Women: Blogging Can Give You Wings

I am proud to announce the release of my newest book, Women: Blogging Can Give You Wings.

Welcome to the Launch Party! Through this book, you will be able read the stories of some powerful women in the blogging community to see first-hand how they “grew their blogs.” Their stories will astound you and warm your heart.

This is what is written about the book on Amazon:

Blogging is one of THE most powerful networking tools available today. Learn from bestselling author and blogging expert Cindy Adkins why having an online presence is essential. Increase traffic to your blog and learn from “super-bloggers” who have already mastered success. They include Sonia Crouse, Editor-In-Chief of Creating Vintage Charm magazine; Pat Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Crazy Quilt Gatherings magazine (Gatherings); Karen Valentine (My Desert Cottage) custom blog designer for Valentine Design and creator of the yearly studio event Where Bloggers Create; Sharon Hughes (My Life at Pansy Cottage and Garden) and creator of Launch Your Creativity; Liz Perry (The Brambleberry Cottage); Soraya Julian (Homemaker on a Dime); Debbie Manno (Debbiedoos,) as well as Debra Germain and Nicole Germain-Perez (Capers of the Vintage Vixens.) These are all women who know first-hand how blogging can impact women’s lives and are willing to share their knowledge with others to help them “grow their blogs,” increase traffic, and make their online spaces profitable, as well as enjoyable.

~ ~ ~

You will be seeing this beautiful button throughout blogland, and it was especially designed by Karen Valentine, who is a very talented blog designer and owner of Valentine Design—Thank you, Karen!

If you would like to read this book, but don't have a Kindle, you can download a free app. HERE from Amazon so that you can read it on your desktop--easy, peasy!

Once again, here are the women of Women: Blogging Can Give You Wings. I hope that their stories will touch your lives as much as they have touched mine.

Sonia Crouse

Pat Winter

Karen Valentine

Debbie Manno

Soraya Julian (S.J.)

Debra Germain

Nicole Germain-Perez

Sharon Hughes

Liz Perry

I also have a special post for a hand-crafted journal. If you would like to see it, click HERE.

Linking this to:

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop

Inspire Me Monday

Market Your Biz and Giveaways

Bloggers' Bodega

What's It Wednesday

Time Travel Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

New Year's Giveaway! THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED!

As this year comes to a close and a new one begins, I would like to thank ALL of you for your friendship.

I would like to thank you for being so supportive of my books on Amazon.

I am hoping that 2012 will be a super-fun year of blogging for all of you!!!

I was planning a giveaway to begin on New Year’s Day. But, I have decided to start it early. It is for this precious pink shoe~One winner will be chosen randomly to win it and will be announced on January 10.

When I read about the challenge at Simon Says, I knew that I wanted to enter this repurposed shoe for their theme "Something Old/Something New."

What do you need to do to enter?

Just say “I’m in!” That’s it!

If you would like to include a button on your sidebar, that would be awesome, but not required.

Eiffel Tower Image from The Graphics Fairy.

My precious friend Holly has a very special event planned for this year--It is called A Year of Hope. If you would like to go see this awesome FREE offer, head over to her blog by clicking HERE at 2911 Jeremiah Avenue.

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED!!!

Happy New Year!

Love & hugs,

Cindy

Linking this to:

The Graphics Fairy

Time Travel Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Potpourri Friday

Pink Saturday

Scrap for Help

Simon Says

LINKS ARE ON MY LEFT SIDEBAR!

How to Blog--Free Seminar

Hi Everyone~

Thank you SO much for attending my classes! I hope that they were helpful. I received an awesome letter last night and I wanted to share it with you from someone who bought my books AND attended the seminar~

"Cindy, my followers went from 53 to 67 in the past 3 days!!! I'm so excited! Just a month ago I said my goal was to have 50 followers by the end of the year! lol Thank you for all you've done and continue to do to help me!"

* * * * * *

I've got a tip today:

When you join a link party, MAKE SURE that you put the hostess' address on your post. For instance, if I say that I am linking to Potpourri Friday at Honey's blog, I need to make sure that I highlight her party name and create a hyperlink to it. This is being courteous.

These parties are not free for the hostesses--they pay to have those parties. So, make sure that by linking up to them that you also create the ever-important backlink to their blogs!!!

If you need ANY tutorials on how to do certain things, like adding a blog button or a favicon, just go to Whimsical Musings Magazine--ALL tutorials are there.

* * * * * * *

AND, I have just added a new page to this blog. It is static, meaning I will keep the entire seminar there permanently. Blogging 101 AND Blogging 102 are there. If you have missed any part, you can always come back and visit. How cool is that?

Now, remember my Perils of Pauline story I needed to tell you??? Well, if you look up above on this blog, you will see a tab that says "How to Blog." Click it. Scroll down the page until you see Class 6. THERE'S my story....But, then you will see my final class "BLOGGING ANGELS."

