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You are here: Home / Archives for Viva the Blog

10+ Post Ideas for March

March 2, 2015 By Jenna 13 Comments

I’m a planner-aheader. So, not only do I have a (very loose) editorial calendar for Call Her Happy, I also try to think about when I am going to go on vacay (never) or have a baby (always) and am going to need a stock of posts.

While begging some of you to guest post for me, I gave some ideas for posts I was looking for. I thought I’d share those ideas with you in case you need a bit of a kick in your blog.

Meanwhile I will just sit over here doing newborn stuff. I’m not doing the newborn stuff. The newborn is doing that stuff. I’m supervising.

And, if you need even more ideas, check out My Dirty Little Content Secrets.

 

Beat the March madness with this blog post inspiration. 10+ blog post ideas for March that aren’t *all* about St. Patrick’s Day. The 5Faves linkup is my personal fave…wink.

© vidady / Dollar Photo Club

  1. 5 Best Novels About Food
  2. How to Show Your Kids You Love Them: 10 Simple Acts
  3. One Pot Recipe For…
  4. write a short piece of fiction
  5. VLOG: My Makeup Routine
  6. Easy Ideas for a Simple Lent
  7. give a photo tour of your church
  8. How to (blank) More Quickly
  9. An Easy Approach to St. Patrick’s Day
  10. handwrite a post and take pictures of it
  11. Join my tl;dr linkup
  12. And don’t forget to link up your #5Faves each week .

Filed Under: Viva the Blog

My 9 Most Helpful Posts

February 16, 2015 By Jenna 8 Comments

I might be assuming a lot with this one. But, I am about to have a baby. So, without further hormonal adieu…

My 9 Most Helpful Posts

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Anxiety Toolbox: My best tips for dealing with daily anxiety or a straight up panic attack. I am an unwilling expert.

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Guide to Essential Oils: Are you skeptical about EOs? Me too. Here is why and how I use them though.

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Getting Started with Hand Embroidery: My favorite hobby of late, and you can jump on board too. It’s so easy.

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Ideas for Friday Abstinence: When you have to eat meat on Friday, do one of these things instead.

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Perfect Pie Crust: Holiday pie baking may be over, but maybe you still want to learn to domesticate yourself.

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My Dirty Little Content Secrets: “I have no idea what to blog about!” I’ve got you covered.

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A Typical Day of a SAHM: In tweets. You’re welcome.

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Dehydrated Girl’s Guide to Drinking Water: How I make sure I get enough liquid when I really hate to drink anything but chard.

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How to Nurse in Public Without a Cover: This is one of my superpowers. And it’s a vlog!

Do you have a favorite post you’ve written or read? Will you link to it below so I have some stuff to snack on while waiting for this insanely late baby? Gracias.

Filed Under: Viva the Blog

#5Faves: Blogging Resources

December 2, 2014 By Jenna 9 Comments

I wouldn’t call myself an expert and neither should you. BUT, sometimes people ask me what my favorite blogging tools are, so Imma let you know. Right here. Right now. Let’s do this.

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Postcron: Lest you think I am on the Internet all day long, I actually use this FREE service that allows me to schedule all of my Facebook touts and Twitter tweets. You can also upgrade your account for pretty much unlimited posting. Otherwise you can schedule 10 posts at a time. Honestly, I don’t have enough creativity at the ready to do more than that.

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Mad Mimi: I’ve tried MailChimp. A lot of people swear by it. But, it was just too confusing to me. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, so there’s that too. Do yourself a favor and make the easy switch to Mad Mimi and easily send out your blog posts and newsletters via email to any willing subscribers.

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PicMonkey: For all of my important posts…ha. Let me start again. For all of the posts that I spend way too much time on, I like to have a highly pinnable image so y’all can get that stuff on Pinterest. You do that for me, correct? Anyway, PicMonkey is the, by far, easiest way to create one.

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inlinkz: How do you think I do all of these incredible #5Faves and tl;drs for you? I love that they have the option to pay $2 a month rather than buying a big ol’ subscription. So, if you are just a one and done link up hoster, you don’t have to spend a fortune.

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Picasa: For all of my complicated collage needs – like the one above. Much fancy. Wow.

Some links may be affiliate.
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Filed Under: 5 Favorites, Link Up, Viva the Blog

5 Favorite Blog Resources

April 8, 2014 By Jenna 6 Comments

Lately, I’ve had a palmful of people asking me what my favorite blogging resources are. Why not just share with the masses? WHY NOT??

