Have you wondered how it is that they are able to do that and how the heck you can get your pic to show up when you leave a comment?

It’s done automatically with Gravatars.

A Gravatar is a ‘Globally Recognized Avatar’.  An Avatar is simply an image used to represent you on the internet.

I think having a Gravatar set up is great for developing your web presence.  I love seeing smiling faces in my comment section and I love know that the blogs I comment on will sport my face for everyone to see.

To create your own Gravatar you will start by getting a photograph of you saved on your computer.  Don’t worry about it being a headshot or and don’t be concerned about size.

Now to go to the Gravatars website.

You’ll create your account based on the email address you use when you’re leaving comments on blogs so enter that first.  You will receive an email from Gravatars to confirm this address.  The next step will be to set up a username and password and upload your photo.

Once your image is uploaded you’ll be able to crop your photo just the way you like – hit save and you’re done!  Now this image is associated with your email address and anytime you comment on a Gravatar enabled blog, you’ll see it next to your comment.

Why not try it out right now?  Show us your Gravatar!

This happens one of two ways. First, the blogger is contacted by the vendor, who has visited the blog and feels that their readers would enjoy learning about the product. Or, better yet, the blogger contacts the manufacturer and requests a free product!

To try this yourself, draft a short letter of introduction showcasing your blog. Make sure that you also include your mailing address and phone number.

Send it to vendors, requesting a SPECIFIC product that you feel your readers would be interested in. Many bloggers will tell you that they have better luck asking for a specific product, instead of requesting a product in general.

These vendors realize that product reviews generate a ton of interest. So, many are happy to send out a complimentary product in hopes of making additional sales.

• Go with .com – most people are going to remember .com. Domain names that end in .net or .org for instance, may be easier to find than domains that end in .com, but if you have a different ending, you could end up losing customers.
• Spell things correctly – if you want to name your blog “sewing by Susie” and it’s already taken, don’t misspell words on purpose (example: “sewing by sue-z”). Misspellings are hard for your customers to remember, and if they type in the correct spelling of the domain, you may end up sending them to someone else’s blog.
• Don’t hyphenate-if you want to name your blog “photography by paula” and it’s taken, don’t hyphenate it (example: “photograpy-by-paula). Again, customers may not remember the hyphens and end up somewhere else.

Take your time – it may seem like all the good names are taken but they’re not

When you buy your domain name you can enter a public or private registration. Public registrations will be visible in the whois.com directory. The whois directory allows people to type in a website and view the owner’s personal identity. If you do not want your personal information shown, choose private registration (this will usually cost a little bit extra).

You can register your domain anywhere they’re sold. You will be registering the domain for a single year or in terms of multiple years. The cost for registration varies from company to company. By they way, Mom Webs offers domain registration when you sign up for their hosting – but you don’t have to register your domain with them to use their hosting.

After you have selected the term of your registration (such as 1, 2 or more years) and decided if you want public or private registration, you only need to enter your billing info and complete your purchase.

As you can see the steps are really simple. So, if you’ve been hesitant about buying a domain name for your blog, wait no more!

Most mom bloggers, even pros who are making an income are NOT the type of person who gets addicted to spending on their business so I know many of you will be able to relate to me when I share my early ‘uber low spending habit’!

Still, even in our world, there are those who get caught up in all the hype and end up overspending.  Please DO share this video with others!

Join MomWebs for Free Power Packed Blogging Webinars at 1:00 pm Eastern – January 7-13th

• Monday: Creating Content & Building Traffic for your Blog
• Tuesday: Choosing Themes & Plugins for your Blog
• Wednesday: Using Audio & Video on your Blog
• Thursday: Creating Profits for Your Blog
• Friday: Open Blog Marketing Q& A

During these sessions, they will introduce you to some great blogging pros:

Tracy Roberts, a professional mom blogger & affiliate manager, uses her experiences to leverage opportunities to make more money while being a work-at-home mom.  She has created several products & participated in many product launches for herself and her clients with great success.  With a sense of what works for particular target markets, she has put her focus on helping other bloggers and product owners understand and profit from their own target markets.

Cindy Bidar is a WordPress developer and online project manager specializing in tech issues. Her ability to troubleshoot problems in WordPress and a variety of other scripts makes her a valuable asset to any team. She enjoys designing systems to save her clients money, while ensuring the integrity and security of their websites. Cindy is co-owner of SafeWP.com, a community designed to help website owners master the skills they need to keep their web properties safe from malicious hackers.

