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There is no right or wrong way to decide which bloggers to work with. You may choose a small blog in a targeted niche because it fits with a certain promotion you are doing. Other times you may be looking to generate as much buzz as possible and be looking for larger blogs. No matter your approach, we all have times where we need some guidance to find the most influential blogs in our target market. Luckily there are several online tools that can help.

Jennifer James wrote an article titled PR Professionals: How to Determine a Mom Blogger’s Influence Without Asking Her that I think is a great overview of the different online tools available.  Don’t be scared away if you’re not a PR professional, anyone considering working with a blogger can use these tips to do their due diligence.

Any resources you use for researching a blog that aren’t listed? Submit a comment and I will add them to this article.

Calling all mompreneurs… you are not going to want to miss this one!

On October 30th, 2010, hundreds of moms will converge upon the Big Apple to learn how to turn their Small Business into Big Business at the Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference & Expo being held at the New Yorker Hotel. Organizers Heather Lopez of Happy Healthy Mom and Lucinda Cross of Corporate Mom Dropouts have teamed up to bring together some of the most influential and powerful authorities in business for moms, in order to show moms from all walks of life how to realize their potential to become “Super Mom Entrepreneurs.”

Take a look at what is planned for this unique event:

• Keynotes by Savor The Success’ Angela Jia Kim, Count Me In/ Make Mine a Million’s Nell Merlino, and Mompreneurs® Online’s Ellen Parlapiano.

• 16 workshops designed to teach moms how to start, build, & grow their businesses, led by powerful speakers such as, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz, the Entreprenette Sarah Shaw, Self Made Millionaire Bonnie Marcus of the Bonnie Marcus Collection, Mom Corps CEO Allison O’Kelly and more.

• A B2B & Mom2Mom Expo allowing both the opportunity for moms to highlight their own businesses and for moms to access products and services to grow their businesses.

• Numerous networking opportunities, including a pre-conference networking mixer on Friday night, designed to build lasting connections and support between attendees.

• An Awards & Grant Cocktail Hour, featuring the announcement of the winner of the Super Mom Entrepreneur Fund grant, a small grant designed to help a mom start or expand her business.

Tickets are now available, visit the website to register.  For more information, read the full press release.

Whether you’re selling your products on Etsy, in your own store or direct to businesses, you need high quality product photos. Period. When it comes time to promote those products to the media the quality of your photos becomes even more important. I highly recommend you save yourself alot of headaches (and rejections) and get them done right. With the affordability of today’s technology and foolproof photo editing tools this is something you can even tackle yourself (I did my own and then had them professionally retouched which costs alot less than using a professional photographer).

Here are some great tips on how to make your product photos the best they can be:

• The Branding Bitch has a some good advice in her article Just Shoot Me. I especially like how she talks about getting shots that show the product in action. See the article for a great example photo.

• The article How to take Great Product Photos for Online Selling on eHow.com gives a good step-by-step outline if you want to take your own photos.

• Something that has worked well for me is when I submit a product for a review on a blog and they take a great product shot (which many do), I ask for permission to use that photo. I’ve never had a blogger say no before!

• Another technique for getting professional photos that has worked for me with my Define*Me Clothing line is to offer free product to photographers in exchange for photos. There are lots of amazing mom photographers who are happy to help out and appreciative of the product you send. Ask around in any of the mom entrepreneur forums and you’ll be surprised how many responses you get.

I know that getting good product photos can be a daunting task. But trust me, it is worth every bit of time and money you put in to it.  When it comes to promotions, it is an absolute must.

One of the best ways I’ve found to get the word out about what I do is to connect with other mom entrepreneurs in forums. I find everyone to be extremely helpful and it makes building a network very easy. From these forums I have gotten ideas on how to promote and grow my business, been given advice on areas I was having troubles with, found partners to help me with promotions and received mentions on several sites. But most importantly, I’ve made friends that have the same goals as I do.

Here is a list of the most active online communities for mom entrepreneurs. If there are any I’ve forgotten (and I’m sure there are), please let me know and I’ll add them.

Of course this list is not going to do you any good unless you actually join these communities and get involved. Start by introducing yourself and then focus on adding value and helping others. It won’t be long before you start to see the benefits!

