Category: Blogging

 

Blogging hacks, tips, fails, how to guides and blogging inspiration.

Everything about blogging. Learn about blogging. Read about blogging as a mother, sahm and wahm. Being a mom blogger.

blogging

Posted in Blogging

20 ideas for your next blog post idea that will go viral.

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

Are you stuck in a rant? Going through writers / bloggers block? Here are some wonderful places to get your next viral blog post ideas.

  • Holiday inspiration: Mother’s Day is coming soon. Write about that. Whatever holidays are near. Google about when the holidays are, print that cheat sheet and stick it up where you can see it or where your work desk is. This helps when scheduling posts as well. Birthdays, functions and events are worth writing about.
  • Social media– YouTube, Pinterest, Quora, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snap chat, WordPress Discover, Instagram: What has your phone beeping every 5 to on social media? What are people so worked up about? Write about it while the hype is still on.
  • Check your downloads: I tend to download many things during the day. They are all laying in my downloads folder. It is your gold mine. Go dig up that gold, refine them and write your next blog post that will go viral.
  • Refresh old posts – Check your WordPress stats and see which posts did very good a month ago. Chances are people have moved on from it. Refresh your pictures and social media pins, add and delete relevant content. And Viola your next blog post idea that will go viral.
  • Check your screenshots: I am guilty of screen grabbing a lot. There is gold in these screen grabs. I ask myself it must have been quite important for me to keep it.

Your next viral blog post is a tick away. You will need to:

phone
  • Check the place you write rough ideas at 2am: If you are like me whose sleep runs out at 2am, or whatever time when you are supposed to be sleeping. The house is quiet, and my ideas run a milestone, I jot down these ideas on WhatsApp and send them to myself. When I am fully awake, I write these ideas as a blog post. I must say that I get pretty darn good ideas at that time.
  • Other bloggers in your niche: What are other bloggers in your niche doing? Especially those bloggers with a thousand followers. Grab that idea, make it better, spice it up, add your tone and outlook to it.
  • Pictures or photos inspiration: A picture says a thousand words. A thousand words is good enough for your next viral blog post, don’t you think? 😉 Your photos that you randomly took can magically inspire you to write a post. I found photos of my Dischem baby bag that I took a year ago while browsing photos on my phone. (That is a good blog post idea, Note taken.)
  • Freebies you received from other bloggers: Most times I download freebies, but I don’t usually go back and have a look at them. Chances are these freebies will inspire you to create your own or write a post about them.
  • Any special thing happening in your life: What things can someone learn from what special thing is happening in your life. Write about it and share. Is your child going through a growth spurt? Read about it here: https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/baby-growth-spurt/

Other ideas for your next blog post are:

desktop
  • Google analytics: See whose looking at your posts, what need are they facing today? Research and write a post meeting that need.
  • Google search history: I am a google mom. Whenever I need something, I google search it first. Refer to your search history. Maybe you searched for something and forgot about it. There sure is some random staff in there but who knows, something of value might come up. Facebook search is quite handy as well.
  • Ask your followers: If you already have established followers, pop them an email or a post asking what do they need, or want to read from your next blog post? You might get good replies. You may do a live Q&A on Facebook as well. Put an ask questions section and make a blog post about the questions you receive. You may add a poll on your Facebook page that allows your readers to respond to.
  • Now is also a good time to check your post it notes and your journal. You may have written a good heading in passing. Your to-do list may also be a good idea for your blog post. If your to-do list is an organization list, write a post on organizing and throw in an organization checklist freebie. That will also motivate you to tackle your to-do list.
  • Good conversations and quotes: Have you ever had an awesome discussion with someone that leaves you all jittery and feeling good. You just can’t help but jot down that wonderful convo. Go ahead, some special person needs to hear/read about it. The sermon at church last Sunday is a good thing to share.

You might as well write about:

Your next viral blog post
  • Go with the flow. Start your draft with nothing to say, write down whatever comes to mind. Who knows it might turn out to be a good post to share with your audience? Some of my blog ideas come from free flow writing.
  • Movies, a good book, a song, memories and nature: These are good fire lighters that spark a good blog post. Facebook likes to send me memories of things I posted a year ago and so far, these are great ideas for you to stamp on.
  • Tutorials and how-to-guide: Everyone is good at something. Share your knowledge and passions creatively in a how-to-guide and tutorials.
  • Your next big thing: Write your blog post on your next big thing. Are you starting a business? Giving birth soon? Going on an adventure? Or maybe your little one is starting school, should you continue being a SAHM or not?
  • Something you are learning to do is also a good journey post to share. Or maybe you are trying a new product. That is worth writing about. You can share your before and after posts.

In conclusion: these are the wonderful resources that you can use to write your next blog post idea that will go viral. Step out of your comfort zone. Be authentic and share who you are. I hope your next blog post goes viral. Cheers MrsChettyLife. 😊 Thank you for liking, commenting, pinning and sharing this post. Liked reading this post? Read more posts from MrsChettyLife: https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/creative-ways-to-diy-empty-glass-purity-bottles/

Posted in Blogging

Canva tools and features

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

Canva tools and features

Reasons to use Canva for your editing needs.

