Welcome to the April Edition of the Digital Parents Blogazine. Well I’ve had a busy couple of months working on the Digital Parents Conference and this week we are all basking the in the afterglow.

So as you can imagine plenty of content in this edition is focused on that. Last edition we had a Q & A with Valerie Khoo and this time round I’ve included a webinar that Valerie conducted for Digital Parents a few months back the 7 Rules Kick Ass Writing.

Also included is a summary of Nicole Avery’s Blog Coaching Boost workshop.

But we’ve also included some wonderful stories from you. Lisa Wood is this edition’s My Blog My Story featured blogger. Lisa and her husband David along with her 5 boys decided to pack up and travel around Australia in a bus they bought off Ebay. High jinx ensue. Now I’d just like to note here that Lisa has decided to have her writing fee donated to World Vision who were one of the exhibitors at the Digital Parents Conference on the weekend.

Social Media for Social Good; it certainly is starting to spread.

Grace Titioka from With Some Grace also graciously (too much?) conducted a webinar How To Find Your Value Proposition giving great tips on how to succinctly explain your blog and sell yourself.

Norton One recently conducted a survey along with Digital Parents and discovered that 70% of bloggers are concerned about digital reputation. What can you do to protect yourself online?

Following up from Beck Jinette’s article in the last edition about Emotional Eating, her latest article You’re Just Big Boned details the steps she has taken to help her deal with her emotions.

We also have one of the My Blog My Story speakers from the Conference Jacqui Honeywood (CRAP Mamma) asking the big question, Do You Suffer From Mumory?

And Amanda Spedding with good humour discusses how old should her daughter be before she reads adult fiction in Digital Double Standards.

Kate Sykes from CareerMums is featured In The Spotlight. Kate along with Allison Tait released their book CareerMums in January this year. CareerMums focuses on helping women return to work after taking time to look after the little ones.

Love & stuff
Mrs M

It’s done. It’s dusted. I’m buggered. But wasn’t it good?

I was working alongside Brenda Gaddi, founder of the Digital Parents Conference, as well as Kirrily Whatman and Trae Flett to bring the Digital Parents Conference to fruition on 30 March 2012 in Melbourne.

As the Session Co-ordinator I was responsible for working with the speakers to bring relevant content to you. Covering topics like Social Media for Social Good, bringing your Blog to Book, making the leap from Blog to Business and of course Working with Brands.

This year, two breakout sessions were held. Valerie Khoo conducted a Writing workshop and Nicole Avery conducted a Blog Coaching Boost workshop; both giving some very practical tips to help you take your blog to the moon and back.

It was a privilege to pick the brains of some of the smartest bloggers we have here in Australia.

And let’s not forget Problogger. The smartest of them all.

Some of the moderators and speakers have written a summary post of their session as well as the bloggers who attended. Current tally of linked posts has just tipped 100.

Lisa McLean for Social Media for Social Good
Nikki Parkinson for Blog to Business
Laney Galligan for Blog to Business
Nicole McInnes for Working With Brands
Kylie Ofiu for Blog to Book
Karen Andrews for Blog to Book

One of the most important aspects of conferences isn’t the sessions that are available to you; it’s the networking that goes on at lunch, in the foyer, at your table.

Meeting other bloggers, PR representatives and brands. It’s listening to the sessions and then thrashing it out with your fellow bloggers; because that’s when light bulbs moments occur and genius can flourish.

Blogging is about community. Blogging is about stories. Blogging is about relating. And that was shown in spades during the My Blog, My Story session. This session, out of all them, captivated the audience and had them laughing and crying, reflecting and inspired.

For those you couldn’t make the conference there are plenty of posts written by those who did attend and perhaps you caught some of the tweets on the #DPCON12 stream.

And shortly you will be able to see the video recordings of the My Blog, My Story speakers online

None of this could have been possible without the sponsors of the Digital Parents Conference.

Kleenex Mums
Disney
Hallmark Cards
Dyson
Social @Ogilvy
Genea
World Vision
Macleans
Hardie Grant Egmont

And to the speakers, you make me want to be a better blogger.

Here’s to #DPCON13 *cue Rocky music*

Words by Maria Tedeschi (@mums_word)

Remember the little pop up Norton window that would always come up warning you possibility of something sinister happening on your machine? Well that doesn’t exist anymore the good people from Norton assure me.

In fact they’ve grown in leaps and bounds and now Norton One, while they do still sell antivirus software, are actually heavily involved working with government and education bodies.

In 2011 Norton published The Family Report where nearly 10,000 parents, children and teachers were interviewed worldwide to get a clearer idea of how children use the internet. And while it encouraging to see parents are becoming more aware of what their children are doing online there were still a concern of children buying from an unauthorized shopping site.

