Perfectly Imperfect Mom

1. Keep it "simple"
Having a blog can mean having a place to spill your inner most thoughts and secrets but other times it is a place where you are having a conversation with your readers as well as sharing what is going on in your life. If you are the type of blogger who is building a following and wants to really have a conversation with your readers keep it simple and to the point.

Try to remember your readers may be following other blogs as well and their time is precious. They may only have a few minutes to catch up on their favorite blogs and if they see a really long blog post they may just skip it for lack of time. Make sure to ask a question after your post as well. This is a great way to get your readers to engage your readers.

2. A picture is worth a thousand words
This can not be more true when it comes to blogging. I love seeing bloggers photos and all the fun times they are having or the awesome projects they have done (Pinterest, anyone?). It makes the post more appealing to the eye. You can even have a post of just photos and people will love it!

3. Connect with others
The best thing you can do to gain readers is to connect with fellow bloggers.  They obviously have a similar passion as you and if you can team up to guest post and link to one another even better! Using social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest has been my favorite way to connect with other bloggers and it makes it easier to follow up with them.

4. Link up!
Finding Link Up parties can inspire you to step outside your comfort zone. I love finding new ones and trying them out. Some stick, some don't but they are always fun and you can usually find new bloggers to connect with.

5. Back to Y-O-U
This should seem obvious but sometimes in the blogging world we can get a little lost. If you are a blogger who has blogged for compensation (sponsored posts, products, ect.) then you may have lost your way and that is all you seem to be doing. I have been there. I was bombarded with reviews and giveaways and since I was going through a difficult time I just stuck with that for a bit and I noticed a huge drop in my views. It happens and the best way to fix it is going back to basics and what is going on with your life, helping your readers reconnect with the person they first started reading about.

If you could make your own blogging tips, what would some of them be?

Start Photo!

Today would have been my Mom's 60th birthday. I can't believe neither of my parents made it to 60. It sucks to really think about how short their lives were and how much they are going to miss.

I know today we would have spent the day with my parents in the pool. I spent so much of my life hanging out in the pool with my parents talking about life. It's probably some of my favorite memories.

So what better way to honor my Mom and my Dad as well by starting a healthier lifestyle. I have decided to start tracking my work outs, calories and healthy lifestyle choices on my blog because I need something to hold my accountable. I want to be able to be healthier than my parents because had they made better choices I know they still would have been here.

So far I have been doing pretty good with my work outs. I have been going everyday except Saturday since I had to get ready for a family get together at my house.

Diet wise I need to make some changes. That is where I have struggled since my pregnancy with Ace. I craved so much crap food with him that I just continued the trend after I had him, then losing my parents I just didn't care as much.

So here I go. Onto a mission to be healthy for myself, my son, my husband and my parents. It was something my Dad and I had talked about doing when my Mom was dying and he never got the chance to be better so here it is, my vow to do it!

I will check in I think on either Friday or Monday on what I have been doing so if anyone else wants to join me in my quest to get healthy feel free to comment and we can do a weekly check in together!