A Renaissance Woman by Pamela M. Kramer Moved

My blog has been in transition. I'm making the move and changing platforms. That's right no more redirects for me. A Renaissance Woman should be completely transferred in another day or so. Blogger has been very good to me. It's user friendly and I've been a user for 5 years. Wordpress is a whole new platform for me. I have worked with it a lot now that I have been taking on more projects. It's just one of those things where you either sink or swim. Me, well I'm a swimmer! I'm crossing my fingers that it all goes well and everything will resume back to normal. I can't wait!

You can find all my social media links here on my Google Plus Profile Page don't be a stranger!

Facebook vs. Fan Page

I have made some changes to my Facebook account. My blog feed was going to both my personal account and my Fan Page. To me that would seem a bit annoying to get it twice in your feed, if you're a friend and a Fan. In order to consolidate the posts I thought I would just keep my blogging information on my Fan page (except for this post). What does this mean for you? If you are friend and not a fan then you will likely never see my awesome posts come up in your news feed. What's a friend to do? Click on the hyperlink above that reads "my Fan Page" and click "Like" easy peasy! 

Sometimes navigating your way through the online business can be confusing! As a blogger do you want to be known by your name? Your blog name? Both? How do you want people to find you? It's not a good idea to flip flop about that decision. I made that mistake with my Fan Page a few months back and changed the name. This means that I lost 300+ followers. Oops! I hate it when that happens. People are starting to come back and check it out again. Thank goodness but it's been a slow process.

Do you need a Fan Page? Guess that depends on what your Fan Page is for but an easy rule of thumb would be:
Are you a blogger? Yes - Yes you need a Fan Page.
Are you in business for yourself? Yes - Yes you need a Fan Page.
Are you an individual that just likes to hang out on Facebook and chat with your buddies and play games? Yes - No you probably don't need a Fan Page. Although I wouldn't rule it out. You could create a "I'm the Mayor of Petville" Fan Page. Who knows? I wouldn't rule anything out when it comes to Facebook. For more information on how to market your Fan Page check out this article on Mashable.

Bloggers Get an A for Reciprocity

Let me first start out with defining Reciprocity. I'm cutting and pasting directly from the "Social sciences and humanities" section of the word in Wikipedia.

Social sciences and humanities

• Golden rule/ethic of reciprocity
• Norm of reciprocity, social norm of in-kind responses to the behavior of others
• Reciprocity (cultural anthropology), way of defining people's informal exchange of goods and labour
• Reciprocity (evolution), mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation
• Reciprocity (international relations), principle that favours, benefits, or penalties that are granted by one state to the citizens or legal entities of another, should be returned in kind
• Reciprocity (social and political philosophy), concept of reciprocity as in-kind positive or negative responses for the actions of others; relation to justice; related ideas such as gratitude, mutuality, and the Golden Rule (Ethic of reciprocity}
• Reciprocity (social psychology), in-kind positively or negatively connotated responses of individuals towards the actions of others
• Serial reciprocity, where the benefactor of a gift or service will in turn provide benefits to a third party

This is a handy dandy list of what we bloggers get! We get this concept. You will find that is why businesses want to work with bloggers to help spread the word of their product or service. Small groups of bloggers are formed to help get the word out about their posts using "ReTweets" on Twitter, "Like"s on Facebook, Votes on other sites, "I Like It!" on Stumble or thumbs up on You Tube. Bloggers understand how to help each other, how to highlight each other by using guest posts or featured bloggers. If you haven't been told lately let me be the first to say THANK YOU! I'm so glad this is the custom among bloggers. It's so nice to have the support.

Recently I've taken on a few new roles by becoming a virtual assistant, a social media strategist and a public relations coordinator for a few small businesses. In my experience working with 'non bloggers' in these fields there is not that sense of reciprocity. Some of the people maintaining these company accounts don't seem to understand this is how great networking really works. We help each other. We connect on another level and I'm so thankful for that! It would be great if more people engaged online with this concept. I have found that lots of companies will create a Twitter account and that's it. They don't engage or provide useful updates. Social media is more than just setting up an account. You have to manage it and get involved with the community.

