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Featured Blogger: Yolanda Machado – www.SassyMamaInLA.com

March 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Our Featured Latina Mom Blogger, Yolanda Machado is the Founder and Editor of Lifestyle Blog Sassy Mama In LA.  She lives in Los Angeles, CA and writes for Women Everywhere ( modern women, moms on the go, Latinas and non Latinas).   Her readers love to read about her adventures, her reviews and things her family does around LA.   Her readers are  typically looking for someone they can trust, relate to and also at times, live vicariously through her.

Yolanda believes that Networking is one of the most important business habit to have as as blogger.  She recommends that all bloggers be part of a blogging network that will support you. Whether it be within the same niche, or different, you need to have a network of people that understand you and will be there for you whether it be just to exchange tips or to vent over a deadline, networks are imperative to becoming a great blogger.

Yolanda Machado always goes above and beyond in fulfilling blogger campaigns.  She also has a large and loyal following of readers and willingly shares her indepth knowledge with bloggers in the communities that she is a part of.   Please join me in congratulating Yolanda on all her recent accomplishments.  We are very honored to have you be a part of the Latina Mom Bloggers community.

Here is my candid interview with her:

How did you start blogging?

I was going through a really rough period in my life. My husband and I had separated and I was still trying to find myself after becoming a mom. One day, as I was browsing the internet, I came across some great blogs that I got lost reading for hours. Seriously, I think I read like 20 from beginning to end I loved them so much. Having once wanted to be a writer, I decided to give it a try. At first, I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing, and I actually was rather depressing to read, lol. After reading over my little blog then, I decided that’s not who I wanted to be- and I dove in full force. Bought a domain..and researched everything I could about Social Media…and well, the rest is history.

What do you believe helps differentiate your blog from others?

It is 100% me. Doesn’t matter what I write about, my personality is always there. I don’t try to be perfect, and I don’t try to sell you a thing. I just want my readers to feel like they are chatting with a friend.

How do brands work with you to reach your audience?

I offer a variety of options to partner with me to reach my readers and followers. Most want a more personal relationship, which entails anything from going to or hosting events, to featuring them on my blog for a long term period, to well, anything. I work hard for my relationships and always try to go above and beyond to help them reach their goals.

Do you ever refuse to review products you don’t use or believe in?

All the time. My readers trust me, and they do so for a reason. I would never ever promote or feature something that I myself didn’t like/trust/use or see value in. There is no point in that. Wouldn’t be fair to my readers, to me or to the brand of I didn’t believe in the product too.

Do you support any particular non-profit organization or cause through your blog?

None exclusively, but I do blog about topics that I am in support of like Heart of Haiti, Breast Cancer Awareness, Women’s Rights and more.

Do you have news about any recent or upcoming campaign news that you would like to share?

I’m speaking at Hispanicize 2012  on Social Media Tools and I am SO EXCITED!! I am so honored to be part of such an amazing conference and I get to talk about something I know really well- How to use Social Media to benefit you! I am also part of the new Toyota Women’s Influencer Network, which is brand new and am also a new Eucerin Ambassador.

What advice would you have for a Latina who is thinking about starting a blog but may not know where/how to begin? What can you tell them about maintaining balance between home and work?

Number one is know who you are before you even start. The blogging world is very big and very competitive. You may find yourself trying to please everyone but yourself and losing sight of why you started it. Know who you are, learn to roll with the punches and just no matter what, keep writing for you.

Finding balance is something that takes a bit of practice… and I am still learning to juggle myself. I mean… you are talking to someone who is up til 3am typing up posts and then getting up at 7am with my daughter and running all over LA for events, errands and family. It’s tough but you gotta find what works for you and your family. I unplug once a week and spend family time or, go hang out with my friends. You will soon learn to schedule just about everything you can…it works, sometimes LOL

If you weren’t a full time blogger, what other field can you see yourself working in?

Social Media or PR or maybe go back to school and become an IP lawyer so I can stay in the cyber world realm.

Tell us about three people that you admire and why?

Mis abuelos- My grandfather passed away in 2006 but he and my grandmother were married over 50 yrs. They moved their 4 children to the US when they were in their 40’s all for the better of the family. They learned a new language and lifestyle, never once giving up. They taught me what it means to be family and to never forget where you come from.

