Here are the wordpress plugins we absolutely can’t live without! (this post has affiliate links)

Akismet – This is for catching spam, and while it’s not perfect, it certainly gets rid of a LOT of spam, and makes my life much easier!

WordPress SEO by YOAST – This is the easy way to optimize your post for SEO. When you are writing your post it gives you a little box beneath the editing area where you can create focus keywords for your post and see how you did optimizing the keywords for searches. It’s so great to have it all in one place, and really takes the stress out of search engine optimization.

Limit Login Attempts – Simple but handy! This little plugin limits the number of times some one can try to log in to your account. This helps keep you safe from hackers, just make sure you never forget your own password!

W3 Total Cache – I don’t understand all the tech-side of this, but the plugin helps speed up your site through caching.

MiloTree– This one is a MUST for bloggers of all sizes because it helps you convert your readers into subscribers and followers. It’s google friendly and can replace a LOT of other social media plugins that can really slow down your site. Get a free trial here!

These are my personal favorite plugins! I don’t like to bog down my site with too many plugins, but these are the few that I really enjoy and recommend.

What are your favorite WordPress plugins? Have you tried any of these? 

Click here to see more of my absolute favorite blogging resources!

The post My Favorite WordPress Plugins appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Who doesn’t love looking at something like this in the GA app?

But do you want to know the truth about that picture? It’s not the most valuable thing I’ve done this year. I love the fact that I was able to go viral with this post I wrote back in March, but it’s not what has kept my business going.

In fact, there have been so many other, more profitable things I’ve been able to do on my parenting blog, that will continue earning me a lot more money than this crazy, one-time-only post ever did.

The truth is, viral is fun, viral traffic can earn you a lot of money in the moment, but there is usually a LOT more value in slower, steadier posts that bring you consistent traffic and consistent income.

For example, this pin earned me $200 in 30 days, and still earns money every single month. That is doing a lot more for me than the viral post that is no longer relevant to people’s lives.

This year, I’ve made partnerships with brands that have created unforgettable memories with my family. I’ve made products I’m really proud of and I’ve learned a lot about the way I want to be blogging going forward. Al of those things mean a lot more than 908 realtime visitors.

Why am I telling you all this? 

I’m telling you this because I know how easy it can be to get caught up in wanting to do something HUGE and obvious. Something that makes everyone around you take notice.

But the reality is, the quiet, steady growth is the growth that really can change your life and have a huge impact on your family.

I wanted to encourage you today to do what feels right to you – and to continue to build your blog in a way that reflects your passions and the things that are most important to you.

Sometimes, that will lead to crazy viral posts, but a lot of the time it will lead to a steady growth that will turn into something truly amazing that can generate long-term income for your family.

While the world gushes over viral views, lives are changed by small, steady and authentic connections. An ideal business has a good mixture of both to keep things balanced out.

I try to get 1 or 2 crazy epic virals a year, and spend the rest of my time building core-content that will last forever.

As you strive to find your perfect balance between building long term steady traffic/income and creating those virals we love to share – I wanted to make sure you have the chance to get in on the Cyber Monday deal for the Profitable Blogging Framework.

This Framework will help you learn how to create viral content for your audience (and how to make the most of it when you do), but it will also teach you ethical, ways to build your blog into something life changing, for you and your readers.

I’ve talked to dozens of successful bloggers that I admire, and gotten them, to do a deep-dive into their specific area of expertise.

It’s a well-rounded resource that can help you grow in EVERY area of your blog. And honestly? I’ve been blogging for 12 years, and I’m STILL learning and implementing tools and tricks I learned from these speakers in the framework.

There’s not another blogging resource like this, that will give you access to the wealth of knowledge that more than 40 successful bloggers have to offer, instead of just one or two people.

As a THRIFTY blogger myself, I make a point not to tell you about resources that I don’t 100% believe can have an amazing ROI. This framework will save you money now and in the long run because it GROWS WITH YOU. It’s not just about beginning blogging (though there is a WEALTH of information for beginners here too), but it’s a resource you can literally use for years as you learn, grow and implement the tools from the speakers. in fact, every speaker that attended other sessions reported that they were learning from EACH OTHER and filling in the blanks in their own business strategies.

Also? You can download the Profit Planner and take the challenge to earn your money back in the next 6 weeks.

But here’s the thing – Today is the LAST DAY you can get in on the cyber Monday deal It’s $97 right now but will go back to the regular price of $199 at midnight CST.

Don’t miss this opportunity to invest in yourself and your business at this epic price!!!

Get the Profitable Blogging Framework here

I’m excited to be on this journey with you, and can’t wait to see how your blog grows in 2018!

