Lesson 1: Blogging with good SEO gets more readers

Last month, my 8 and 9 year old daughters joined the blogosphere and are enjoying themselves immensely.

First, it’s a great time management tool for me, because they race to do their school work, chores, and exercise, so they can begin their blogging.

As a homeschool mommy blogger, my goals were simple: I just wanted them to increase their writing, research and typing skills, and add some fresh perspective and content to our blog.

Much to my surprise, and exactly how we homeschool in the first place–it is their interests and skills that have led us all to bigger and better places.

As budding bloggers: they wanted to know how to get more traffic to the website. So, here began my lessons in quality SEO practices.

• Together we went through the first 20 steps of Holly’s 50 SEO Tips for Mom Entrepreneurs ebook.

• Then, I found Suzanne’s free download Easy SEO tips just for WordPress blogs. It’s a great introduction to new WordPress bloggers such as my girls and Tristen our OPRApprentice. The explanation why the All in One SEO Pack is a must-have plugin, and a must-complete activity, have them all focused to never miss this step.

My daughters actually enjoy formatting with headers, completing the SEO all in one pack, and being as detailed in their tagging as possible.

As internet marketers: they inquired, “How do we make money, Mama?”

One way is through affiliate marketing.

So, how our 9 year old is a pro at finding affiliate codes and embedding them into her book and video reviews

Lesson 2: Vlogging attracts fresh new traffic

It was my eldest who said, “Mama, we need to start making videos on youtube!”

Petrified, I shared the idea with Janet and we discussed how short amateur home videos on youtube for my mommy blog would be perfect.

So, we set up our channel last month–which was perfect timing for the first homeschool blogging event at Chelsea Piers.

Then, we posted our first video which was supposed to have a blogpost to give all our follow-up links –then, I got tipped into simply putting the link in the  ‘description box’.

Wow! Posting a youtube video is much easier and less time-consuming than blogging.

“I can totally get into this.” I shared with my daughter.

Then, I found a great opportunity to teach my girls a very important aspect of being an online business practitioner: How to pick a reliable web hosting company.

After 3 failed attempts in 7 years, I finally found my permanent home at Mom Webs web hosting. On Monday, members were asked to make a video review as part of a business blogging contest. So, my girls helped me produce, narrate, and write the script. It was not easy…but, definitely a ton of fun.

Much to my amazement, the learning didn’t stop there.

Lesson 3: Photo sharing programs and social networking sites serves as critical back-up

Since youtube was conducting maintenance, we had to quickly find an alternative way to post our review. It was my my 9 year old who yelled,

“Smilebox makes slideshows!”
“It does?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how?”
“Of course”.

Since it was already past their bedtime and I did not want to learn how to do something new, I let my daughter lead the show yet again.

So, we made our slideshow, shared it on Facebook and commented on the contest site with one hour to spare–phew! The added exposure got us a thumbs up on Facebook, so this was additional encouragement for the girls (and, me too).

Lesson 4: All bloggers and vloggers need an email list

Then, the next morning when we went to upload our video entry to youtube, we were excited to see a steady traffic of views even before the contest began. In fact, we we exceeding all the other contestants by 25% more views.

When the contest opened late at night, we cast our vote, and happily went to bed.

To our astonishment, when we woke up the next morning, some busy internet marketers were spreading the word and letting the news buzz around the blogosphere.

But, it did not stop at the blogosphere–they were using their Email List: Brilliant! Or, should I say “dah!”

Based on the comments, my daughters were perplexed. “They’re talking about business, Mama…” or “They’re just saying ‘voting for X’ without saying why or even comparing the other clips’…’is that fair, Mama?’ ‘Can people just vote for someone and *not* pick the best’?

“Of course, sweetie. Actually, in internet marketing–the one with the list and the one with the most followers usually always wins–period”.

So, while we were innocently going to our family and friends to solicit votes, my girls chimed in “How do we do this, Mama!?”

“Well, we need to write a persuasive and personalized email. But, just so you know, my lists aren’t that big…yet.”

“Okay, Okay”, in a rushed tone.

So, off we went to send their first autoresponder message.

Lesson 5: Good will comes from blogging/vlogging honest reviews

Through each passing hour, the girls have been logging onto youtube to watch the number of views and compare it to the number of our votes, taking into account all the lessons they already learned. But, they noticed something

“But, Mama–we’re getting the most views…and, MomWebs will continue to get all this attention from our awesome video, even if we don’t win”
“But so are we, sweetie.”
“Where? How?”
“It’s our video, sweetie.”
“Oh yeah”
“That’s the beauty of sharing honest reviews, especially online. Even without the contest, I support MomWebs and I will continue too. But, making this video was a fun way to help support them and give us an opportunity to learn a new skill in the process…something you wanted to do in the first place, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, the good will of an honest review pays off for everyone, right!?”
She smirks ‘yay, whatever…’
Then I ask, “How does if feel every time you logon and see new views each time…on one of our very first videos?”
Her face beams, “Awesome. Let’s make more…and, the next one will be even better–after all this was only our 2nd one.”

Lesson 6: Never give up, even if others don’t play by the rules

It’s hard to teach kids that

• doing your best (“we showed the most reasons why mom webs web hosting is the best”),
• being the best (“we have the most views”),
• playing by the rules (“other videos are over 60 seconds”), and
• working hard to look and sound educated and professional (“Mama, she has spelling errors!”)

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