My mom- She was a young, single mom who went through so much and sacrificed to make sure my siblings and I never went without. She taught me how to respect myself and never ever let anyone make me doubt myself. She gave me my voice, my attitude and my style.

My daughter- Although she is only 4 yrs old, she has taught me more than I have ever learned about life in my thirty plus years. She is head strong, and strong willed and sees things with a keen eye, yet complete innocence. She is the reason I do everything, and every day she amazes and inspires me to be the best me I can be.

 What is the best book you’ve recently read and why?

Ok ok.. so this is where I admit I am a sucker for Chick Lit. I loved Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed and the follow up, Something Blue. I also love anything by Jane Green. I am a big ol’ mushball at heart and they always tug at my heart strings.

What is your favorite life or business quote?

“Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” – Dalai Lama

Do you have Twitter, Facebook or other social media contact information you would like to share?

Twitter:  @SassyScorpYM

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SassyMamainLA

GPlus: http://gplus.to/sassymamainla

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sassyscorpym

Stumble: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/yolim

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/yolanda-machado/19/2/1a0

 

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Blogging 101: How To Create a Media Kit

June 27, 2011 By 17 Comments

If this is your first time here, please make sure to read our first post Review Blogging 101 Series – How to start a review blog.

I get asked all of the time–”should I have a media kit even though my blog is not “big” yet?” I say yes. Yes, because I believe having a media kit shows the person you are contacting that you are professional. That alone can make a huge difference and will set you apart from others. Plus, it makes it easier when you contact a company that you want to work with or a company contacts you and asks for your stats. All you do is write a short email and attach your media kit. Creating a media kit shouldn’t be difficult or time consuming. I’m a big believer in simple and to the point. What you will need is some kind of word processing or publishing software. I use Microsoft Word, but there are many programs that you can use–some are even free like Google Docs.

 

What you should include in your media kit:
Start with an introduction of your blog and of yourself. For example, my media kit starts with “Jolly Mom is a savvy blog that brings moms helpful parenting information…” Then, I also offer information about myself. It says, “About Piera: I’m a first time mom of a 3-year old boy, named Lucas. I am a business owner…” I’m only offering snippets of my media kit because it is much better for you to use your own words, but you get the idea. This is a spot for you to talk about what your blog is about and help the person reading it get to know you a little bit. If you feel like your stats are not great, but you have a large following on Twitter or you have a small but loyal following, then this would be the spot to explain that.

Associations/Afilliations: Include information about any groups you belong to {i.e. Mom Central, The Motherhood, Latina Bloggers Connect, etc}. If you are a contributing blogger or writer on another blog or publication, this is the place to list that.

After the introduction, then list out your blog’s readership and traffic statistics. You will need to gather the following information:

  • Google Page Rank
  • Alexa Rank
  • Klout Score
  • Number of RSS Feed Subscribers
  • Number of Blogger or Google Connect Followers {optional}
  • Number of Facebook Fans
  • Number of Twitter Followers
  • Number of Unique Daily Visitors {average}
  • Number of Daily Page Views {average}
  • Monthly Unique Visitors

Not everything above is required–they are just meant to serve as a guide. Things I would definitely include are your unique visitors, Twitter and Facebook followers, subscribers, and Google page rank. If you can do all of them–great! If not, don’t stress! You can make a fancy graph for your statistics or just list them in a way that is organized and easy to read {how I do it}.

Next, you will want to include the services that you provide, such as:

  • Product Reviews: Explain to the company your review policy. Do you take pictures and video with all of your reviews? Who will be testing the products? How long from the time that you receive the product until you post the review? Will you send samples back or are they non-returnable {in most cases, most review bloggers don’t return samples}?
  • Giveaways: How long will you list the giveaway? Do you charge if the company is only doing a giveaway without providing a product for review? Will you ship prizes or do you prefer the company to ship {I ask all companies to ship to the winner directly}? How will a giveaway benefit the company?
  • Advertorials {or Sponsored Posts}: Do you offer advertorials? What are your rates? Policy?
  • Advertising: Your media kit is also a place to let companies know about your advertising options {if you offer it}. Do you offer banner or button ads? What sizes do you offer and what are your rates? Consider offering a discount for companies purchasing multiple months and let companies know what forms of payment you accept. I suggest Paypal.