The post Slow and steady vs viral pageviews: how to monetize every level appeared first on Becky & Paula.

If you sell products online, you know that one of the biggest challenges can be getting customers to convert. Sure, you can get your product in front of them, and they might even be interested in your product…but a lot can happen between their initial interest and when they are ready to purchase.

MailChimp (our sponsor for today’s post) is taking huge strides to help online entrepreneurs convert more of their casual visitors into customers. They have launched a web retargeting service in partnership with Google remarketing ads, to help you keep your potential customers from falling through the cracks!

I had the privilege of interviewing Sami Jo, an online business owner to see just how she is using retargeting with MailChimp to convert sales!

Read our conversation below and be sure to check out her video at the end to learn even MORE.

Hi Sami Jo, I’m so excited to talk to you about email! Can you introduce yourself, before we get started? We’d love to get to know you and your awesome company!!! 

I’m a Texas gal through and through and I’ve always had a deep love of the south and southern hospitality. I’ve been married to my husband for almost 8 years and mommy to our two beautiful children who are 3 & 6. Both of those things combined mixed with my desire to look and feel cute led to the creation of S T Y L E by Sami Jo.

It was nearly 4 years ago when online shopping was just nearing the cusp of becoming popular, I decided to take a leap of faith and start a business where I could cater to all those who love to look trendy, but don’t really have the time or desire to spend hours in a store. The pieces we offer on our site are affordable every day trendy items that appeal to several different markets; we have our stay at home moms who were like me and just can’t do dressing rooms and fussy kids. We have our busy working ladies who simply are on a time crunch and don’t want to pick over items trying to decipher what’s in or not, we have our younger hip contemporary crowd – we try and find pieces that can be dressed up or down and appeal to ladies across the board. Getting to serve and connect with other women on a daily basis is the joy behind what I do.

 Oh my gosh, I spent some time on your site today! You have some gorgeous styles!!! I’ll definitely be visiting again.

How long have you been using email to help market for StylebySamiJo? 

In March we launched a new site and picked up with email marketing around that same time. Some weeks we’ve seen it generate a significant amount of revenue while others remained a steady stream.

 Now that Mailchimp is rolling out this new Google remarketing ads feature, how do you think this will impact your email marketing strategy? 

I’m hopeful that this feature will catch the customers that “fall through the cracks”. The wandering customer. The busy and distracted customer. The new web remarketing strategy makes it nearly impossible to not recapture your customer’s attention.

What is one way that you use email to encourage sales?

With each email campaign we are strategic in our tagline/subject lines, lots of emojis, discounts, reward points, etc. We use email to encourage sales on specific ‘hot’ products or to bring back a product that has been restocked. Our goal is make sure we are offering content that is of value to the viewer and not just flooding their inbox with junk. We definitely want to earn the business of these potential customers, but also walk the line of not coming off pushy.

Is there anything you wish you knew about email strategy when you started StyleBySamiJo?

I wish I would have known how easy it can be. As a business owner it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the ins and outs and daily task of owning a business. There really is SO much that needs to be done and so many hours in the day to do it. Mailchimp has simplified it down and made it possible for literally anyone to use. Once you get it all set up, I can target specific customers with specific products thus resulting in more sales.

There is so much to running an online business, but thankfully Mailchimp is taking these HUGE strides to make our jobs a just a little bit easier! Be sure to check out this new launch and the other amazing tools they have to offer, today!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of MailChimp.

The post Big news for web re-targeting and sales conversions for online entrepreneurs appeared first on Becky & Paula.

We are firm believers in the ability that bloggers have to make fulltime incomes from their blogs. Becky and I are both doing it and we know so many other bloggers who are doing that and more as well. We’re so excited to get you started on your journey to making money blogging. 

Often, the easiest place to start, is with ads. Google adsense will take smaller blogs, so that means you have a higher chance of being accepted there than to some of the other ad companies such as adthrive, glam, blogher or the blogger network.

Once you’ve applied and been accepted, you can set up 3 ad codes anywhere on your site. Places like your sidebar, header and even in the bottom of posts tend to do best. Ads displayed above the fold (meaning they are seen without any scrolling on your site) usually yield the best payout, so keep this in mind when placing ads.

Expected income from ads truly depends on your site’s size. As an example, several years ago when I started using adsense I earned around $50-$100 a month for page views averaging around 22,000 a month. It does take a few weeks for your full earning potential through ads to be discovered. Google will crawl your site and figure out what type of ads your readers respond best to, and then show more of those so that you can get more money.