Courtney Chowning is a tech geek who has been working in the IT industry for over 12 years.  She started blogging in 2006 and immediately got hooked.  Once she discovered WordPress, she fell in love with it.  Courtney has built a business providing WordPress technical support and teaching others how to use WordPress to create blogs and websites that get traffic and make a profit. Courtney is also the founder of Faithful Bloggers, a community for Christian bloggers.

Lynette Chandler is a geek who loves marketing. While working as Marketing Executive in the corporate sector, she began applying technology to her work and soon became good at fusing the two together. As a natural progression, she became the marketing technology go-to-gal when she struck out on her own. Today, Lynette continues to assist clients and is actively developing tools that help businesses grow. She also trains freelancers so they too can provide technical support services and get paid well doing so. Learn more from Lynette by following her blog at TechBasedMarketing.com/

Desiree Peeples is a mom, published author and blogger, and teaches individuals and small businesses how to integrate social media into their promotion and marketing strategies. She worked in traditional broadcast media as a reporter for almost ten years before moving her skills to the online space.  She is the creator of MommyReporter.com and RunningOrganized.com and has a passion for online video blogging.

Blog Week is open to everyone interested in know more about blogging!!  Make sure to take full advantage of blog week!!!

These are some questions I’ve been asking lately as I plan for 2013.

Evaluate

As I reflect on this past year, I’ve realized a few things. First, I’m committed to seeing my business succeed. Second, there are many areas where I need to step out of my comfort zone so I can grow as a person and as a business. Third, I need to choose fewer business models to focus on in the coming year to laser target my energy.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. Even so, we can reflect, evaluate and tweak our business to always be moving in a forward direction.

Motivate

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts recently aired two podcasts and a mastermind group session on the topics of getting out of your comfort zone, finishing projects you start and being the source of information for your customers.

Grab a cup of your favorite brew and listen now:

• It’s Time to Stretch Yourself!
• Be a Finisher
• Assume You are the Source

No matter where you are in your business, these are very powerful audio sessions that will motivate and inspire you.

Challenge

Kelly is also offering a session called the Stretch Yourself Challenge. This is for those of us who provide awesome services and need to get the word out. We all need to get more buzz for our business and this challenge is a good place to gain some direction and light a fire under our behinds!

I learned a little saying once that helped me have the courage to get out of my comfort zone and create a better reality for myself – “fake it till you make it”. Those words may sounds as if you are a fraud but the real intent is to go ahead and try to do something that you may be fearful of at first but the more you do it the more real it becomes. This is how you s-t-r-e-c-h yourself.

Sign up for the Stretch Yourself Challenge. It might be the best thing you do for yourself this year!

It’s full of holidays and seasonal reminders.  Print it out and use it to keep your blogging fresh all year long.

Its no fun running into problems and not knowing how to fix them. Then having to search around for answers to the problems is a time waster or if you don’t have the time to get it figured out for yourself and have to hire someone then its a money waster. Its important for us bloggers to be in complete control of our blogs. That’s why I recommend taking Courtney’s Learn WP Fast.

Learning WordPress on your own is, of course, doable but why would you want to take all that extra time and effort when this program offers the main things you need to know to run a successful blog. I consider myself at the intermediate level now but as a beginner I didn’t know diddly. I was intimated by, well, everything about WordPress.

Beginner Level

This program offers instructions on how to use:

• The dashboard
• Gets you familiar with creating posts
• Uploading media (such as photos)
• Approving comments
• Creating tags and categories for your posts

Intermediate Level

At this point I’m interested in using templates and customizing my theme to satisfy my constant need for tinkering with the look of my site so the intermediate level works for me. This level covers:

• Using templates
• Customizing themes
• Troubleshooting problems
• Backing up
• Upgrading your site

Advanced Level

For experienced users wanting to delve into the techy side of things, this level covers:

• Different aspects of coding, including PHP and CSS,
• More advanced theme customizations
• MySql Database usage

Each level is just 1 hour per day for three days. If you decide to take all three level courses its only a total of 9 hours and can save you a ton of time and money when you run into problems later.

If this sounds good you’ll want to hurry because the first course starts this Monday, November 5. Sign up for Learn WP Fast.

Below you will find 5 fun and funky free themes that appealed to me:

Paper Craft (Dream) by Templatelite

My favorite features: support forum, custom menu, automatic thumbnails, compatible with most browers and SEO ready.

Adelle Theme by Bluchic

My favorite features: Social Media sharing, custom menu, preset widgets, responsive layout design (not sure what this is?).

Minimatica by One Designs

My favorite features: view modes (photoblogging gallery or classic blog view), audio, video and podcasting capabilites.

