Recently my sweet friends Jennifer, Sherri, and Tanya gave me the Inspiring Blog award. This really meant a lot to me because they all write blogs that inspire me to be fit, to be happy, and to live my best life. They are also members of See Jane Write and thus a part of something in my life that started out as a project but over time has become my purpose. 

To give back to the blogging community, receipt of this award comes with the following tasks:

• Display the award image on your blog.
• Link back to the person who nominated you.
• State 7 things about yourself.
• Nominate 15 other bloggers and link to their sites.
• Notify the bloggers that they have been nominated and link to the post.

So here we go...

7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me...Until Now

1. As a child I was afraid of Bruce Springsteen's voice, the gorilla at Showbiz, and the Michael Jackson Thriller poster my parents bought for me but had to stash in a bottom drawer until I conquered my fear.  

2. Thanks to my husband, I could probably win first place in a wrestling trivia game. 

3. I have the telephone number of 90s R&B star Ginuwine in my cell phone. 

4. In 2009 I had a 30-minute phone conversation with Jamie Foxx. To this day it's the best interview I've ever done and I still have it saved on my voice recorder. 

5. When I want my hair straightened and/or cut I drive all the way to Montgomery to the only person I trust with my curly coif. 

6. And speaking of my hair, it's most likely because of my tresses that I get asked every other week what island I'm from. Sigh.

7. My name has been legally changed four times. Seriously. 

And now...

15 Inspirational Blogs

1. The Very Worst Missionary
2. Stellar Fashion and Fitness 
3. All In Stride 
4. You Got Rossed 
5. E is for Erin 
6. Goins Writer
7. Britni Danielle
8. Redbone Afropuff
9. Writability
10. Jamie's Rabbits
11. Pink of Perfection
12. A Place to Dwell 
13. Sometimes Sweet
14. Write, Clair, write!
15. Evette Dionne

Today’s task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to recommit to being more engaging on Facebook and Twitter.
 

Treat Twitter and Facebook like a cocktail party – that’s the best advice I’ve ever read about the proper way to engage your audience and build your brand via social media.

Remember that you’re trying to have a conversation with people and that you want those people to find you interesting.

Post regularly (several times a day), but don’t ramble. Be intentional about what you post. Obviously, you should use Facebook and Twitter to share your blog posts. Also post tweets and status updates that are informative, inspiring, helpful or humorous. Don’t bore your readers with every detail of your life and don’t use social media as a place to rant about how much you hate your job, your neighbor, or your husband. Save that for your therapist.

Get personal. While you shouldn’t use social media as free therapy, don’t be afraid to show your personality. Share posts about fun, funny, or exciting things going on in your day. You don’t want to be all business all the time.

Stay on topic. The people who follow you on Twitter do so for a reason, so make sure you deliver. For example,  people tend to follow me because they’re interested in writing or blogging, feminism, fitness, or faith. There are also several fellow Birmingham residents who follow me. So I try to tweet about those topics and about things going on in my city. 

Remember you’re not the center of the twitterverse. Make sure your tweets and Facebook posts aren’t all about you all the time. This is like having a friend who only wants to talk about herself. Use your social media channels to promote other bloggers and writers as well. Retweet and share intriguing posts by others. Compliment and thank people for sharing something insightful.

Ask questions. You don’t want to spend your time on Twitter and Facebook talking to yourself, do you?  Social media outlets are meant to spark a conversation, so ask questions to show your readers you care what they think too.

And to lead by example…

What are your Facebook and Twitter rules of engagement?

BlogHer '08 Conference
Photo by Wendy Piersall via Flickr/Creative Commons

Today's task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to sign up for a blogging class or conference. 

If you live in Birmingham, I have just the thing for you. Tomorrow evening See Jane Write will host the panel discussion Blogging and the Future of Community Journalism. 

At this free event you can learn how to use your blog to cover communities and topics you feel don't get adequate attention from mainstream media. You'll also learn how to make your blog stand out from other local websites and find out how you can work with journalists and even get respected as a journalist yourself. 

Our panelists include: 

• Staci Brown Brooks, Community News Director for the Birmingham Hub of  Alabama Media Group
• Emily Lowrey, founder of Magic City Post, a web publication that offers a daily posts on the Birmingham metro area and shows off the best the region has to offer.
• Andre Natta, founder of The Terminal, a critically acclaimed web publication about Birmingham.
• Erin Shaw Street, travel editor for Southern Living magazine and editorial content manager for the magazine's social media including its blog, The Daily South 

The panel discussion will be moderated by Edward T. Bowser, who is a community engagement specialist for the Birmingham Hub of Alabama Media Group, author of the blog Soul In Stereo, and my hubster!

Click here for information on time, location, and how to register. 