As a blogger, you may have heard or come across Canva. Canva is a great content creation and designing tool that helps you create social media images, documents and paper content. It makes amateur designs look professional. Disclaimer: I am not marketing Canva. I am simply sharing a how to guide on this amazing app I discovered. All this while I thought Canva was only to be used to create images, download and log out. There are so many other features of Canva. Some of these features are:

There are various templates on Canva for you to edit. Canva has templates for

Announcements
Blog graphic
Bookmarks
Brochures
Calendars
Certificates
Comic Strip
Coupons
Facebook covers
Facebook stories
Flyers
Google Plus Covers
Graphic organizer
Infographics
Instagram Stories
Invitations
Invoices
Labels
Lesson plan
Letterheads
Letters
Logos
Media kit
Meme generators
Menus
Mind Map
Newsletter
Photo book
Photo collage
Planners
Posters
Presentations
Programs
Proposals
Quote Graphics
Rack Card
Recipe Card
Report Cards
Resumes
Schedules
Scrapbooks
Seating chart
Snapchat Geofilters
Table of content
Tags
Tickets
Tumblr Banners and graphics
Twitter Headers
Various Cards (ID, Business, Birthday)
Various Covers (CD, Magazine, Books)
Wallpapers
Web ad
Web banners
Website graphic
WhatsApp Story and status
Worksheet
Yearbooks
YouTube Channel Art
YouTube Thumbnails

Canva celebrates your brand.

It offers features that reflect your brand values. It has a facility that allows you to access all your brand needs for content. It creates a brand kit for you. Using your own Color palette, Fonts, Logos and you may upload new font. This link informs you about this: https://www.canva.com/brand

One feature includes 20 unique font combinations that you can use on Canva. You can add these fonts together and see how well they look together. These fonts are free. You may learn more about Canvas fonts here: https://www.canva.com/learn/fonts

The Color Palette Generator on Canva easily generates awesome color palettes from an image. A unique color combination helps you to express the personality of your brand. It offers 20 different color palettes for you to choose from. https://www.canva.com/color-palette/

Canva also has millions of free and paid high-quality stock photos for you to use for your content. You can search according to what you are looking for or according to your mood. You can also add your own photos to the content. You may browse by category:

Read more about Canva Photos here: https://www.canva.com/photos/free/

Canva allows you to easily create beautiful designs and documents.

Make use of Canva’s drag-and-drop editor and professional layouts. If you don’t fancy the templates, you may design your own custom dimensions. See more about sizes here: https://www.canva.com/sizes/

The Teams feature on Canva allows you to add your team members. This is exclusive to Canva’s premium feature. Teams are organized by administrators, designers and members. More on teams here: https://www.canva.com/teams

Another awesome thing about Canva is that it saves your designs in-app that you may re-edit for the next time you need them.

Sharing on Canva is easy. You can share to email addresses, social media accounts, website and within your Canva profile. You can also download the content as a PNG file, a JPEG file, PDF file and as animation.

You can connect your Instagram and Facebook to Canva. Canva allows you to add video and embed media to your design. You can change the background, add elements, text and uploads too. Resizing your already made image to fit in different dimensions is as simple as a click. I love to add emojis which are already on Canva to my content.

I have been looking for the best and an easy app to create freebies for my blog. Canva has proved to have all the things I need to create them.   

Another great tool to use is the Photo editor. This allows you to upload a picture, filter, resize and edit your pictures. See this exciting tool here: https://www.canva.com/photo-editor/

In conclusion, Canva has a lot of tools and features. It also has a place that teaches you how to use and get the best out of Canva. I got all this information in my post from here: https://www.canva.com/learn and https://designschool.canva.com/

More from MrsChettyLife: https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/top-blogging-apps

Posted in Blogging

Top Blogging Apps

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

Apps I use for blogging:

The following apps help me with my day to day blogging tasks. Most of these apps you may download from your phone store, others you may use online.

Apps I use for blog post writing:

WordPress

Facebook Notes

Bloglovin

LinkedIn Publishing

Word

Journal 24×7

Journaly

Physical journal

be proud

Apps for editing and creating Images:

Adobe Spark Post

Has free and paid stock images and templates you can remix to fit your brand. I add wording to the images as well. I love Adobe Spark. Images are organized according to category. I also search by verb.

Canva

I use Canva to edit images. I edit stock images, add my brand and create a new image. It gives many options of templates that you can use. I create / edit infographics, social media templates, freebies, logos and blog images using Canva. Many bloggers also offer freebies from Canva. There is all whole range of images and various free and paid templates you can use on Canva. This is my go-to image creation app,

Word Cloud

Mixes my keywords and highlights them into a neat way. Tags are usually single words. The importance of each tag is shown with font size or color. I can make a word cloud and change the shape, add words, change color, font download and share onto sites with this app.

StoryArt

My go-to app for creating beautiful and unique Instagram stories by remixing templates and pictures. I like this app because the templates are girly and minimalist.

Adobe Lightroom

It allows saving, organizing, capturing, editing and sharing large numbers of images.

Adobe Photoshop

I use photoshop to edit my pictures. It has a wide selection of editing tools.

Highlight Cover Maker

This app makes covers for Instagram Story. I like the uniqueness of this app. I can add stickers, text and color to it. The covers are premade to fit in Instagram story.

Google Slides

I use google slides to create and edit cool slides, freebies and videos as well.

Word

I usually use Word to write and edit my blog posts. I write my first draft in word. I have many unfinished drafts in word just waiting for the right time to emerge. I also use word for basic spellcheck before copy and pasting into WordPress. I also use Word to create freebies.

