It Is No Secret

Welcome back!

I’m not going to say that the fact that I’m a “blogger” was a secret before now, but it was a hidden thing, at least among those in my every day “face to face” life.  I had never really told many of my friends much about my “blog”.  I told them I was an “internet junkie”, I’ve told them that I’m a “nerd”, that they knew anyway. However, about my “blog” or its location, I had not totally revealed…until last night.

You see I was teaching facilitating a Bible Study lesson for our once a month Tomgirls (Together on Mission with the Girls) meeting, and I thought of how a person I know “in real life” just recently revealed to me that she read my blog.  I was at first embarrassed, until she told me that it was encouraging to her and that she thought God could use it.

So, even though I am a bit uneasy about letting out my “little secret not so secret” place on the web, I did so to illustrate a point that I was making in the lesson, about how you never know when you’re influencing or being an influence on someone else.   And, in a way I’m glad I did, after all it made a good illustration and  maybe the people in my life will only get to know me better and hopefully, GOD will use it for His glory.

So, girls, if you’re out there reading, I love ya’ll and I hope that you won’t think I’m an even bigger “nerd” now that you’ve read my blog.  Besides that I thought I”d share with you a few things you should know about this thing I call “blogging”, it will not only help you to understand the concept, but maybe it’ll even inspire you, or you’ll get a good laugh, either way enjoy.

Some Secrets / Must Knows about Blogging for the Non- Blogger / New Blog Reader

1.  Comment and comment often. My online friend, Kelly McCausey says that comments are like giving “warm hugs’. So, if you like hugs be a commenter.  By the way, those who do not comment are called “lurkers”, which would you rather be a “hugger” or a “lurker”?  I’ll let you decide.

2.  Blogging is not JUST for fun. I blog for fun, but I also blog for profit.  And as another of my online friends, LaTara Ham Ying puts it

“blogging is a way to get your message, whatever it may be— out to the masses.”

I know preachers who blog, attorneys, children’s boutique owners, just to name a few and yes moms, millions of them who blog.  I myself blog as a “mom blogger”, but also as a “blog manager” for 6 other business blogs of clients on 6 totally different topics.

I also blog for my ministry, and for Proverbs 31 Ministries’ Rad Revolution blog, a blog for teen / tween girls.

3. A few terms to know:  RSS feed, Feedreader, and Tags.  I’ll try to explain all three to the best of my ability.  An RSS feed or (really simple syndication) feed is basically a way to receive my feed (or the feed of other blogs) or my updates automatically.  You can subscribe to get those by email, or you can subscribe to get them in your “feedreader” which is a really simple way to read blogs.  It feeds in your blogs that you are subscribed to and keeps them all in one place.  You simply log on and read.

Some popular feedreaders include:

Google Reader – my favorite and what I use.  You can access Google from anywhere and you can file and organize your blogs.

Netvibes - much like Google reader, Netvibes allows you to subscribe to blogs and more.

Tags are keywords or terms that a blogger can use to “tag” a blog post.  If you look to the right in my sidebar you can see a list of my most often used tags.  These are topics I blog about most often.

4.  Blogging creates community. As I said in a previous point there are many bloggers online these days and whether they are blogging for business or personal, to succeed at and get the most out of blogging you must (in my opinion) become a part of the “blogging community”.

This is one of the reasons I love blogging.  I am a “Work at home mom”, therefore I may not see ya’ll (other moms in real life) for days on end.  Blogging allows me to connect with other moms that are “in my shoes” (the mom blog community) and through this I have remained sane through a many a week of children’s illness, and I have made some amazing friends.  Some of which I have finally met “face to face” as well, or I will soon.

5.  Blogging is “cheap therapy”. Let’s face it sometimes as a mom you just want to scream it to the masses, whatever it is, and blogging lets you.  I have struggled for years with “anxiety disorder” and I probably needed to go to a counselor more often than not, but really it was so I could “get it all out there.” Blogging allows me to do so, the only problem is, now “somebody” is actually reading.  Ha ha!

So, seriously, if you want to read my blog, I’m ok with that, and if you don’t, you’re not going to hurt my feelings.  But if you do decide you want to subscribe click below to subscribe via email, that’s probably the easiest for you.

Subscribe to Life From My Laptop by Email

And if you stick around, please comment, I’d love to know you’ve been here.  Simply click, 0 Readers have commented on this post , or whatever number is there  in the little link below and fill out the form to leave a comment, not only will I no longer have to look at that pitiful 0 comments, but I’ll also get to feel your “warm hug”.

Photo Credit: Wheat in your hair

Proud of My Tag Cloud

I’d often seen these tag clouds on other people’s blogs and thought that they were a bit distracting. Therefore, I never put mine up on my blog.  Then today, I did it out of curiosity and it reminded me of something.  First, take a look at the cloud

Tags

accomplished baby birth blessed blessings blog blogging business church conference date family goals God house june kids life list Lord love ministry mom Mom masterminds monday motivation my organize organized organized life by design organizing plan pregnancy project projects She Speaks she speaks conference speaking spring cleaning story testimony to do Tomgirls WAHM writing

Just in case you don’t understand it.  The larger the font the more often your posts were tagged for that particular word or phrase.  If you notice one of my largest words is GOD.  This makes me proud.  I try very hard to share my faith here on my blog because it is such a huge part of who I am and because as a Christian it is what I am called to do.  So, I’m proud of that!

And it reminded me of this.  I have heard preachers and Bible teachers say many times that you can discover where your heart is by looking at where you spend your time, and where you spend your money.  I feel that my tag cloud is simliar to that.  What do I spend my time telling others about, what do I spend time writing about, that shows others where my heart is.  Like the Bible says,

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:21

photo credit: me and the sysop