Bluebird Theme by Diva Themes

My favorite features: customizable widgets, footer widgets and customizable menus.

A Word to the Wise When Using Free Themes:

I was very impressed with EZ WordPress Themes. They have lots of categories to choose from with lots of various themes to choose from. But, when I went to download an awesome theme I was so disappointed. The download page went to another website that would allow me to either download for free or pay for additional features (that should normally come with the theme). Then, it actually popped up with two unsavory websites. This deterred me from trying anymore to download the themes. Free themes are very nice but just be careful when downloading.

The following theme is free but requires Genesis Framework to run on (a child theme):

Simply Sweet by Auxano Creative

My favorite features: simplified blogging design, landing page and threaded comments.

Copy Blogger published How to Find a WordPress Theme that Works that will help you decide what elements are important for you and help you find a StudioPress option that will work for you. StudioPress isn’t free but they are reasonably priced and as with most premium themes offers free updates and support which can be invaluable when problems arise.

My favorite WordPress theme (which is not free) that is build on Genesis Framework by StudioPress is:

Modern Blogger by StudioPress

My favorite features: custom header and background, 6 layout options, featured images, and threaded comments.

This is a premium theme which means its not free but its so worth it.

If you already have the Genesis Framework you can purchase premium child themes separately pretty inexpensively. Like this Modern Blogger theme is only $24.95 (but you must have the Genesis Framework for it to work). If you don’t have the Genesis Framework you can purchase it plus this premium theme for $79.95 which is very reasonable for a great WordPress theme.

What’s your favorite WordPress theme and why?

Blogging, in my opinion, is definitely a learned skill and attitude can make or break you.

Let me share a few good examples of ideas these bloggers are using to grow their own blogs and hope you will be able to take some great ideas and put them to work for yourself.

Engage Your Audience: Encourage your readers to comment by asking lots of questions and always, always respond to them. Here’s some more great tips from Audra Michelle of Rediscovering Domesticity.

Network with Blog Hops: What’s a blog hop you say?: I’ll let Jessica McCoy of At Home, Take 2 explain.

Blog with a Purpose: By defining what you want to accomplish you will be able to blog with a purpose. I love that phrase. Ashley Stock of Little Miss Momma has some great pointers to share. The main focus being knowing what you want and following your heart to help you network which in turn will grow your blog.

Humor Sell: Everyone needs a laugh so sprinkle in a little humor and people will be back. Check out this simple recipe from Zachary W. (aka mszdub) at Raising Colorado . Its funny! And its a perfect example of how to put a smile on my face.

Be a Guest Blogger: Last on my little list but certainly not least is guest blogging. Finding similar blogs in your niche to be a guest blogger on will put you out in front of people who would have otherwise never been exposed to you. Crissy Herron of Indie Biz Chicks covers this along with a couple of other great ways to grow your blog.

There are so many ways to gain exposure to your blog but these are some good ways to get started.

What methods do you use to grow your blog?

Thanks Nicole for showing us a great time saver!

Check out Nicole’s Blog CPR here.

Our friend,  Brandie of Spoon and Saucer, is a food blogger who recently went to the International Food Blogger Conference in Portland, Oregon. This was her first time attending a foodie blog conference and she loved it.  She experienced stuff like wine tasting techniques and pairing, food photography, and even pig butchering.  Check out her full report here.

I personally would love to attend a blogging even such at the Bloggy Boot Camp because they offer workshops in the subject matter I’m most interested in like, vlogging, social media and writing excellent content. Not to mention its in Las Vegas!

What sort of blogging event would you like to go to?

Install Software

You can get Gimp 2.8 here. Once you’ve downloaded the software, install and you will be ready to proceed to creating your original images.

Upload Your Photo

Start by choosing an image you would like to work with. Then to get your photo into Gimp you will click the File menu at the top of your screen, click Open, choose your photo, and click Open at the bottom of the dialog box.

*Note: if you are unable to see your preview photo at the left of the dialog box window, click anywhere within the preview window and your photo will appear.

Add Text

When you opened Gimp two smaller windows opened within the program, one is the Toolbox and the other is the Layers dialog box.

Steps:

1. In the Layers box click the Create New Layer button (1st button at the bottom of the layers dialog box)

Your new layer will be highlighted on top in the layers box.

2. Click the Text Tool button in the Toolbox Dialog Box (Its the button with the “A” on it)

3. Click on your photo and drag to create a text box.

4. Click inside the text box you just created and type your text. Your text will be very small but you can adjust the font, font color and font size in the Toobox.