Video creation and editing apps I use:

Adobe Premiere Clip

I love this video creation, customization and editing app. It is easy to use. I can edit each picture in the video, add audio, edit the length of the video and lots of other features.

macbook

Apps I use for scheduling content:

Planoly

A simple and easy-to-use scheduling app for Instagram.

Facebook Creator for Facebook pages

Lets creators and publishers manage posts, videos, insights and messages from all your Facebook pages into one place.

Facebook Pages Manager

A scheduling app for Facebook pages. It is good if you have many Facebook pages.

Apps for inspiration and daily writing:

Gratitude

My gratitude journal helps me to be positive every day. I write down something I am grateful for that day. Sometimes a change in perspective can lighten the mood.

Journal 24×7 and Journaly

I use my handy journals for all sorts of things. They keep me organized. I write blog post titles for later use. I write about my day.

Apps for delivering freebies:

Dropbox and OneDrive

Are both a secure file sharing, syncing and collaboration app. I share online downloads or by link.

Apps I share my blog posts on:

Facebook

I use Facebook to create ads, share content and interact with users. I share quotes, tips and links to my blog posts. I share posts onto both Facebook and Instagram at once. I also create Facebook groups for users to interact on. I create events around my blog. I also advertise anything in the market place on Facebook. I can also publish blog posts on Facebook notes. There are lots of uses of Facebook for my blog.

Bloglovin’

Bloglovin’ has a neat way of automatically syncing blog posts onto Bloglovin. All you have to do is claim your blog and voila your blog posts are on Bloglovin’. It is a blogsite site on its own but can drive traffic to your blog. Bloglovin‘ is a platform that allows users to read, organize and discover their favorite blogs as well as add their own. I use Bloglovin’ for inspiration as well.

Pinterest

I use Pinterest to find content for my blog, I save pins in a secret board for me to check out and try later. I also use Pinterest to grow my audience. Pinterest adds a link to my blog which in turn increases my website traffic.

I use this plugin in called Pinterest ‘Pin It’ Button on my blog. It adds a pin it button to all the images on my blog. This makes my pictures pinnable and easily sharable on Pinterest. Pinterest is a good platform for bloggers who express themselves better through infographics. I verified my blog on Pinterest and signed up for a business account which allows for analytics to see how each pin is performing.

Instagram

I love Instagram as it is easy to use. It is more visually stimulating. I enjoy posting motivational quotes and use this platform to promote my blog posts through pictures and videos. It allows me to use hashtags that are more like search words, when someone searches that tag, it brings up all the posts that have that hashtag.

I can also run ads on Facebook and Instagram at the same time which makes my work much easier. I signed up for an Instagram business account which allows for analytics, a contact button and more. I write a good caption for my post. Summarize what will people learn when they will read my blog post and I add some relevant hashtags to my Instagram post.

LinkedIn

Allows me to have a company page linked to my personal page. It is more for businesses targeting businesses. I share my blog posts onto LinkedIn to target professionals who will be willing to buy my product when I begin to monetize my blog. I feel LinkedIn makes me look professional. People searching on LinkedIn may find my articles relevant to them. LinkedIn also allows for me to connect with other users through email addresses found in my contacts. You can allow LinkedIn to access your contacts or not. I also publish a whole article as a blog post on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/post/new.

Other apps and tools:

My camera

I use my camera for taking pictures for my blog, Instagram, Facebook and Gurushots.

blog

Other blogs

I use other blogs for inspiration. I see what they are doing and what posts they write about and I do something similar or off-hand.

Gurushots

I use Gurushots for inspiration from pictures. It also inspires me to take pictures of my own as there are different challenges I can enter.

My phone

I write down blog post idea when I am on the go on my phone. I use the journals on my phone. I also take pictures for my blog when my camera is not on hand.

In conclusion, these apps make my blogging experience much easier.

More from MrsChettyLife: https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/ultimate-beginners-guide-to-blogging/

Posted in Blogging, General lifestyle, Motherhood

WHO AM I? Rebranded

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

Who are you?

I am Natasha Chetty, the woman behind the blog: MrsChettyLife. I am just a mother like you, winging it in this mom world. I enjoy discovering myself as a mother, woman and wife. After months of blogging, its time to reintroduce myself: MrsChettyLife rebranded. I am here to enrich the livelihood of moms through blogging about motherhood.

MrsChettyLife

What is your name?

Natasha Chetty

What is your blog about?

My blog is about helping young mothers simplify their motherhood journey. It is all about reaching out to mothers, connecting with them and sharing experiences. I would love to be a useful source to mothers in all stages of motherhood from pregnancy.

  • A mother’s lifestyle: organization, stay at home life, work at home life, random posts
  • Self-care and inspirational quotes for moms
  • Essential oils (natural living)
  • All about baby; teething, baby weaning, pregnancy, newborn, toddler life
  • Marriage life

What is your location?

I reside in Johannesburg, South Africa.

How old are you?

25

Coffee or tea?

Rooibos Tea please, does hot chocolate count? and lots of chocolates and cookies.

What do you do?

I am a stay at home mom leaning towards living naturally who blogs and loves photography.

What is your child’s name?

Nathaniel Mapalo

How old is he?

1 year

What is your status?

Married

What is your religion?

Christianity

What are your Interests?

  • blogging
  • photography
  • music
  • nature
  • DIY
  • Essential oils
  • organization

What makes you different?