Once again, thank you! Thank you to those bloggers who engage, network and get the true meaning of community.


Click on those "Like" and "Retweet" buttons to share with the online community. For current events see the side bars and click on the "Add Me" tab above to connect with me using other social media services.

Mister Linky vs MckLinky

This is my second post about this Linky subject. If you would like to read the first set of pros and cons click here to read more!

Recently I decided to host a page that features all the "contest giveaway linkys." There are so many bloggers that host their own contest linky during different days of the week I wanted to compile them. I went through all of them and directly connected the url on many of these so that you can click through the list depending on what day of the week it is and it's a really fast process.

Like many of you I want to get the word out about my contest but I want to do it quickly. This is where Mister Linky is a better option!!!! I type in the name of my blog, prize, end date and tab to the next line to paste my direct contest url. What is so cool is that Mister Linky saves it and all I have to do is click enter on every single blog that uses Mister Linky because all the information is saved, talk about a time saver! For example:

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets
If you are participating in Sunday Sweeps!, enter your name and URL in the form below and press Enter.

Your name:
Your URL:

Please leave a comment after linking... Thank you!

Please leave a comment after linking... Thank you!
Shared Meme - Click to Subscribe

Learn more about Sunday Sweeps! here.
Get The Code

When I run into a blog that hosts MckLinky I usually skip over it until I have more time to type. MckLinky will save the url but I have to either paste the name in over and over or retype it. It doesn't have that same feature which is a shame. Call me lazy or call me efficient, lol. I like things to run like a well oiled machine.

There is also a fairly new linky called SimplyLinked and some bloggers use this method as a host. I don't mind this one either because like Mister Linky it will save what I have previously typed and all I have to do is hit enter. Check it out for yourself. If you have a contest to list try my page of links and see what you think! 





Before you go, don't forget to link up! I'm sure we are in some of the same circles. Have a look around the side bars and don't forget to check the "Add Me" tab.

New Buzz Title - Professional Mommy Blogger

After Blogher '09 I've begun to see some bloggers use the title of "Professional Mommy Blogger." I thought to myself, what makes you a professional? Not only that but isn't every Mom blogger now going to title herself as professional? What separates the professionals from the bloggers? I had to do a little research first and what better place to go than Google right?

I Google the term "Professional Mommy Blogger" and this is the result. Oh sure I know of The Domestic Diva and A Cowboy's Wife. I'm not a newbie, I've been around for a couple of years. These ladies have probably been blogging longer and have been to lots of events and are very active in the field of blogging. They both have great blogs and keep up with the latest technology. I can see that.

There are 7 steps listed to become a "Professional Mommy Blogger" according to this post here. I think most mom bloggers meet this criteria.

Then I notice this post from Clarissa author of The Diary of a Poshpreneur. She doesn't want to be referred to as a "Mommy Blogger." Then I think to myself, "maybe that's it, maybe you don't want that negativity attached to what you do as a blogger." Maybe this is where the word "professional" has a more positive connotation.

Now the word "professional" leads me to look up the definition which you can easily find here at Wikipedia. There isn't a degree for blogging. Maybe there will be some day and it could be attached to the field of marketing or business, maybe both. Can you see the curriculum now?

How to start your own blog 101
Internet Traffic 102
Blogger vs Niche Blogger 203
SEO of Blogging 302
HMTL for Bloggers 303
Photoshop for Bloggers 401
How to turn your blog into a money maker 402
How to pitch your blog to businesses 403



Am I getting warm here? What do you think about this new buzz title?





Before you go, don't forget to link up! I'm sure we are in some of the same circles. Have a look around the side bars and don't forget to check the "Add Me" tab.