Consider this blogging for beginners. All of the blog resources you’ll need to streamline your blogging experience. And, all of these resources are free or super cheap! I use all of them!

© Africa Studio / Dollar Photo Club

Tailwind: Schedule all of your Pinterest posts ahead of time. I know there are a lot of services that can do this, but Tailwind has been the simplest, no frills option. And, it works like a charm. You didn’t really think I was on Pinterest all day, did you? Ok. Sometimes I am. And? Fuh-reee for the basics.

Pixelscrapper: This is where I like to get a lot of my graphics – or at least things to create graphics. Their slogan: Download exactly what you want. Every day. For free. And it’s cute stuff, not nasty clip art. I’ve also recently heard about Graphics Fairy, but I haven’t tried it out yet.

Picmonkey: And then, I head over here to create my graphics and edit my photos. It is so self-explanatory that I won’t even go there. I also have a copy of Photoshop Elements, but I really only use that for more complicated projects – which I hardly ever take on. You can use it for free or buy a Royale account.

Buffer: I don’t always have time to comment and show love on all of your blog posts, but at the very least, I can click the Buffer button and schedule to tweet out your posts throughout the day. Bust my buffers! This is not hard work! (10 points to any mom who gets that one.) Price: free.

Adproval: This is how I manage most of my ads and how I get them to look all neat and in a grid. This site also keeps track of who has bought an ad and when they expire. I do not have time to do that kind of stuff, so, thanks Adproval. Oh, and it’s free.

Bonus:
MadMimi: Much better than Mail Chimp. Just trust me on this one.
CoSchedule: Get all of your social media ducks in a row before you even hit publish.

And, for more blog goodness, check out Viva the Blog.

What are your favorite blogging resources? Load me up xo

Filed Under: 5 Favorites, Viva the Blog

Attracting Sponsors: A Free Media Kit Template

March 31, 2014 By Jenna 6 Comments

If you want to start monetizing your blog to make a bit of Target cash, you’re going to need a media kit. And, because I like you like that, here is a free media kit template from me to you.

Free media kit template to help you attract sponsors and advertisers for your blog. The idea to include a survey is my personal favorite.

© WavebreakMediaMicro / Dollar Photo Club

What is a media kit?

A media kit is a document that keeps track of all of your site stats and other useful information to give to potential sponsors. They are going to want to make sure they are advertising with a site that is worth their money. Show them you’re worth it, L’Oreal.

What should I put in my media kit? Free media kit template.

Here is what I have in mine. I am always tweaking it based on my needs and stat changes. When someone asks for my media kit, I like to update it, save it as a PDF, then send it off. A nice touch is to add your site logo right at the top too.

I hope you can make use of this free media kit template. Feel free to copy and paste the free media kit template below, and use it how you wish. Tweak it. Use it as it. Make it work for you, dahhhling.

 

Your Site Name
www.yoururl.com
Owner: Your Name
Contact: youremail@gmail.com

Blog Stats as of DATE:
Email Subscribers:
RSS Subscribers:
Facebook Fans:
Twitter Followers:
Pinterest Followers:
Alexa Rank:
Avg. Monthly Page Views:
Unique Monthly Visitors:
Google Page Rank:
Technorati Ranking:
Triberr Reach:
Klout Score:

Demographics Survey:

You may want to poll your readers for information on reader lifestyles, interests, product usage and other helpful tidbits.

About the Blog:

Add a little blurb about what topics your blog deals with. This will help you attract appropriate sponsors that you can actually stand behind.

About the Owner:

Who are you? What important information would sponsors like to know about you?

Corporate Advertising Prices:

Sidebar Banner 125×125:
Stand Alone: (below the fold)
No Follow Text Link:
(larger ad sizes and options are available: please contact to discuss rates)

Corporate Sponsored Posts Prices:

Prewritten Post:
Written by me:

Advertising Policies:

  • No refunds

  • Advertisements geared toward women, moms, families, children only

  • We maintain the right to refuse any advertising partners.

  • No landing pages to porn sites

  • All readers must land on the same page

  • Ads must be grammatically correct

  • Ads may not be offensive (by owner discretion)

  • No spam ads

Review Policies:

  • We disclose and follow FTC policies.

  • A full-sized product is required for all reviews and will not be returned.

  • Reviews are free of charge.

