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Lately I've been getting this inquiry a lot: "I'm thinking of starting a blog. I've noticed you've had success as a blogger. Do you have any advice for me?" Along with this, "How did you get traffic over to your blog in the beginning?" and "How did you go about getting sponsors for your blog?" I love getting questions like this. It's an honor for someone to come to me for advice on their dream, and it makes me feel like I'm doing something right. But I never feel like I can fully answer the question in the form of an email, so I thought why not compose a post that thoroughly answers all the above questions? I'll try to write this in a way that will be truly helpful to those of you just starting out, the kind of information I would have loved to have my hands on before I got started. Making the Leap: Mentally It took me months to finally get the courage and set up a blogger account. I felt this fear, like I wasn't sure if I was good enough. Silly right? But I know from some of your emails that many others feel the same self-doubt, so it seems worth addressing. I was mostly afraid to tell anyone about it. Like they'd be thinking, "Hah you think anyone's going to want to read your blog?! I guess you think you're something." You see, I've never really been one to be in the spot light or seek attention. Most people would describe me as a more shy and reserved person. So creating a blog for all to see was a big step outside my comfort zone. Even still, I feel unsure about myself at times. I'll think that I've made a bold post and sit biting my fingernails for a response, reassurance. See this post. But man it's awesome when people reach out and let me know that they feel the same way or that it's helped them in some small way. That's been the greatest reward in blogging; helping people, and I'll even go as far to say as inspiring people to try out sewing. If that sounds great to you too, then I say go for it. Take the plunge and put yourself out there. The great thing is that no one will know your blog exists until you want them to. You can even password protect it if you'd like until you get things just right. However, if you're really just looking to make some extra cash, I'd say skip blogging and get a part time job. You'll earn far more money that way. I'll dig into that more a little later. Making the Leap: Logistically Okay so what's the first step? First you'll want to decide on a host. I can only attest to Blogger, but I'm sure Wordpress and Tumblr are great too. Blogger has been awesome for me. It's very user friendly, even more so now than when I first came on to the scene. I remember thinking that I would have to read up on html and "blogging for dummies" books, but no you really don't need it to do some simple blogging. When you set up your account and hit that "create new blog" account, you'll need to have a name in mind. This is daunting, I know, another big delay in me creating my blog. Once you build a following you can't really just up and switch names, so I'd think long and hard about this. How did I come up with Sweet Verbena? Well this is a little embarrassing but I literally googled plant names, among other random things, and just kind of liked the sound of it. I wanted something original, that didn't necessarily categorize me as a crafting blogger right away. I also had in mind that it could be a name that would one day grow into something bigger like maybe a business, fingers crossed. Other names in the running were: Giddy, Chantilly, The ________ Peony. Also it's a good idea to go ahead and purchase a domain. This means owning the website connected to your blog, for example I own sweetverbena.com. I've been hearing about domain theft lately, where people will buy the domain of your blog's name to take advantage of your misguided traffic. Better safe than sorry. I recommend GoDaddy because it works directly with blogger so that you can transfer the domain address to your blogspot, for example if you type in sweetverbena.com it takes you to sweet-verbena.blogspot.com where my content actually is. Designing Your Blog A lot of people choose to use a web designer when first starting out. If this is in your budget, that's great and I say go for it. I plan to one day hire some outside help to get a more professional look (if you know anyone great please let me know). However, I think it's entirely possible to do it yourself. My blog has been completely designed by me using my own photographs. I have a pretty extensive tutorial on the basics of that here: Another good, middle of the road option would be to purchase a pre-made design here or at a similar company. The design won't be unique to you but you'll get the professional look for a pretty fair price. Finding Your Own Style When you go to put together your first post, you might feel at a loss. Or at least this is how I felt. There's a lot that goes into blogging that you don't really realize until you do it yourself. For example, how to go about writing your posts. Do you take a more serious tone? Do you try to keep it up-beat and crack some jokes? Do you share about your personal life? In other words, how do you find your voice? I remember having a hard time striking a balance in the beginning. Part