New to SITS? Welcome!! Go read this to get started.
The first week of our Summer Challenge is coming to a close. We thought we’d use today to highlight the wonderful collaboration and ideas we’ve seen in blogland over the last several days. It’s the daily participation from our community that makes this event so successful!
Day One: We talked about the importance of the elevator pitch as a way to articulate your blog’s purpose to your audience. Caroline from Smarty Pants Mama and Jennifer from Momma Made It Look Easy both wrote great posts that incorporated the use of the perfect elevator pitch for their blog.
Day Two: We shared list posts that we’d written, and learned that writing list posts is a great way to provide your readers with information that is easy to read. We saw TONS of examples of great list posts in Day Two’s forum, but Kim’s list of 14 coffee recipes over at Money And Risk, and Cheryl’s list of the 12 most common symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome at Little Bit Quirky are just a couple of our favorites.
Day Three: We discussed how promoting individual blog posts on a variety of social media sites (other than simply Facebook and Twitter) can increase readership. As follow-up to this, Shayna from Life Forward broke down the in’s and out’s of the social networking site, Digg, for us.
Day Four: We studied successful blogs in our niche and thought about what we could do to improve our own blogs by using other sites as inspiration. Cameron from Ingenue Mom analyzed Dear Baby, a blog in her niche, and discovered ways she could take her own blog to the next level.
Day Five: We vowed to pay special attention to readers by being responsive (via comments, email, reciprocal blog visits, etc…) and by making personal connections.
Day Six is today! Don’t miss out on a great list of 27 must-read tips and tutorials about blogging over on BlogFrog.
Finally, we wanted to share some very exciting news with our community:
This coming Thursday, July 29 from 4:00-5:00 pm MST, we will be hosting a live UStream chat with Darren Rowse! Pay close attention to the SITS Girls Twitter and Facebook accounts in the upcoming week as we will be passing along all details there.
Before signing off, we wanted to take a moment to highlight our Summer Challenge community leads and share a little about their blogs. Without these amazing women, there is no way we’d be able to accomplish as much as we have!
Lynda is an amateur writer and photographer living in Fort Worth, TX with her husband and two young sons. In 2010 she is participating in Project 365 while chronicling her adventures learning photography and photo-editing. Her website, Daily Window, is a personal photographic scrapbook which also features a variety of photography tips along with easy to follow editing tutorials.
Rachael is a wife and mother of two boys from Bellingham, WA. Between juggling loads of laundry, a 4 year old, and a 10 week old, she tries to focus on her biggest passions: reading and writing. Rachael has done some freelance writing online, but she mainly writes at Scientific Nature of the Whammy, a blog focused on nurturing the spirit through writing and community and exploring the moments that make life a joy.
Jen Havice is a forty one year old recovering people pleaser and sometime domestic goddess who works part time, rides horses, and rants about the state of the world on her blog. Due to a strange lack of interest in her early Italian Renaissance art history education from employers, Jen has put her writing talents and literary aspirations on the front burner. She enjoys picking apart the absurdities of everyday life on her blog, When Pigs Fly.
Erin is a sometimes clueless, stay-at-home-mom of two boys (3 years and 8 months) who routinely destroy her world. She follows her bliss by inspiring women to live with passion, joy, and purpose on her super groovy blog NirvanaMamma.com.
Kathy, aka Mama Kat, jokingly refers to herself as an attention craving poodle on her blog, Mama’s Losin’ It. This blog is a wonderful mix of humor and heart from a woman who owns and operates her own daycare business. A former English teacher, Kathy is also the creative mind behind Writer’s Workshop, a weekly meme in which her readers select and write a post based on a variety of prompts that Kathy provides, and then link to her blog in order to increase their web traffic.
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It’s Saturday, y’all, and you know what that means. Time to share your favorite post from the week! To mix things up a bit, head over to our Facebook fan page and add a link to the post you’re most proud of this week or maybe even a post that you just enjoyed reading.
Tickets for Austin and St. George, Utah, our final Bloggy Boot Camp stops for the year, are on sale now! Don’t wait to buy yours. We’d love to meet you in person!
And, as always, when you see this:
I’m glad to have all these resources available all in one post. SITS has been great!
Yay! made it to second place.
Do any of you girls have fussy eaters. Well here are tips from a mom who likes innovation but doesn’t like spending hours in the kitchen. The first in my simple foods series: http://morethanjustmummy.blogspot.com/2010/07/introducing-simple-foods-garlic-labneh.html
Oh! and this post is great. A one stop shop. Thanks SITS. Off for my Saturday Sharefest.
