Saturday 9 at 9 ~ An Interview with...

Today I'm interviewing one of my favorite bloggers - I've been following her blogs for years and she has become a great friend and resource on Facebook too!  In the hotseat today, I present Ellen from Confesssions of An Overworked Mom and The Socialite's Closet

1.     Tell us a little bit about your blog:

I have two blogs.  Confessions of an Overworked Mom http://confessionsofanover-workedmom.com started out as a place for me to share my family’s journey toward a more eco-friendly lifestyle. We live in rural Vermont on two acres and have gardens, ducks and chickens and fruit trees.  Eventually I started to include books and products that I like as well.  My focus is on eco-friendly, time saving, gourmet products with a focus on recipes, crafts, fashion, and fitness. I hope it’s a place that busy moms can really identify with.

My second blog is called The Socialite’s Closet http://the-socialites-closet.blogspot.com.  I started it to share my love for beauty and fashion products.  I do some reviews and share fashions that I love from Pinterest or celebrity sites.  In the warmer weather, when the ground isn’t covered with snow, I love doing outfit posts as well.

Getting Sponsors for Giveaway Hops and Events - my take

With new giveaway hops and events springing up almost daily, I have been finding that one of the questions that is often asked is how do I get sponsors for the giveaway, so I thought I would share what has worked for me.  Please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section so we can all generate more ideas and leads...


A couple of things before I begin:

• Remember that some people will have outrageous prizes and dollar amounts for their giveaways but don't be intimidated by this, but remember that it's okay to have one sponsor for at or around the minimum dollar value and you will still get bang for your buck! 

• It is okay to sponsor yourself - I personally take a percentage of my blog profits and keep it in reserve for purchasing things like Amazon.com GC or doing paypal giveaways, not because I can't find sponsors necessarily, but because PEOPLE LIKE THEM and YOUR GIVEAWAY CAN BE WORLDWIDE, attracting more followers!

So, on to getting sponsors:


1. Go with who you know.  Keep in regular contact with companies and PR firms that you have worked with in the past.  Let them know what you are participating in and how it would benefit them.  I worked with a PR rep quite some time ago and approached her again this past spring because I was doing a Mother's Day event.  She had just signed a new client who was happy to offer a review and giveaway.  I have another contact who wants to be pitched for every blog hop that I do that fits certain criteria and I love working with her, so I keep her in the loop constantly!


2. Use your networks - tweet, post to your facebook wall, your linked-in account, your blogfrog, your blog and anywhere else that you are looking for sponsors for your upcoming event.  You never know if someone has a fabulous etsy store waiting to be discovered, a home-based business or even who works for a company that would love to work with you.


3. Use services such as profnet.com, pitchrate.com and ReporterConnection.com.  These services allow you to send out a customized press release or e-blast to a large number of contacts who want to get information like this.  


4. Cold pitch - Search for the media or blogger contact at a specific company that has something that you'd like to review or giveaway.  If you can't find the right contact you can even blind pitch to through their general email or contact form (just make sure you clearly post that you are a blogger wanting to connect with their marketing/social media department)


What makes a good pitch?


1. Be clear - Make sure you get the who, where, what, why, when and how covered in your pitch


2. Make sure you ASK for something - sending out a press release without a call to action will not get you noticed, so ask for what you want.  If you are putting together a package with a specific theme, explain that and be clear what you are asking for.  If you want to do a giveaway AND REVIEW make sure they know that.


3. Sell the event and your blog - use your own blog statistics and any information that you can glean from the event organizer.  For instance, if there are 100 blogs participating in an event and each will have a minimum $25 prize, you can confidently say that there will be over $2500 in prizes available to be won.  If you are joining a hop that has grand prizes or additional advertising, mention that too!  You want to make your case as strong as you can - people who are pitched by you will probably be pitched by others too - make yours stand out by selling your opportunity!


4. Tell them how they will benefit specifically - will you do a separate teaser post, extra facebook or twitter posts?  How many links/entries will you provide?  This can be on a sliding scale - if they only want to sponsor a small dollar value you can offer a basic opportunity with one or two links, for a larger sponsorship you will offer more.