I am a stay at home mom. I am a first time mom. I am a millennial mom. I guess my experiences make me different. As well as my background, my interracial marriage, my mixed son and my outlook to life. I believe every mom is unique and different. And every person has a voice that needs to be heard. I believe each person is special.

Where can we find you on Social media?

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/MrsChettyLife

Instagram: www.instagram.com/mrschettylife

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-chetty/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrschettylife/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/MrsChettyLife

Are you an Introvert or extrovert?

I am an introvert. I’d rather spend my day curled up indoors with a hot chocolate and reading a book or watching a movie with my son.

What keeps you going?

Hope, faith and love keep me going. I hope for a good and better tomorrow, I have faith that things will work out and I love my son, my husband, my blog, myself and people. These things keep me going. Writing is my outlet.

What is your blog URL?

www.mrschettylifestyle.co.za

What is the inspiration behind your blog?

I always loved to write and keep an online diary. With a baby I can’t always write in a book, so I type on my phone or online journal. I began this blog when my son was born to originally write letters to him. It turned out to be a mom lifestyle blog.

“Enriching the livelihood of moms through blogging about motherhood.”

What are the colors and fonts for your blog?

Pink, white, black, blue and green.

What apps do you use for your blog?

  • Canva
  • WordPress
  • Adobe Spark

I will mention more about this in a blog post later.

Who is your Target market / audience?

Moms, stay at home moms (sahm), first time moms (ftm), married couples looking to spice up their marital life, and natural living moms.

What are your goals?

-to write every week

-post on social media every week

-to advertise on social media

-to develop my photography skills

-to eventually monetize my blog

-to get my house in order and develop a good organization routine

-to develop and grow my marriage

-to be there for my baby and husband

-to sell my photos

-to learn all about essential oils and develop a natural living lifestyle.

What are your wants and needs?         

  • money
  • motivation
  • a brand kit
  • a solid blogging system
  • a solid cleaning and home organization system
  • some structure
  • my work desk
  • a helper

What will readers expect from you?

  1. Honesty
  2. simplicity
  3. non-judgments
  4. a friend
  5. a source of information
  6. freebies
  7. a post every week
  8. I won’t overburden you with something I am selling.

Why do you blog?

I blog to keep myself sane. I am an overthinker, with thoughts that keep me busy, they run in my head none stop. I get ideas at 3am in the morning when I can’t sleep. I love to write. I keep a gratitude journal to highlight one thing to be grateful for every day. I blog to keep my hands and head busy. I blog to share my experiences and hopefully help someone who knows less than I do in that certain area. I believe everyone has something valuable to say, why not say it in a blog?

What is important to you?

  • First time moms
  • My son
  • Sahms
  • My marriage
  • My sanity
  • Writing and blogging
  • Organizing my house
  • Nature
  • Birds
  • natural living

What inspires you?

  • Nature
  • Other people’s blogs
  • My son
  • Google
  • Motivational quotes
  • I always look for something good in a situation or someone
  • Positive thinking
  • Downfalls
  • A good photograph
  • The cross tattoo on my wrist
  • Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder
  • My faith
  • Accepting everyone as different and unique

What is your moto?

  1. “It is only for a season.”
  2. “Enjoy today, it will never come back.”
  3. “Don’t give up!”
  4. “You are doing good, mom.”
  5. “Smile.”
  6. “Enriching the livelihood of moms by blogging about motherhood.”

What type of mom are you?

I am a loving, calm, all in, hands-on super mom who forgives herself when I make a mom fail and I cut myself some slack. No mom is perfect. I embrace the good and bad. I don’t know it all and I’m constantly researching and learning.

What are the other blogs you recommend?

www.merelymeadows.com

www.ordinarilyextraordinarymom.com

PS Download my freebie

postpartum checklistDownload
In conclusion, follow my blog and social media accounts to get to know more about MrsChettyLife. https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/contact-us/

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Cheers happy mothering, MrsChettyLife.

Posted in Blogging

The ultimate beginners guide to blogging.

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

The ultimate beginners guide to blogging.

This post is all you need to know about blogging.

Blogging all starts with a good logo for your website. Your logo should be SMART.

Simple: don’t add too many complicated symbols in your logo that will leave your client confused.

Memorable: someone should be able to connect you and your logo when they see your logo elsewhere. Your logo should be easy to remember.

Appropriate: Your logo should be appropriate to your niche and brand.

Relatable: Your logo should be able to draw readers to it by relating to the reader.

Timeless: Would your logo be able to stand the test of time?

smart

Picking your domain name is also an essential part in blogging. Remember that your domain name is something that will stick with you for many years. Your domain name should be short and easy to remember as well.

Another important step in blogging is your host. You should have a good host from the get-go. So that you should focus on building a good blog rather than if your site is working today or not. Take some time researching on a good web host before you spend money on a bad host before you begin your blog.

Have you always wanted to start a blog, but you are not entirely sure what it involves? Or maybe you are new to blogging and still trying to understand what you need to do? You can read here about what a blogger does: www.mrschettylifestyle.co.za/what-does-a-blogger-do

You need to figure out what niche you will blog about. It gives you some sense of direction on what to do. It also gives you the right organic traffic which is good for your blog. You may read about finding your niche here: www.mrschettylifestyle.co.za/finding-your-niche

Do you need some inspiration? Here are my top 14 bloggers who give me lots of inspiration and freebies. Their blogs are informative and worthwhile: www.mrschettylifestyle.co.za/my-top-fourteen-bloggers

Places to get ideas for your next blog post:

Buzzsumo

HubSpot

Your strengths

Keywords Everywhere

Pinterest

Other blogs

Facebook

Seasonal holidays

Google trends

Day to day experiences

Adobe spark for inspiration from a picture.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

laptop

Keys to blogging success

Be consistent

Sell yourself on social media

Patience: blogging is unpredictable and takes a while

Target your audience in your niche

Improve yourself by learning from other bloggers

Generate ideas from keyword generators like Keywords Everywhere

Write down random ideas that hit you at 2am when your little one won’t sleep.