But that's enough shameless self-promotion. Here are a few blogging conferences you should check out: 

FoodBlogSouth

Independent Fashion Bloggers Conference

BlissDom

Blogging While Brown

BlogHer '13

What conferences are you going to this year?

Image by Dean Meyers
via Flickr/Creative Commons

Today’s task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is for those of you who think you might need a change. Maybe you’re considering changing your blog platform or maybe you've been thinking about changing your blog’s title or URL. If you've decided a change is what you need, go for it!

But after you make this switch branding is going to become even more important for you as you try to market your new name. Lucky for you, on Saturday I participated in the monthly Twitter chat Blog Brunch and this month’s topic was Branding 101. Here are a few tips on how to build your brand.

Write a mission statement. I know you’re tired of me telling you this, but I’m not the only one who believes this is a good idea. So does Sarah Tolzmann (@notetosarah) of the blog Note to Self.  During Blog Brunch she tweeted “Your blog should have a mission statement, even if you keep it to yourself. It will help you decide if content is relevant.”  Remember, you can’t send a clear brand message to readers if you’re sure what your message is.

Be consistent. Having a mission statement will help ensure your message is clear, but you need a consistent writing style as well. You also need to make sure you’re consistent throughout your social media channels.  The author of the blog Sarah Hearts (@sarahkhandijan) tweeted “All social media pages should look like you! Your readers should instantly know by the look & content that it’s yours.”  I, for example, use the Twitter handle @writeousbabe and usually tweet about the same topics you’ll find on my blog – writing, blogging, feminism, fitness, and faith.

While consistency is key, don’t be afraid of change.  “I think your brand should maintain a common visual aspect – but it shouldn't hold you back from trying something new,” tweeted Katie (@mspinkandblue), co-founder of Blog Brunch.  Kait Kucy (@yuppielove) advised not changing your branding more than once a year. And most bloggers agreed that when you are making a change be sure it’s for a good reason and not simply just to follow a trend.

Network. Now that you've put all that work into crafting your message and polishing your blog’s look, you need to spread the word about who you are and what you’re all about. You need to network. Several bloggers from Saturday’s Blog Brunch agree that some of the best ways to market your blog and your brand include: commenting on other blogs, writing guest posts for blogs with a mission similar to yours, hosting events, attending conferences and, of course, using social media outlets such as Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve been thinking about branding a lot myself, lately. I've been considering changing the name of my blog, worried that “Writeous Babe” is too silly. What do you think? I’d love to get some feedback in the comments section.

Happy brand building! 

If you've been cruising down Lakeshore Parkway lately there's a chance you've pulled up next to a black Mazda 3 and caught a chick with big curly hair singing her heart out to the Alicia Keys song "Brand New Me."  That chick was me.

We're at the start of a new year and this is a time when many people start trying to make changes in their lives. As writers, we resolve to write a certain number of words each day, to read more, to blog more, and to be more aggressive in our efforts to get published. Then December rolls around and we haven't accomplished half as much as we had hoped. And this is usually the case with goals in other areas of life -- such as fitness and finances -- as well.

Where did we go wrong? Yesterday, my pastor had a pretty poignant message on this topic. He said that we ought to just start wishing one another a "Happy Improved Year!" instead of a happy new year because what we're trying do to with all our resolutions is change ourselves from the outside in instead of changing from the inside out. We're tying to do something different when we need to be someone different. Instead of improving the old you, become a new you. We need a New Year's revolution, not a New Year's resolution.

How do we do this? We must get centered. This will mean different things for different people, but it's imperative nonetheless. We must get focused on whatever is the cornerstone of our lives. Once we've done that we will want to do the things that must be done to accomplish our goals. It will no longer be a matter of wrestling with our wills to keep our resolutions to write daily or exercise five times a week. Once we're centered we will jump out of bed ready to write; we'll actually look forward to going to the gym.

For me getting centered means drawing near to God. It means praying constantly, reading Scripture daily, using my writing to encourage others, and forging meaningful connections with other women of faith. When I do these things I can feel myself transforming into the woman I'm meant be and I know that I will accomplish all this woman was meant to do.

This is all Jen Hatmaker's fault. 

I can't even remember how I stumbled up her book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, but it was around the holidays, a time of year when I always feel disgusted with consumerism and our society's (and my own) obsession with stuff. 

The book details Jen's attempt to fight greed, materialism, and overindulgence in hopes of living a more Christ-like existence. The idea was to choose seven areas -- food, clothes, spending, media, possessions, waste, and stress -- and spend 30 days on each topic boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, only wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in only seven places. Her plan also called for her to eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.”




Am I doing Jen's experiment completely and to the letter? Hell to the no. 

