JENerally Informed: Three Important Do's & Dont's For "Mommy" Bloggers

Three Important Do's & Dont's For "Mommy" Bloggers

A few years ago I started blogging about the children's book my sister and I wrote together, The Practically Perfect Princess. I have watched and learned quite a bit over the years and wanted to share some helpful blogging tips that I have picked up.

1. Do not ruin a good blog hop or post, by being spammy. No one likes the comment, "Just popping in for the hop. Follow me here." This is rude and is the conversation equivalent of saying, "Well enough about you and whatever you were sharing. Let's talk about me now." I do not like when people do that and I know I am not alone in this sentiment. Do not be this person. It's kind of like:

I'm happy for you and all, and I'm going to let you finish your post,

but my blog is the best of ALL TIME!

If you do not have the time to actually read the person's post and pull at least one thing from it which you can comment on, then you are better off not commenting at all. Seriously.

Do, however, use blog hops or visiting other blogs as an opportunity to grow your tribe. Doing this is a wonderful way to find kindred spirits that are at your level of blogging experience. Your tribe can also help compliment any weakness you may have by providing guest posts and giving you inspiration to keep going when the pathway seems lonely and tiresome.

2. Do take every opportunity you can to grow your audience. Even if it means experimenting and moving outside of your comfort zone. You can post on something that is new to you and entirely outside of your wheelhouse or try a different social networking medium to get your message out. Except not Reddit, you aren't ready for Reddit!

Do not accept everyone as a friend. Seriously there are some creepers out there. A few years ago I had the opportunity to host a young up-and-coming political blogger based out of Washington D.C. My husband and I took her to lunch at a famous landmark in our town. As we were waiting outside for a table a man approached us and I could tell from her look she definitely knew him and wanted this conversation to end. . . quickly. I steered her away and told the man we had to go. She thanked me profusely and said that he was a social media stalker. She was running into this problem a thousand miles from home! Understand that you are no longer anonymous. Interestingly, my blog has only been around for a few months and I have a couple of creeper candidates already. Kind of freaks me out. Be safe!

3. Do not just dump content and run. This means you should be reading other people's blogs and commenting on them. If you are on twitter, tweet about other people's work and form relationships. Same goes for G+ and any other social media platform you are using. A successful mommy blog is not a newsletter, it is a community with links and relationships to, and with, other individuals.

Do provide lots of content. My husband told me that when he lived in Russia many of the street corners were covered with shopping kiosks. Each was nearly identical with very little selection or product variety, and every one of them gave you the same atrocious customer service that you would expect from a workforce still not quite accustomed to capitalism. This was in great contrast to the outdoor marketplaces which had a very large selection of goods and where the people participating seemed genuinely happy to be there. In order to have success and differentiate yourself you need to give people a lot of material to go with. Nothing is as sad as watching someone get a good start then cut down to blogging once a week or so. No social networking magic can turn a handful of posts into a vibrant marketplace. If you can't commit to posting several times a week, you will never grow beyond a kiosk.

Stay Happy! Stay Informed!

Love,

Jen

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sara 35p · 583 weeks ago

Great advice -- and from one longtime blogger to another, I completely agree with all of it! My other (writing) blog took a while to build up, but it was so much fun in the process. I loved meeting other bloggers -- while steering clear of creepers, ha -- and I felt like (still do) you could tell a lot about a person based on how they interacted with other bloggers. Spammy? Not worth it. I mean, the occasional "hey check out my post today" never bothers me, but it is such a let down to get superficial, fishing comments.

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BreakingMomma 24p · 583 weeks ago

Jen, Thanks for writing this. Being new to the scene I am soaking up everything I can learn regarding "blogging etiquette." Your creeper point really stood out to me. I never even considered creepers and being no longer anonymous... Its scary! Also, I am constantly questioning the amount of material per week. I would so love to pick your brain someday! Only because I know you must have all the time in the world for questions lol :)

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Carolyn · 583 weeks ago

This was such a great post, Jen. I think I needed a creeper wake up call because I've been a little naive in that realm. And nothing is more upsetting than when someone visits your blog and dumps their links in your comments without reading your posts. Seriously? And then etiquette dicatates you should visit their blog and leave a comment! I also have to say I've noticed you do a great job of sharing posts and comments on G+. I'm always worried I'm annoying people but I think I need to get out there a little more. This was truly a very helpful post. I think you were born to blog!

