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How I Quadrupled My Blog Traffic in 2013

“I don’t want to go viral – I want to set hearts on fire!” – Coco J. Ginger When working on the web, having something you’ve created “go viral” is kind of like winning the lottery – most of it is luck, but you have more chances at getting lucky the more you play. And in 2013, I got lucky – An old post I’d written over a year before, explaining how I used the web to earn money from home after losing my job, went viral on Pinterest. {See it here: 10 Ways to Earn Money from Home.} I had no idea how powerful Pinterest could be until then, and have no idea still who pinned it to make it take off so well. But, while after 7 months of consistent pageviews, it’s settled back down again, it definitely showed me why it’s important to create good content – you never know what someone will find in your archives and fall in love with! So, as we roll into 2014, I took a hard look at my statistics in Google Analytics, to determine just what worked well this year, what didn’t, and how to hopefully double my traffic again in this new year!

How I quadrupled my blog pageviews this year! [Read more…]

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Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Women + $1,000 Giveaway!

Who else loves these things – Fashion, friends, free stuff, and earning money from home? If you like even a couple of those, you’ll LOVE Stella & Dot jewelry. Stell & Dot is a boutique-style accessories company that offers flexible entrepreneurship opportunities for women – you get to share amazing jewelry and other beautiful pieces with your friends and family, and earn an income from the sales. And…. You can WIN big from them right now too – check it out, ladies…

Stella & Dot Entrepreneurship for women [Read more…]

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Share Your #SmallBizSat Shopping Photos with Me!

It’s time for Small Business Saturday!!… I’ve been telling you guys about this for awhile now – why I love supporting other locally owned businesses, and how our plans for shopping small changed last week. But now that the day has arrived {well, tomorrow morning!} – I’m super excited to spend an afternoon checking out some of the amazing local shops I’ve been missing for awhile. {Hey, I love a reason to shop!}

Shopping Small - Yakima, Washington [Read more…]

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Do You Support Shopping Small? #SmallBizSat

What does shopping local mean to you? To me, it means supporting other families right here in my community. It means valuing relationships and quality over low prices and bad service. And especially at this time of year, it means giving other moms in business a boost to help their own holiday spending. That’s why I am such a supporter of Small Business Saturday, coming up on November 24th.

Pikes Place in seattle shoppingMy plan for Small Business Saturday had been to shop a little bit further than local – we wanted to head over the mountains, and do some shopping with the amazing small vendors at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. They have a Magic in the Market holiday event on the 24th, with tree lighting and a visit from Santa – and I thought it would be a great way to kick off some more unique and personal holiday gift shopping. But, the weather seems to taking a turn for the worse, and the passes have been being closed often, so we’re switching gears to shop locally here in town. We’ll start by getting coffee and muffins at this amazing little restaurant that’s just up the road, and owned by one of my neighbors. Then we’ll hit a few of the great holiday craft bazaars in Yakima, before heading to Glenmore Square, a great little shopping mall filled with small boutiques with local ownership. I truly believe that the difference in service you get when shopping stores owned by your friends and neighbors – versus your local Walmart – are worth the small increase I might pay in price. And if I ever have a problem with a purchase – they’ll always do what it takes to make it right. How often can you say that about the big box guys?

shop small and support local businessesBetween Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses nationwide. Last year, over one hundred million people came together to Shop Small in their communities on Small Business Saturday – will you be one of them this year too? Or – are you a small business owner yourself? You know that I’m a big supporter of women in business! If that describes you, use the online tools and resources available from American Express to promote your small business and rally your community!

{Disclosure: Photo one from cliff1066™, on Flickr. I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for American Express. I received a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.

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Resources and Support for Women in Small Businesses – #SmallBizSat

“If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready…” – Will Smith…. Are you a mom with a mission? Are you a writer, a crafter, a blogger, an inventor, or a direct sales woman? If you’re a mom running a small business, you know that while your job might be one of those most challenging occupations there is – it’s also the most rewarding, right? I know that while I work harder now running my own business than I ever did in any of my management jobs before this – I absolutely love what I do.