But I am inspired to do some altered version of it in hopes that it will help me streamline my life so that I can spend more time, energy, and resources on things that really matter. And my prayer is that I will begin to look more like Jesus along the way. 

Hubster and I went out for Mexican food last night. I kept referring to this meal as
The Last Supper!

Just as Jen did, I'm starting with food. Jen's experiment was inspired by one of her friends who did a "Pick 5" fast. So since Jen added two items to her list, I'm going to add two to mine. (See, this is my problem. I'm such an American. Always trying to have more.) 

Also, I'm doing this for 21 days, not 30. Every January my church has what it calls 21 Days of Prayer -- a special time of prayer and fasting to kick off the new year. This year my plan was to fast sweets for 21 Days of Prayer, which began today. Then Jen Hatmaker came along and turned my world upside down and I've now decided to fast nearly all of the foods I love. 

For the next 21 Days I will only eat the following: 

• lean white meat and fish 
• green vegetables
• sweet potatoes
• apples
• eggs
• Greek yogurt
• peanut butter
• wheat bread
• almonds

This list is similar to Jen's but for meat she only allowed herself chicken and for vegetables she only ate spinach. Her list included avocado, which I replaced with almonds. I added Greek yogurt because one of my doctors has been encouraging me to eat this for breakfast for nearly a year. Peanut butter is here because a nutritionist in my favorite magazine recommended PB on wheat bread as a mid-morning snack. 

Jen only allowed herself to use salt, pepper, and olive oil to flavor to her food. She's a better woman than I am. I will allow myself to use some low fat, low calorie condiments, but in moderation and I won't be frying up any of meats on my list. 

As for beverages, Jen only drank water. I'm allowing myself green tea as well simply because I spend a lot of time in coffee shops meeting with fellow writers and working on my blog and I need to buy something in order to not feel guilty for taking up space and Wi-Fi. 

Looking at my plan you're probably thinking this won't be so bad because I have plenty of variety. If you're thinking that, you clearly don't know me well. My friends know that I believe the human body needs cheese more than it needs water and that I think most of life's problems can be solved with a cupcake. I could beat a 16-year-old boy in a pizza eating contest and I'm convinced the manna from heaven God sent down to the Israelites was some form of Mexican food. (Look out! It's raining chimichangas!) 

And for the next 21 days I can't have pizza, Mexican food, or sweets. Lord, help me. 

But, seriously, my prayer throughout my entire streamline project will be the same as Jen's:

"Dear Lord, may there be less of me and my junk and more of You and your kingdom."

And when I say less of me I mean that figuratively and literally. If I happen to streamline my waistline over the next 21 days I will be a very happy girl. 


This was cross-posted at Streamlined Birmingham, a new blogging project by myself and some other women in Birmingham who are also looking to streamline their lives in 2013. 

Today is Day 4 of 31 Days to a Better Blog. Today's task is to write a mission statement for your blog, a task that some of my blogging buddies have told me is quite daunting. And I get it. "Mission statement" sounds so big and scary. But it doesn't have to be. 

To start, ask yourself two simple questions: Why do I blog? and What do I want my readers to get out reading my posts? Your responses will quickly lead you to your mission statement. 

I blog because I want to express myself as a writer and because I want to empower other women with my words. I want my readers to leave my blog feeling a connection to me but also feeling inspired to go after their dreams and do what needs to be done to live their best lives. 

And if you're wondering if you need a mission statement for your blog, yes you do. This post from November explains why. In that post I shared a rough draft of my blog's mission statement and it hasn't really changed over the past two months. 

My blog's mission statement: 

The Writeous Babe Project is a blog about writing and women's empowerment. My blog is designed to help creative and goal-oriented women -- especially those who write and blog -- achieve their artistic ambitions and live their best lives. The Writeous Babe Project is also a feminist lifestyles blog, which means I address topics such as fitness, fashion, family, and faith, but from a feminist perspective.

For me, however, women's empowerment is more than a blogging niche; I consider it my life's work and my purpose for being on this planet. So I'm constantly thinking about how I can take my mission beyond the blog. 

Lately, I finally feel as if I'm doing just that and it's all thanks to See Jane Write. The sense of community we've been building lately has made me giddy with joy. Case in point, I spent yesterday evening with seven other women of the group having dinner and drinks at The Wine Loft, a popular wine bar here in Birmingham. The meetup was an impromptu one that came about Wednesday evening over Twitter. We spent three hours chatting about fitness, bad wedding experiences, movies, music, and so much more, and, of course, about writing and blogging.  At one point in the evening we all pulled out the notebooks (both paper and electronic) that we use to jot down ideas, which made for a great photo. 

Photo by Tanya Sylvan

So after you write a mission statement for your blog consider if there is a way you can reach out to your readers offline as well. I still believe that blogging is about people, not pageviews.