Plan your next blog post now.

Add beautiful graphics to your blog post

Pay attention to detail.

Be unique, be yourself, be relatable.

Create irresistible titles.

I must also add that you should learn SEO for your blog in order to rank higher in google and attract organic viewers to your blog. Basic SEO you should consider is

Your title should contain your focus keyword.

Your focus keyword should be mentioned a few times in your post.

Your meta description should be a short, relevant and descriptive summary of your whole post.

Add images to your post. And make your images pinnable by using a social media plugin.

Your images should contain an alt text as google doesn’t really read images.

Your post should be more than 300 words.  

Add backlinks to your blog through guest posting.  

Your posts should be original.

Add not less than 4 headings to your post.

Freebies are what will attract readers to your website.

Freebies are also a way to build your email list. You may find out about freebies to offer on your blog here: www.mrschettylifestyle.co.za/freebies/

freebies

Find one platform on social media whether its Pinterest or Instagram or twitter that you will concentrate on, learn and become an expert in. By the way follow me on www.instagram.com/mrschettylife and www.pinterest.com/MrsChettyLife

Here is a wrap up of my top blogging tips: www.mrschettylifestyle.co.za/my-top-blogging-tips

Thats it for the ultimate beginners guide to blogging.

beginners guide

Cheers MrsChettyLife.

freebies ideas list
Posted in Blogging

Freebies Ideas List

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

Freebies Ideas List

As a blogger, getting your subscriber list is very important. That’s mostly the reason why we blog, to get people to read and subscribe to our blog. There are so many ideas to use as opt ins but only the best will work for you. Plus, whatever works for another might not work for you. Here are a few tips I have gathered from the internet and Pinterest on opt in ideas. Its good to do a little research and trial and error to get to the point where people subscribe to your blog like pancakes.

pancakes

Firstly, you must consider your target audience. Ask yourself these questions

What do my target audience need?

What service do I offer to my target audience that meets this need?

What freebie can I offer in this regard?

What format can I offer these freebies that will be workable for me?

What resources do I have available that I can offer these freebies?

How much time do I have to be able to make these freebies?

Are these freebies relevant to my target audience?

If I was my target audience, what freebie would I like to recieve?

Will these freebies be beneficial to me? (Freebies must be able to bring in readers and subscribers)

What are people in your niche offering?

Secondly consider resources that you have available to be able to make these freebies and deliver them. Make your freebies, relevant, easy to download and accessible.

We can use these places to make freebies

design

Canva for design

Teachable for courses

Grammarly for correction

Highlight for design

Google charts

Adobe Spark for images

PowerPoint for slides

Google slides

We can use these services to deliver freebies

Dropbox

Google docs

Convertkit

Here is a list of freebies you can offer on your blog to gain more readers and email subscribers

Checklists

Worksheets

Templates

Planners

Calendars

Swipe files

Spreadsheets

Motivational Quotes

Social media templates

Guides

eBooks

Stock images

Binders

Audio clips

Video clips

Access to a resource vault

Access to Facebook or Pinterest groups

Case studies

Graphics

Toolkits

Free trial to a special beneficial resource

Email course

Coupons or discounts to something valuable to your readers

Free one on one consultations

Free audit sessions

Giveaways

Patterns

Informative Infographics

Tutorials

Necessary diagrams

Consider where you will promote your freebies.

Make a noise on your social media pages

Word of mouth to peers and family

Create a pop up on your blog

Link to a blog post

In your email signature

Guest blog on other blogs

Promote on social media groups in your niche

Be creative

creative

Lastly don’t foget to write your blog name and url in your freebie. Make an impression that can be referred to over again and shared with friends. You may also add a note on how people can use your freebies to avoid plagiarism. Think like your audience when offering your freebie.

freebies

More from MrsChettyLife: https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/life-lessons/

Download your freebie:

freebieDownload
Posted in Blogging

My Top Fourteen bloggers

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

My Top 14 bloggersMy Top Fourteen bloggers:

Work At Home Mother, Blogging,

Business and Motherhood.

These are my top bloggers whom I follow for freebies, motivation and information.

Suzi Start a Mom Blog

Blogging is a very rewarding and extremely flexible activity.

It also has the potential to grow into something amazing. But it can be time-consuming if you do not have standards and processes.This is where my Industrial Engineering experience plays a vital role in StartAMomBlog. I am providing you with the same efficiency and optimization techniques that worked at Fortune 100 Companies to gain traffic and make your blog successful.

Blogging equipment

Nataly Love and Paper Flowers

My name is Nataly.

I am a wife, a mother of two, a nurse, and a blogger who strives to empower women find their own voice through profitable blogging, social media strategies, and a splash of parenting, love and encouragement.

McKinzie Moms Make Cents

HI, I’M MCKINZIE, Hey friend! Welcome to my little piece of the internet.