AND after that is Blogging 102 for whenever you want to come back and read it. Like I said, it's short, but you will want to read about HOW to get higher rankings in Google, get your name on the first page in a search, etc.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Class dismissed! LOL

Before you leave, please +1 this for me--thank you!

AND, tomorrow I will have a BIG SURPRISE for all of you who have completed this class--so please be sure to come back!!!

AND, I will tell you one of the BEST SECRETS EVER to get your blog to have TONS of traffic!!! I don't mean followers--I mean ever-important TRAFFIC--people coming to your blog to see what you have to say!

Love,

Cindy

How to Blog: Blogging 101--A FREE Seminar for Woman

In the last few days, I have received many emails from people who need blog buttons. As a graphic artist, I design those, as well as blog headers, so if you need one made, just email me at: Cindylou_20@hotmail.com They're not expensive.

If you are new to blogging, you won't want to miss Debbie's Blog Party for Newbies on Mondays!! Link up and meet new people--it's a blast!!!

Class 4: Pay A Friend a Visit

You have just entered a free online class for women by Cindy Adkins, author of “Blogging: It’s a ‘Woman’ Thing” and “Blog from the Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Blogging,” both available on Amazon.

While this class was designed for women, men are invited too!

• * * * * * * * *

From this class, you will learn:

1. Why it is important to visit other blogs and leave a message
2. Why it is important to visit a blog rather than just email a person.
3. The importance of using keywords in your title.

But, before we start, here’s a quick re-cap and checklist:

Move your “followers” list to the top of your sidebar so everyone can find it.

If you want more comments, remove the “word verification” from your comments.

Be sure to imbed your blog address into your email--Some people have already done that--yay!!! You were listening!!!!

Welcome!

Visit a friend:

One way to increase traffic to your blog is to visit someone that you have not talked to in a long time. Let’s face it--we all get busy. We forget about people we used to talk to. So, when you leave here, just go to your list of followers, pick someone to visit and leave them a message.

But, there’s a reason: Remember I talked about back-links making you more visible in search engines???? Well, if you leave a message for someone, you will find that your blog name ends up in a search engine for that too!!! MORE TRAFFIC to your blog!!!

Leave a Message: This is very important. If someone visits your blog and leaves you a message, make sure to visit their blog and leave one for them. Simply sending an email means, “Thanks for coming, but I’m not at all interested in your blog!” I have had this happen to me and believe me, if I was a first-time visitor to someone’s blog who does that to me, I don’t come back.

Special Note: If you are good friends with someone, that is a different story...You will catch up and visit as soon as you can, but I’m talking about if someone visits your blog and you never try to visit theirs. Got it?

There is one more item I would like to gloss over today (more detail will be forthcoming in Blogging 102 next week.) Do not forget the importance of key words when creating your blog posts--that is, if you want NEW people to find you.

Do you notice that each class of mine is entitled “How to Blog.....”

The reason is because that is a much-searched for term. If I want to help people who are in Blogland, I need to help them find me if they are not already followers of my blog. So, remember that when you are making your posts.

If you go to Google and type in “How to blog,” my class is on the very FIRST page of Google! See what I mean? It works!

So, when you post, if you want to be found, make sure that you use key words. Like I said, I will go into greater detail about that in Blogging 102, which starts next week. I will also help you to find where key words are located.

SPECIAL NOTE: Because of the overwhelming amount of emails I have received in response to this seminar, I have made a series of tutorials on my Whimsical Musings Magazine blog. I hope that they will help answer many questions of a "techie" nature. They are so EASY and required a great deal of work to simplify them to be helpful with pertinent questions--but I think it is really worth it to have all the info. in ONE PLACE that you can access:

These include:

How to insert a blog button

How to make a favicon

How to get rid of word verification on Blogger

How to center a header on blogger

Why the +1 button is important for blog ranking

How am I doing? Was this class helpful? If it was, please click the +1 button down below--thank you!!! To find out ALL ABOUT the +1 button, click HERE!!!

Because I am in the midst of a big project, I will not be available for questions on Monday--just wanted you to know I didn't disappear!

How to Blog: Blogging 101--A Free Online Seminar for Women--Class 3

In the last few days, I have received many emails from people who need blog buttons. As a graphic artist, I design them, so if you need one made, just email me at: Cindylou_20@hotmail.com They're not expensive.

Just remember, it doesn't matter where someone puts your button on their blog. You just need it on as many blogs as possible to create ever-important back-links. But, ask them to be sure to link back to your blog!

These classes were designed to help YOU rock the blog world!!!

Class 3: Check Your Stats

You have just entered a free online class for women by Cindy Adkins, author of “Blogging: It’s a ‘Woman’ Thing” and “Blog from the Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Blogging,” both available on Amazon.