Until next time,

I’ve noticed more and more people lately that have created “so you found me on Twitter” landing pages which they link to their Twitter profile.

This solves a big problem for my business since I have five sites and Twitter only allows you to include one URL.  Here is the page I created to give you an example.

Even if you only have one site, this can be a great way to engage your existing and potential Twitter followers. Instead of sending them to your home page where they may get lost before they get to the information you want them to see, be proactive and create a landing page that:

• Lists the benefits of following you on Twitter.
• Talks about your experience and shows why you are an expert in your field.
• Gives a special coupon or other incentive to shop with you.
• Introduces your newest or bestselling products.
• Encourages people to join your newsletter.
• Gives away a special report or ebook.

The possibilities are endless.  How can you use this to promote your business?

As my business grows, I struggle with branding. Over time I setup my three retail sites separately then I started my Parents Only Zone blog and now PRomoting Mompreneurs has been added to the mix making five sites! I’m never sure whether I should be branding my name or the individual business names. Some places such as Twitter it would be impossible to keep up an account for every business so I chose to go with my name. Same with article writing and guest posts. As a result I’ve always felt I had a weak branding strategy but no real idea what to do about it.

I was recently reading an article at ProBlogger.net – 7 Signs of an A-List Blogger in the Making – and although all of the points are good ones, there was one in particular that really stood out for me.

The article got me thinking about the power of branding myself with a picture. That way whatever site I am affiliated with people will know me by my likeness. As a result I’ve been adding my picture (which includes my kids since I am a mommy biz owner) to all of my sites, my Twitter account and when I submit articles where a picture is allowed. The picture I chose – for now anyway – is the one you see as part of this article.

When it comes to branding, the key is consistency. Now that I’m adding my picture, I see how there feels like more consistency between my sites. Doing this builds a sense of trust with customers, existing partners and potential partners.

Definitely a step in the right direction!

What is your branding strategy?

Because I am both a mom and a business owner, I often find myself arguing both sides of a debate in my head. Lately I’ve been giving alot of thought to review & giveaway blogs. The mommy in me likes the idea of reviews and giveaways because we’re all on budgets and getting things free really helps.  But as a business owner I struggle with the idea of attracting only “freebie seekers”  These are the people who are only interested in things for free and won’t ever spend money with your business. Creating a mix of reviews, giveaways and content seems to me to be the winning combination. It attracts all of the right type of people and as a business looking to participate in reviews and giveaways, I feel like there is a wider audience.

I realize that it takes alot of time to write reviews and promote giveaways and that bloggers can only do so much. But there are some quick and easy ways to get great content:

1. Accept guest posts. Whether it’s related to a specific theme such as “great summer activities to keep away boredom” or just general articles on topics of interest to your readers, guest posts are great because they don’t require any of your time to create. And an added bonus is that you will create a relationship with another blogger which could lead to other opportunities.

2. Write about a favorite site. Everyone has sites that they visit regularly or think are cool. Write up a quick blurb and let your readers know about it.

3. Republish a news story. Whether it’s an announcement about the latest pregnant celebrity or a serious piece on our economy, if it’s breaking news (and something your readers are interested in) it’s a quick addition to your blog. One source I’ve used before is FARK.com. When I visited just now there was a link to an article in the Daily Mail UK titled “Spouses found to cause you more stress than bosses”.  That’s a quick blog post right there (so I did just that and added it to my blog Parents Only Zone).

4. Put up a video. Everyone knows about YouTube as a source of videos.  But there are other sites ripe with interesting videos you can use as content – eHow videos and 5 Minute Video are both full of ready to go content. There is a list of others in this article on Mashable.

5. Feature another blog. Swapping features with another blog gives your readers an inside glimpse into what other bloggers are doing. And like guest posts, it’s yet another way to form a relationship that could bring bigger things later.

6. Create a list. One of the things I do on my blog Parents Only Zone is create lists on topics such as “Great Picnic Ideas” and “Cool Art for Baby’s Nursery”.  These posts are just compilations of interesting resources on these topics. As a reader I love these because it saves me time researching the topic.

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These are just some of the ways you can get interesting content for your blog. It doesn’t have to be time consuming or award winning journalism, but cultivating a readership of people looking for more than just freebies will bring rewards for you in the end.

Until next time,