Another nice thing about adsense is your ability to block ads that you do not like. You can block entire sites, or genres of ads if you don’t want something that you feel is inappropriate ever showing up on your site. If you already have adsense, here’s a tutorial to help you boost that ad income even more by adding other ads to your waterfall… Don’t worry we explain it all in the video!

After your ads are implemented, we suggest dabbling in some sponsored posts. While many media companies require a minimum amount of pageviews to apply, there are others that take bloggers of all sizes. Our favorite site to get you started is Izea. While this site also serve larger bloggers they tend to have a fair amount of opportunities for bloggers who are just starting to monetize and still building their platforms.

Sponsored posts provide you with the opportunity to get paid for posting content to your blog. These do not need to be commercials for products, you can write a sponsored posts that fits with the feel of your blog normally so it is fun for readers to interact with, while also earning you money and providing exposure for the brand.

We’ve written extensively about sponsored posts, so you can write the best posts possible and also find more opportunities for your blog.

The third place we suggest going to start earning money blogging is affiliate marketing. If your state or country complies, Amazon associates is a great place to start. Through Amazon you can earn money every time some one clicks on a link to a product on your site. This means everything from a parenting post mentioning (and linking to) pacifiers, to a heartfelt piece about the most recent book you’ve been enjoying can be monetized. It’s a handy way to earn extra money without changing the content of your posts much at all.

You can also become an affiliate and sell books for other bloggers, which can bring in a great income for your site if you find books relevant to your niche.

These are the three things we recommend doing to start monetizing your blog. If you aren’t quite sure you are ready yet, check out this list of things to do before you monetize. Or, if you want to have higher pageviews before you start focusing on the income, you may find this post about doubling your blog’s pageviews helpful!

The post How to START Monetizing Your Blog appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Critical Thinking & Reflection

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you know the source of your revenue?
2. Do you know how much you spend each month?
3. Do you make real time decisions?
4. Do you feel overwhelmed and know why?
5. Can you identify the specific gaps in your business that would make all the difference if they were filled up?
6. How much income do you want to make?
7. What are your big goals?
8. What are your specific goals?

Once you get a handle on the answers to these questions (you don’t have to HAVE the answers to all these questions), then you’re ready to move onto the next phase of your business planning.

Mindset & Mission

So, the first phase above gets you grounded and feeling in control of your business. You should know where you need to spend time in your business, where you stand financially, and how much money you want or need to make to grow and sustain your business.

Now you’re ready to move forward.

First is mindset: embrace the FACT that you’re a business owner. When someone asks you what you do for a living, your answer is “I own a small business”, not “I am a blogger.” Certainly blogging is part of the picture but it is a small part of the overall picture.

Next, nail down your niche & write down your mission and vision for your business.

Finally, have specific goals outlined – both specific and not so specific – so you know the path that will lead you to achieve those goals.

Organizational Strategy

Step #1 should prepare you well to move into your organizational strategy. If you’re like me, I spent years doing everything on my own. Then I slowly began to outsource but still I made that decision without high level thinking. Thank goodness I have a wonderfully patient assistant but it took lots of thinking and iterations before I grasped what I needed, what I wanted to do (my strengths), and what I needed to outsource (my weaknesses).

Take another step back and identify the biggest areas of need, outline role descriptions, and hire for that role specifically.

For me, I have a project manager, a virtual assistant, a CPA, and am in the process of hiring a designer on retainer and a technology guru.

Be prepared to invest in your team. It’ll be worth every penny in the vast amount of time you’ll save spinning your wheels. Productivity will make you more money. Hiring a team will save you time and in the end grow your business in ways you didn’t realize were possible without a team.

Relationship & Product Strategy

Blogging businesses changed the face of marketing. Long gone are the days of selling. Bloggers are about community & relationship management. So, how will you grow your community? How will you reach them? How will you involve your readers in product development? How will you get to know their problems and pain points so that you can effectively address them?

Monetizing your blog is partly about advertising but it’s a small piece of the revenue puzzle. Think about an affiliate strategy and other products that can meet the needs of your audience.  Involve your audience in the development of these products getting their feedback and using their language.

Of course, these four phases are only a start to getting deeper and developing strategies around social media and operations. Next, start thinking about which tools will you use to streamline and automate your business. Remember that growing your business does not require more hours. In fact, it should require less with the right tools in place.

I hope you enjoyed this article. You can find me at marniecraycroft.com and facebook.com/groups/businessplanning4bloggers. Also, download my Business Planning 4 Bloggers Workbook for 20+ Exercises to begin your journey to the next level.

