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.

© 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 .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

© 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

 .

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).”