5. If you have a media kit with details about your blog, attach it! 


Here is a sample email that I sent to a targeted cold pitch for an upcoming event 

I saw your post on xxx and wanted to connect and tell you about my blog, www.actingbalanced.com in the hopes that you might be interested in participating in a review/giveaway event that I have coming up from September 21st - 25th.  The event is called Rafflecopter Round-up and will feature more than 100 blogs with prizes of $25 or more.  

I am putting together a prize package containing sustainable packaging for travel and lunches, and I thought that your reusable snack bags would be a great addition.  In the past, my participation in hop-style giveaway events has garnered over 1000 entries into my giveaways and multiple impressions per visitor for my sponsors.

In exchange for a review, you will get a preview post during the week before the event which will include links to your store and any social media that you'd like me to highlight.  If you are only interested in donating a giveaway prize, I am happy to accommodate that as well, however you will only be mentioned in the giveaway post and will have a maximum of two direct links.

I am attaching my media kit to give you an idea about my blog and would love to hear from you if you think that your company would be interested in this opportunity.

My media kit contains my blog stats, policies and a brief history of my blog, so I don't include that in my pitch email.  If you haven't put yours together yet, you should check out this great tutorial from MomSpark Media.

What has worked for you in the past?  Where have you found sponsors?  What is your # 1 tip?  Please share!!!!

If you don't play you can't win...

but when is enough enough?

It's always funny how you walk through stores, neighbourhoods or just watch commercials on TV and dream about winning millions in the lottery or having some long lost (and never met) rich relative leave you their entire estate... knowing that you've met all your relatives and that you don't even buy lottery tickets.

Since becoming part of the blog world, I see blog after blog and website after website running contests, give-aways and promotions large and small and I wonder if a) its worth my time to really enter all of the draws and b) if it really gets the people who are doing the contests what they want...

I guess it comes down to questioning how and why I would use a contest on either of my blogs and if it would be worth the time, effort and cost to create a prize worthy of people actually participating in my promotions...

I would love to hear from fellow bloggers who do and don't run promotions about how they do it, when and how often, or if they don't why not...

And secondly I'd love to hear from everyone about why they do or don't participate in entering all these give aways :)

Have a happy Monday!

2nd award...

Same as the first...

I want to thank my friend Sherri at MissIndyBabbles for re-nominiating me for the sunshine award, after I had given it to her... I was going to ignore it, but then I got to thinking about how hard it was to get all the blogs I read down to a group of twelve, so I've decided to devote another day to sharing SUNSHINE with friends and fellow bloggers and introduce you to twelve more fabulous bloggy friends... who you should visit and tell them I sent you :)

Many of these blog friends I have met through a great web connection blog called SITS (the Secret is In The Sauce)- I would nominate them for an award such as this, but they do such a good job of spotlighting blogs and letting us connect with each other that it would probably not be prudent for them to have to choose only twelve, so instead I am featuring twelve new bloggy friends that I have met through SITS and have visited my blog recently so that I could meet them :)

These are the rules I must oblige by in order to pass it on:

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are my nominees, in no particular order....

JDaniel4's Mom - a mom and former teacher who is also a transplant to South Carolina :).  She has great contests and info on her site, and I found a great world math day post there yesterday :)

B Sparkly - a neat mix of family commentary, product reviews and even samples of things she sells on her esty store.

Blue and White Life - another regular commenter on my blog :) thank you!  Her blog is another wonderful mix of personal anecdotes :)

From My Kitchen to Yours - Jamie is also trying to live on a weekly budget and posts her menus!  She also has neat stories about other things going on in her busy life!

Diary of Me... Jeannie, Jane, Angel, Mommy - the name says it all :)

An Unpink Life -great ideas, tips and commentary!

Circle Rice - lots going on in this lady's life - we met in the blog world over having family with Alzheimer's Disease... not the most positive way to meet but glad we found each other's blogs

Random Musings from a Single Gal - Yes, I do actually read blogs that don't involve mommy things... and since her most recent post lamented on how she could only give out 7 awards on her last blog award... I'm going to make her stretch and find 12 more :)

Airing my Dirty Laundry, One Sock at a time - you just have to read THIS Post!

Theta Mom - she has great insights into blogging and has built a great following - so in awe ... and her latest post while I was writing was THIS - so apropos :)

Spirit of Power - Keri blogs about her life, good recipes and more

Becoming Homegrown - Another wonderful blogger... I love reading her recipe reviews like this one

I hope that this award finds all these women happily blogging and you find some new blogs to read!