Google Calendar - It's Becoming A Must Have Tool

courtesy of ccna.com.au

In light of our recent family get together my hubs suggested we use Google Calendar as a way of sharing our busy schedules and keeping in touch. It took me seconds to set it up and I was off to the races. My calendar is full and I can set reminders to email me before events or use pop up windows. My calendar can be shared with my whole family and notifications of events will be emailed to them as well. Another great feature is that I can create a calendar for each child to keep up with all of their practice and school schedules. The settings will also allow me to color code each of them for easier tracking! Now that is a cool gadget. My other family members can make calendars of their own and share them with me too. When they do I can click on their calendars and it will overlap onto my calendar. If your not using Google Calendar yet, maybe you should. It's a handy way to get organized while keeping in touch.

I also missed my blogoversary over the Labor Day weekend. That special date is going on my calendar so I get a reminder. My hope was to have a big bash but with the blog move and all it was not to be but that's ok. Maybe for my third year of blogging I can do something really fun.

Before you go, don't forget to link up! I'm sure we are in some of the same circles. Have a look around the side bars and don't forget to check the "Add Me" tab.

Testing 1, 2, 3...

This new template is soooooooooooooooooo not user friendly. I'm having one heck of a time tweaking things.

8/18/09 - I changed the template 3 more times until I found something more user friendly. I like this one even better. I'll get back to posting ASAP.

Mr. Linky vs Mcklinky

There seems to be a new way to link up in the blogosphere! Are you keeping up? I'm trying to. I've been using Mr. Linky for nearly two years now and well, I'm really attached to him. All we did was post one code in the header of our template and then pasted another in our post as we joined memes and off we went!

One day my code didn't work any more and I read something about the server being down and changes were being made to Mr. Linky. At the same time Mcklinky came along and I actually thought that Mr. Linky was Mcklinky. I was wrong! These are two different brands that do the same thing.

I've signed up with Mcklinky and used his codes but I really missed Mr. Linky. I wrote him and told him hey the link doesn't work for me any more. He moved me to a new server and I was back in business!

Mcklinky is cool and the concept is cool but the sign in box that appears after you use the code takes up a lot of space. You have all blog hoppers signing on one link. I like the idea of having random winners each week for the blog hop. Mcklinky picks the theme and we all join in. Traffic? Well I've noticed a decrease not an increase. There are hundreds of people signing in but they aren't hopping.

Mr. Linky, well I returned back to him because I don't have to type in my url or name over and over. Once I sign in the first time blog hopping my information is there. I like that! The traffic, honestly I get better traffic from Mr. Linky. Why? I think they are actually here to blog hop and not just entering for a prize. Then again it could be that this is what we are use too.

Honestly, I'm not going to go through 300+ links because I don't have that kind of computer or that kind of time. Will I visit those who have signed Mr. Linky? you bet! It's the easiest way for me to respond.

I believe they both have useful purposes and there is enough room in the blogosphere for both of them. If you have thoughts about these guys who have made our ability to be more blog neighborly let me know!

Widget - Day 63

Today was a day for widgets! I was trying to figure out how to keep up with all the Mom Made shops and products and then it hit me, wishpot! So I created my Mom Made list and then created a widget and posted it on the top left side bar. I wanted to be able to share my widget so I clicked on over to Widget Box and created one there to share with other moms! I posted it over here. Think of it has a high tech blog roll! Hopefully other moms involved or those who want to help promote Mom Made will grab the widget and post it in their sidebars.

Before this I was trying to figure out how to help promote all the sponsors with the cyber baby showers that I have worked with and I created a list for them too. I added their widget over here! As you can see it's a widget kind of day!

On the right sidebar there is a 5 Minutes for Fitness button. It links too some really great posts.