Twitter: rachelcotterill
says:
You’re making me jealous!!
Are we doing Saturday Sharefest today? I will if you will… 
Twitter: SITSGirls
says:
We are definitely doing Saturday Sharefest, Rachel. It is just happening on our Facebook Fanpage today.
Check it out when you have a chance!
An amazing post featuring a lot of wonderful ladies that I have been following! It’s been fun readying all the 31 Day Challenge Posts! Keep up the GREAT work SITStahs!
ooooo! Happy Saturday!! I’m exhausted from our dinner party tonight.
Can’t you just feel the collective sigh of the weekend? Of to read today’s topic! Have a good one friends.
Wish you all a great weekend.
Happy Saturday!
xoxo
Happy Saturday! I am overwhelmed on how much I have to learn about blogging.
Twitter: SITSGirls
says:
Don’t be overwhelmed, Maria. That’s exactly why you have your SITStahs by your side. We’re here to hold your hand, speak in soft tones, and answer all of your questions.
Learn at your own pace and know you’ll always have the support that you need when you’re ready for it.
I just love the supportive community SITS creates. It means so much not to feel like you are writing all alone in a void! Keep up the good work! and thanks!
Great to see all the 31DBBB community leaders being featured! They’ve been putting in so much effort to make it a success! I’ve been learning lots more about SEO, thinking about connections and content and even thinking about ways to serve my readers by linking appropriately to products (i don’t think i will ever monetize my blog in the usual sense) but I am more convinced than ever that I can chart a course that enables me to serve those who read my blog without falling into the trap of self-promotion. I write as myself to be genuine rather than to boast or be proud or to “sell” myself. This has been a fun week so far! I have craziness ahead. This time in 8 days I’ll be in Paris!
wish I wasn’t on vacay and had time to devote to something like the problogger challenge, but I just knew that I couldn’t commit to it… so I am gathering tips and waiting til Fall when I have a chance to implement them – great work by all participating!
Twitter: SITSGirls
says:
That’s a great plan, Heather! The challenge is really something that you can work through at any time. As an added bonus, we have a ton of great tips and tools that we will be rolling out to the SITS community in the coming months. If you miss this event entirely, there will be plenty more to be a part of.
I’m one of the few bloggers not participating in the 31DBB…but I’m lurking and learning.
Happy Saturday! The advice shared here is fab. Am off in a minute to check out your info in more detail. Just to let you know I’m hosting my first giveaway to celebrate one year of blogging. I’m going to be giving away a piece or two of silver and gemstone jewellery designed and made by me as a thank you for all the help and support I’ve received from fellow bloggers. Feel free to pop over and enter at http://mimiandtilly.blogspot.com
Sending smiles, Em x
Love the at-a-glance weekly roundup. Happy Saturday!
w00t w00t! to my friend Little Bit Qurirky for making this list bloggers who rocked during week 1! Her list was awesome and generated a great discussion.
I loved that one too!
I chose not to do 31DBBB because I’d just done it on my own, but I enjoyed today’s information… it reminds me of all the things I should be doing!
Great recap! Now I don’t have to dig out my old copy of 31DBBB to get a refresher. Lots of these are great reminders.
Lots of great blogs listed here! This challenge has been an amazing experience so far. I can’t believe we’re already one week in!
I just joined SITS last evening, but I already recognize some of the name/blogs from BlogFrog, I see many more that I would love to check out, time to start adding them to my RSS feed. I thought, my reader was already huge it looks as though it will be putting on some more weight.
OMG only 20 people before me! This is a miracle! LOL
Great post! Thanks, and happy weekend!
The weekend is finally here so hopefully I can start visiting blogs today and tomorrow. I haven’t been able to hop around for a couple weeks now. Hope you have a great weekend.
Thank you for the recognition!
The support both on SITS and on Twitter have been outstanding! I really feel that this program is providing bloggers with great resources, ideas and motivation!
PS – I’m super excited for the next 24 days!
Twitter: SITSGirls
says:
You’re so welcome, Caroline. And thank you for all that you’ve been doing to stay motivated and involved in the challenge. Your participation is what is making our event something truly fabulous!
What a fab post! Oh I’m off to check out some of these links later when I’ve got more than 3 seconds!! Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on! Have a good weekend!
i’m wondering if i’ll ever get 8 hours of sleep in a row again since i had a baby?