Note: be sure to highlight your text in the text box so changes will take affect.

5. To move your text you will choose the Move Tool which looks like a cardinal directions sign with arrows on each point. Be sure the layer you are working on is highlighted in the layers box and choose the Move Tool in the Toolbox. You will then be able to move your text to anywhere on your photo.

Save Photo

The normal extension for a Gimp file is .xcf (which will automatically populate), so click Save As and name your photo with the .xcf extension. This will save the photo in the Gimp format for use only in Gimp.

If you want your photo in a format you can use electronically save the photo with the .jpg extension. To do this click on Export, name your file and be sure to use the .jpg extension. Another dialog box will open, click Export (again) to save your photo.

Note: you can export the photo to a .png format the same way.

Using this technique will help your photos stand out from the rest. Be creative!

I will admit it, when I first started blogging I started with Google Blogger. It was the only blogging platform I knew about. But it didn’t take long for me to discover WordPress. Within two months of starting my first blog, I moved from Google Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog and I haven’t looked back.

I understand how a new blogger can be reluctant to invest money in a domain name and web hosting as WordPress requires, especially if they are just checking out the blogging world or starting a blog as a hobby. Regardless of why you blog though, the most important aspect of using a self-hosted blogging platform like WordPress is that you actually own your blog and content. By using WordPress I have total control. I’m not giving some third party, like Google, complete control.

Just because you want to have total control of your blog doesn’t make you a control freak.

Once you have been blogging for a while, it becomes a part of your life and it makes sense to want to be able to design it, modify it, and access it when and where you want to. Using the self-hosted version of WordPress gives you that control and ensures you that you can create a blog that is 100% unique and you.

Another advantage to hosting your blog yourself is that it means your audience won’t have to remember a long domain name and you can choose any URL you want. When you’re hosting your website on a blogging platform like Google you are given a domain like this: http://yourdomainname.blogspot.com. By going this route your domain name can present challenges to your blog readers.

One challenge is that your blogging host may deny the domain name you wish to you for a number of different reasons; including the possible that someone else already has the name. It can be very confusing to have a domain name not match the name of your site. For example, if your blog is named A Place to Blog, but the domain aplacetoblog.blogspot.com is already taken and you choose yourname2012.blogspot.com instead, readers are not going to remember how to get to your blog. Your blog name and domain name should match. It’s also hard to remember a long domain name and a pain to type the entire thing into a web browser. (Yes, you can use your own domain with Google Blogger, WordPress.com, and other hosted platforms, but often times you have to pay extra to do so.)

Depending on why you blog this next hurdle is a biggie. Many hosted blogging restrict what you can do on your blog, especially if you are trying to make money. Many don’t allow affiliate promotions and they don’t allow you to sell ad space or participate in PPC to make money. Host it yourself and you can sell or promote whatever you want on your blog.

Do you want to move from a hosted blogging platform like Google Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog? What’s keeping you from doing so? Is it the money for hosting, the technical knowhow, or lack of time? Join me on July 24, 2012 in a live workshop where Iwill show you how easy it is to move from a hosted blogging platform like Google Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog.

YouTube is the most popular video host site

• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
• 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc) every week

If you don’t have a presence on YouTube you are missing out!

There are optimization tricks you can use on your YouTube channel. You should use your keywords in several places, and YouTube likes when you interlink, create playlists, and generally do things that keep people on their site longer. They have a tendency of using channels they like in search results more often, and with it being the second most used search engine you want your channel to be one they like.

You can receive a detailed personalized report to show you where you can optimize your YouTube channel and increase your traffic.

Go get your customized report before the price goes up!

Pinterest

Let’s take a look at these boards

My first one is the Board  Blogging and Social Media by Sunshine and Sippy Cups.   The board has a couple of good pins that refer to information about Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and using Social Media to drive traffic to your site. The pins that caught my eye on her board are The Blog Guidebook and How To Make Money Blogging

Then there is Gwen’s Nest that has a great board called Webmaster Stuff.  She has pinned useful pins named How to Add Links Back To Your Blog Post, Boost Your Blog Traffic, 10 Secret Ways To Grow Your Blog and many more.

Next there is A Hen’s Nest whose board that I found and enjoyed was Blogging Tips.  This board has information relating to Blog Post, Monetizing, and Article Writing.   A few pins I enjoyed were How To Monetize in 2012 and Dynamic Pitch Letter

Lastly we have Norma Doiron who has a board called Blog Posts that has information about Building Your Blog and one not always touched on is mindset for building your online business.  The boards I checked out here were On Page SEO, Blog Posts, and Winners Find A Way To Win.