~ Marnie

The post Four Phases to a Solid Business Plan for your Blog appeared first on Becky & Paula.

This post contains affiliate links, meaning that at no extra cost to you, we get a small percentage of a sale- we use that money to help support our site and our families.  Thank you!

1. Make sure you are legal! – Many bloggers don’t know that you can’t just do a google search for an image and use it on your blog. Many images have copyrights and you could even be sued for using an image that you don’t have rights to use! I’ve heard several horror stories of bloggers being sued or taken to court over a simple image they didn’t realize they weren’t allowed to use. Make sure you have rights to the images you are using, and if you are not sure, just take or make your own images! Better safe than sorry! — Get stock photos from a place like deposit photos where you can see the rights that you have for the pictures as you get it, instead of just snatching something you like off google.

2. Once you’ve selected the perfect image for your post you need to resize it. You can do this in PicMonkey (my favorite, free photo-editing site) or another editing program. Size the image down to whatever proportions you will be displaying it on your blog. Having huge images actually slows down your blog, so this can really speed up your site if you start sizing your images down. I didn’t know this when I began blogging, and had to go back and re-size them all on year. That was not a fun task, so it’s good to know!

3. Watermark – This isn’t a requirement, but a personal choice. I watermark all images that include people in them, to try to protect myself and my family from people snagging our images and using them somewhere without our consent (like the lady who had her innocent blog photos stolen and used on a porn site. Not even kidding). Learn how to watermark your photos here.

4. Rename your image – Instead of leaving the image name as something like IMG_0492 change the image name to something relevant to your post. You can do this straight from picmonkey as well. When you are done resizing and watermarking, save your image to your computer. While saving you have the opportunity to rename the image. For example, the photo above is now named “how to resize your image in picmonkey.jpg”. This helps with SEO, because if some one is searching how to resize an image, now that photo or this post may show up in the search. It also can translate to pinterest, when some one pins from our site, it will grab that descriptive name, instead of a boring image number.

What things do you do before uploading an image to your blog? 

The post 4 Things You Need To Do Before Uploading An Image To Your Blog appeared first on Becky & Paula.

In fact, the more I get into affiliate marketing the more I LOVE IT.

There are lots of ways to make money blogging, the possibilities are truly endless, so in preparation for the 4-week affiliate master class I’m teaching starting on Tuesday, I thought it would be fun to write out just a few of the ways that affiliate marketing has rocked my blogging world over the past year.

ONE – It pays the bills. Since I now blog full time, this is a huge priority for me. I need things to pay my bills, and affiliate marketing does just that.

TWO – It is consistent. I love a good sponsored post… I love the immediate income that sponsored posts bring and the challenge of working with a brand to create something awesome. What I don’t love is that I only get paid for that post once. Even if I write the BEST POST EVER, the brand isn’t going to come around and cut me a check for my work every single month. (True, they may hire me again, which is stellar, but requires more work on my end). With affiliates you make money on your posts again and again. Every time a good affiliate post goes viral it’s money in the bank. Having posts that continue to make money after the initial posting period makes my job a whole lot easier.

THREE – Using old content – I have been blogging a LONG time, which means I have all these old posts just sitting around not doing much for me aside from ad income when I promote them. Using affiliates I can go back and make those old posts work twice as hard, just by adding in some new affiliate links. Suddenly, instead of just making money of the thing I did today, I’m making money off things I did last week and last year (and even a few years ago).

FOUR – There’s options – I love experimenting with the way I run my business. Sometimes I like to try something different with a brand and see what happens. When I’m doing sponsored posts, I feel like I need to play it safe a little bit more and do things I KNOW will work. With affiliates, I am more free to try things 1,000 different ways, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, since I’m the one in control of that relationship and I have time to experiment.

FIVE – It makes me a better blogger – With other types of blog work, it’s easy to get complacent since we don’t necessarily see how many people went to the store and bought the particular type of detergent we blogged about in yesterday’s post. Sure, we see how many page views the post got, but we don’t know how those views have translated into sales for the brand. With affiliate marketing you typically get paid only when some one makes a purchase. That means you learn to work hard to actually make sales. Working this way for my affiliates has ended up improving the way I do sponsored posts and other work with brands because I have seen how it works from post-to-sale and know how to yield the results they need.

SIX – It’s a powerful marketing tool –  I have affiliate pins that make a few dollars a month. I’m not breaking any income-records with a pin that gives me $15 a month, but look at the difference…given the choice between a pin that is going to earn me a few dollars every single month (especially if I just add it to my regular tailwind schedule) and a sponsored pin I do for a brand that is going to be pinned once and forgotten by both brand and blogger. Clearly, the affiliate pin is more powerful, for me AND the brand.