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theano 1p · 583 weeks ago

Hi Jen! I am not a mommy, but I am an aunt :) I really wanted to reply and say thank you very much, your do's and don'ts are very helpful (although due to some mishaps I haven't been able to blog lately) I am fairly new to blogging and am learning from what you have to say and really appreciate your helpful tips. I have also had to get rid of a creeper and spam comments, which we do have to look out for, after all it is the world wide web! Will definitely be looking forward to your future posts and will check out your older ones. Thank you! Lots of warm wishes from sunny Cyprus x :)

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comedyplus 47p · 583 weeks ago

Great advice indeed. I'm a senior blogger and I visit almost every person that swings by my place. The only exception to that if the far leaning political blogs that drive me over the edge. I avoid them. Outside of that it's all good. I don't think I've had a stalker though. I hope I never do.

Have a fabulous day. ☺

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leapfrogandlipgloss 36p · 583 weeks ago

Great post and great advice. Google+ is one social media platform I hadn't really engaged in heavily until I started up my current blog a few months ago, so I'm still observing and learning the etiquette over there and trying to spread the fellow bloggy love :).

Oh gosh... the Internet creepier story... *shutters* been there. You picked a scarily accurate sleeze-ball photo!

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storiesofourboys 31p · 583 weeks ago

Great advice! True about the creepers!! I've found that I can block content from unwanted followers on g+, but anyone who wants to view my page can still view my page, of course, and that bothers my parents so much since I post pics of my kids. If only there were a perfect solution!

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Mommy Like Whoa 25p · 583 weeks ago

Great advice about content. I have so many RL friends who ask how I do it and how to get started and they are always thwarted by their blog "looking pretty first" or "writing down ideas first" and I always say "JUST WRITE!" no one will read it if there isn't anything to read! Even if it's not that great, your content will always grow! Just write and the followers (and sponsors) will follow!

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Live BySuprirse · 583 weeks ago

I'm fairly new to the blogging scene as well - but your suggestions all strike me as very intuitive and helpful. I guess I"m luckier than the mothers above - because I blog anonymously about my divorce (to avoid potential legal issues with my ex), I don't have to worry about creepers. But your advice is very relevant and timely. Thank you very much!!

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mommylifeafterphd 35p · 583 weeks ago

Great ideas, especially for this newbie blogger. I'm already enjoying the community and love sharing others' work as well. Thanks for this post!

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Pamela · 583 weeks ago

Loved this so much. It's amazing how much there is to learn about blogging, I had no idea when I first started out, but it really is a sense of community and there is so much that goes into growing your blog. One of my favorite things is meeting other wives and mothers and supporting one another. People miss out on so much when all they care about is their own blog. On top of the great relationships, you grow so much more when you connect and interact with others.I think that's really creepy that guy just showed up out of nowhere to see that girl at your meeting, that's something that's hard to deal with being so public. And I cannot agree with you more on the spammy comments. You put all this thought and effort into posts and sometimes pour your soul out, I really think not commenting is better than "check out my blog." Seriously?
In any case, loved reading this! <3

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Lana · 583 weeks ago

Jen - Thank you so much for this post. As you know, I'm brand new to blogging and I really have no idea what I'm doing! This goes above and beyond the general information I've been reading and was very helpful.

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jana · 583 weeks ago

I think I am guilty of the "dumping content and running" - although I read a lot of blogs, I don't comment enough. I really need to make a concerted effort to do so; thanks for the reminder :)

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Dizmommy 66p · 583 weeks ago

I'm part of a kid blog community and bloggers are always complaining about the lack of comments on their blog but they don't bother commenting on other blogs and sometimes they don't even reply to comments people leave them. So as much as I think it's a no brainer…it's really not! This is a great list

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Heidi 4p · 583 weeks ago

Definitely agree with all of this (especially #1!) and will be soliciting advice for privacy protection once I get my blog onto my own domain. Wordpress takes care of a lot for now....

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Jill · 583 weeks ago

What a great post! I am new to the blogging world so love reading great tips. The creeper thing is so true. I just got my first creeper comment last week, it was kinda scary. Thank you so much for posting this list, I really enjoyed reading it.

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Leilani · 583 weeks ago

I kind of just want to say ditto to all of the above comments. Because they are all worth ditto-ing. And also I will definitely be following your blog! Because a) you have a post about mullets and b) my boys will now think I am the coolest mom ever for signing them up for the lego club, which I didn't even know existed. So yay! And also c) stalking your google+ profile shows me you went to BYU, and so did I, and us Cougars have to stick together! My sister in law and I are branching out from our own family blogs that we've been doing and trying to hit the mommy blogger world. Its been fun so far! No stalkers for us yet though. . .maybe one day :) Oh and also you're the only other blogger I've seen so far who uses this intensedebate commenting thing. which we use. And since I don't see any else using it I thought "oh man, is it totally uncool that we're using it?" But nope, now I know it's not. So that's another (kind of random) yay!

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Erlene 56p · 583 weeks ago

Great tips. Thank goodness I don't have any stalkers, but I can totally see how that can happen. What do you suggest is a good number of weekly posts? I try to do two, but should I be doing more?