Small Business Saturday - women in business quotes [Read more…]

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Shop from Your Seat Showcase & #Giveaway – $400 in Prizes!!

Shop from Your Seat Giveaway

Welcome to the 2012 Shop from Your Seat Showcase and Giveaway hosted by CEO of Me!

The purpose of this event and the Shop from Your Seat Showcase is to highlight female small business owners and to encourage others to shop with and support small businesses this holiday season and year round!

We have over $400 in prizes in the main giveaway and then over $200 in additional giveaways going on during the event too! [Read more…]

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Bloggertunities: Grow Your Blog with This Week’s Best Opps & Leads

Grow your blog – Monetize, find new leads and blogging opportunities, and get the best tips too… Hi all! Welcome to another weekly Bloggertunities post, a round-up of the best blogging tips, tools, leads, opps, and events of the week. I hope you’ll find some helpful stuff – and if you do, be sure to share it with your networks too!

Blogging tips, opportunities, and ways to earn money blogging“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friend.” – Walt Disney

Love this week’s quote. This totally relates to blogging – what we each hope for is that our posts are so entertaining, educating, and enlightening that not only do people want to come back again to read more – but they want to share it with their friends too. That’s the whole point of good marketing – and as bloggers, that’s what we are: Marketers. Whether it’s for a brand or sponsor, or just for our OWN brands – we’re in the business of marketing our words, our sites, ourselves. And who else is more inspirational for people like us than Mr. Disney himself, right? :) I hope you find some helpful info here this week – and that’s it’s helpful enough for you to want to share it too! And for all of my much-loved bloggy buddies on the East Coast – I hope you’re all recovering from the storm as best as you can. Definitely thinking of you guys!

I’m hosting my first Blog Hop Giveaway – Join me, and some of my best-est bloggy buddies for a free event –Jingle Jubilee! Get details and join the fun today!

Monetize Your Blog

  • Pinbooster: Sign up, set up a quick account, and set a “per pin” price. Then, get offers to be paid to pin things to your Pinterest boards from brands. I’m brand new here, but have heard good things… {It was recommended to me by the absolutely amazing and super smart Stacie at SimplyStacie. So I trust it :)}
  • zuuzs: This is an awesome site that I still earn a consistent income with each month. They share awesome discount codes, and do really big-ticket giveaways. But they also give you cash back when you shop – Not just on your purchases, but those of your friends and family too. Build a big network, earn a big income. Check it out: Join zuuzs.com.
  • Affiliate: Join the One Kings Lane Affiliate Program Today – it’s super simple to earn commissions, since the deals rock. And for every referral you send their way, you earn $10 bucks each!
  • Social Media Chimps: I just started working with them, and couldn’t be happier! They offer an ad network to monetize your traffic, sponsored posts, and fun review opportunities. Learn more and apply to join here: https://socialmediachimps.com/publishers/apply.
  • Walmart: Walmart is opening up a new affiliate program – this could be a huge money-maker over the holidays. It says on the site that they are only accepting the first 100 sign-ups, but then it gives a link to share the opp with others who might be interested. I’m thinking maybe they want a list, to be able to take more people as they’re ready for it. Check it out and get on the list!
  • Shoe Dazzle: Earn $10 when you refer new affiliates, $20 for every sale through your affiliate link, and a $1 every time someone simply registers their info on the Shoe Dazzle site. Join the ShoeDazzle Affiliate Program on ShareASale. I’ve already earned almost $100, and it’s been really popular with my readers. Win-win, right?
  • Examiner: I’m the Yakima Frugal Living Examiner – meaning I get to post anything related to my life as a mom trying to stay on a budget, as long as I can tie it to something local. Here’s an example of a post on my column that’s very locally focused:Fall Fun in Yakima for Under $10, or another that’s easy to promote to any audience:Frugal Grocery Tips for Busy Moms. Once you’re writing for awhile, you’ll earn “Local Credentials” – meaning you can request passes to local events and cool happenings. Learn more and sign up to start earning.

