“For the enterprising woman, the internet has opened up all sorts of opportunity to combine career and family on her own terms.

I’ve stayed at home with my kids (all 800 of them, it seems) for nearly twelve years now, and aside from two years in a contract position with General Motors, I’ve been self-employed in web-based businesses the entire time. While I’ve learned a lot of my lessons the hard way (ask me about my $300 check for writing the strategy for a $250k campaign….that was a valuable lesson…sigh…), hopefully you won’t have to. My tips:

1.  Don’t give away the milk. Just like your momma told you. If you give it away for free, nobody will pay you for it. Wait…maybe that’s not exactly what your momma meant. But, you get my gist. Your work, be it manual labor, ideas, writing, handmade goods, etc… has value. But you can’t convert that value into currency if you’re giving it away for free.

2.  Know your rate..”

Courtesy Curvy Girl Guide, click here to continue reading!

“5 Ways to Generate Leads From Twitter

1. Create a dedicated Twitter landing page. One of the most valuable parts of your Twitter profile is the link in your company’s profile. Instead of simply pasting in the URL of your homepage, take the time to create a new page on your website specifically targeted toward visitors from Twitter. This Twitter landing page could be a variety of things. It could be an introduction to your company, an offer for a piece of lead generation content, or other relevant content. The important thing to remember is that some aspect of this Twitter landing page should support lead generation.

2. Tweet links to landing pages. While most of your Twitter followers probably aren’t ready yet for a demonstration of your product, they are likely ready for some of your thought leadership lead generation content. Tweet links to landing pages with lead generation forms for offers that support general education for your followers. Something like “Free Ebook: 10 [Insert Industry] Mistakes to Avoid” will work beautifully!

3. Monitor industry terms with Twitter Search…”

Courtesy Hubspot, to continue reading, click here!

“Last week, Nathan Burgess wrote about a very top-of-mind issue for PR professionals – blogger compensation. If you haven’t read that post yet, head over there first before diving into this one.

As Nathan notes in his article, it’s not uncommon now for bloggers to receive monetary compensation to review a product or service…in addition to getting to test out that product or service for an extended period of time.

But won’t compensation in the form of cold hard cash sway the blogger’s opinion of said product or service? And won’t that immediately move this review into the paid media versus earned media category? Can bloggers actually be unbiased when a company pays them to write about their product or service?

I reached out to a few bloggers I’ve connected with over the years to get their thoughts on the compensation topic, as well as working with PR pros to coordinate reviews. Here’s what they had to say:

Jackie Harper – Free is My Life

Compensation to me is not just about cash. Compensation can include exposure, cash, gift cards, event passes, sponsored trips and brand products. When everyone is upfront in their expectations, both the brand and the blogger will be satisfied with the end product.

What I do not like is when bloggers work for free with an “implied” expectation that the free work “may” turn into compensated work. I am pitched countless times per day by people who ask me to do something with the subtle implication that if I just do them a “favor” now and post this “whatever” or mention their “whatever,” they will keep me in mind for work in the future when they have money in their budget. The problem with that is a Google search will turn up that another blogger already received compensation for the same type of post from the same brand…”

Courtesy PR Breakfast Club, click here to continue reading!

More specifically, your vote.  That’s it, I swear.

Oh and if you want to get all your friends and family to vote also, that would be amazing.

Our goal is to continue to change the landscape of social media, more specifically for women.

We could do so much good with that money.

Click here to vote!

“I don’t know about you, but often when I begin exploring new blogs to find useful information, I get so frustrated that I give up and leave within a few minutes of finding the blog.

While many blogs might contain the useful posts I’m looking for, they often make it too difficult for new readers to find.

Sure, if you’ve been following a blog for six months or more, you know the blogger, you know the basics of the blog, you know how useful and interesting the blog is.

But if you’re new, you don’t know any of that. And first impressions mean everything when it comes to attracting — and more importantly, keeping — new readers.

If a reader hates your blog at first site, you’ve lost him. If a reader can’t find anything good on your blog within a few minutes — actually, instantly for many readers — you’ve lost him. If you annoy a reader, you’ve probably lost him.

And for each reader you’ve lost, that’s a wasted opportunity. You’ve worked hard to promote your blog, to connect with other bloggers, to do guest posts and spread the word through social media … but when the reader arrives, you fail to keep him and turn him into a regular reader or a subscriber.

Today, I’ll walk you through some common mistakes many blogs make that turn off new readers (and even regular readers oftentimes) … mistakes that could be killing your blog…”

Courtesy Write to Done, click here to read more!

“It’s not how many people follow you on Twitter, it’s how many people are paying attention to you.

It’s not how many Facebook likes you have, it’s how many of those people are giving you their attention.

Starting to see a trend?

It’s true of all marketing. You don’t have a message if no one is paying attention.

Yes, you need to get a critical mass of people who are connected to you but that number does not have to be large. The tweet that went viral when the Osama bin Laden story was breaking came from someone with about 1,000 followers. But he had credibility and that is what moved the dial.

There are many ways to game the system and get lots of Twitter followers, especially since many people on Twitter have a policy of following anyone who follows them. On Facebook there are ways to bribe people to “like” you or pay for followers by advertising. Those connections are not meaningful and you don’t have any clout with them.

Instead, build your network with people who naturally gravitate to you…”

Courtesy Social Media School, click here to continue reading!

“The swimsuit is as raw as you can get without being naked,” said Brittany Gibbons, 30, who lives near Toledo and is cofounder of www.curvygirlguide.com, an online magazine that last month partnered with Lands’ End to create National Swimsuit Confidence Week.

Gibbons and her writers posted photos of themselves in their swimsuits online. She and several of the women also appeared in their swimsuits on “Good Morning America” to promote the event.

“It’s having to face everything we don’t like about ourselves,” said Gibbons. “I think it’s just our come-to-God moment in the dressing room. You can’t lie when you’re standing in a piece of Lycra.”

Courtesy Detroit Free Press, click here to continue reading!

“The climate was right.

I went to my business partner, Heather Spohr, with the idea, and we launched Curvy Girl Guide in November 2010. It was an immediate success, serving as ground zero for so many women who struggle with their bodies, their weight, their lives.

What began as a project addressing weight and self image, has turned into a full scale lifestyle magazine for real women. We’re so much more than eating struggles and body hate. From fashion to health, pop culture to sex, we tackle everything, because we are real women, and our lives don’t stop the second we step on a scale…”

Courtesy EmmeNation, click here to read more!

“Ah, plurals. How they tempt the most decisive of spellers to make a simple error. How often we see a sign on the side of the road: “Mango’s, 50 cents!” “All Mattress’s 45% Off!”

Here is the rule: NEVER EVER EVER MAKE A PLURAL USING AN APOSTROPHE.

Please? Pretty please? You may repeat the mantra of Ms. Huffington and myself as you do so: “Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it right.”

“The out-of-town engagements usually offer to pay for my travel, but you’d be surprised how many offer no honorarium. They expect me to miss work and leave my family for a day or more out of the goodness of my heart. (Or, maybe, to promote a book I haven’t written yet or to plug NPR, which really doesn’t need a plug from the likes of me.)”

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Courtesy Terribly Happy Bloggystyle, click to here to read more!