The BritMums Blog

Thursday's Twitter party: Getting kids to eat right #secretgoodness

Join our #secretgoodness Twitter Party this Thursday!

Are you fed up with having arguments with your kids at meal times? Would you like to share ideas and tips on how to get more nutritious food in your children’s diet?

Bread brand Kingsmill understands that as parents, we all want our kids to eat more healthily. That’s why they’re sponsoring our next BMB Twitter discussion about how to get more nutritious ingredients into food that appeals to kids. .

There are some great prizes up for grabs including a Wild in Style family “glamping” trip in the Lake District and 3 Kids Secret Agents Days!

All you need to do to be eligible to win these great prizes is join us on Twitter on Thursday 3rd February from 1 – 2 pm, making sure you use the hashtag #secretgoodness when tweeting your own tips or questions.

We look forward to partying with you on Thursday! Tweet #secretgoodness now!

Grab The Button -- HTML Tutorial over at Typecast!

 

Have you seen these Grab My Blog buttons ? They're popping up everywhere! They're a great way to share blog love by displaying a button to your affiliation.  Resident expert Nickie at Typecast has put together a fabulous tutorial to help you create your own. So head on over right now and learn how to do it.

 

Guest post: How to create a media kit for your blog

Do you want to sell ads on your blog? Are you looking for a sponsor for CyberMummy? Why don't you create a media kit for your blog? Rebecca from Two Become Four gives us some hands-on tips.

A media kit, or media pack, is a little like a curriculum vitae for your blog. It's a chance for you to sell your blog and yourself, and to offer your details and stats to the various agencies and companies who may contact you, or for you to send out.

I've received some very positive feedback from my media kit and I thought I would share some of my suggestions and findings. I'm using mine as an example, because, if you're anything like me, it helps to see one "in the flesh".

Blogger of the Week and 5 other must reads

The first month of the year is nearly done! How time has flown by! Already this year there are bloggers who are moving and shaking the blogosphere. These bloggers are making other bloggers stand up and take notice, are drawing the community together and are making a difference. It's a great start to an exciting year!

This week's Blogger of the Week is a blogger who has risen to new level in the last few months. She's been so impressive that YOU, the viewer, nominated her for a Brilliance in Blogging award. She was voted in as one of the Outstanding in Field bloggers which came as no big surprise to those who know her.

Dear mummy blogger... PR pitches, what works and what, erm, doesn't

When it comes to blogger/brand relationships, Tara Cain from Sticky Fingers has had her fair share of pitches. Read this post to find out what works ... and what ends up in the bin!

I have had some truly awful PR pitches in my time as a blogger.

I'm constantly asked if I would like to 'use' a company's press release, invited to pre-schooler/baby events (I don't have either) and - controversial one - asked if I wanted to review a product then send it back.

Of course, I've also had some great ones too.

It's all too easy to roll your eyes and moan about the shoddy ones clogging up your inbox, and stress about the time it takes you to reply to them all. But actually I've just learned to bin them and move or. Or Tweet about how truly awful they are!

There is no two ways about it these days; parenting bloggers are a force to be reckoned with. 

Whether you understand it or not, our voice is powerful and brands want a piece of it.

Online blogger competitions: 5 best practices from the experts

Ever wonder how the experts run online competitions? Iain Haywood, founder of Competition Hunter, has years of experience running them for major brands and small businesses alike. In this post he shares his top tips for executing successful blogger competitions.

Most of you as bloggers will be familiar with online competitions as a useful tool in the promotional arsenal.  Everyone likes to win things, right?  But I often hear from bloggers that they don’t take full advantage of the opportunities a competition can provide, or can sometimes miss the mark entirely.  Here are some quick tips to help maximise the potential of your online competition.

How to publish your blog to Kindle

Have you ever wondered how to publish your blog to Kindle? Nickie from Typecast has recently listed hers and shares some tips.

Amazon have recently allowed blogs to be self-published on their Kindle store.  This facility allows you to upload your blog for sale to all Kindle users.  Once you have completed this process your blog will be reviewed by Amazon and available for download within 48-72 hours. 

Guest post: 10 things to know about raising kids in France

It's just across the Channel and a favourite destination for family holidays. But how easy is it to relocate to France? Tamsyn, who blogs at Anecdotes of a Manic Mum, moved there with her husband and three children, and now has four. She's learned a thing or three about raising a family en France.

Having decided to quit England’s pastures’ green in 2006, with my son, 2 ¾, my daughter 16 months, and my daughter of 7 weeks…a few weeks later we hit the road, and 48 hours later, several ‘brink-of-divorce’ conversations, driving on the wrong side of the road, and not being able to communicate with a soul (no, I spoke not a word of French on arrival) later, we are in La France…I now have 4 kids, and an inkling of 10 things that you should know about raising kids in France.

What people are talking about: The Chinese parenting model

How do Chinese parents turn out music and math prodigies? Easy, says one mother in the Wall Street Journal. They're stricter, stress academic achievement more and don't let their kids get away with the stuff that Western parents do.

Amy Chua, a Yale professor, describes an incident of hair-tearing, screaming, full-out war in her house when she demanded her daughter play a piece of piano music correctly. The article has inspired more than 5,000 comments on the WSJ site, with good reason: it drives to the core of what parents believe about raising kids. (Chua has also responded to readers in a further article that - as I read it anyhow - seems to soften her message. It also points out that the title of the article was chosen by WSJ editors, not her. A piece in today's Sunday Times also describes how her method didn't work on one of her daughters.)

