Are You Ready for a BIG Giveaway?!?

The Free to Be Me Conference is right around the corner.

Are you praying for the blessed opportunity to attend?

Have you always wanted to meet your blog-friends in person?

Would you LOVE to go, but have been asking God for a financial miracle?

How does a scholarship for this amazing two-day conference sound?

Did I mention you'll be leaving the kids and dirty dishes behind?

Girls, get ready...one lucky gal is going to receive a $100 scholarship!

Which means admission to the Free To Be Me conference will be...

FREE!



Here's all you have to do: Comment below, then post about it on your site.

The winner will be picked on Sunday, September 20th.

Which means I'll be seeing one of YOU in Florida.

It's as easy as that.

Easy Ways to Build Blog-Traffic

Building your blog traffic, one reader at a time.

So, you want to start your own blog? Did you know that there are more than 150,000 blogs created every day? But don't be intimidated by the competition. If you have something to say and can say it well, your blog will do just fine. I have written my own blog since August 2007, that's about ten-years-old in blog-years. So, my friend, I have a few tips for you. Lets begin at the beginning...

1. What is the purpose of your blog?
This defines your blog, sets it apart from millions of others. Are you a mom wanting to vent- or, maybe a writer hoping for publishers to take notice of your quick wit and redemptive prose? You can make this little spot on the world wide web anything you want it to be. The more defined and specific the message, the easier it is to retain traffic.

2. Comments
Commenting is HUGE. People want to hear from you and you want to hear from others. The more you make nice and play along by encouraging others or just making witty small talk, the more blog-friends you will make - and faithful they will be! Plus, there are others out there that we bloggers like to call lurkers, they may never comment, but are reading blogs and comments as well. Often times, the comment you have left on another blog is what will bring readers and lurkers over to your site.

3. Participate in blog carnivals.
This is a pretty big deal. Very often, blogs will offer a giveaway, or will have a weekly link of participation, like Thankful Thursday (www.eph2810.com)or Wordless Wednesday (www.wordlesswednesday.com). Take advantage of these. And when you do, make sure to post on your blog about it with a link back to the host blog.

4. Have blog carnivals of your own.
There are readers out there that live for these giveaways. I don't use this to my advantage like I should. But each year I do offer a blog-design giveaway. You don't have to spend lots on a blog carnival. You can give away something small like a Starbucks gift card...everyone loves them, and they are easy to send through the mail.

5. LINK-LINK-LINK
The more you blog, the more you will discover others with gifts you want to share. From recipes, to household tips, there are lots of things your readers will love to experience right along side you.

And don't underestimate those opportunities for praying for one another. It won't be long before you find other bloggers who are hurting or crying out for prayer. Take the time to leave them a prayer in their comments and a link back to your site. This tip may not grow your traffic, but it will surely grow your prayer life. Praise the Lord!


6. Write Well!
There is no substitute for good writing. Just don't be long-winded about it. If your message is a long one, break it up into two parts and publish it over two days. Keep your posts short, a minimum of 250-500 words. It doesn't matter how much you desire to get your message out, if you don't write it well your readership will suffer.

Whether your message is short or long, I am praying your blog will change lives for His glory, one reader at a time.

How do you create blog traffic?

Ok friends, this is my question of the day. How do you create blog traffic for your site? I am teaching this lesson at my writers group's blog workshop on Saturday.

And, just so you know, this is the second time this question has come up for me this week. I am working hard at getting a book proposal ready for the Mt. Hermon writers conference and I read that publishers want to see 1,000 visitors a day on a new writer's site. Seriously, are they for real? I want to scream, "I don't have traffic, I have blog-friends!" Who would all fit comfortably around my kitchen table by the way...yeesh.

Now, here I am having to teach on this subject. God has a sense of humor, doesn't He? After spending almost an hour looking up this question online, I thought I would pose it to my faithful blog-friends out there.

After you comment, I'll be waiting at my kitchen table for ya!

*** Come back tomorrow, I will have the answers to building blog-traffic!***