In the Cybercrime Report published in 2011 the top Cybercrimes were computer viruses/malware, credit card fraud, social network profile hacking; with the dollar value running into the billions.

Michelle Thompson, Norton Online Safety Advocate highlighted the fact that not only do we need to keep our identities safe but also our files; photos and other important documents.

Norton One conducted a smaller survey with the Digital Parents community where 70% of bloggers indicated they are concerned about their digital reputation.

60% have been victims of cybercrime on their computers; 11% on their phone.

80% have installed security on their computer but only 17% have installed it on their mobile devices.

While the computer still remains the main device, use of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, is increasing.

Norton One has introduced a new membership service where you can cover up to 5 devices, including mobile devices.

For a fee of $199 per annum you have an account where you can go online to manage it and nominate which devices you want covered. In addition, there is a customer service centre that will return your call within 2 minutes of you lodging a question online.

This is membership is particularly handy if you are anything like me and we tend to buy devices, change devices regularly throughout the year.

And you may be thinking that you use Apple products and so are immune to all this? Michelle Thompson says while your risk is less, there is still risk.

Words by Maria Tedeschi (@mums_word)

Valerie Khoo, guru of all things writing, held a webinar a few months ago for the Digital Parents community aptly titled 7 Rules to Kick Ass Writing.

Here is the link to the webinar but below I’ve just summarised the basics.

KNOW YOUR READER

Age

Gender

Income – Socio economic status

PLAN YOUR WRITING

Structure your article before you start writing

ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE

Write in an active voice – it will engage the reader

I love you = active

You are loved by me = passive

SHOW DON’T TELL

Be Descriptive. Adjectives are your friend.

SENTENCES TOO LONG

15-20 words per sentence; 27 words maximum

1 concept per sentence or paragraph depending on complexity of concept

Use Subheadings

KILLING YOUR DARLINGS

Don’t include all your research info; only what’s relevant

It must add value

It’s what you leave out that will make your writing good

REWRITING AND EDITING PROCESS

Read it out loud to see if it flows

Do all those words need to be there?

Structure

Try to write a post without using ‘I’

Valerie Khoo is managing director of the Sydney Writers’ Centre. Since founding the centre in 2005, she has grown it from a one-person operation to a thriving centre featuring more than 30 of Australia’s top writing trainers/journalists/authors.The centre has helped thousands of students get published, score book deals, change careers and improve their job prospects.Valerie’s personal blog at www.ValerieKhoo.com was named by Smart Company as one of the 25 Best Business Blogs in Australia 2011

What your value proposition actually is?

Why do we need to know our value proposition? Simply it will help you stay on track and focussed in the direction you want your blog to take. It is important to know your value proposition is know what makes you special, unique and stand out from other bloggers.

What is one’s value proposition?

A short and concise description of what makes you stand out from others. It’s a summary telling PR companies, your readers, brands what you have to offer; your specialties and your strengths.

Know your value proposition like the back of your hand and speak confidently. You can use it in proposals to brands, presentations, business meetings and cold calls.

Even when you are describing your blog to new people who could turn out to be new readers. Tell them why they should be reading your blog.

It is very useful when first meeting someone and handing over your business card; especially when you have a limited time to talk about who you are and what you are about. You need to be concise and also stand out.

So while outwardly all us mummy bloggers may look the same but we know we are all different; the value proposition helps you become distinguished from other mummy bloggers.

How to find your own value proposition.

The following keywords are necessary to determine your value proposition.

What makes you unique and special? What are your strengths and qualities?

Finding your own value proposition these keywords are well…key in find the answer.

So the 3 key questions to ask yourself are:

What makes me unique?

What are my qualities?

What do I have to offer?

You may stumble onto your uniqueness by accident. By simply blogging you might find a recurring theme begins to emerge. Grab that general topic and make it more specific.

Or it could be your personal experiences or your work experiences. But you need to make this specific. How do you do that?

Another tactic is to read your old posts. Which posts were easy to write, no writer’s block, it just flowed through your fingertips. Don’t look at the stats, or how many times it was retweeted or shared.

Think about the engaging comments you received on those particular posts; because what you are looking here for is quality, not quantity.

Another technique is My Mapping. A brain storming session you have with yourself.

Get a blank piece of paper and in the middle you write the words WHY ME?

My Mapping helps you categorise your thoughts. When you are brainstorming keep the above 3 questions in mind.

Include things like your career, education, blogger, other skills, family. These are general topics. From there, try to add specific details that branch off from each of the general topics.

