.

The challenge has been a great experience, I have learned a lot and grown a lot as a blogger. I have new ideas and more that I want to learn. Growing is always great!

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Day Thirty One: Plan the Next Steps for Your Blog (31DBBB)

Aug 16 2010

Day 31 of the ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge (31DBBB)

Plan the Next Steps for Your Blog

I’m glad that the last day’s challenge is this one! I was planning on posting some sort of summary post about the 31 Day Challenge and then writing out some of my goals for the blog. Now I can just do that here!

I have some ‘project’ type goals:

Create a banner or header for the blog
Create a button for the blog
Create an opt-in

I have some experience with creating these types of things but it has been a while so I’m going to have to scrape some rust off the mind and play around a bit. I hope that I can come up with something that I like! I would really enjoy being able to come up with these on my own rather than having someone else do it.

I also have ‘normal’ blogging goals:

Create a weekly blogging schedule which will include writing blog posts, responding to comments, posting to forums, visiting other blogs, etc.
Create a monthly blogging schedule for things which need to be done on a less frequent basis
Create a sneeze page for Personal Development
Write more reviews
Work towards having 10 posts prepared and waiting ahead of time

I’m sure that there are plenty more that I have either forgotten or will come up along the way! But this is a good list of goals for now and will certainly keep me busy for some time!

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