  • Please allow 4-6 weeks for the product review to be posted. If you have a specific date in mind for the review, we will work with you to accommodate your request. Please let us know ahead of time.

  • We are not responsible for any shipping charges. Any packages sent COD will be refused.

  • We will not post a negative/mean-spirited review, but we will offer honest opinions if there is a feature we do not like. If we cannot provide a positive review, we will contact you prior to posting.

Giveaway Policies:

  • A giveaway will greatly increase attention to your product, much more than a review by itself. Giveaways are actively promoted on social networking sites and blogging communities to further increase exposure.

  • Giveaways without a review product may require a fee.

  • Most giveaways will run for two weeks.

  • If you have Facebook or Twitter pages or other follow methods you would like mentioned, please let us know.

  • Please do NOT ship the giveaway prize to us. You must ship this directly to the winner; we are not responsible for prize shipments.

  • Payment Options: All payments must be made by PayPal (for an extra fee) or money order.

 

Enjoy the free media kit template, my friend. For more information on how to take your blog from surviving to thriving, check out Viva the Blog! xxoo

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Filed Under: Viva the Blog

My Dirty Little Content Secrets

February 26, 2014 By Jenna 16 Comments

Sometimes I go through little writing slumps. Sometimes I am challenged to write 7 posts in 7 days. Instead of giving you guys a break from my incessant chatter, I dig down to the depths of insignificant and come up with more!more!more! for you. How kind. But, from where do the ideas floweth? Mostly from my awesome noggin (Or browsing Facebook or Pinterest. Or they come to me while I shower, but since I rarely get a shower, let alone a quiet one, these days…), but when I am hurting for content, here are my dirty little secrets. Kelly knows what I’m talkin’ about.

Blog content ideas for those days you have writer’s block and need a little blog inspiration. The generator links are perfect!

© bonninturina/ Dollar Photo Club

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Mama’s Losin’ It Vlog Prompts
Mama’s Losing It Blogging Prompts
This is my current favorite place to find content ideas. Mama Kat might be losin’ it, but for reals, I am following her to wherever she goes. Current. Interesting. Varied. Fits my niche (whatever that might be…). Loves.

Blog content ideas for those days you have writer’s block and need a little blog inspiration. The generator links are perfect!

 

NaBloPoMo Prompts from BlogHer
I think BlogHer does a great job of curating important and interesting content from its members. They also provide some pretty good prompts to keep the content coming. You can participate in their NaBloPoMo challenge each month (inspired by NaNoWriMo), but they usually stick to a theme each month. So, you can write about coffee every day for an entire month, or you can just pop by and nab a few ideas here and there when you need them. The choice is yours.

Blog content ideas for those days you have writer’s block and need a little blog inspiration. The generator links are perfect!

 

Blog Clarity Magazine Technique
I love Melissa’s entire brand. She is so dedicated to helping other bloggers succeed, and she has helped me on numerous occasions. This idea she came up with is a great one. And, you can come up with dozens upon dozens of more ideas with her Content Brew course. I purchased it a while back, and it was fab. Fab-o-rama. Sorry.

Blog content ideas for those days you have writer’s block and need a little blog inspiration. The generator links are perfect!

One Minute Writer

The idea behind this site is to get people to write for one minute per day. So, they give you an interesting prompt each morning, and participants are to spend one minute just pouring it all out. But, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t expand these prompts, and turn them into blog posts. Do you see a reason? No. No reason.
Blog content ideas for those days you have writer’s block and need a little blog inspiration. The generator links are perfect!

Content Idea Generator
I think this one was created for bloggers who are selling a product of some sort, but you can get creative with it and make it work for your blog. Simply answer 18 or so questions they give you, and then the tool generates hundreds of title ideas for you. They sound a bit wonky, but you speak words goodly. I’m pretty sure you can fix it. A sampling of one I just did:

Blog content ideas for those days you have writer’s block and need a little blog inspiration. The generator links are perfect!

Coming Soon: The Sexiest Embroidery Hoops in the World

Content Strategy Generator Tool
This tool is a little convoluted and advanced, but if yer that kind of achiever, give this a go. I think it works best for blogs that have a very specific niche, so it doesn’t bode well for my -ahem- mommy blog. But, you know, get creative with it. If you’re a graphs person, this might be for you. Here’s a video on it as well:

A Content Idea Generator from Photocrati on Vimeo.
 
But, my fave-ity fave (Ellen’s words, not mine) place to draw ideas from when I am brain dead? Y’all. I know, so touching, right? Seriously though, if I don’t write what you want to read then you won’t read and why would I write and that wouldn’t be right, am I right?