I started Moms Make Cents in June of 2016 to help teach moms how to build profitable blogs and businesses so they could have the freedom to stay home with their kiddos. 

Freedom Mamas Freedom Mamas

Welcome to Freedom Mamas.

This blog is here to provide guidance to moms who want to start a business. Here you will find advice to help you start a business whilst raising your family.

Elna Twins Mommy

Hi, I’m Elna! Hey, everyone! Thanks for stopping by here!

Twins Mommy is a place to help moms make money blogging. I provide help to grow your blog traffic, email list, and income and turn your blog into a business that thrives. I’m a stay-at-home mom who blogs and writes for a living.

Phone and notebook

Monica Redefining Mom

Hello! Thank you for stopping by Redefining Mom!

My name is Monica and I live in Buffalo, NY with my husband and our two beautiful girls who are 5 years old and just a few weeks old. First and foremost, I am a wife and a mom. After 11 years in Corporate America, working in Channel Marketing for a Fortune 100 company, I quit my corporate job in January 2016 to work for a small company where I negotiated flexible benefits. In August 2016, I turned my blog into a business and started working for myself full-time!

Heather A Life in Labor

Hi, I’m Heather.

I’m a wife, a mama, and a labor and delivery nurse. My calling is to help other mamas with their every day labors that women go through from pregnancy and delivery, to the newborn stage and home life. I want to talk about it all and acknowledge that our labors as mothers don’t stop after our babies are born. They are only just beginning! Lets be friends! I want you to be a part of my tribe.

Blogging tools
Jackie Its Organised

WELCOME

It’s Organised is a blog that helps small-business owners like you learn how to create & share great content. You may find the idea of taking your small business into the online world overwhelming. Even if you haven’t got the first clue where to start, or the in-house skills to make it happen, you’ll find articles, tutorials, products and services here to help.

Ruth Soukop Living Well Spending Less

HI THERE, I’M RUTH

Just like you, I wear lots of different hats all day long! I’m a blogger, author and product creator. I’m a busy wife and mama, a small business owner, a daughter, sister and friend, and most importantly, a ridiculously imperfect child of a loving and gracious God.
My mission here at LWSL is to eliminate overwhelm and make your life just a little bit easier.

Allison Marshall Wonderlass

Welcome, You Creative Unicorn! What’s that you say? You want to create a profitable online business that’s fueled by passive income from your digital products but you’re completely OVERWHELMED?!

You’ve got a slight VISION for what you want to create and perhaps even a million ideas floating around in the lovely head of yours but … You have no real clue WHERE to begin or HOW to make your online business work without going totally INSANE? (Or completely broke?!) Well guess what?! You’ve come to the right place.

Kathie Bluchic

Well, hello!

We’re Kathie and Andrew, dream team designer & developer duo. Our feminine WordPress themes + brand design tools have helped thousands of creative entrepreneurs & bloggers elevate their businesses and create the kind of lifestyle they love.
Andrea Bolder Andrea Bolder
AndreaBolder.com is a space for hungry, motivated bloggers and online entrepreneurs who want to make money with their blogs.

Lots of money! This is a space rich in actionable advice that is easy to digest and easy to implement. I’m going to share my best content, keep you inspired, dive deep into mindset and marketing strategies that work and provide tools to help YOU get to the money HONEY! You may have no idea how to turn your dreams into dollars. You will learn that here. You may be clueless on how to master your brand. You will learn that here. You may not even have a mentor that can show you exactly what it takes to build an online empire. You, my friend, will GET that here.

Emma Lee Bates Emma Lee Bates

Welcome!

Looking to start your own small business? You’ve come to the right place! Start with checking out some of the best small business ideas for women.

Sasha Everyday She’s Sparkling

Hi! My name is Sasha.

My whole life has been one about family, life, growing and serial entrepreneurship. I created this blog initially to share some of the crazy paths this life has taken me and it took on a whole new adventure! My hope with this blog is to pass some of that passion onto other women so they can find their own personal sparkle!

More from MrsChettyLife: an-important-letter

Posted in Blogging

SEO basics before publishing

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

SEO basics before publishing.

SEO

Firstly What is SEO?

Some of the tools mentioned are available only to WordPress.com Business plan subscribers, but we’ve also included a few tips for everyone.

SEO is the practice of translating content that’s written and formatted for human eyes to something search engines can clearly understand. Doing this helps search engines know exactly how to surface your site in search results — and can lead to your site ranking higher and attracting more visitors. You can achieve this with metadata: the extra descriptions, categories, and tags you add to content and images that spell out the nuances of each page and post on your site.

Before you get started, know first and foremost that you need to have clear, quality content on your site. You should add the following polishes only after you’ve created great content for your audience. These tips will work best if you apply them regularly; for SEO success, you need good habits before moving on to more advanced practices.

Tip #1: Add your site’s SEO description

Be sure to add a site-wide SEO description, which summarizes the content of your site as a whole. In your description, you can use around 160 characters — it’s okay to go over, though, as this number is an estimate — and write in complete sentences to capture the essence of your site’s purpose. Add or update this description at My Sites → Settings → Traffic, under Front Page Meta Description.

traffic

Tip #2: Set SEO descriptions for pages and posts

Note: The SEO items you add shouldn’t be a bunch of keywords that you paste onto every page or post’s metadata — only use keywords if they’re reflected in the content you’re optimizing.

When you’re ready to publish a page or post, click on the SEO Description module under Post Settings at the right. Use complete sentences and up to 300 characters to summarize this particular piece of content.