Looking for new readers? Join the January Blog Hop

It's the middle of January and it's high time to start introducing ourselves, don't you think? The stress and strain of the Christmas and New Year's holidays is over. The bill paying has begun. The children have gone back to school and it's time to start expanding your blogging portfolio by finding a few new blogs to read.

What better way to find new (and old) blogs than a BMB Blog Hop? All you have to do is write a post on your blog and then come back to BMB to add your link to the Linky widget at the end of this post. If you'd like to add the Linky code to the bottom of your post, the Blog Hop will appear at the bottom of your post as well. Directions are included in the code instructions below. That's it! Sit back and wait for old and new bloggers to find you and then enjoy all the other bloggers you can find as well.

Watch in February for the next BMB Blog Hop and until then, start visiting old and new blogs. Don't forget to comment as well. Not only will you introduce yourself through your comment, the blog owner just may journey to your blog as well. Happy hopping!

 

British Mummy Blogger's Cover Girl!

Move over Gisele Bundchen, there’s a new cover girl in town. Massive congratulations to Catherine from Baby Genie who this month can be spotted staring out from the cover of the Tesco magazine. The magazine has a circulation of two million and a readership of around six and a half million, so it’s fair to say this is one BMB member who’s getting some great exposure.

Her starring role is down to fellow blogger Liz from Living with Kids, who in her work as a freelance journalist was looking for mums to include. In the same issue Amy Lane and Mary Poppinsare also featured with tips on making £100 in your spare time.  So the two BMB members  - and their fabulous cakes and crafts – are now household names.

The Brilliance in Blogging Awards winners!

It's a cliché at awards ceremonies that at some point someone gets up and says there were so many fantastic entries and stresses how hard it was to choose the winners. That's not going to happen with our awards.

First of all, we're having a virtual ceremony to which everyone is invited, so no one is standing up at all, unless it's to go make themselves a cup of tea while they're tweeting.

Secondly, we ducked the whole issue of choosing and asked you to vote on your favourites.

Thirdly...well, thirdly, there were lots of fantastic entries (more than 400 of them overall) and they demonstrated such a wide range of enthusiasms, interests, voices and topics that in truth it was still difficult as voters to choose the ones that top the lists.

Congratulations to everyone who was nominated, short-listed or won. And thanks to all those folks out there who cast votes (more than 4,000 total!). We've included some of their coments and thoughts about the blogs below. While we're at it, we say hats off to this amazing blogging community that continues to support one another, develop and grow with each passing day.

It's been a brilliant year!

Guest post: A dad blogger in the mum blogger world #bmb

What's it like being a dad blogger in a blogging universe populated largely by mums? Garry, who writes The Blog Up North, gives the XY side of the story.

A year ago, I wouldn't have been writing this. A year ago I wasn't really a blogger at all. Sure, I had started my own blogging space but like so many before me, I had faltered. Initial intentions crumbled and the posts became fewer and further between. I felt I had nothing to say, even though I had somewhere to not say it.

Then at the start of 2010 I gave it another go. I realised I needed to take a fresh look at my content (described previously by a Facebook friend as a cure for insomnia). Out went the "Dear diary..." tone and the mind-numbing subject matter. I injected humour and wrote about subjects readers could connect with. But that was only part of the story.

Join the Brilliance in Blogging Awards Tweetup Wednesday

More than 4,ooo votes have been cast for the Brilliance in Blogging Awards (!) and on Wednesday we'll announce the folks who you told us inspired you, made a difference and made you laugh. We'll announce the winners at a 1pm Tweetup (come join the online conversation using the hashtag #brillBMB) then post the list of winners here. Start the year with a celebration of great blogging and come share your own blogging successes at the online Tweetup. Wednesday13:00 #brillBMB See you then!

Mum blogger is not a 4-letter word

Are you a mum blogger? Or more to the point, are you a “mum blogger”? That is, are you someone who only writes about nappies and the school run? Is your blog only about the parenthood portion of your life? A lot of people want to define mum bloggers that way.
 
As a result, some bloggers are distancing themselves from the mum blogger label, arguing that they don’t just write about the parenthood and kids but are covering a whole host of lifestyle issues.

Take for example, Muddling Along Mummy, who says mum blogging sounds rather twee to her (which I get) and is not sure she can commit to the label.

Singlemummy.net wrote about the issue in August and how people respond: “You see them nod their head in that really patronising way of ‘Oh yeah she’s one of those that sit at home all day writing about poop, tantrums and potty training.’”

These are just a couple of fair observations and opinions about “mum blogger”.

But in this case I respectfully disagree with my blogging brethren.

Eight things you can do right now to promote your blog and get new readers

We have loads of new BMB members, and they are all asking for tips for promoting their blogs. There are no secrets! Just ask. Below are some tricks you can try.

1. Put your self on Wikio's top parent blogging index. A blog's position on the ranking is based on an evaluation of incoming links and other measures.  Head on over, and make sure you enter your blog to be evaluated for next month.

2. Create a Twitter account. Twitter's micro blogging platform has become very popular - watch out it can be addictive! Here are some tips on how to get the most out of Twitter.

3. Get yourself a Facebook Fan Page. It may sound self-indulgent, but do it! This social networking site alllows you to "friend" like-minded people. You can add links to your articles, and "like" them.

Ready for Ten's 50 Best of the Web Parent Bloggers

Kudos to those BMB'ers listed in Ready for Ten's list of  bloggers to watch in their 50 Best of the Web Parent Bloggers post. You'll recognise lots of the names, plus find some new reads. Here are the first 25...