When you have quite a bit of information written down, pick the specifics you want to use to help sell yourself.

This is Grace’s example after my mapping:

I offer consultancy services for small businesses, with their online presence and I help them maximise their business goals through social media networks. I blog over at With Some Grace where I talk about juggling life as a working at home mum and raising twins.

How to use it effectively?

You value proposition helps with the overall identity of your blog. This may help with your content; making it more specific, more focussed.  You will speak with more confidence and the other bloggers will be able to differentiate you from your peers.

PR companies will remember you and they will be able to defer to you for your particular specialty.

It will help you make a quicker and more confident decision on what brands and products you want to work with.  Because now that your blog is specific you will be able to target the brands and products you want to work with.

And remember that you can’t be all things to all people.  And that’s a good thing. Building your own brand is building your area of expertise.

Michelle: grace: Should we have different versions of our VP for different groups? Like PR is spun one way and casual acquaintance

Grace:  I think you can have different versions of a value proposition. But yes, Michelle, you can definitely have different spins for different audiences

Mum to twins, wife to an avid surfer, reformed caffeine addict. Travelled the world and encountered countless adventures. Just when I feel I’ve done it all…life still sends me little surprises. I write about them here…

www.withsomegrace.com

Image Credit: http://technologyinprevention.blogspot.com/2010/03/jasons-million-dollar-question.html

Prior to having children I had a pretty reasonable memory. It wasn’t a bionic memory by any stretch of the imagination but I was capable of remembering birthdays, appointments and general tasks I’d set myself.

Since having kids my memory seems to have…escaped me.

I now have a different kind of memory. I can remember things like kid’s medicines, kid’s routines, to change nappies, feed, bathe and clothe children. However, I now frequently walk into a room and spontaneously forget the reason for which I entered.  I can mop the floors of my house and then only recall which rooms have been done by feeling for how wet they are. I forget names, birthdays (unless they’re my children’s), appointments and even special events.

I know I’m not the only one. I know many mothers out there are also in the same boat. If you also suffer from this unfortunate absent-mindedness since having children, don’t despair. You’ll be pleased to know this vacancy of recollection induced post child-birth actually has a name. Mumory. No I didn’t misspell memory. Mumory. You won’t find this word in the dictionary because the mother who coined this term forgot to have it registered with the Oxford English Dictionary people. Mumory is that special memory that mothers develop when their little cherubs come into their lives. Mumory allows the mother to remember everything about her child but not much about anything else. It also begs to reason that Mumory tends to worsen the more children you have or the less sleep you have! There is some indication that the symptoms of Mumory are just temporary, however this hasn’t yet been confirmed because the mother conducting the research forgot what she was doing halfway through.

Personally I feel relieved that there is a legitimate cause for me forgetting to even write a reminder on my calendar or put it in my phone. And that if I do remember to document a reminder that there is a reason why that reminder falls into a ‘memory abyss’ between receiving it and actioning it. That’s Mumory, pure and simple.

So here’s a couple of tips for others if you want to get me, a known victim of this inconvenient ailment, to get something  done for you:

1. Send me a reminder;
2. Remind me about the reminder;
3. Remind me to write it down;
4. Then remind me to action it at some point in time.

However, by then I probably won’t remember who you are and why you’re continually hassling me so you’ll have to remind me about that too.

Just remember, it’s not my fault, I suffer from Mumory. Uummm sorry what were we talking about again?

About Jacqui Honeywood:

Jacqui blogs at CRAP Mamma  where she discusses the good, the bad and the downright disgusting side of kids and parenting. When she’s not kid-wrangling, chasing chooks or having coffee with hubby, Jacqui writes – simple.

I quite often get the comments from people, oh you’re not that big or you’re just big boned. I know everyone is not meant to be a size 10. I am a curvy girl, I have very broad shoulders and “baby bearing” hips. But I let it get out of control.

My Emotions play a massive part of my weight issues. I’m what you call an emotional eater, my moods affect what and how I eat. When I stressed or sad I crave food to makes me feel better. I can’t explain how or why but it does.

For me everything I realised I had an issue the day it became too much for my husband and me too. It had put a massive strain on our relationship. I didn’t want to be close to my husband, I couldn’t talk to him about what was going on. I worried most what he would think of me for it, so I did the only thing I could, I pushed him away. Ryan suggested to me that I seek help, professional help because we couldn’t survive this without it

I made progress, I was able to admit I had a problem and talk about it to a certain extent, but I couldn’t break the habits I had had in place for so many years. That is when Hypnotherapy was suggested. I wasn’t keen at first, but after a long chat with hubby, I agreed to give it a go.

