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Happy Weekend Brain,
Well, it's Saturday... and I must admit I completely spaced writing my newsletter
yesterday! Hanna, my mom and I went to the zoo for the day and it completely
slipped my mind... but here I am!
It's been a busy week, and crazy and a lot of fun! I've found lots of new things
this week, and been busy jumping into the activities of the Time to Shine Challenge.
I'm seeing the benefits already!! It's a Wahm Life had it's best traffic day yet
earlier this week, I've got quite a few new Facebook fans, and twitter followers,
and new people commenting on the site... it looks like the strategies I'm putting
into place are really working! (phew, and YAY!)
Which brings me to my featured article for the day.
Don't Be Afraid to Adjust...
I talked about this in one of my blog posts this week, but it's been a huge
AHA moment for me, so I thought I'd talk about it a little more here. :)
When I came up with the idea of the Time to Shine Challenge I got out
my big old pad of paper, and made a list, and a map, and had everything
kind of laid out in a way that made total sense.
I had each of the things I wanted to work on during the Summer, the big
bold strokes of the idea, as well as the specifics on how I would do it.
I had a plan (you know I love to have a plan lol) ~ and I set about doing it
only to find my plan was flawed.
The people I wanted to connect with weren't looking for information at the places
I was going to "write articles". They weren't spending times in the forums and
communities I had identified as "wahm centered communities". They just weren't
there at all. I'd done investigating, and looked at traffic numbers, and there were
people there, just not MY people...
I had a decision to make... I could stick with the plan (which was super duper tempting.
I'd spent a LOT of time creating the damn plan!!) or I could be a little more flexible
and adjust the plan to incorporate the new information I was finding. (grrr... Jackie
hates change, doesn't want to be flexible :()
However, before I started this project, I had really thought about "what it was all about".
I had thought about what I wanted it to look like in the end, the results I wanted from
this experience. I wanted to increase my traffic and build better connections with moms
who work from home (mom bloggers specifically). With the new information I'd learned
I was easily able to see that I had to be flexible and change the plan a little. It wasn't even
that big of a change, it was just little tweaks to the specifics really... a little jog
to the left. Where I thought I'd be spending time in spot A I realized I'd move to my
goal faster if I was hanging out in spot 4.
Turns out... spot 4 is a hell of a lot more fun too! Bonus.
It's really tempting, for me, and maybe you, to come up with a plan and then stick with
the plan so stubbornly because that's the plan, that I lose sight of the end goal, and what I
want to get out of the plan itself. While it can seem like flip flopping or jumping from one
thing to another... if you're always focused on the end goal, and the new direction is in
complete alignment with the completion of the goal ~ it's not flip flopping, it's simply
adjusting. And adjusting (especially with how fast everything online changes) can be the
absolute key to success. :)
So I took out my big mind map, and scribbled out this, and that... and wrote in a couple
different things to replace the scribbles. I scratched out post ideas on the editorial calendar and
filled them in with some new things... and got right back on track.
These kind of changes have at times, brought serious doubts. Am I doing the right thing?
Is this going to work? Am I just being a flake? Is this happening because I just can't
follow through with anything? (you can fill in your own blanks here..). These kind
of thoughts and internal dialog are not conducive to running a business. They are the
things that will block you and thrwart you and keep you from moving forward.
I had to (and maybe you do too) recognize that every project, and every business
will have times where you have to course correct and this is one of them... map out
the new course, get back on the road and keep moving.
What's been happening this week:
On the work front:
This email would go on forever if I told you all the cool stuff I found on the work front
this week. I'm sharing it all as I go over on the fanpage... so if you haven't "liked" me
yet... now's a good time to do it. It's just the easiest way for me to share the journey
without inundating your inbox. :)
Here's the quick version:
Started the Time to Shine Challenge. Here's the first post about getting started, and
some easy things you can do to help the process.
I found this fantastic community called The Sits Girls ~ You can hear me gush on
and on about how much I'm getting out of this community here. (and there's some
great tips on building your audience in there too).
I've also been setting up interviews with some of my favorite bloggers ~ which
I'm SUPER excited about. There is a site called Circle of Moms... they have
a "top 25 list" for a bunch of different types of blogs. My friend Kelly is in
the running for Top 25 Expat Mom Blogs (if you could give her a vote that
would be awesome) but anyway... what I realized is right there you have
an amazing resource... lots and lots of blogs in a specific niche. You can see
some key information about their community (votes) and what a rich place to
look for people to interview, or places to do guest posts!! right?!
It's so important to look at everything with a critical eye, and think about how
you can use things in a way they may not have been initially intended... like top
lists as a resource for finding guest posting opps, and people to interview. :)
One last thing on the work front... SITS girls is running a challenge this month, which
I thought would be a fantastic way to jump in and get to know people. They're using
ProBlogger's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for the challenge. Each day, one activity.
I'm meeting a lot of really cool people, and finding some great blogs in the process.
Day 2 was "write a list post". So here's mine...
7 Ways to build a better blog in 30 days or less.
On the home front:
It's planting/harvest time so our menu plan has been all out of whack this week,
just because Ryan hasn't actually been home to eat dinner... and Hanna is much
less picky about what she eats for dinner than he is. :)
Hanna's been out riding on the planter with him quite a bit this week. It always
amazes me a kid who can't sit still here for more than 5 minutes can sit in the
tractor for hours and hours at a time. Oh well, it's good for me... peace and quiet to work!
Hanna and I are both pretty stubborn, and tend to bump heads on things. Here's
one of the ways that happened this week, and how we handled it. Would love your
comments and input.
I can always tell when 3 in the afternoon comes... Hanna loses it. :) We call it the
witching hour... I think other people call it that too. Here's 5 ways I deal with
the witching hour (without becoming a total witch myself).
I finally finished the book I was reading... I am in love with James Rollins books.
The Last Oracle was the next in the Sigma Force series I've been reading. I did a
quick book review before we left for the zoo yesterday.
Speaking of the zoo...it was like 95 degrees with 90% humidity. It was a LONG day
but we did have a fun new game we played while we were there. I'll be writing about
it next week!
Well, this has turned into a VERY long newsletter... I told you I was busy this week. :)
Well, it's almost time to go move the sprinklers around on the corn... gotta keep it
growing. :) You'd think this corn was my husband's new baby.
Catch you next week, and if you want to jump into the challenge ~ either the Time to
Shine or the 31 days to build a better blog at SITS girls it's not too late! Just jump
right in... they are both great ways to build relationships with other bloggers, and
get people to your site!
Off to buy a kiddie pool... gotta find some way to stay cool!
Jackie Lee
www.ItsaWahmLife.com
www.InternetMarketingforMommies.com
648 W 90th St South , Wellington, Kansas 67152, United States
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