I love Pinterest because it is a visual social media.  You can share and organize all the products, books, and resources you love.  It is a way to provide information for others; sharing with your family or especially those in your niche if you are working and building your online business.  I believe you can find boards and pins on almost any subject.

Now get out there and go pinning.  What are some of your favorite Boards and Pins?

Evan Bailyn’s Top Five Tips
to Increase Twitter Followers Instantly

Internet Entrepreneur and bestselling author Evan Bailyn keeps celebrities Tweettastic, making literally hundreds of thousands of people follow his celebrity clients – from soap opera queens to rock stars – with very simple tricks he uses every day.

Drive traffic to your website, increase visibility and revenue with Evan’s top five tweet tips!

1. Make a move – Tweets are 140 characters for a reason – provide information that is direct and to the point. Your tweet is like a headline that grabs the reader’s attention and incites them to action. Make it clear what you want your followers to do (whether it’s sharing an article, re-tweeting to their networks, or visiting a website), but above all, make it appealing.

2. Work your strengths – Become a resource by consistently focusing on one or two subjects. People will follow you because they learn from you. So if you are a baker, talk about butter, cream and cupcakes all day long — this is why your fans will tune in and, in time, share your expertise with others.

3. Keep the conversation going – People come to social media sites to feel like they are a part of something, not to be promoted to. For this reason, success on Twitter is not just about how many followers you have, but also with how engaged they are with what you have to say. Like all social media, Twitter is a two-way street – you want to ask thought-provoking questions to engage discussions, but you should also connect with others by taking part in discussions yourself.

4. Choose your moment – Know when your followers are most active, and make sure you are tweeting then. The goal is to strike a balance between lively interaction and endless flood of tweets – too few makes it hard to maintain a discussion; too many will force your followers to choose between their time and you (time usually wins).

5. Be yourself – Unless you’re a celebrity, most people don’t care what show you’re watching or how long the line at Starbucks is. What they will care about is a unique perspective. Your tweets should be meaningful and relevant, not just empty status updates. Include links to articles or blog posts to give depth to your tweet, and invite comments to keep the conversation going. Ultimately, be genuine and thoughtful. Sincerity is attractive over any medium, even in 140-character doses.

——————————————-

About Evan

Evan Bailyn is an internet entrepreneur, bestselling author, and child advocate. He is primarily known as a search engine optimization expert, having used his ability to rank at the top of Google to build and sell five businesses, including one of the largest children’s websites online. His first book, Outsmarting Google, debuted to rave reviews in mid-2011. Its sequel, Outsmarting Social Media, comes out in early 2012.

Currently, he offers marketing services through his companies, First Page Sage and Good Media Co. Under his tutelage, clients have established the predominant websites in their industries, become New York Times bestselling authors, and grown multimillion dollar product lines. His voice can be found on the social media pages of celebrities worldwide.

——————————————

From the archives:

1. If you’re unsure how to start we have a Twitter tutorial.
2. To hear from a Mom that makes money with Twitter listen to this podcast.
3. Want to know what Twitter hashtags are and how to use them?

What is a Podcast?

Simply put, when you serve a media file through your RSS feed (by linking to it) you are podcasting.  A podcast can be audio or video and can take on a variety of formats.

A podcast is easy to start – you already have a blog so the platform is ready.  Deciding what to podcast is probably the most challenging step.

I have always believed that Moms make great podcasters.  We’re natural relationship builders and love a good chat. Give us a topic we care about and we’ll take off with it.  I’ve helped a lot of moms start podcasts over the year – some who stuck with it and have built up a faithful audience.

Take my pal Tara Crooks of Army Wife Network.  She launched her podcast within a year after I started my own and today it’s the foundation of an incredible business.  It started with her personal interest and status as an army wife and grew into something pretty remarkable.

Do you have a passion that you’d like to share in a more intimate way? Audio is a powerful connector and video even more so. Your readers WANT it – that’s reason enough to give it some consideration, don’t you think?

Whether you’ve given Podcasting a thought before – DO come to the webinar and let me work my powers of persuasion on you

I’ve known Tiffany online for a long time. She’s the real deal when it comes to mom bloggers who make real money.

Her Post Covers These Income Streams:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Sell Your Own Products
• Sell Ads
• Host a Directory
• Sponsored Posts/Paid Reviews
• Blog Sponsorship
• Squidoo and HubPages

Grab a cup of something delicious and read this one all the way through.