SEVEN – Monetizing social – Like I mentioned above, affiliate links allow you to make money on Pinterest, but they also work on Instagram and Facebook too! Even twitter, if you have a good following there. When you are using them right, your readers will enjoy seeing them from you, even on your social media platforms and you can start making money on every platform you manage.

I could go on and on! As your affiliate strategy grows, it builds passive income for your blog which takes a lot of the stress off of your shoulders to pull in blog money from every which way. Affiliates can give you the freedom to be more selective about the other types of opportunities you take, or just free up your time to focus on the parts that you love.

Starting Tuesday, January 10th I’ll be teaching a 4-week master class to help you with your affiliate strategy. We’ll go through different ways affiliate marketing can work for bloggers and how to implement links on your site in a way that won’t annoy your readers.

You can ready more and sign up for the master class here. Your opportunity to join closes at 7pm CST on Tuesday January 10th and the first live video will be at 8pm CST on the same day!

This class will be one live video a week, and then assignments to help you implement what you are learning.  I take the hands-on approach so after the class you aren’t left with lots of great information but struggling to know where to begin implementing what you know! I’ll be there to support you through the week and help you if you get stuck trying to make something work on your blog.

I hope to see you there!!!

The post Why affiliates are so important for bloggers appeared first on Becky & Paula.

 

We will work through monetizing content you already have, LEVERAGING already popular content to make your new affiliate content work for you and how to create something totally new to get the most of it….and so much more.

This four week class will teach you tips and tricks you can use all year long to generate affiliate income for your blog.

The post How to make money all year round with affiliates appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Here is a list of Facebook pages that welcome sharing every day. These are all family oriented blogs, those with more specific requests for shares have been noted off to the side.

Pages with over 1 million followers

Quirkymomma (kids activities blog) – Over 2 million fans!

Happy Hooligans

Toddler Approved

Red Ted Art

Spaceships & Laserbeams

Fun Crafts for Kids

Living On A Dime

Tip Junkie 

The slow roasted Italian – food only

Pages with 100,000+ followers

Your Modern Family

Grocery Shop for Free

The Thrifty Couple

The SITS Girls

Totally the Bomb

Lemon Lime Adventures

Foodie Fun

Teaching 2 & 3 Year Olds

About a mom

Pages with 15,000+ followers

Beauty Through Imperfection

Meaningful Mama

A Spark of Creativity

Cravings for Food, Savings and Fun

All She Cooks

The Educator’s Spin on it

Dirt and Boogers

Thinking Outside the Sandbox

Artsy Craftsy Mom (arts & crafts only)

In the Playroom

Little Bins for Little Hands

Growing Book by Book

This Reading Mama

Left Brain Craft Brain

Picklebums – Australian audience so consider seasons carefully.

Artsy Momma Blogs –  crafts only

Rainy Day Mum (tuesdays only)

Learn with play at home (sundays only)

Making of a Mom

Eats Amazing

The Relaxed Homeschool

The joys of boys

ASparkofCreativity

Realistic Mama

Fireflies and Mudpies

Saving by design

The Relaxed Homeschool

Educator’s Spin On It

Empress of Dirt

Virtual Book Club For Kids

Life over C’s

The Jenny Evolution

Happily Ever Mom

Enza’s Bargains

Imperfect Families

Be sure to check out our tips on how to get noticed by the big pages and get your posts selected for sharing from the wall here!

The post Large Facebook Pages That Allow Daily Shares {15k+ followers} appeared first on Becky & Paula.

You need to do the recommended updates on your blog.  If you ever have this little thing on your page…   (that little circle next to a number), it means that you have an update to do.  Here  

Here are five reasons that you need to do these updates: 

1. NOT updating your blog can slow it down.
2. It can throw things off, like your theme, causing your page to look funny or having things all over the place  (all of my pictures went to the right when I didn’t update my theme)
3. It can cause a bigger issue, like your page not loading
4. Improve features on your page.   Sometimes even a WordPress Update itself is needed and it will actually give you more (and better) features!
5. Keep hackers out.  When you don’t update your plugins, you are giving your hackers a little “hole” in your page… and they might find their way in.WPBeginner made an awesome infographic, dedicated to updating!
   

Things to remember during the update:

1. Don’t navigate away from your page until you see the “all updates have completed”.
2. You can update everything at once.
3. It is really important to do your updates.

SO…. passing it along to you!!    Update your pages, friends!!

The post Do I need to do updates on WordPress? YES! appeared first on Becky & Paula.