So, do share. What are your dirty little content secrets?

And, if you’re looking for some blogging knowledge in your mind palace, check out Viva the Blog.

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Filed Under: Viva the Blog

Blog with a Bow: My 5 Favorite Gifts for Bloggers

December 2, 2013 By Jenna 2 Comments

Out with the laptop cases and Starbucks gift cards. We got that covered. If you want to bless a blogger, try some of my favorite blogging gifts:

-1- Ad Space

Offer your blogging friend some free ad space for a month or two, or purchase ad space on her site. Either way, your pal gets exposure for her site or a little extra cash from your ad. Winning either way.

-2- Comments, Shares and Follows

This is the reason we blog: to interact with readers. So, if you like something your friend has written, leave a comment, share it on social media, follow them in a way you don’t yet do. It’s like Christmas every time I open Instagram and see that little legless silhouette popping up at me.

-3- Facebook Gift Cards

I love promoting via Facebook, but it costs money to get content to the right people. Send you techster a FB credit to show him you care about his reach.

-4- Business Cards, Flyers or Other Swag

I know that the design of these might be a personal thing, but try to match the colors and theme of your blogger’s site to the advertisements. Or, let her pick our her own. I find that physical marketing has not lost its value in the Internet age.

-5- Blog with a Bow from Viva the Blog

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You know I was going there, right?

Right now until Christmas, get 20% off The Start Up Package or The Advanced Package with a Simple Blog Setup for you, a blogging friend, or anyone else you know! Want to wrap it up? Let us know and we will email you a sweet flyer to give to your buddy.

Bonus? You get to Skype with moi!

 

 Linking with Hallie

Filed Under: Gift Guide, Holiday, Celebrate, Viva the Blog

Are you a social media master? At what cost?

November 25, 2013 By Jenna 21 Comments

A few days back, Brandon wrote up a post on becoming a social media master. You can read his advice here. And, because I think too much, I had some thoughts.

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So, now you need to tell me: how do you manage? When do you blog? When do you Facebook? When do you do all the things? Or maybe you just have other thoughts about moms and social media. Lay it all on me. I am all ears.

 

Filed Under: Viva the Blog, You Know?

Starting Your Own Blog

September 3, 2013 By Jenna Leave a Comment

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You read blogs all the time and it looks like fun.

You want to make a little extra income for your fam.

You stay at home and want an outlet for all of your craziness.

Maybe one of these sounds like you? They all sound like me. And, that’s how Call Her Happy got started. Actually, when this blog started, it was called Mom of Many Hats. I didn’t know what I wanted to blog about, so I figured I could write about anything and everything. The title seemed fitting. And now it makes me cringe. So it goes.

As I wrote on, I found my niche, my blog name changed to reflect it, and new opportunities keep knocking.

So, maybe you want to do this too? It’s not hard. It’s quite fun. It’s a great outlet.

Types of Blogs

Before you start blogging, you’re going to want to know a little bit about why you want to blog. Here are a few types of blogs to consider:

Personal: A personal blog can take a couple of directions. You can use your blog as a newsletter or scrapbook to save memories and keep family members informed about your life. Or, you can write a lifestyle blog that not only references your own life, but writes broader posts that reach out to and inform readers about information and topics they may find helpful or interesting.

Business: Many businesses use the blog platform now as well. Real estate companies notify readers about new laws, consumer-based companies promote new products, a business may present information related to their trade. They options are endless. It is a great way for a business to humanize itself and reach out to and interact with customers on a more personal level.

Informational/Topic: You’ve probably seen many blogs like this. These blogs focus on a specific niche and provide information and editorials on that specific topic. Technology blogs, cooking or recipe blogs, sewing blogs, and car blogs are all good examples of this. They focus less on anecdotal stories and instead comment on information and news that pertains to their area of expertise.

Community: Blog communities are always forming, and you may run into a blog that has more than one author. Multiple writers may get together to present posts on a similar theme or topic.

Micro: You’re already familiar with this type of blogging, although you may not even know it. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the like are all forms of blogging – even though they are composed of small pieces of writing here and there. That’s what blogging is: writing what you know for a community and hoping for a response in return.

