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Blogging

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STARTING YOUR OWN BLOG!

Find post content on blogging right here! Our blogging resources page is a new addition to the website. Stay tuned for more great content coming your way in the coming days and weeks.

Pinterest can be a blogger's best friend! I'm sharing exactly how I use Pinterest and my strategies for maintaining a consistent pinning schedule!

By Jen Merckling

5 Tips to Create a Pinterest Strategy

When I started blogging a year ago—I had zero clues about Pinterest (or blogging for that matter)!  But it didn’t take me long to discover, I not only needed to get a clue about Pinterest—I needed a strategy for using it effectively!  Truth be told, I still find Pinterest to be a bit of an…

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By Jason Merckling

New Blogger to Do List Before Publishing a Blog Post

Before publishing a blog post there’s a number of things that are going through your head.  Then…you hit the publish button AND the bottom drops out.  You realize that 10 different things still hadn’t been done.  You know who you are (me!). I’ll walk you through some of the key learnings I’ve had blogging and…

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Build an email list for your new blog with these simple to follow tactics that I used to generate real email subscriber results for a 2 month old blog.

By Jason Merckling

How to Build an Email List From Scratch

So you’ve got your blog up and running!  Now you’re probably thinking about some of the other actions you could take to be a success with this blogging thing.  One of those actions is an email subscriber list.  But how do you build an email list from scratch? You’ll find all kinds of information out…

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Selecting the best WordPress plugins for a blog is overwhelming. So many choices to consider for the exact same task. I'll help you simplify the process!

By Jason Merckling

Best WordPress Plugins for New Blogs

So you’ve got your new blog up and running – the hosting service is set up, the blogging platform has been selected, and you’ve chosen a beautiful theme for your site!  Now it’s time to add your own touches and adapt the site to your needs.  Customizing a website for most of us can be…

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By Jason Merckling

Pinterest Friendly Blog Posts – 7 Simple Steps to Drive More Traffic!

Traffic to your website comes in many fashions.  Probably the most prominent for many bloggers is social media.  Our latest website gets 70% of its traffic from social media (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter).  A whopping 55% comes from Pinterest and that number is growing by the week.  Many bloggers claim that a stunning 90%…

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10 insightful tips to help you choose the perfect WordPress theme for you website.

By Jason Merckling

How to Choose a WordPress Theme – 10 Insightful Tips!

Starting a blog involves many important decisions before you ever type a single word.  Each of those decisions require a certain degree of contentment as you’ll being living with them as you launch and brand your new blog.  You have to choose a domain name, determine how your new blog will be hosted on the…

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Effective Facebook ad targeting made simple. Using the Audience Insights tool you can fine tune your target audience and drive results.

By Jason Merckling

6 Amazingly Effective Facebook Ad Targeting Tips

Advertising costs can be a frustrating part of starting a new blog.  A key component that drives advertising cost is the target audience you select.  By making some minor tweaks to who your Facebook ad targeting, you’d be surprised at the increased conversion rate you can achieve and equally drive down advertising costs.  In this…

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How to choose the best blogging platform when you start a blog. Here's a comparative look at the free versus paid blogging platform options.

By Jason Merckling

Choosing the Best Blogging Platform

Are you ready to start your own blog?  Maybe you’ve already made that decision and you’re on to the next step.  Now your trying to figure out how to make this blog thing go live!  You’ve come to the right place.  This post is part two in a four-part series on how to start a…

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How to start a blog today! A guide for beginners. Start a blog in less than an hour with simple steps on web hosting, domain name, and SSL certificates.

By Jason Merckling

How to Start a Blog Today – The Ultimate Guide

Follow along on a five-part series of posts on how to start a blog.  The first post in the series focuses on 3 simple steps to get your blog off the ground – choosing your web hosting service, determining your domain name, and setting up a SSL certificate. Start a Blog | Post Series How…

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Facebook ads are a great option to drive traffic to your website for a low cost verus other options. Facebook Ads Manager is intuitive and simple to use.

By Jason Merckling

5 Steps to Implementing a Facebook Ads Strategy

Starting out your new blog can be daunting on many fronts. So many things to learn as you put your toe into the water and test out this blogging passion you’ve long been putting off. Now you’re all in, and it’s time to put your hard-earned dollars behind this new project. But how much money…

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"YOU CAN'T USE UP CREATIVITY. THE MORE YOU USE THE MORE YOU HAVE." -- MAYA ANGELOU

BLOGGING RESOURCES

Building and maintaining a website takes time. As we launch our blog (JENMERCKLING.COM) and build the website, join us for the journey and learn with us along the way. I'll share the key learnings that we make as we strive to create a user friendly website that is functional, intuitive, and engaging for the user! My biggest ask--share your ideas, your questions, and your comments. I'm eager to make this communication a two-way street for the "technical" side of blogging. We can all learn from each other!

Design Tools

Seriously, there are so many tools available when it comes to designing your website.  There are also a lot of opinions on how to do it as well.  I'll share my key learnings and thought processes with you!

