Lessons and Blessings in Chaos

   Amid the COVID-19 crisis, many of us are presented with time we never had before. When my principal brought the staff together for a 5 minute meeting on a Friday, I was so relieved.  I thought finally I have a break from it all. I know this sounds selfish but it was how I felt in the moment. It was like, ok there's a little epidemic out there. I thought it would be over in a few weeks and life will go back to normal. Well a whole month went by and still this silent killer is claiming so many lives.  I don't think I have even stopped to process what is really happening.
     I know that there are so many lessons around me now that I have had the chance to slow down.   I'm now able to focus on things that I didn't have time or energy to give.  My family, ministry, relationships, and blogging, have all been on the back burner or slowly fading away until now. My life has been turned upside down but for the better; I think. My priorities have changed and they really needed a change because, I have forgotten how to live in the moment. Things were robotic in a sense, prior to COVID. My daily schedule went a little like this:

• wake-up
• get dressed
• get children ready
• drop children to school
• drive 30 minutes to work
• Work from 7:40 to 3:30
• Pickup children
• homework
• dinner
• watch some TV
• Go to bed

     What's really crazy is that this cycle continued day in,  day out, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Then a pandemic comes in and knocks this rigorous routine down like a bowling ball to some pins.  This has all made me come to one conclusion; "What really matters?"
What really matters is this, love, peace of mind, mended relationships, flexibility, new ideas, creativity, a positive outlook, and my all-saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes a relationship with the father because, I have to draw strength from somewhere. God is my source and my help through his loving son Jesus Christ. I love leading my PRAY Group and drawing strength from others because, we're stronger together in a time when we cannot meet.  In summary, I don't want to get caught up in this season that I miss the lessons and blessings.
   

Don't Let Social Media Consume You!

  There are many ways to drive traffic to your blog but sometimes it gets so time-consuming. I don't know about you, but I'm a mother, teacher, entrepreneur, and a great deal more. Time is always of the essence and I learned a way to maximize it and make it work for me. I will show you how in 4 steps.

    1. First I decide what I want to say on my Facebook Business Page. I usually plan 1 or 2 posts each week. I like to plan what I want to say for the entire month using simple phrases and hashtags that represents my brand.
   
    2. Second, I go to a site called www.pixaby.com to find stock photos that compliment my brand. I saved them to my computer. I use pixaby for two reasons: it's free and the photos can be used for commercial use. I download several photos from Pixaby at a time so putting it altogether is a sinch.

    3. Next, dear you must download the Pic Collage App. I use Pic Collage to create beautiful stock like photos that represent my brand. I usually add the photos from Pixaby as a background in my Pic Collage. Then I save it to my computer.

     4. Next, I simply go to my Facebook Page and I click on Publishing Tools. There you can click CREATE to create a new post and add your hashtags. This is the trick; instead of publishing instantly, click the drop down arrow that says Share Now and click on Schedule. Set the date and time you want to share the post and click Schedule. Schedule as many as you like so that you have time to other things.

Need more follows?

    I don't know about you, but it made perfect sense to create social media pages that link back to or are associated with my blogs.  Again the key word is EXPOSURE!  I knew I needed more shares so I got share buttons to social media from a platform called ShareThis. I have details on how to set that up in my Ebook, How to Create a Blog Frugally.  Well did you know there is another FREE platform called AddThis that will allow viewers to follow you on your Instagram, Facebook page, Pinterest, Youtube and more.  Yes it's called  AddThis. AddThis connects people to content and enables marketers to develop more personal and effective relationships with their current and future customers.  Your followers love being connected to a brand and that connection will build a relationship with your followers.
    Over the past 10 years, millions of sites have adopted AddThis to increase social sharing and improve engagement.  Using AddThis to connect from your blog or store to a personalized business page on social media is exactly what consumers want.  Think about it. My favorite brand is connected to me on social media and I can get updates on sales, promotions, and new products. It's brilliant.
    I'll sum it up in two words AI (Audience Intelligence). AddThis is an Audience Intelligence platform which means that it studies your audience's behaviors. As a result, AddThis offers unparalleled insight into the interests and behaviors of over billions of web visitors.  What are you waiting for? Get AddThis for your blog.

My Blog is Setup, Now What?

My blog is setup, now what?

    Well after I setup my blog and started posting content I noticed that I wasn’t getting that many views. The answer

was simple: not enough exposure. So of course on Blogger, I can share my posts to my Facebook page, Pinterest, email, etc. But what if you do not have any subscribers yet or you don’t have a huge following on social media? Well there are several things you can do.

Support Groups

   First, you can join support groups.  There are tons of support groups for bloggers, youtubers, entrepreneurs, and so much more on Facebook. Most of these groups have thousands of followers and they are willing to support you in several ways to increase the exposure of your blog or site. Not to mention you in turn will be visiting their blogs and sites. You will learn so many new ideas and creativity from connecting with others who have the same or greater mindset as you.  So it’s a great way to develop yourself and your blog productivity. 

Audience Groups

    These groups may not be bloggers they may be a group of people that want or need what you have. You can ask them to support you. Now please now that some of these groups may not allow selling or promotion.  But you’ll never know until you try.

Blog Pros

    Blog Pros is a company that promotes your blog for you. They also have a FREE 30 day trial and reasonable monthly plan options. Once you've subscribed to their service, as soon as you post a blog post on your site, they'll share it on social media automatically. They do this by connecting with power users and manually sharing your page within social groups to increase the number of real human shares on your content. Their process is proven and effective, and their entire team is based in the United States.