BlogHer

When we were making our master plot to get pregnant, I became a blog stalker an avid blog reader.  Even though I have never met and more than likely never will meet those people, I loved reading about their pregnancies, adjusting to life with a baby, and seeing what they were doing with their little ones.

Many of the moms are from the Birmingham area.  Some are friends, some are friends of friends of friends, and some are complete strangers that live across the country.  That is one of the features of blogs that I love.  I would be reading a friend's blog, and click on a link to one of the blogs that she follows, and that's where it all started.  I really enjoy reading Birmingham moms' blogs.  I like to see where they shop, where they take their kids for fun, where they have birthday parties, etc.  My favorite blogs to read are mommy blogs that feature kids around Hudson's age.  I love to see what they are doing and anticipate what all we have in store.  Seeing these moms document their pregnancy journey and the life of their little one is what inspired me to start blogging.

I noticed this little ad on several of the blogs...

 

Many women get paid (although sometimes it is only a very small amount) if their blog is featured on BlogHer.  You can also get paid by letting people advertise on your blog.  Another super fun way to earn a little extra cash is to test out a product and blog your review of it.  That is something I would TOTALLY be into and practically have already done as you can see here.      

One of the criteria of the application process is that you blog frequently - at least 1-2 times a week.  At first this sounded really challenging, especially when thinking about going back to work.  But, my blogs tend to be pretty lengthy, and I realize that I could make them more precise and split them into more specific topics.  Also, with the fabulous Blogger iPhone app, I can blog anytime!

When Blogger revamped their dashboard, I tried to learn a little more about the features of Blogger, including the cool feature that even without a "ticker", they track the number of views for each post.  My Mother's Day blog was only viewed 59 times, while my 28 Weeks blog was viewed 229 times.  So, to get more people reading my blog, I want YOU, my blogger friends, to spread the news about my blog! I'm going to put up a "subscribe by email" feature to make it easier for you to see every post.  I'm also going to subscribe to the blogs I read regularly in hopes that these complete strangers will do the same in return!  

An inspiration...

Kelly Stamps is a SAHM (stay at home mom - acronyms are apparently a huge part of mommy/pregnancy blogging).  You can find her blog here.  I'm not sure how long she has been blogging, but she has OVER 12,000 MEMBERS!!! Just to clarify, that is NOT the number of people that read her blog.  I would say that number is at least doubled.  These are just people that subscribe to her blog.  Her topics usually include her 2 daughters, life as a SAHM, and life as a Christian.  She also has a REALLY cool feature called Show Us Your Life that she does every Friday.  I'm going to try to start being a part of that.  The topics vary every week, but there is one that she does a few times a year called SUYL Singles.  People write a little bio about a single friend, and people from all across the country can try to hook up a friend with someone they saw on SUYL!! Here is a link to the most recent one.  She has even had people getting married and engaged after meeting through her blog! How cool is that?!?!

Anyways, this is the end to yet ANOTHER lengthy blog.  Thanks for reading and don't forget to share!!!