What you write here will appear in search engine results, so it’s also for human eyes. Never repeat this content from one page or post to another — search engines frown on duplicate content! When this summary is done well, it serves as an introduction to search engines on what you’re writing about. For example, it’s ideal to use specific terms, cities, or places reflected in your content.

meta description

A note on tags: Treat tags like keywords or keyword phrases, but only add ones that are specifically reflected in a particular blog post.

Tip for everyone: For posts, use the Categories & Tags module to organize content and add extra metadata. Use up to a combined 15 categories and tags, and always use at least one custom category (even if every post is assigned to the same one). Otherwise, they’re automatically assigned to “Uncategorized,” which doesn’t do much for your SEO.

Tip #3: Make your images more search-friendly and accessible

Tip for all: Consistently add image alt text to enhance SEO on anyWordPress.com site, regardless of your plan.

You might upload lots of images to your site, but do you add metadata to them? When you add an image to a post or page, it’s good practice to edit it first and add an Alt Text description. Be as specific as possible: describe what’s in the image itself, including places and people.

This is key for a few reasons. First, this extra metadata enhances the SEO of every page or post the image is displayed on. Second, adding alt text makes an image eligible to appear in search results — which then directs people back to your site. Finally, some of your visitors may rely on-screen readers to read digital content aloud to them. If you don’t have alt text or any description for the image, the screen reader can’t tell what the image is supposed to represent. By adding this piece of information, your images become more accessible.

Edit an image in your Media Library by going to My Sites → Media, selecting the image, and clicking Edit.

my sites media

Tip #4: Maintain a blog

All WordPress.com sites, regardless of plan, can have a blog.

Lastly adding a blog to your site enhances its SEO. Every time you publish a new post, search engines know to take a look at your fresh content (and re-scan your archives). Publishing just once a week has a cumulative impact, so if you don’t have a blog for your business website or professional portfolio, consider sharing news, insights, or even introducing resources you’ve found elsewhere that can help your audience.

Most Importantly by incorporating these tips, you provide more information to search engines on what topics your site addresses and the value it offers. The more you add content and polish the metadata of your site — and the more consistent you are — the better the results.

Posted in Blogging

Top 11 blogging tips for the new blogger.

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

Blogging tipsTop 11 blogging tips for the new

blogger.

My Top blogging tips

Heres a small list of essentials for the new blogger. What will you need as a new blog? How do you find your way?

1. Discover your niche. You may have a look at the post link below to figure this out: finding-your-niche

2. Write long blog posts with more 300 words per post. Google thinks you are more valuable when your posts are longer. Thus ranking higher on SEO.

3. Respond to all comments with more than a sentence.

4. Blog often: At least 3 times a week. You will need to break the ice as a new blogger. More content more exposure.

5. Implement SEO on your blog.

6. Join Facebook groups, comment and like other people’s posts and blogs. Be genuine please. Here is a tip I learnt from one blogger (I can’t remember who): When singing your name in a comment write your name @ your blog. eg Natasha @MrsChettyLife. When someone clicks on your name it will transfer them to your blog. Smart Right!

7. Use social platforms like instagram, pinterest and Quora to gain likes.

8. Write about what’s trending for your blogging tips or ideas. You can find this on Quora, Google Trends, pinterest and Facebook highlights.

9. Connect with your readers by writing a solution to what they are interested in. Be a bit personal and write about your experience while giving this solution.

10. Give freebies in exchange for your readers email address to help build your email list. Freebies can be a chapter of your e-book, exclusive access to your Facebook or Pinterest group, printable or stock images. Freebies

11. Collaborate with other bloggers in your niche, guest blogging is a really good way to improve your SEO. You can find collaborators on Facebook and Pinterest.

More from MrsChettyLife: life lessons

Posted in Blogging

Sites for image creation

Posted on by Natasha Chetty

29 SITES FOR IMAGE CREATION

FOR THE SMART BLOGGER.

 

SITES FOR IMAGE CREATION

Are you looking for images for your blog?

Did you know that there are plenty sites where you can make your own image for your blog and social media? Most of them are free and give free options. You can edit some of these pictures as well to make them suit your brand.

Having your brand stands you out and causes recognition in your clients eyes. A DIY person like me enjoys creating these images and I hope you have fun too.

AVIARY

Aviary is a mobile photo editing app that gives you dozens of ways to enhance, accessorize and apply unique effects in a single tap, and then share your creations instantly with friends.

Adobe Spark

Transform your ideas into stunning visual stories. Create impactful graphics, web pages and video stories in minutes with Spark’s free graphic design app

Befunky

Photo Editing & Graphic Design Made for Everyone. Produce stunning photographs and captivating designs with fun, easy-to-use editing tools.

I highly recommend and use Canva

Collaborate & Create Amazing Graphic Design for Free. Create beautiful designs with your team. Use Canva’s drag and drop feature and layouts to design, share and print business cards, logos, presentation.

 

Desygner

CREATE YOUR OWN STUNNING DESIGNS. Design online. Free and easy-to-use. No skills required. GET A HEAD START WITH OVER 5,000 DESIGNER TEMPLATES FOR FREE.

You really do not have to think.
Choose from thousands of pre-made templates that are from professional designers in-house and are guaranteed to get you much more exposure.
Create banners, posters, invitations, Facebook covers, business cards, social media posts etc

Facetune

Wow your friends with every selfie. Facetune 2 is the best portrait and selfie editor. It’s fun, powerful and jam-packed with tons of retouching tools.