of me wanted to add more exclamation points and smiley faces to my posts because otherwise I was afraid I coming off too serious and matter-of-fact in my tutorials. But at the same time, because I am a relatively young blogger, I wanted to be sure I was taken seriously. There are dozens of other factors as well, like the actual content of your posts, how you use pictures, the kinds of pictures you use, how you open and close posts, font/formatting, etc. There's no obviously no one way to answer these questions. It's going to depend entirely on you and what you like. A good way to figure out what you like is to visit the blogs you love the most and list the reasons why. What of those factors do you want to include on your own blog and what would you like to avoid? For example, something I strive for is to have large, high-quality pictures (more about my attempts on that here). Also, I try to be as thorough as possible in my tutorials to accommodate those with less sewing experience. Other things that I enjoy about my favorite bloggers is the honesty in their writing or how they share about their personal lives. I try to replicate that because I figure maybe my readers will enjoy it as well. Getting Traffic to Your Blog Okay so now that you've spent all this time getting your blog to look and feel the way you want, you're probably going to want to get to work promoting it. The bottom line is that it's not going to come real easy. There will be a period of time where you feel like you're talking to yourself. It's important to remember that everybody feels like this in the beginning. None of the "big" bloggers started out that way. The good news is that there are a lot of ways to get people over, especially for craft bloggers. Networking One great way to increase traffic is to reach out to other bloggers of your same size. There are so many times that I'm encouraged to check out a blog because they left a sweet comment on one of my posts. Although, it should be a genuine comment. One of my pet peeves as an early blogger was when someone said something like "Cute! I followed you, come follow me back at ________". That starts to feel a little self-serving. Also, reaching out to bloggers in an email can be another great way to establish mutual relationships. I was so thankful to have some awesome women reach out to me in the beginning. It made me feel like I wasn't so alone. I still have great relationships with a lot of them. Besides making friendships through emailing you can also make plans to trade guest posts with a blogger that shares similar interests and has a similar following. This alone can really help you gather new readers. Linking Up Linky parties give you (usually best for food and craft bloggers) a way to find each other and provide support to one another. A blogger will host the party usually once a week, every week. If you scroll down to the bottom of the list you can click the "add your link" button and follow the directions to contribute. The general idea is that you add your link, provide a linkback to the host blog on your own site, and then visit some others in the party leaving a few comments behind. I used to join 20 or more everytime I posted a new tutorial. If you look back to some of my earlier projects you'll see the linkbacks to the parties. Theres' a great comprehensive list of parties organized by day of the week here. Features An added bonus of linky parties is that you have the chance to be featured by the blog host. This means they share a picture of your project, recipe, etc. and provide a link back to your site. Getting a few features in the right place will really help you pick up traffic. There are some sites that are entirely devoted to featuring other blogger's work. Sites like U-Create, One Pretty Thing, Tip Junkie, Free Needle (among others) take submissions of projects. If they feature your project you'll see a huge jump in your stats. This is where I got really lucky and saw a lot of growth on my blog. Other Sources of Traffic You might also choose to purchase ad space on a blog that has a similar audience. Some bloggers participate in ad swaps where you each have an "ad" on one another's blog. Websites like Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Facebook, and Twitter are also huge in sending traffic. You can't really control this but you can make it easier for people to share your posts. Notice that at the bottom of all my posts I have a Pin it button, A Facebook Like button, and a Twitter Share button. All of these help to syndicate my blog if people choose to share my projects. Installing a Pinterest "Pin it" Button . Installing a Facebook Like Button . Installing a Twitter Share Button Getting Sponsors For Your Blog I know this is probably a subject of interest for many, so I'll try to be as informative as possible. At risk of being tacky I'll share some numbers with you all because I think it will be the most helpful. As I mentioned above I don't recommend going into blogging solely for the money. Yes there is money to be made, but it takes an incredible amount of effort before you can even get to the point where you can start taking on sponsors. I'd be lying if I said that when I started Sweet Verbena I didn't hope to one day make money from blogging. However, I