I’ve now had 6 sessions in total, keep in mind everyone will require a different amount of sessions. I had a lot of issues to deal with, they not only wanted to use it to break my habits but get me to open up as well.

It was quite a stranger experience, but I am so glad that I did it. I remember talking to the therapist and hearing myself say things and thinking “what the hell am I saying”. For once the truth was coming out and I felt great. In the sessions, suggestions where used to control my eating. For example if my moods change and I feel the same urges I now write about them, or do something to eliminate that feeling. My therapist slowly broke down my habits and not I can happily tell you I’m now in control.

My relationship with my husband has since thrived, our family is so much happier.. We are open and talk time each day to sit and talk about everything. I won’t lie I still have moments when I feel like my old habits are coming back, But I know I can control it now.

I will forever be grateful that I took the steps I did, I was at a point of no return and it nearly cost me my family. I hope that by sharing my story I am able to help someone else out there face their “bad habits”.

Hi I’m Beck. I’m a mummy, a wife, a blogger and a part time work. I blog at The Rambling Mummy about our everyday life and expanding family. I’m yet to find the right balancing act for everything but love writing about it along the way. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter or my Blog.

“So not fair!” cried my almost 11-year-old as she stomped to her room. I waited for the slammed door; she didn’t disappoint.

The cause of my “Oh no, you don’t”, and her outcry leered from my pc screen – my name above one of my stories.

I write. Have done since I was a kid and my father dragged me out of bed at 4am to see the wonder of the Sydney Morning Herald printing presses.

As a freelance editor and copywriter, the digital world has given me the ability to work from home and spend more time with my kids … although Year 5 math instils a fear in me like no other. Fear in fiction, however, is where my passion lies. I’m an out and proud horror writer, which my daughter finds especially “cool”. She’s told her friends and even smuggled a book into class (thankfully confiscated by her teacher).

Research for my fiction has led me to some unsavoury sites (I’m sure there’s a file in an underground facility with my name on it), but with strict parental control we try to keep the kids free from the internet cesspool. My fiction? The debate rages.

Listening to my daughter’s reasoning had me feel like a monster in my own story. “Double standards, Mum,” she told me, “you said never accept them.” She’s right, I did. “You said censorship is a form of oppression.” I said that, too (and I’ve got to stop teaching her words). “So why can’t I read your stories?”

“Age-appropriate content,” I explained. “Mummy writes stories for adults.”

“I read The Diary of Anne Frank,” she countered. “It had scary stuff in it, and scary stuff is horror, right?”

“Well, yes. But–”

“And she was a kid, like I’m a kid. She saw horror, I just want to read it.” She pushed her point hard, and I inwardly applauded her rationale. “And it’s your writing, Mummy, you should be proud of it.” She’s smart this one. “So why can’t I? Give me one good reason why I can’t. Remember, double standards.”

I remembered.

I remembered ‘double standards’, ‘censorship’ and ‘oppression’, and wondered what other ammo I would give her with my answer.

So I smiled and played the parent trump card. “Because I said so.”

Amanda J Spedding wears many hats. She is a horror writer, freelance editor, copywriter, proofreader and busy Mum of two very cool kids. She can be found conniving on her blog Screaming Ink.

Kate Sykes saw a gap in the market. No other service was being provided to assist skilled parents who want to head back to work. Being a mum with two young children, she saw the need to fill the gap and so she created CareerMums. Here she shares with us her views on today’s working atmosphere for parents and some tips on how to handle yourself when going back in the workforce.

What challenges did you face when first starting the company and how did you overcome them?

A mindshift – so going from employee (pay cheque each week) to self employed business owner. That took a while!

Perceptions of working parents. The biggest one is that working parents now only want perform administration roles. I am still working hard to break down these barriers.

What’s the best part of your job? And the worst part?

Receiving wonderfully uplifting stories from CareerMums users who have taken my advice on negotiating flexibility or requesting a pay rise while on maternity leave, or drumming up enough confidence to go back into the workplace. It makes my day!

The worst part is occasionally dealing with unethical and immoral scammers that prey on jobs boards. Once we identify a scam, their money is refunded and their account is shut down.

What advice can you give to mums looking to go back to work?

Stay in touch with your network (social, family and work). Jobs often come from close by.

Don’t stay out for too long if you have every intention of returning. It will make things more difficult.

Lack of confidence is a big barrier to returning to work. Help yourself by staying in touch with your workplace, attend networking functions, and get re-acquainted with ‘work speak’ again.

Review your resume, know what you are good at, know what your strengths are, and know what you are worth.

What advice can you give mums who are afraid to negotiate with employers for flexibility?