Tips, Tools,and Resources

  • Skinny Scoop: I just set up an account here – {Check me out, and follow me if you wanna hang out there :)} It has a TON of cool tools you can utilize for blog posts – I’m kind of excited to take a little time, and start using some of them.
  • Checklist: This is a great one to keep in your blogging binder. {Do you use one? It’s a total life-saver for me} – the 7-Point Blog Health Checklist is a basic set of things to look for on our your blog to make sure it’s running well. I check my site with these points once a month, it’s a great reminder.
  • Deals: Are you always looking for sweet new deals to share with your readers? Then sign up for the BlogOffers.net newsletter. You can see an example of what they’ll send you – it’s an easy to share round-up of deals and discounts exclusively for bloggers and their readers. Sounds cool, eh?
  • Planner: Free Blog Marketing and Editorial Calendar template to download. She explains each section, how she uses it, and offers it up as a free download for you too!
  • Peer Index: This one is really similar to Klout – I don’t pay too much attention to it, honestly, but I do like that my score gets me sweet free stuff. Today I just got 100 free mini-cards from Moo, which rocks. Check out Peer Index.

Brand Leads and Opps

  • Social Chorus: I’ve heard some great things about this site. I was sure that I’d applied a few months ago, but when I heard about a fun campaign today, and went to log-in and check it out {I’d forgotten all about this site} – It said I wasn’t a member. So I just joined again – not sure if only some are approved, or if maybe I didn’t fill it all out last time {I’m tired most days, lol} – But I hear cool stuff, so it’s worth checking out! Social Chorus.
  • Holiday Baking: {EXPIRED} Sign up for this holiday baking opportunity, featuring either Domino Sugar, or C&H Sugar, depending what part of the country you live in. I don’t know many details on it – but here is the sign-up form if you’re interested.
  • Madame Deals: Join her group by filling out this form, to get access to great tutorials and her group, plus get connected to opps like reviews, giveaways, and more.
  • Simply Sassy Media: This is a great network to join – lots of opps from cool products to paid posts. You can request to join the Facebook group, and then check out their website to sign up to get their Blogger Outreach emails with new campaigns to apply for.

Linkys, Hops, & Events

  • Sweet event to join now: I’m helping to host the online portion of the NYC Activision Family Game Night Summit! Register before October 31 to be eligible for a swag bag valued at over $200 bucks!!
  • Free Event: Join the $100 Cash Holiday Shopping Giveaway – get a free link just for helping to spread the word about the event, and add additional links if desired. Sounds like a great way to kick off the holiday season, right?
  • NaBlPoMo: Yep, it’s time to join the National Blog Posting Month if you haven’t already – You have until November 5th to sign up. You can get details on the site – and there are even prizes available for everyone who reaches their goal of posting at least once a day during the month!
  • Giveaway: Join this completely free event for Bloggers with over 2,000 Social Fans – $50 Mirth in a Box Giveaway is now taking sign-ups!
  • Crock Pot Recipes: This is a super fun giveaway going on over on What U Talking Bout Willis – share your favorite crock pot recipes for a chance to WIN a sweet new crock pot for holiday cooking. {And I bet there’s a good chance she’ll be sharing that winning recipe on her site too!}
  • Nuby: Join The Miracle Momma as she co-hosts the Nuby Twitter Party on November 8th! Great products, great hosts, great prizes = a GREAT time! RSVP here to be eligible to win.
As always, if you have anything cool to share, leave a comment here. Affiliates that aren’t posted already, blog hops, linkys, or tips posts – anything that others might find helpful too. I do my best to get through the comments each week and tweet them all out too – so make sure to leave your links. Other than that – I hope you’re all safe, doing well, and having a rockin’ week!

BROWSE ALL OF THE GOOD STUFF IN PAST BLOGGERTUNITIES POSTS, AND CHECK OUT MY BIG BLOGGING & SOCIAL MEDIA BOARD ON PINTEREST FOR MORE TIPS TOO!

{Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. But all opps and leads listed are things that I trust, and have used myself. I only share what I love with ya’all! Photo Credit.}

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