didn't bank on it and I didn't expect it anytime in the near future or really at all. I blog because I love to and because I like to think it helps people in some teeny tiny way, not because of a paycheck. That being said, let's talk about how to go about finding sponsors. For me about 6 months into blogging, when my blog was getting about 125,000 visits a month, I started looking into potential sponsors. I sort of lucked out when a woman emailed me about her dress shop asking me to check it out. I did and found she had some really cute merchandise, so I went out on a limb and asked her if she'd be interested in sponsoring. I was ecstatic when she said yes. Having one sponsor gave me enough confidence to seek out more. I started emailing some other small business owners to let them know how much I loved their stuff and how I thought my readers would love their stuff as well. I also provided them with a short summary of my blog and a link to my SiteMeter account so they could check out my stats for themselves. I recommend starting a SiteMeter account or something similar as soon as possible because it starts counting from the day your sign up. It's a great way to provide your potential sponsors with confidence in your site and has much more detailed stats than Blogger provides. Finally, I posted on the blog that I was searching for sponsors in the following month (you'll want to leave yourself some time to get it all organized). Determining Rates I've never found a sure-fire way to determining determining exactly how much to charge. Most bloggers are pretty coy about their rates so I never had a feel for that information. Honestly, I just kind of took a shot in the dark when I established my own. So far they seem to work pretty well for me and I haven't felt the need to adjust rates. Again at the risk of being tacky, I'll go ahead and share that info so that you have some idea of what's reasonable. I charge... Small Ad 300 x 90, $15 a month or $40 for three months Medium Ad 300 x 120, $20 a month or $50 for three months Large Ad 300 x 180, $25 a month or $60 for three months Factors to keep in mind in pricing are statistics (namely visits a month), size of the ad, FB/Twitter/Bloglovin/GFC follower counts, post frequency, etc. I handle payment by sending a payment request via Paypal and I install the ads the same way I've shown how to create tabs and buttons in this tutorial. Publishing Networks, Adsense & Adchoices Bloggers that really make a living through their blog make most of their money through ad networks. I have one ad up in the top left hand corner through the Blogher Publishing network. Many other popular bloggers have quite a few more. I'm going to be a little more vague here but I will say that I make more from this single ad placement than I do from all my individual sponsors combined. Blogher requires that you apply to be apart of the network. However, they do take blogs of all types and sizes. Blogher bloggers are paid by impression of each ad, meaning people don't have to actually click the ad for you to make money. I don't know much about Google's Adsense or Adchoices but it seems to be a pretty popular choice for many bloggers. I don't believe they require an application, so any blog of any size can participate. ... Whew! I am legitimately exhausted after writing this. Did I cover it all? If not shoot me an email and I'll attempt to answer your question. Thanks for reading (: ....

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OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I thought I'd give you all the dirty details about money. How much we need, how much we've already spent, how long we anticipate the saving process taking, etc. Here's the breakdown: Land: Down payment--$2000 (although they were only asking for $1000) about $300 a month, but we're paying $400 so we can pay it off quicker. It should take 8 years to pay off. Camper: $3000 It was $3500, but we managed to talk him down with little more than a pretty please. We had a budget of $4000 for this purchase. Pipes, Water Lines, Sewer Pumping, Trencher Rental: Total of about $600 (This was smaller than it would have otherwise been thanks to Uncle Larry and Cousin Mike!) Electric Pole and Equipment: $300 So, our initial outlay of money came to just about $6000, which is exactly what we borrowed from my parents. We start paying them off as soon as the yurt is up and completed. We'll probably pay them $500 a month until it gets paid off, wich will take a year. We still need to buy some sod and grass seed, and expect to spend about $300 on that. Now, for the yurt: Here is the company we've decided to buy from: http://www.laurelnestyurts.com/ They are well-respected and more affordable than some of the bigger companies. A couple of the smaller, affordable yurt companies weren't respected and had bad rating with the BBB. We are buying the 30' yurt, and we're adding an extra door, several extra windows, complete insulation, and a working glass window to put an air conditioning unit in. We plan to do some sanding and staining ourselves. The total cost, according to their price calculator is $10, 445 minus shipping, which will be around $800. The deck and flooring for the yurt will be in the $5000 range. We plan to do much of it ourselves