Today we welcome Heather from SAHM Loving It. This is what she has to say about herself -
My name is Heather and I'm a blogoholic. I'm a 36 year old (feel 56 at the mo!) stay at home mum to a 22 month old girl and wife to a 34 year old man currently known as 'useless feck' as he's fractured his ankle - muppet! I never thought I'd become a stay at home mum but after working full time in marketing for about 18 years I think I deserve to have some time off for good behaviour. I love comedy, food, travel, photography and general madness. I started blogging 31st December 2010 and haven't looked back since!
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I’m so honoured to be writing this guest post for Michelle as when I started blogging just over 5 weeks ago, I never expected anyone to read it. It was just a place to dump some mutterings, a place for myself to ponder on my life, an escape almost. Then I stumbled across BMB - the support I’ve received from Michelle and the many other fabulous bloggers has been overwhelming.
My decision to start blogging was somewhat an overnight one. It was that period between Christmas and New Year where you’re getting slightly fed up of watching crap on TV and eating leftover food. I just thought I’d give it a try as I’ve always enjoyed writing but little did I know just how much I would come to love blogging.
Being a stay-at-home-mum I thought I’d left my days in marketing behind me. I thought, for now, I was destined for days of caring for my daughter, cleaning and cooking (not that that’s all I do obviously!). I didn’t think I would ever use the term ‘CRM’ (Customer Relationship Management) again. But as I sit here thinking about what to write for this guest post I suddenly realise that blogging is ALL about relationship management. I realise that in order to make your blog work and gain some readership you have to commit time to it but, more importantly, you have to network and build relationships with other bloggers.
For me, this involves:
• Investing time within the blogging community
• Visiting other blogs to spark ideas
• Commenting on blog posts I enjoy
• Getting involved in blog hops to make new friends
• When people leave a comment on my blog, visit their blog and comment back – share the love
• Extend myself beyond the blog by utilising other forms of social networking i.e. Twitter
I’ve found Twitter to be an extremely useful tool in building relationships. It’s not just a place to tweet your new blog post a couple of times but a place to make friends and extend the relationship beyond the blog. I find it’s through Twitter you really get to know people more.
I’ve been on Twitter a while and had grown to use it more and more towards the end of last year but it wasn’t until I started blogging that it really took off. It’s quick, it’s simple and best of all it’s a powerful tool for making new friends and building up strong relationships – and having fun!
Maybe that’s why I like blogging so much? Maybe its part of the old ‘marketing girl’ in me has been reborn? Michelle paid me a big compliment the other week, she said it was as if I had been around the blogging community for much longer. If this is only the beginning of my blogging journey I’m so excited for where it’s going to take me!
Thanks so much Heather for taking the time to write this, we know you are busy at home at the moment looking after your 'big baby!'. Tomorrow I get to post something on my blog - how novel is that? Come back and read about working with brands and taking paid content on your blog.