The Basics

If you start blogging and really like it and you want to do something more with it, I can help you with that as well. Check out Viva the Blog for my detailed blog advising classes. But, here are some tips for what to do after you get your blog set up:

1. Set up an RSS feed and get an RSS reader.

2. Start reading blogs you admire with your RSS reader (blogs I admire); be sure to interact with them, leave comments and try building relationships with other bloggers.

3. Use all of your social media outlets to promote your writing each time you post.

4. Find a blog community that you want to be part of.

There’s So Much More

Of course, there is so much more that you can do with blogging. Domain names, product reviews, monetization, writing techniques, SEO – I could go on and on with tons of jargon. But, my biggest recommendation would be to start with the basic setup and start writing. See how you like it. If you want to do more with it, just let me know your goals, and we can make it happen.

Most people just have blogs as a scrapbook and diary or outlet. And that works perfectly for them. Some people fall in love with it and want to do it for a living. It’s a hard market to break into (I wouldn’t say that I have even “broken in” yet), but it’s a fun journey.

Blog Advising Classes

So, if you’re looking to start a blog or you want to take your blog to the next level, Viva the Blog!

Filed Under: Viva the Blog

4 Things I Learned from #BlogHer13

July 30, 2013 By Jenna 9 Comments

Another thing off my bucket list this year. I’m just knockin’ ’em down, I say. I made it to BlogHer ’13 Chicago, and I’m already looking forward to going back next year. And, if all goes well, I might get to spend next year’s conference without a 12 lb baby strapped to me the entire time. Entire time. I’d show you a picture of my glorious delts, but I don’t want you to be jealous.

So, what did I learn? A lot. Let’s get specific.

Babies are fantastic networkers.

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Did I mention I had a baby strapped to me for two days straight? There was a huge benefit to this (because, you know, bonding isn’t a benefit or anything). People love to talk to babies. It usually went something like this:

“Oh! It’s a baby! How old is he?”
“This is Sam. He is 9 wks old.”
“I can’t believe you are here with a 9-wk-old.”
“He’s my second.”
“Oh. That’s why. So, do you have a card?”

Networking Accomplished.

Being Catholic is great for Networking.

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I did a lot of networking. And, it was apparent that I was surrounded by a lot of women that felt very differently than me on almost every social issue you can fill in this blank ____________. So, having the big mouth that I sometimes do, I spoke up in a session. I simply made it clear that I am dedicated to my Catholic faith and my vocation of being a mother.

And, you know what? I had so many women approach me afterward to thank me for what I said – and, I assure you, I did not say anything monumental. Later that night, I still had women approaching me wanting to talk about it. I actually had a line forming to speak with me.

I’m not telling you this so you can think I’m really cool. I hope you already know that…amiright? But, I am telling you this to show you how one little comment can bring someone’s faith into the light. Catholics – we’re out there.

You’re never too big to stop and chat.

PicMonkey Collage

The Pioneer Woman and Suburban Turmoil

I like to think of Call Her Happy as a humble little patch of the Internet; a little fish in a big pond, if you will. And, however many readers I have at any point, well, that is just enough. There are plenty of bloggers out there who are bigger and badder than me, but they started out on their blogspot.com site doing just what I did. And, most don’t forget that.

If you leave the conference with a friend, you did it right.

PicMonkey Collage

Ashley – Center Cut Cook and Jamie – For Love of Cupcakes

And, I left with two.

Yes, I learned many blogging tips and techniques that I found fascinating, but you probably didn’t come here for that. I will just implement them and secretly hypnotize you into singing my blog’s praises. I mean, I will create content that you will enjoy. Ahem.

 

UPDATE: Here is part of the transcript of the session I was in where I made the comment about being Catholic. I’m telling you, you don’t have to say something big and eloquent to stir up someone’s emotions:

“Hi, my name is Jenna, this is Sam. And we write at CallHerHappy.com and I say we because I’m usually nursing him when I’m typing. You can picture if you like, or not. (laughter) Anyway, my six-word memoir, Catholic and mom are the first thing that came to mind. Those are two things that I identify with most closely, and I also had curious on mine as well. I’m always curious about new things, really anything. I love to be a learner. Happy as well. I wrote down. It’s in my blog title, call her happy. I try to bring that to my readers, even though that’s not my constant state, I try to, you know, give that to them. I would also say I’m an evangelizer, I’m very into my faith and I like to bring that to people who are either like-minded or who just want to know more or want to have a discussion about it. And I try to be approachable as well with humor and joy, things like that. That’s more than six words. (laughter).”

 

Filed Under: Viva the Blog

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