(or even just 8 hours in one night…)
happy saturday everyone!
The magic 8 ball says it’s not likely…but enjoy your baby!!
Hi Ladies!
Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and summer. We are doing a Skincare Blogger Wars contest on our blog through August 1 and thought some of you might be interested. Every day we give away skincare kits valued over $100 to one lucky blogger and there are some awesome grand prizes with cash too. We don’t have many entrants so your chances of winning are high. AND, we are picking two winners today.
Check it out http://www.naturalskinshop.com/bloggerwars
Off to read all of your blog posts
When I get back home this afternoon I’m going to pour over this post. Looks like lots of good info to glean.
If you love reading check out my very 1st giveaway!!!
http://surrender2survive.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-1st-giveaway.html
Oooh, that “Mama Losin’ it” {staning by the stove in fancy wear} is my kind of girl! With 3 little one’s, if I waited for a reason to be fancy…well it might never happen! More fun to just live it up, be fabulous whenever! Although it does throw people off!
Anyways…my littles are starting to wake up…7:42am…they slept in this saturday!
Happy weekend everyone!
alison
Twitter: SITSGirls
says:
Mama Kat is truly fab. If you haven’t already, check her out. She never disappoints.
Just so you know that picture is the only time I’ve ever worn that outfit…with wine…in my kitchen.
But it was fab while it lasted!!
Thanks girls.
Can’t believe I’m up at 7:30 on a Saturday!! This is the first Saturday I’ve had off all month and I can’t sleep in…Oh well, just gives me more time to enjoy the sunshine and check out the fbs.
Have a great day everyone!
Check out the cupcakes I made for my son’s snack at kindergarten club!
http://adventures-in-mommy-land.blogspot.com/2010/07/scooby-cupcakes.html
Happy Saturday. So much to read so much to learn.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
Have a great Saturday!
WOW – this post is FULL of some wonderful tips AND links!
Happy Saturday, T minus 7 days until our family moves up north!!
Simply Saturday! Simply wonderful!
Thank you for all the great tips I’ve been following this week.
Hello Saturday!
I already enjoy some of the blogs listed today (I do the Writer’s Workshop) and am glad you put the rest all in one place!
Now to hope my weekend is nice and calm!
Morning ladies,
Looking forward to reading the 27 must-read tips and tutorials on Blog Frog.
Have a great weekend,
)
Paper-Crafts Chick
I have a little catching up to do on the challenge but I do hope you stop on by my blog spot today. Enjoy!!
Best,
Charlene
The Balance Beam
Life Balance Strategy, Humor & Random Overshare
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!
Happy Saturday Ladies!
Participating in the challenge has been great. Lots of “homework” today with all the articles to read.
SaucyB’s latest post:
It’s a Sequel! A PSA on Behalf of the State of NJ – Part 2
http://bit.ly/d68w7l
Thanks so much for summarizing your weekly wrap up. I’ll need to save this page so I can go back through all of the days when I have more time.
I’ve been really busy all week so I didn’t get much of a chance to participate until last night. I’m still working on my elevator pitch and trying to catch up on all the great discussions. Thanks for posting the highlights!
I have to chime in and say this has been a great learning experience so far. It can only have a positive impact on our blogs.
Check out my non profit on Facebook- parenthood for me.org
We are awarding our first grants to those adoption or pursuing assisted reproductive technology to conceive.
http://www.parenthoodforme.org
Happy weekend, everyone! Today is one heck of a busy day….but sure to be fun!
Summertime fun with children can include
learning something new.
I focus part of this summer with my grandchildren learning Geography from a simple book I purchase earlier this year.
In America, some of us need to know more about our country as well as other countries.
It helps me to learn more about other cultures.
You can incorporate your travels as a learning experience by just looking at road signs and maps.
You can also make a game of places you’re going to visit and make some flash cards of various places with pictures they can color in themselves.
Have a great summer.
You can visit my web site at http://www.thelmaharcum.com for more articles.
Swimming lessons for which I believe should be mandatory for everyone, have been the other focus on my list this summer for the grands. My 8 year old grand is a great swimmer, is an assistant to the swim instructor, assists with her 2 younger sibling in learning how to swim.
Have a great summer.
Thelma
Happiest weekend.
xo bj
Happy Saturday! Hope that all of you who are doing the challenge are having a great time!
This time next week I’ll be on my way to Tennessee & the Great Smoky Mountains! I can’t wait!