The #15 Days of marketing group at Twittermoms is up to 19 members. That's great but there doesn't seem to be a lot of activity yet. I'm not sure why. Time to manage my life! lol

Version 2.0 - mommyRanks

mommyRanks is still very new but creator Lauren Weitzman is already releasing version 2.0. Personally I love the new look. I like to see the thumbnails of the blogs. There are some blogs that I haven't heard of before but the look of their blog is inviting. If it weren't for the snap shots I might not have found them as easily.

I've had a few mommies on twitter ask me what mommyRanks is and how to use it. The simplest answer is that mommyRanks is like digg but better for mommy bloggers. Why? Many users of digg and the like may not view your submitted entry as worthy of voting for. It might not be considered "newsworthy." At mommyRanks you have more options! If you look at the categories on the right side you will see all the options.

It's also a great stop for PR folks looking for mommy bloggers. What a great way for them to find us in one central location? They too can get an idea of what your blog looks like and the types of posts you write.

I've found lots of mommy bloggers there that I already know! Registration is easy and so is the rest of the navigation of the site. Lauren is always looking for ways to improve and she really listens to moms and their suggestions! She is also the creator of the beloved mommybar.

If you aren't already a user you might want to consider joining. Get over to mommyRanks and have a look around.

Why I Need To Win A Flip!

I want more than 8 seconds. She has the sweetest smile!

Testing, Testing 1, 2....

What's going on? Well I'm trying out this signature feature. I see lots of signatures at the end of posts and I think it's pretty cool. There are lots of different ways to do this but I chose signature maker. Then I had to find the code and instructions in order to figure out how to make it appear in each post without having to manually put it there each time. Let me save you some time here! Click here for the code and instructions. I also got an email from mommyranks and she's given us a code to post voting buttons within our posts. Let's test it out and see how it works shall we? Here it goes!
The voting button didn't work where I put it. I'm not liking that box around my name either. Hmmmm I'm going to put that voting button in the edit html part of this post. I'm not going to want to do that every time that is for sure. - It didn't work. Hmmm?

After further consideration I created my own signature in photoshop and then put that in the code instead. I always have to put my own twist on things. :)

Internet Explorer - Day 84

Internet Explorer and I just aren't friends today. My shopping cart doesn't work in IE and my blog doesn't look right in IE. I don't know enough about it to fix it all so I'm having lots of fun today! Why can't we all just switch to FireFox?

I'm Rocking My Own Socks! - Day 88

I've learned so much in the last couple of days it's crazy. First on Twitter MommyJenna was working on a project. She wanted to number her comments in blogger! I too asked about this a while back but the person I asked was using WordPress and I was told it was a complex code so I blew it off. When MommyJenna brought it up again I was curious. I figured out the code thanks to this site right here and MommyJenna sending me the link and it didn't work at first but that's because I put one line of the code in the wrong place. Then I was blog hopping for Aloha Friday and ran across a blog that had a comment form on the post rather than the pop up comment page and it was a blogger blog. I wanted it! After a little research I switched to Blogger draft mode and here is my comment form. Guess what? The comments are still numbered and it all works well. I love it! Leave a comment so you can see the changes for yourself!

TwitStamp

Have you heard of TwitStamp?

According to the site "you can use it anywhere you want! Use the image or one of the preconfigured code tags. You can also preview what the theme will look like on light or dark backgrounds, using the respective buttons.

Following "twitstamp" will allow you to use TwitStamp even if your profile is private."


It's just one of the many latest Twitter gadgets I've discovered. Have fun with it.

Cool New Gadgets

Just wanted to let you know about a couple of fun little gadgets I've run into on the net over the last couple of days.

1.) Ustream - Have you seen this? It's pretty neat. Alejandro from Successfool was on the other night brainstorming about his new comedy idea. How did I hear about it? Katja on Twitter. If you're not on Twitter yet you should be!
Katja is the owner of Skimbaco.com. Her store is going out of business so look for a giant sale going on now!

2.) Gtalk Chat - I use gtalk chat a lot but I had not seen it in a blog until I visited JessicaKnows. You can import your chat to your blog. How cool is that?