BIG NEWS!!! Blogging: It's a "Woman" Thing just went up over 18,000 ranks on Amazon today!!! Yay!!!

While this class was designed for women, men are absolutely welcome too!

From this class you will learn:

1. How to check your blog stats

2. Why blog stats are important

3. How choosing the right parties

can increase traffic to your blog

* * * * * * *

Welcome! or in other words, "Let's Party!"

Be sure to check how many visitors you have had from your blog stats. See how many people came to your blog in the last week, but also look at where they came from.

In the future, if you join blog parties, join the ones that bring traffic to your site. I joined a blog party once that brought me 2 visitors. I spent 4 hours creating that post. If I knew what my stats would be for that party, I would not have come back.

* * * * * *

I also joined a blog party once that brought me 500 visitors in a matter of 2 days! Not one of the people left a message, but they increased traffic to my blog. Was it worth the time of posting? Yes, indeed it was! In fact, some very small blog parties can bring people who actually visit AND leave messages, so don’t worry about the size of the party.

Some big parties are what I refer to as “Stop and Drop’s.” People put their link on and never visit a single person. Why do they bother? It’s fun to visit AND when you leave a comment on someone else’s blog--get this part--your comment will often come up in search engines too and make you look like you’re “all over the place!”

If you would like to see how to check your stats on Blogger, click HERE! It’s easy!

One more thing: Before you go, could you please push the +1 button below this post? I'd really appreciate it!

Now, here are some awesome places to party!

If you are new to blogging, I would like to suggest Debbie's Newbie Party--You'll get lots of traffic from there!!! It's happening every Monday.

Here are my daily favorite picks with the names of the hostesses:

Monday: Brag Monday (Karen)

Tuesday: Blogger's Bodega (Debra and Nicole)

Wednesday: White Wednesday (Kathleen)

Thursday: Time Travel Thursday (Liz)

Alphabet Thursday (Jenny)

Friday: Show and Tell Friday (Cindy)

Potpourri Friday (Honey)

Saturday: Pink Saturday (Beverly)

If you ever want to join one of them, feel free to come back here and

click on them from this post or from my sidebar!

I’ll see you tomorrow for Class 4.

Have a wonderful day!

How to Blog: Blogging 101: Class 2: Visitors Don't Read Everything

You have just entered a free online class for women by Cindy Adkins, author of “Blogging: It’s a ‘Woman’ Thing” and “Blog from the Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Blogging,” both available on Amazon.

While this class was designed for women, men are invited too!

* * * * * * * * *

Welcome! Blogging allows you to be the Star of your own show~This seminar was created to make your blog rock!

From this class you will learn:

1. How you can create permanent back-links on a post

2. Why brevity is very important in blogging

3. Why putting your MAIN point in your title is vital

4. How to attach a blog button in blogger.

First, I need to clarify something from yesterday’s lesson. You can have other people put your blog button on their blog and vice versa to create back-links. But, have you ever written about someone on your blog and made a link that included their blog address? If so, you created a permanent back-link to them already! (Remember that creating back-links is essential for bringing up your blog ranking.)

I create back-links all the time because I talk about people on my blog and put a link to their names. That makes a back-link for them. Here is an example:

“June of Dezinaworld and Gail of Shabby Cottage Studio have amazing images for sale. I know this first-hand because I design for both of these amazing women. Go over and take a look!”

See? I created permanent back-links to 2 people in one sentence!

* * * * * * * *

To learn how to attach a blog button to Blogger, go HERE!! I have written complete instructions with pictures on my Whimsical Musings Magazine blog.

Attaching blog buttons to Wordpress is different. As I have Blogger, this is the method that I personally use. If you have a Wordpress blog, yours will be added differently.

I am a graphic artist and if you need a blog button for your blog, I make them for any type of blog. Just email me at: Cindylou_20@hotmail.com They are not expensive! Also, be sure to tell me your blog address so that I can visit and give you some solid advice about the button.

* * * * * * * *

NOW, ONTO TODAY'S LESSON: Class 2--Visitors Don't Read Everything

Do you know that MOST people only spend split-seconds visiting blogs? Well, it’s true! So, if you bog your visitors down with lots of writing (like I am doing now), chances are that they will not read what you say word for word.

So, what can you do? Post some pictures, put very little text, and you are done!

It will not take you as long AND your visitors will appreciate it.

A TRUE STORY:

I was at a blog the other day in which a woman showed some beautiful pieces of art, but she also told about something terrible that was going on in her life. I looked at the comments. NO ONE mentioned it or said, “I’m so sorry to hear that.” Do you know why? Because they did not read it! Her post was so long that she “lost” people because she was not concise enough.

We blog in between life. We are not trying to spend our whole lives on here. So, if you have something SUPER important that you want people to know, put it in your title. That will get their attention. Then, they can scroll down to read the info. and won’t miss something very important you need to tell them.