Make sure that you include your contact information. I always include my full name, url, email address, Twitter handle, and telephone number.

I also suggest that you add a graphic or image to the header or somewhere on your media kit. Use the image from your header, blog banner or button, or at the very least a graphic that contains the same colors from your blog. It just makes your media kit look more professional and—well—pretty. Remember, it’s all in the details.

Finally, I convert my media kit to a pdf because everyone has Adobe Acrobat Reader while not everyone has Microsoft Word. To convert from Word to a pdf, I use Primo PDF. It’s FREE and easy to use. They have an online version as well, but the one that you download is much better.

Tune in next week for more advice! If you have any questions about media kits, leave them in the comments section and I will make sure to answer your questions during the week.

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Review Blogging 101: Increase Your Blog Traffic

June 20, 2011 By 7 Comments

If this is your first time here, please make sure to read our first post Review Blogging 101 Series – How to start a review blog.

After you start your blog, you will want people to actually come and read it, right? Right. The first thing you will want to do is think about what you want to get out of your blog and then with that in mind, begin to write. In the beginning, I wrote a lot of posts upfront and scheduled them to post. That way, I would know that content was going up every day. People want to know that when they come to your blog; there is something there for them. Something new.

There are a lot of ways to get traffic. The hope is that you get people to come to your blog from several different places and they will love your blog and come back for more. I’m not going to lie–getting traffic is work. You will have to spend a lot of time building your readership. Let’s get to it.

  1. Message boards. Most message boards allow you to add a signature with a link so that every time you post on the board, you can promote your blog.
  2. Participate in Memes. Profitable Mommy has a huge list of memes so that you can choose which ones fit your blog or you want to participate in. Another option is to start your own meme.
  3. Read other blogs and comment, comment, comment! This one is huge. Visiting blogs and commenting gets you seen by not just the blog owner, but by their readers. What you DON’T want to do is spam the blog by adding your blog url in the comments section. You want to leave relevant comments. Also, don’t just visit the bigger blogs–branch out and comment on the smaller blogs as well.
  4. Spread the link love. Link out to blogs that you love to read, articles that interest you, etc. The love will eventually come back to you!
  5. Sign up for Twitter and let your followers know every time you have a new post. You can actually have your new posts automatically fed to Twitter with a program called HootSuite. It’s free and easy to use. I use it and highly suggest that you do too–or at least an application like it.
  6. Start reading about SEO Optimization. You don’t need to know everything about it–only the basics. Eventually, it will help Google guide readers to you from searches. Here’s a great list of tips.
  7. Read everything that Darren at ProBlogger writes. Seriously. I spent months on his site. He knows what he is talking about. Learn from him.
  8. Be a guest blogger on other blogs. This gets your name out there helps your blog gain exposure.
  9. Host a giveaway of your own to gain exposure. You can give away a small gift card, gas card, handmade item–whatever you can afford.
  10. Get involved in blog carnivals. These are fun and very specific to niches, hobbies, etc. Here’s a huge list of blog carnivals.
  11. Create a button or banner for your blog and post a way for readers to grab it on your sidebar. Here’s a tutorial.
  12. Keep your readers in mind. By this I mean, always, ALWAYS think about your readers. Do not accept an ad, a product, or do anything that you can’t stand behind. If your readers can’t trust you, then they will not come back to your blog. It’s as simple as that.
  13. Sign up and/or list your blog at different social networking sites, blogging message boards, etc. Here’s a list of some sites that allow you to promote your blog in some way:

14. To see your traffic statistics, you will need some sort of tracker. I use Site Meter, but I know a lot of bloggers also like Stat Counter. Some even use both. Get a traffic counter asap!

15.  If you join Latina Mom Bloggers, please  share your blog posts with other Latina Mom Bloggers by adding #latinamoms to your tweets.  A team member from Latina Mom Bloggers will be in touch to work with you to obtain your media kit.  If you don’t have a media kit, stay tuned to next week’s Blogging 101 series.

Let’s talk about it:

Do you have additional tips for increasing your Blog Traffic?

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