My first Blogging Award!

I want to thank my friend at Adventures in Mommyland for bestowing me with my first blog award (of many I hope)!  It was so nice to see a comment from Charlene on my last post this morning... and even more exciting when I went to her blog as instructed and found out that I had won a

Since I have learned that blogging in isolation isn't nearly as much fun as blogging communities of friends, I have been regularly reading blogs from several people and would like to pass on the honour of this award to them ...

These are the rules I must oblige by in order to pass it on:

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are my nominees....

under the Mac - the first blog I ever really read that belongs to an in real life friend and fabulous person who was part of my inspiration to start blogging. 
The Snyder 5 - a mom with a great attitude and a great family just ripe for sharing in blog world
Mommy's Sippy Cup - who couldn't be inspired by a title like that - and the blog is just about as refreshing as sitting down with a glass of something :)
Mommy's Time Out Today - can we sense a theme of blogs I follow... ok Mommy Blogs is one of them but this Mommy has a great blog and you should check her out too!
Alone in a Holy Land - a mom who understands some of the isolation I feel living away from family and friends...
MissIndyBabbles - a blog of a fellow mom of a special needs kid and a cute new little peanut... 
Hallee The Homemaker - a blog of a fellow mom who I met through another online community and who gave me my first guest blogging spot :)

My other passion of course is couponning and saving money - and I get inspiration and tips to share on Couponning101 from these blogs:
Coo Coo 4 Coupons
Crystal Clear Savings
The Coupon Sista

And the final theme of my blog reading is food and recipes and since I am switching to more Gluten free recipes, I have been haunting these blogs...
The Gluten Free Goddess
The Gluten Free Homemaker

Wow - picking only twelve was difficult!  I hope you enjoy visiting some of the people who continue to inspire me to blog and share... or make me laugh when I need it... and of course help me to feed Liam on his GF diet..  I would totally have chosen Advenutres in Mommyland as a recipient of my award and encourage you to visit her, but she got this award twice already this week, so I'm letting her off the hook :)  I especially appreciate getting an award like the sunshine award today, because I'm sure it marks the end to some of the craziness that's been happening around me and the return to some semblance of balance in my life.

Writing Memoirs...

In a way, I'm glad I've started blogging now... because I am honing my voice and making a lasting impression of what is going on now ... I was never good at keeping a diary or journal... I guess I'm too much of an exhibitionist for that - I want to share my experiences and not keep them under lock and key... I always started with a blank journal and would get a day or two worth of entries in... and then inevitably the nice new journal wasn't new anymore and became relagated to shopping lists and phone messages...  because there's something about a nice clean start that makes writing easier for me... and I am such a cluttered person that the forced blank page of a blog is probably the better alternative to buying a tonne of journals to write a page or two here or there...
My mom has been after me for years to write books... because I am a voracious reader .... and speedy - I can knock down 'book candy' in under an hour... (read trade romance novels, which my mother got me hooked on at 10 or 11, because I was out of books from the library and bored...) and get through War and Peace in about 24 hours.... but writing is a different entity - you don't just need imagination, you need inspiration... and by choosing to blog about my family and life in general, I find inspiration in everything from watching my children to a cup of tea, to a photograph...
And the bonus of blogging is getting feedback... knowing that I am not the only one reading my thoughts squirreled away in some no longer fresh journal that will be lost in space soon...
I am finding as I explore the blogosphere I am also finding inspiration and encouragement from my fellow bloggers... I am reading more blogs than I ever thought I would when I started mine in isolation.. I had read ocassional blog entries, but never followed many blogs... I have found great blogs to follow though the SITS Girls (The Secret Is in the Sauce), an online community of wonderful bloggy women who comment on each other's blogs and share with each other.  I have also stumbled on several through NetworkedBlogs.com, which is a facebook app and sharing site. 
Today, as I sit in Starbucks, waiting for Wayne to finish in a meeting so I can take him to work (read one car family...) I can put these random thoughts into some semblance of order under the title of Writing memoirs and know that I am leaving both blogdom and my future generations a legacy of my attemts to act balanced... and as importantly, a piece of myself...