How am I doing? Was this class helpful? I’ll see you tomorrow for Class 3.

If you are not a follower, could you please scroll up and join my blog on the top left?

Also, could you please click the Facebook button down below and post this to your Facebook page? I am hoping that thousands of people will come to see it and be helped with their blogs!

If you missed my first lesson, just scroll down to the next post--It is there.

On a special note: I will not be around this weekend~so I won't be able to answer questions.

I have several tutorials on my Whimsical Musings Magazine blog. You might want to go take a quick look in case there's something you need help with, such as centering your blog header or making and inserting a favicon.

How to Blog: Blogging 101--A Free Online Seminar for Women

Class 1

You have just entered a free online class for women by Cindy Adkins, author of “Blogging: It’s a ‘Woman’ Thing” and “Blog from the Heart: A Woman’s Guide to Blogging.”

While this class was designed for women, men are absolutely welcome too! While researching for my books, I came across a great deal of information, BUT it is not all in one place. So, I created this seminar to provide you with tips that you might not know about--and these can help you on your blogging adventure.

From this class, you will learn:

1. How to obtain your blog ranking

2. The importance of back-links

3. The importance of having a blog button

Part 1

We all know that there is plenty of social media to access on the internet. But, with a blog, YOU are the star of your own show!

Want more followers? Here are 3 QUICK TIPS for today:

1. Put your “Followers” widget up at the top of your sidebar so people can find it quickly. If visitors have to hunt for it, they may not join. Make it visible and get more followers. (If you are new to this blog, please become a follower.)

2. Make sure that your blog address is embedded in your email so that when you write someone a letter, they will be able to find your blog at the click of a button.

3. If you have “word verification” on your blog when people leave comments, they may not be as likely to leave comments. So, unless you are really worried about receiving comments from bots, go into your template designer and get rid of “word verification.”

Now, let’s talk about back-links. Did you know that your blog has a ranking on Google? The higher your ranking, the more visibility you will receive in search engines. Yes, it’s true!

Exercise 1:

To check YOUR ranking, just click here.

Put your complete blog address into the box.

Push the button that says “Search PR.”

When you come to a new page, fill in the code box (so that they know you’re a person.)

You will receive your ranking for free. Easy!

The results could surprise you!!!

Before you proceed to Part 2, please scroll down to the bottom of this page--ALL the way down until you reach a gray area where you will see a music player box. Right above it is a widget for you to check your stats. I will always keep it there. So, whenever you want to check yours in the future, come to my blog, scroll down to it and put your info. in. It will take you directly to the SAME page ranking site you were just on. It is ALWAYS a good idea to check your page rank periodically and I will have this available for anyone who visits my blog so that they can check their progress.

* * * * * *

Part 2

Let’s see one method of creating ever-important back-links for you. You know how we have blog buttons for each of our blogs? When you grab a friend’s blog button and place it on your blog WITH a link to their blog, you have JUST created a back-link for them.

BUT, you did not only help them. You could have just helped yourself too. Do you want to know why?

Exercise 2: Try it and see for yourself!

Go to your Google search bar (you know, the place where you go to find things on the internet), click “Images” up at the top left, and put in the words Cindy Adkins Whimsical Musings into the Google search bar and click “search images.” You will see images from my blog. But, look carefully because you will also see pictures of other people’s art.

If you already put my blog button on YOUR blog with a link to me or if you have mentioned me on your blog with a link to my blog, most likely, you will also come up under a search of my name under “images” and vice versa.

A quick glance at my page on Google and you will see artwork from Dorthe at Den lille lade, Terry at Terry 2 Dogs, Lynne from Adorn, Donna from My Shabby Chateau--and more!

If people are searching for my blog in Google, they could also come upon many people that link back to me. How neat is that?

Now you can see why you want your button on your friends’ blogs and why you want theirs on yours. Exposure is the name of the game and as you get more back-links, you will get higher ranking on Google!

Also, when you visit a blog and become a follower, the same thing happens, so don’t forget to follow as many blogs as you can.

If you need to know HOW to insert a button on Blogger, just click HERE. I have complete instructions!!!

Tomorrow in Class 2, I will reveal a little-known fact about blog content.

Just to let you know--All other classes are extremely short and do not contain exercises for you to do!

As a graphic artist, I design blog buttons and would be happy to design yours if you don't have one. Just email me for the price at: Cindylou_20@hotmail.com They're not expensive! Just let me know your blog address so I can visit and give you advice on what I would suggest for the design of it.

Was this class helpful? If so, please tell your friends about it. Thank you, Debbie of Simply Debbie for announcing it on your blog.

If you have a Facebook page, would you mind posting this on Facebook? The Facebook button is right below this post and says "F." Thanks SO much! I am hoping that this class will reach thousands of people!!!

Linking this to Pink Saturday!