Advertising

Budgets for promoting your blog can be limited in the early going.  I'll share ideas that gave us the best ROI as we launched our blog and also talk about our advertising goals.

Favorite Plugins

Thank goodness for those plugins!  There are some real time saving plugins that have saved me days building our blog.  I'll share them here and walk you through how we used them on our site.

SEO

Optimizing your blog for traffic is a critical early step to success.  I'll provide some ideas around how we approach SEO to successfully launch our new blog!

Social Media

The majoritiy of website traffic now comes by way of social media referrals.  Here's some tactics we've implemented, along with the results we've obtained!

Monetization

A question that's on every bloggers mind, "How do I monetize this blog?"  There's an evolution to this process as you build a new blog.  I'll share our ideas here!

BLOG STATISTICS

Check out some of the latest blog statistics for month 6 (February 2018) of our blog, JENMERCKLING.COM! We will update this section frequently to provide snapshots of monthly data from our blog ranging from pageviews, social media traffic (Pinterest), and blog income reports.

OUR PINTEREST PROFILE

February 2018 Average daily saves 95; Average daily people saving 91

PEOPLE WE REACH

February 2018 Average monthly viewers 687,295; Average monthly engaged 19,647

ACTIVITY FROM OUR DOMAIN

February 2018 Average daily clicks 193; Average daily visitors 190

MONTHLY PAGEVIEWS

February 2018 pageview data from our blog (Google Analytics) JENMERCKLING.COM

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM!

This is the loveliest book…💗🪶🪺 Perfect This is the loveliest book…💗🪶🪺
Perfect for the changing seasons, bird lovers, & a bit of history!! 
(Thanks to @readaloudrevival for the recommendation!) 🥰
We can be reluctant to "count" activities that did We can be reluctant to "count" activities that didn't come in our packaged curriculum as "school". 

❤️But so much counts...(I think it may all count??)

(I honestly have a hard time trying to think of activities that don't count as education!)

🎨Here's just a few: swimming, ballet, soccer practice, nature walk, going to the playground, coloring, cutting, video games, reading books together, cooking, chores, dress-up, video creation, poetry writing, imaginary play, documentaries, vacations, the grocery story, Sunday School, camp, museums, legos, collections, lunch with friends, planning a party, and the list goes on & on...

 👀 Watch for the learning that is happening all around you! 

🌻Life is an amazing teacher & there is so much to learn! Our kids know that instinctively--we can trust them to be curious. We can become curious again...
I like to start the year with Language Arts lesson I like to start the year with Language Arts lessons, Math, & one other subject...

(And Language Arts can have lots of parts--so I gradually add in pieces as we gain some confidence in our routine.)

It's okay if you don't have it all figured out on day one, week one, or even month one! Give yourself time to get comfortable with your curriculum.

When I taught elementary school--we spent so much time just going over routines that first week of school! But in homeschooling--we can just bypass all that... 

🥳(Yay for freedom to potty & snack when want--and no thanks to practicing how to "line-up" for 20 minutes)! 

Even once our routine is established--we RARELY do all subjects every day at my house. 

🔥Breaking free from traditional school is more than the leap into homeschooling...It's also breaking free from our ideas of what education looks like, where & how it happens, & how much time formal instruction takes. 

It takes time to make that paradigm shift--give yourself grace as you grow with your kiddos!
Please don't feel like you have to complete lesson Please don't feel like you have to complete lessons in your curriculum exactly as they are written...

You are the boss of your curriculum--make it work for you! 

Sometimes we doubt ourselves (and sometimes fear messing up this huge thing--our children's education)! We trust that the experts who have written the curriculum know  best & therefore  we must follow it perfectly...like a recipe for perfect education. 

But remember...often the best way to cook is to look over the recipe & then make adjustments to fit your personal tastes & needs! 

The same can be said of curriculum!  Use it as a guide--a help...But trust your gut! If your child is struggling & done--it's okay to stop for the day! 

It's okay to skip lessons, skip sections, skip problems--you know your child. You know what they need & you know their limits! 

Enjoy the process & create a beautiful education & life with your kiddos!
This Week in my Homeschool Lesson Planner… FAQ This Week in my Homeschool Lesson Planner… 

FAQ: How do I use the blank weekly list pages? 

💗🤓So I love making lists! In addition to the blank lesson planning spread, I included weekly planning pages that give an overview for the week & all my lists! This week my own plans included meal ideas, work projects, & subjects/actives for my kids to loop through—like copywork & music!
 
#homeschoolplanning #homeschoolmom
I've created a Homeschool Lesson Planner perfect f I've created a Homeschool Lesson Planner perfect for planning, organizing, & building consistency! 

12 Months, 52 Weeks Undated Large Monthly Calendar & Weekly Planning Spread--Start when you want & plenty of room for personal & homeschool needs! 

Link in Bio!
#homeschoolplanning #homeschoolmom #homeschoollifestyle #homeschoolplanner #organizedhomeschool