Don’t think of it as ‘negotiating’, but rather ‘communicating’ your needs! People get scared of the word ‘negotiate’. Really, you are just having a discussion about your requirements and how you could make this work for your employer. Review the flexible work policy and talk to other people who are working flexibly. How did they do it? Always think about it from both your perspective and your employer’s perspective. Don’t forget that requesting to work flexibly if your child is under five is now an employment law (visit www.fairwork.gov.au)

What do you see as the biggest hindrance for mums to go back to the workforce?

Cost of childcare, partner not helping to make it work, getting quality part time work that taps into their experience and expertise, logistics (particularly in big cities), lack of self-confidence.

Do you think employers are still having second thoughts about hiring mums?

Sure, some do. The trick is to know who these employers are and take your skills elsewhere. Most mums are afraid of going back to the job interview panel after taking the baby break.

What’s your advice in dealing with questions like ‘so what have you been doing the last couple of years’?

It is what it is so if you have had up to two years away from work, simply state it. Consider non-paid work that you may have performed over the last two years and turn it into ‘work speak’ that is reflective of the role you are applying for. Make a point to not talk about the kids or childcare arrangements. You are there because you believe you can do the job you have applied for. Raise all of your relevant work experience to demonstrate that you are a good candidate for the role.

What problems do mothers face when coming back to the workforce and what suggestion can you give to solve it?

Trying to achieve a better work and family balance. This is ongoing and often we get better at it by learning from mistakes and talking to people who have been through it before us.

The feeling that they should be working at the same rate as they did before children. Sometimes we need to just allow ourselves to work at 100% rather than 150% for a few years. It is not an easy time in the early years so you need to give yourself permission to change a few work traits. And start thinking about the quality of your work, not the quantity. What do you have to achieve in your role, and are you achieving it?

What’s your plan for the company in the next five to 10 years?

CareerMums jobs board to continue growing. I want CareerMums to be part of every employer’s recruitment strategy.

Continue growing our consulting business. We work with employers to better handle working parents via coaching, workshops, toolkits and other services.

Penguin Books launched our first book in January 2012.

Words by Kristyn (@mummyk)

Kate is the founder of www.careermums.com.au – Australia’s first dedicated careers centre and jobs board for working parents and parents returning to work. Kate is also a workforce planning specialist working with businesses to implement flexible workplace policies and retention strategies to retain parents after parental leave. She is a member of AHRI, the chair of the Canberra Business Council’s Workstyles Committee, and ACT’s current Telstra Business Woman of the Year.

This is just a fraction of Nicole Avery’s workshop she conducted at the Digital Parents Conference.  But it is a start with some pointers to get you thinking. Now if you missed the workshop but want to really explore making your blog work for you, you can always visit her site www.blogcoachingboost.com

Blogging Goals

• What is the end goal for your blog? What is it that you want to achieve with your blog? It could be monetary reward, or it could just be personally satisfying.

• Use the SMART principle when setting goals

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time Bound

Blog Structure

Long tail keywords

• Improve the visibility of your content for search engines like Google to improve the ranking in search results.

• Long tail keywords are two, three and four keyword phrases that are specific to your post.

• Write quality content to have readers coming back. Get the SEO right on a post and it can attract traffic everyday.

• Use the Google Keyword Tool

• Type in similar variations of keywords to get a good idea of what is out there.

• “Easy”, “best”, “quick tips”, “how to” all very commonly used words to narrow search

• Always start with your idea for the post. Then use the keyword tool.

• Think like your audience. What keywords and phrases would they and you use in a search.

Posts

• In your posts make use of your Heading formats, Alternate text and  overall formatting. Use long tail keywords in the opening paragraph.

• Meta descriptions are determine the snippet that google will show in search results. If a description isn’t included it just uses the first 150 or so words of your post.

• Use All in One SEO plugin; it is very easy to use.

Categories, Tags and Labels

• Categories are a good idea to help bring together relevant posts.  It will help people find similar posts on your blog.

• Tags (WordPress) and Labels (Blogger) work in the same way.

Blog Strategy

• A blogging strategy can help you with time management and maximising your investment in your blog.

• Strategies are a plan of action to achieve your goal.  Your goals could include, content, revenue, community; whatever you like.

Blog Community

• Begin visiting other blogs and commenting.

• Respond to comments on your blog; interact with your reader.

• Visit forums

• Use Social Media to grow your audience.  Prioritise which social media mediums you want to use and how much time you will spend on them.

• Determine how you will measure return on investment on each of these social media mediums.

Nicole Avery was recently named one of Melbourne’s most influential bloggers by The Age Melbourne Magazine. Her first book Planning With Kids published by Wright Books is now available in all leading book stores.