Courtney Speaks

Do you let your kids help you blog?  Is blogging a family affair for you?  I personally like to include my children when blogging if I can.  It’s not always easy to do.

I started blogging because I wanted something that was mine.  I had just quite my job to become a stay at home mom and I needed something that did was just mine and blogging filled that void.  Overtime however that need changed.

Now I want to include my children and family if possible.  I want them to see what I do and how important it is to me.

On my mommy blog, it is quite easy to include the kids.  They help me review products and we record some of them on video as well, which they absolutely love.  They also help me pick out pictures to use for Wordless Wednesday.  And of course they are the source of a lot of posts that you will find there.

On my other sites it can be hard to find where my family and children help.  While they may not have a direct effect on content or such, they are now firm supporters of my online businesses.  My husband helps to watch the kids while I work on blog designs.  If I’m visiting my parents, they take some time to watch the kids and allow me to write PLR articles for Christian Mom PLR.

The point is that my family and children have an impact on my blogs and websites even if their efforts are not outwardly apparent.

Does your children and family have an impact on your blogging?

P.S.  If you want to take a lot at all the projects I am working on, visit CourtneyChowning.com.

photo credit: notashamedShould you combine your faith with your blog?  What  if your blog is not religious, faith based,  or personal in nature?  Combining your faith with your blog does not necessary mean you should start writing about your faith.  There are a lot of way to combine your faith and blog without posting about your religious views.  But should you?

I think you should.  Your faith is a part of who you are.  By not mixing your  faith with your blog you are denying not only yourself but your blog as well.  In my opinion, in order to have a successful blog you must put yourself into it 100%.  Your blog is a reflection of who you are and people are going to notice if you are not putting yourself into your posts.

Again, I’m not saying you have to start writings about your faith.  If you have a blog about cars, you don’t want to lose readers by getting off topic.  There are other ways to incorporate your faith in your blog.  Here are four ways:

1. Pray for your blog
2. Don’t post anything you would be embarrassed for God to see (ie: foul language, indecent images, etc.)
3. Apply Biblical principals to your blog plan
4. Treat others as you would like to be treated (ie. Don’t get sucked into blog drama and jealously)

Of couse there are more ways to incoporate your faith into your blog then just these.  How do yo combine your faith with your blog?

photo credit: carfAre you afraid to show your faith on your blog?  I think it a very common thing.  People are afraid of being ridiculed or scaring people off.  A lot of religious blogger are afraid that people will think less of them if they blog about their faith.  I think that is ridiculous!

How are we suppose to engage readers and gain their trust if we are hiding something from them?  Now your readers probably don’t even realize you are hiding something but if you are afraid of sharing your faith, then you are hiding.

Now I’m not saying that you have to only blog about your faith but I am saying don’t hide it.  If you have prayed diligently for something and it finally came to fruition and you tell you blog readers about this great thing that happen, do you give God the credit and glory He deserves for answering your prayer or do you take all the credit?

One of our main purposes in life is to bring God glory.  If we are not giving God the credit and praise for the good thing that happen in our life, then we are not glorifing  Him.  Secondly, we are to tell others about Christ.  We are told in Matthew 28:19, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” You never know who is reading your blog and by sharing a nugget about your faith you could be opening the door for that reader to come to know the Lord.

As a Christian I cannot fully express the importance of prayer in every aspect of your life.  If you blog, that is just an additional aspect of your life you need to be praying for.

When I began thinking about selling Mom Giveaways I started by praying about it.  I asked the Lord if it was the right thing to do, to show me who I should sell it to, and how much to ask for it.  After praying about it for about 2 weeks, I finally felt at peace about selling the blog.  Within 2 days I had a buyer who I knew who take good care of the site and got my asking price.  I know if I had not been praying about it then the sell would not have gone as smooth.