Fotojet

Turn Your Ideas into Stunning Artworks. FotoJet meets all of your needs for making quality graphic designs, creating photo collages and editing photos!

Framatic

Framatic Collage Editor on the App Store iTunes Apple. Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Framatic Collage Editor. Download Framatic Collage Editor and enjoy it on.

GIMP

GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes.

INDESIGN

The next page in layout design. The industry-leading page design and layout app lets you create, preflight and publish beautiful documents for print and digital media. InDesign CC has everything you need to make posters, books, digital magazines, eBooks, interactive PDFs and more.

INFOGR.AM

Create Infographics, Reports and Maps. Infogram is an easy to use infographic and chart maker. Create and share beautiful infographics, online reports and interactive maps. Make your own here.

keynote

With its powerful tools and dazzling effects, Keynote makes it easy to create stunning and memorable presentations. Keynote is the most powerful presentation app ever designed for a mobile device. Built from the ground up for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, it makes creating a world-class presentation, complete with animated charts and cinematic transition, as simple as touching and tapping.

 

Pablo
Increase your social media engagement
With Pablo, you can create beautiful images easily to make your posts pop.

Pagemodo

Everything You Need For A Powerful Social Media Presence. Join over 3 million professionals who trust Pagemodo. Get started for free.
Keep your fans talking with visual posts and relevant content that you can find and schedule in as little as 15 minutes a week.

Increase your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn engagement without spending your whole day online. Schedule social posts quickly and easily with Pagemodo Posts. Our “Suggested Posts” feature will help you find better content, and spend less time looking for it. With Post Designer you can easily market your sales, events, and contests without a pro designer.

Photo Collage

Create online photo collages. Add photos without uploading, create your own photo collage and save/share your collages. This tool works on PCs, tablets and smart phones (IOS and Android). Use the site without registration and create Facebook, Google+ or Twitter covers and header collages. Choose from collage templates or create free form collages.

Another site for image creation is Picmonkey

Photo editor. Design maker. Idea realizer. Everything you need to make your ideas come to life. It’s never been easier to feed your creative beast.

Pic resize

Resize, shrink, and crop your pictures online for free at PicResize.com. Resize photos before posting them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator Pro is a powerful, beautiful, and easy to use image editor packed full of innovations. The world’s most innovative image editing app.
Pixelmator Pro is an image editor packed full of innovations. From a reimagined editing workflow and simplified editing tools to machine learning powering all-new, intelligent image editing features. So the tools at your fingertips are smarter and more powerful, yet more intuitive and easier to use than ever before.

Power point

Microsoft PowerPoint empowers you create clean slide presentations to intricate pitch decks and gives you a powerful presentation maker to tell your story.

Sky

Prisma

Turn photos into works of art. Prisma is a photo-editing app that creates amazing photo effects, transforming photos into paintings. Prisma uses artificial neural networks that enable users to make photos appear like they were painted by Picasso, Munch or even Salvador Dali himself.

Prisma is a photo-editing app that creates amazing photo effects, transforming photos into paintings. Prisma uses artificial neural networks that enable users to

Quotes Cover

Make your own beautiful quotes pictures quickly, effortlessly. You may use or share these images freely without attribution (CC0 license). You can redesign or download the image. Simply click on the image and follow the step. No need to sign up or login.

Quozio

Quozio turns meaningful words into beautiful images in seconds. Then share ’em on Facebook, Pinterest, email and more!

SNAPSEED EDITING

Snapseed is a complete and professional photo editor developed by Google.

KEY FEATURES

• 29 Tools and Filters, including: Healing, Brush, Structure, HDR, Perspective (see list below)

• Opens JPG and RAW files

• Save your personal looks and apply them to new photos later

• Selective filter brush

• All styles can be tweaked with fine, precise control

Stencil

The fastest way to attract new customers. Ridiculously simple image creation for social media marketers, bloggers and small businesses.

Unfold

Unfold let’s you create beautiful and engaging stories for Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook with minimal and easy-to-use templates.

Venngage

Free Infographic Maker. Join over 1 million people creating their own professional graphics with our easy to use infographic maker. Sign up for free and choose from 1000+ infographic

Visual.ly

Visual Content for Modern Marketers. A new way to think about content creation. Specialized creative talent, online and on-demand.

HIGHEST QUALITY TALENT
Over 1000 specialized creative professionals. Hand picked and vetted for your needs. We simplify complexity.

FULL CREATIVE SERVICE
We can start with strategy. Integrated products and services.An extension of your team.

A BETTER WAY TO WORK
Get started quickly. Collaborate directly with your team. Flexible to grow with your needs

 

last but not the least VSCO

VSCO® is a photo company for creators, by creators.

In conclusion, make sure to check the legal use of an image before you add it for your use. There are many sources that assist you with image creation.

In addition to these above you may also get stock photos from

Stock Up

Shutterstock

CreateHER Stock

Creative Vix

Creative Commons

Stock Vault

The She Approah

LibreStock

Finda.Photo

TookAPic

FreePhotos.cc

Pexels

megapixl

Visual Hunt

FancyCrave

iStockPhoto

EveryPixel

She Bold

TheStockPile

Ivorymix

Haute Stock

Styled Stock Society

Pixistock

Sites for image creation

More from MrsChettyLife: https://mrschettylifestyle.co.za/life-lessons