with help and knowledge from my cousin, who owns Dunamis Home Restoration. Initially, we plan to live in the yurt without interior walls. As soon as we can get the shell of the yurt up and heated/cooled, we will move our furniture in and hang curtains for partition. Over the next six months after that, we will build a loft, with a bathroom and rooms underneath, and with a kitchen. We will pay for that gradually, as we can afford it. We hope to have everything completed two years from now. Here are some examples of interiors anf lofts to give you an idea: How we're going to save the money: Theatre, baby! So far, we're in two shows--Greg's in one and I'm in another. That adds up to $3500. Hopefully we'll both be in a show this summer. (I think we have a good shot--cross your fingers!) I have a possibility to be in two. Maddie may also be in a show this summer. Each show pays between $1100-$1700 dollars. This is over and above our usual pay for teaching. We also hope to do some voice-overs over the next year. Additionally, starting in March, we should be able to save $500 of our "regular" pay since we are saving on rent. All in all, we estimate we should be able to order the yurt by the end of the summer, if all goes well. We're also considering what one blog reader suggested regarding adding a Paypal button to this blog. It feels kind of wrong to us, but I understand lots of people do it on their blog, and if we're giving any information that entertains or helps people, I suppose donations for that service make sense. We're still in the "thinking about it" phase! And that's pretty much all I know about money right now. By my count, at the end of two years, we will have a camper and a 30' yurt for about $25,000. You can't even buy a run-down crack house for that! In eight years, we will have paid for the land. I'll be sure and post money updates as they come!

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It's FAQ Friday time! Don't forget to send me your questions! Or maybe you don't get asked questions as much as I do. Lol. I might just be surrounded by curious people. ;) Today's question is brought to you by some worried parents. I often get asked this question when I give results of an artic eval or at an initial IEP meeting. Parents are often worried what an articulation disorder means for their child and what are the long term effects. Let's dig a little deeper into this one. According to this article by Everything Speech, there is no scientific evidence that articulation deficits in general cause academic problems in students. Articulation errors can occur in conjunction with giftedness, learning disorders, or even mental disabilities. I have actually had quite a few students that I shared with the gifted teacher over the course of my job. Having articulation problems does not necessarily mean the child will have academic problems. Educational issues that can occur, however, are things like difficulty participating orally in class, difficulty with social interactions, and being understood in general. On the other hand, a child with a phonological disorder is a little different. This article by ASHA suggests that kids with phonological disorders are at risk for reading and writing difficulties. It goes on to say that if the disorder is left untreated, it could interfere with the child's social, academic, and vocational well-being in the long run. :/ In case some of you might be wondering, the main difference between articulation and phonological disorders is that phonological disorders involve patterns of errors. They might leave out ending sounds in words or shorten words or say sounds in the wrong place in their mouths (i.e. t/k, d/g). These patterns usually make these kiddos a lot more difficult to understand. Here and Here are a couple more interesting articles about phonological disorders that have some good information as well. For both of these, early intervention is key. The earlier kids begin to remediate speech sound errors, the less they will have to overcome later on when learning to read and write. Here are a few articles that ASHA references for the treatment of phonological disorders in case you wanted some more info. Phonological treatment efficacy and developmental norms (article abstract) Treatment efficacy: Functional phonological disorders in children (article abstract) Treatment efficacy summary on phonological disorders [PDF] Thoughts?? Was any of this helpful? :)

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It's Friday! Unfortunately, I've only got like 2 more free Fridays before school starts back up. Sigh... I'm enjoying it while it lasts. It's FAQ time. Today's question is brought to you by a friend who is a parent of a toddler. She wants to know if it's normal that her child isn't speaking yet. Most parents with concerns about their children will ask other parents their opinions. I've listened in on some of these conversations. They usually go something like: Parent: Sally is 2 and she doesn't really talk yet. How old were your kids when they started talking? Friend 1: Oh don't worry! Johnny didn't talk until he was 3, and he turned out just fine. Friend 2: Yeah, enjoy it now. Soon, you won't be able to shut her up! Friend 3: I'm sure she'll outgrow it. Just be