3.) 12 Seconds.TV - Oh this is a fun one if you aren't afraid to put yourself on camera. Jessica isn't afraid she's pretty silly. I suggest you flip through her videos until you find her rendition of Cold Hearted Snake by Paula Abdul. Encore! Encore! There on the bottom right hand corner of her blog.

Have fun with these latest gadgets! Let me know how they work for you.

Contest Promotion Blog Roll - Update!

Mommy Bloggers - Do you need a one stop contest promotion blog roll? I know I do! I keep forgetting which sites will help you spread the word about your current contest for free. I tracked down the ones that I knew about and created this handy dandy blog roll. If you know any others please let me know and I will add them!

Many have been added since I first posted this and here are few notes. If you see an M*** in front of the link it means you must have a membership to post there. If you see Mr. Linky and a day of the week, that means Mr. Linky is refreshed on that particular day. Also if you will right click on the hyperlink and select open in a new tab that will keep your from having to reopen the blog roll page. I hope these tips help. I use this blog roll myself so I try to catch any glitches before you do. If you want to add more please contact me. Also if you like to twitter, stumble, digg, mommybar, facebook, etc. your posts those links are in this blog roll too.

Post My Contest

Ping.Fm

Testing ping.fm - Looking for a way to keep up with your status on your social media sites? I've been playing around with Ping.Fm. I really like FriendFeed.com too. Ping.Fm reminds me of a giant rocket launcher. If you have something you want to launch to all your groups it's a great one stop shop. FriendFeed is great because it feeds everything you are doing into one place. It's a lot to keep up with when you join several social media groups and the more links with one stop sources the easier it is to keep up with!

Mommy Gossip Asks....

"I have been on linked in for a while. What are your feelings about it? Do you get mileage out of it? I need to get some recommendations. Also... what are your thoughts about keeping the link on your blog? I have mine in my sidebar on my blog but wasn't sure I would keep it there. You are the first mommy blogger, besides me, that I have seen it on. Anyway, I'm interested in your thoughts on this."

These are great questions Mommy Gossip! Here are your answers.

I like that LinkedIn is more of a professional social network and by more professional I mean the options that they have available. It reads to me as an online resume. What better way to keep your resume updated? I truly believe that I get mileage out of it and here's how. There is a network of mom bloggers who are so marketing savy it would make your head spin. These are the women to know and there are many. Their voices are heard and I mean really heard! Have you heard of Money Saving Moms? Here's my post about them. As an online business owner for tagless baby clothing I want them to know me as well as my line. I have no problem promoting them or helping out other online businesses that I have worked with in the past. Keeping the link on my blog is important to me because it let's those members find me easily. It's also the quickest way to get a recommendation. Visitors see the button and they can see who I know and what recommendations have been made about me. This gives everyone a better picture of who I am and what I do. Besides I'm a SWAM! Stay at home, work at home Mom. Kudos help me make it through the day. It's nice to be recognized for what you do. Also, we are not the only bloggers with this button. Please visit Lori because she is another one of those savy moms I was talking about. She knows what she is doing and is very knowledgeable and helpful. Her blog is a wealth of information.

As promised I did update my page and wrote recommendations for everyone that is in my contact list. I've worked with so many bloggers and online owners during the cyber baby showers, ultimate blog party hosted by 5MinutesforMom and simple social networking.

Linked in - Are We Connected?

I'm a member of Linked in and have a nice sized number of connections and it's growing. Please remember that it is important to update your social networks and connect with others when you can. What can really be beneficial to those of us who are connected are recommendations. Here is a tip for you, write a recommendation when you connect. The person you are connecting with will be fresh in your mind. Those who are in the marketing and pr industries as well as recruiters that are surfing Linked in can get a better view of who you are when there is more to read about your work ethic. If you are connected to my circle you will find updates to your accounts. I'm making the time to write my recommendations and I hope that this post will serve as a reminder for you to update your own recommendations as well.