So what are somethings you can pray for in regards to your blog:

1. Your content
   The content you post on your blog is a reflection of you.  I pray about almost every post I make here.  I just say a quick prayer before I start writing asking for the Lord’s guidance in writing.  I want every word I write to glorify God in some form or fashion.
2. Your advertisers & sponsors
   If you sell advertising space on your blog, pray about your advertisers. By accepting their advertisement on your site you are referring your reader to them.  Make sure any advertiser you agree to sell ad space to holds the same values as you do.  I personally don’t offer advertising on this site.  I would much rather refer people to products/services I have personally tried.  Before I put anything on my sidebar or site in an advertising fashion I pray that the product or service will be a help to my readers and not a deterrent.
3. Your readers
   Not only do I pray for more readers, but I pray daily that the readers I do have will find my posts helpful.  Readers are one of the main reasons we blog.  We want to be able to communicate with the world and blogging is one way of doing that.  Without the readers where would blogging be?  So I think it is very important to pray for our readers.
4. Blog Friends
   Pray for the success of your blog friends.  Your blog friends are probably also your blog readers.  We should do our best uplift others in prayer.  I firmly believe in the saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
5. Ebooks, products, services
   Pray about any product or service you plan to offer to others. In the past I have started projects without praying and it was such a struggle to get everything going. The projects I have prayed about and felt the Lord leading me to do have been much more successful. I pray every step on the way from conception of the idea, to implementation, to any writings I must to do, to asking price, and marketing efforts.

Do you pray for your blog?

Finding the right tools to use when blogging can make all the difference in the world. The right tools can make everything so much easier to do. Of course the right tools vary from person to person. A tool a lot of people use is a blog editor to manage publishing their posts and articles. There are two type of editor, online and offline editors.  Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages and it is up to you to choose the one that is right for you.

Offline Blog Editors

Offline blog editors are normally installed and ran from your computer locally.  These have text editors allowing you to perform basic word processing operations.  Basically you create your blog content from your local computer and not through your blog administration panel. Offline blog editors are can be beneficial to those who have limited Internet connection since it allows you to manage the content of your blog without needing a connection to the Internet.  Of course to actually post the content to your blog you will need an Internet connection.

So offline editors include:

• Blog Desk – Blog Desk is a free offline WYSIWYG editor that works with WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine.  There is also a Image Wizard included with allows you to insert images in your posts and crop, resize, rotate, shadow, etc. the images.  Blog Desk also supports tags and allows you to get custom fields in Wordpress.
• Windows Live Writer – Windows Live Writer is also a free offline editor that Window and Office user will probably like.  It also allows you to assign tags, use custom fields in Wordpress, and allows you to add video.
• Qumana – Qumana is a little different in that it is a blog editor that allows you to cross publish posts and add keyword ads in your posts with just one click.  It also has integrated tags and even works with Blogger.  It is also free.

Online Blog Editors

Online blog editors are editors that you use online such as your blog’s editor in the administration area.  The nice thing about online blog editor is that there is no software to install on your computer.  It is all internet based.

• Weppad – Weppad is an online blog editor that you actually install on your servers.  It not only allows you to post to your blog but also to email or upload files, and has a find and replace feature.
• WriteToMyBlog – WriteToMyBlog is a website where you can type up your blog posts and have them automatically uploaded to your blog.  You post to mulitple blogs at he same time and the service also allows you add photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube.
• ScribeFire – ScribeFire is actually a Firefox addon that allows you to publish to your blog.
• Flock – This browser has a blog editor built in.

I usually type up my posts in Goggle Docs and then copy it over to my blog.  Of course there is usually some formatting issues I have to fix.  I am trying out a few of the editors listed above and still if any of them will help make the process easier.  I have tried Blog Desk and Windows Live Writer but think I would prefer an online editor.

What about you?  Do you use a blog editor to construct your posts?

Do you ever get to the point where you just don’t know what to blog about.  It happens to me all the time.  Blogs are started with the greatest of intentions, but then things just all flat. Or even when we’re good at keeping up with our blogs most of the time, we can find ourselves in an idea slump now and then.

If you have had this same problem before then you will want to check out this new freebie from Lynette Chandler, “12 Buzz Topics You Should Blog About Right Now”. If you don’t know Lynette, she
is a wealth of knowledge on the topic of blogs. Whether it’s technology or blogging ideas, she knows her stuff.

This new report is completely free, you don’t even have to opt-in to a newsletter and these are ideas that people will talk about, generating more buzz for your blog.   The report is an easy-to-digest 5 pages and include 12 starter ideas to are applicable to any market or niche.

You can download the free report here.