When I first started blogging in 2009, I wasn't prepared for the amount of work that would go into running a successful blog. Perhaps part of my naiveté had to do with the fallacy that "If you build it, they will come." In my mind, as long as I poured myself into my writing and posted regularly, it would guarantee that my readers would keep coming back for more and more. Boy, this couldn't have been further from the truth! This August will make 5 years since I started blogging for the first time and I have learned a lot about how to keep readers coming back to Tough Cookie Mommy. Although great content still trumps when it comes to making people want to return and read, there are other things that bloggers do to keep the spice in the relationship with their readers. I'm hoping that some of my experiences will prove to be useful and valuable to other up and coming bloggers so that they too may have a successful blogging career. The following are the top 5 ways that I … [Read more...]
So You Want To Blog…
I can't begin to tell you how many times friends, family, and acquaintances contact me to find out how to start a blog. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for supporting others in their endeavors, however, many times these requests carry with them an air of "If she can do it, I can do it." Just to be clear, I am not the guru of blogging nor do I presume to know everything that there is to know about it. Although I have learned a lot in the almost three years that I have been blogging, I am constantly learning new things and trying to implement them. What I can tell you is that blogging is not easy and it requires a lot of work if you are serious about it. Let me begin by saying that I have been very fortunate to know many great bloggers who have shared best practices with me and have made themselves available to answer my questions throughout the years. Bloggers, overall, are still a fairly secretive bunch in many respects. There are many reasons for that … [Read more...]