patient. While this advice may be well-intended, you can't really know for sure if your kid is on the right track just by listening to the opinions of other parents. Concerns regarding your child's communication skills should be directed to a speech-language pathologist, and often a formal evaluation is necessary. In order to know if something is not normal, you need a good sense of what is. Here are a few milestones to keep in mind: Children usually say their first meaningful word around 12 months, about the time they take their first steps. Between the ages of 1 and 2, your child should be picking up more and more words consistently. At 24 months, most kids have about 100 words and are putting 2 words together. Now, sometimes a child will very well "catch up" on their own if they begin talking late. However it's often hard to know which kids will or won't, so typically a language evaluation is in order. There are some "red flags" that are considered to reveal a child who may have language difficulties. Check out these risk factors posted by Lauren Lowry at the Hanen Center: quiet as an infant; little babbling a history of ear infections limited number of consonant sounds (eg. p, b, m, t, d, n, y, k, g, etc.) does not link pretend ideas and actions together while playing does not imitate (copy) words uses mostly nouns (names of people, places, things), and few verbs (action words) difficulty playing with peers (social skills) a family history of communication delay, learning or academic difficulties a mild comprehension (understanding) delay for his or her age uses few gestures to communicate If a child's receptive language or ability to "take in" language is age-appropriate, that's usually a good sign. However, not being able to communicate effectively as a toddler can be frustrating for both you and the child. As a parent, you don't have to just "wait and see" if your child catches up. It's never too early to consult an SLP for a screening or formal evaluation to make sure. Sources for some of this information as well as some great articles about this topic include: ASHA: Late Blooming or Language Problem How to tell if Your Child is a Late Talker A Closer Look at the Late Talker Study Remember, keep talking and reading to your child. Provide opportunities for them to make requests and imitate words. Speak slowly using short simple sentences, and always show them love and support no matter their difficulties. Thoughts?

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It's FAQ Friday time! Don't forget to send me your questions! I'd love to be able to help you dig a little and find some good answers. :) Today's question is brought to you by a couple of teachers that I work with. I love it when they ask me how they can help the students with language disorders. It shows that they really care about the student's learning and they value my opinions as an SLP. Here's what they asked me recently: Our conversations usually go something like this: -Teacher: Many of your students give "off the wall" responses to the questions that I ask them, what do you do with that? Are there any strategies or things that I can do while teaching that would help them? -Me: Can you give me an example? -Teacher: Sure. I asked, "How long did the king reign over his kingdom?" And the student responded, "Sometimes thunder is loud, and you can't play outside when it's raining." I procede to explain to the teachers that off-topic responses are usually an indication of a receptive language disorder, meaning they aren't correctly processing the information being asked of them. The students I work with also often have a very limited vocabulary. In the example, this student had never heard the word "reign" and related it back to the only word he knew "rain." On top of that, his language is still very ego-centric, and it is very difficult for him to think outside of his own experiences. I attempt to give teachers a few strategies to try out in the classrooms with my language-disordered students, along with the disclaimer that every child is different, and what works with one may not work with another. Here are a few: Anticipate that the child may not process the question correctly. Rephrase the question using simpler vocabulary. Give the student time to process the question and encourage him to think about what is being asked before immediately responding. Give the child a choice between 2 possible answers. Give visual cues by pointing, highlighting key words, drawing a picture, etc. Try not to just move on to the next student when they respond incorrectly. Scaffold down or break down the question until they can come up with the answer. Explain words with multiple or hidden meanings. Make the question a yes/no question if necessary. If nothing seems to be working, encourage him to ask a friend for help. Let him practice asking the question to someone else in his own words. Sometimes just this act will help him internalize the question. What other tips do you have? I'd love to hear how some of you respond to questions like this from teachers. I previously did a post on tips for teachers that included a freebie handout. You can refer to that post if you need something tangible to give to teachers.

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