Join in on the Big Mother's Day Bash!

Just in time for Mother's Day! All mothers deserve the very best. That's why this year, voiceBoks, Planet Weidknecht, Good Steward Savers, Terri's Little Haven, and About a Mom Blog are throwing a BIG Mother’s Day Bash Event! Enter for your chance to win!

This year’s Event features 3 Prizes!

1) The First Place Prize will feature will be $600 Paypal CASH Prize for you splurge on your mom.
2) The Second Place Prize will be a Spa Perfect Relax & Rejuvinate Tote worth over $100 from
Bea's Gift Baskets and Gifts
3) The Third Place Prize will be a 3D Family Portrait on Canvas made by Emsheldesigns.


3 WINNERS FOR 3 CHANCES TO WIN!
There are plenty of points and opportunities below to win the big prize!
Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway was made possible by the following sponsors:

Spilled Milkshake | Cute-Ecakes | Insights By April | Mommy's Memorandum | Military Wives Saving | Sister's Saving Cents | Couponing From Florida to Michigan | This Mama Loves Her Bargains | Angela Calavicci | Crazy Life of a Writing Mom | Mom Blogger Buzz | Frugal Fanatic | Mommy LaDy Club | Powered by Mom | Peanut Butter and Whine | Racing and Saving Mama | Mark Your Savings | The Kid's Fun Reviewed | Mommy Writes | Frugal Friends Network | Baxtron{Life} | November Sunflower | The Mommy Bunch | Mommy Blog Designs | Giveaway Promote | A Living Homeschool | From City Corporate to Suburb Mama | Sweeping The USA | The Frugal Freeloader | Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks | The Epic Adventures of a Modern Mom | Simple-Homemaking | Like a Bump on a Blog | the Crazy Nuts Mom | Debbie Does Coupons | JadeLouise Designs | Diary of a Working Mom | Giveaway Bandit | Clipping Money | D.S. White | Connecting Piece by Piece | Shootie Girl™ Custom Rhinestone Apparel & Blog | Super Blake Books | Work, Interrupted | Coupons For Wisconsin | Adventures of a Maui Mompreneur | The Penny Hoarder | A Thrifty Diva Surviving Mommy Hood | Cyns Coupons 4U | GiaVanne's Gems | Roscoe Ramblings | Its the Simple Things | Grandma Bonnie's Closet | The Frugal Free Gal | Spinning Meals | Dawns Delights Art | CountryLife4Me | Latina Reddick (NaturalHairLatina) | A Happy Hippy Mom | Savior Cents | Our Full House | Wrinkled Mommy | Great Beauty Buys | Gay NYC Dad | The Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife | Single Mom Saving Money | My Side Of Life | Cocoons 2 Butterflies | Linkie's Contest Linkies

Opportunity for Bloggers-Sign up by April 6-7th!

Here are two upcoming Giveaways that everyone can join in and participate. The sign-up deadline is April 6th for the Mother's Day Giveaway and April 7th for the Raining Cash Giveaway!


It's Raining Cash Giveaway Event



Are you a blogger looking to increase your social media exposure?  Join our upcoming cash giveaway event! This event will be held from April 16th through April 29th.  Sign-ups end on April 7th. 

Our most recent cash giveaway event, the $700 Winter Blast of Cash Giveaway, had an incredible turnout with over 120 participating blogs and 275,000+ entries.  Participants in that event gained hundreds and even thousands of new followers! 

We would love for you to join us in the next big event! Complete your information on the sign-up form Here by April 7th!  There will also be a cash prize for the participating blogger who refers the most people to the giveaway! 

Mother's Day Giveaway Event



You are also welcome to visit VoiceBoks and sign up for the Mother's Day Giveaway. 


Please let them know that Lisa Ladrido sent you! Thank you. 


You must sign up for this Giveaway by April 6th! Enjoy these opportunities!





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• Attention Bloggers! Spring Surprise $100 Paypal Cash Giveaway! (mombloggerbuzz.com)

Lisa Ladrido is an R.N. Mom Blogger who is passionate about Social Media, Personal Development and Health and Wellness.

She has 5 sons and lives in Washington State with her husband and their furry four legged children!

My blog: Mom Blogger Buzz: Can One Smile Change the World?

Enter for a Spring Surprise!

Spring is in the air! And as the flowers start to bloom and the world is filled with colors, I start to see GREEN! Because I always want to do little things in the Spring that cost money - like getting a fabulous new outfit, or fixing up the front yard. Soooo, I thought it would be great to give you a way to get a little Spring Surprise for yourself! I teamed up with some of my great bloggy friends and we want to give YOU $100 in Paypal cash to spend any way you want! What will you buy? That fab new dress? Flowers for the front yard? A day at the spa? The possibilities are endless! But only if you enter to win this Spring Surprise!

So, here's how it works. Entry is super easy thanks to Rafflecopter! You simply have to answer one question - What would you do with this awesome Spring Surprise? That's it - you're entered! But wait! Since I'm sure you want even better chances of winning (it's 100 bucks!), you can earn extra entries in several ways. You can like the sponsoring blogs Facebook Fan Pages, follow them on Twitter, add them to your circles on Google+ or enter other contest and leave comments on great posts! How much or how little you do is up to you! But remember, the more entries you complete, the better your chances are to win!

So are you ready? Do you know what you'll spend your Spring Surprise on? Then enter away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The blogs participating in this event are:

The Adventures of J-Man and MillerBug, Our Kids Mom, Book R Us, Musings from a Stay at Home Mom, Misadventures with Andi, Simple Savings for ATL Moms, Dallas Single Mom, Mompreneur Mogul, Mom Blogger Buzz and (aspiring) Domestic Goddess Mommy!

My Top 7 Favorite Tools

In my search to create a fun and engaging Facebook Fan Page, increase my reach on Twitter and exposure to my Blog, I have found some great applications, tools and communities to help me get there. Here are my Top 7 Tools that have helped me with all of my goals, in no particular order. 

Triberr has to be included in my Top 7!  Not only has it contributed to my increased Twitter reach, followers,  and Klout score, but I have met some incredible bloggers along the way. Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo are the brains behind Triberr.  They have hit the nail on the head so to speak when it comes to creating a community and tool that is based on sharing.  Most bloggers love to share content of other bloggers. 


Once you belong to a tribe on Triberr, it just takes a few clicks and the blog posts are shared to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn and coming soon Pinterest too! According to Dino, "So far, Triberr has imported close to one million blog posts, and has handled the sharing of 10 million tweets.  And the "10 million" figure doesn't even include posts that are shared via other social channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and G+."  


I had been stuck for months around 2000 followers on Twitter.  As soon as I joined Triberr my followers started to increase rapidly to over 3000 and my reach is now over 2.9 million because of the great tribes that I belong to. This is without using any automated tools. 


When you join Triberr don't hesitate to visit their great Tutorials on All Triberr, this will save you so much time!

I like Buffer for many reasons, but mostly because it gives me additional leeway to edit my re-tweets directly on Twitter. If you are using either Chrome, Safari or Firefox you will be able to install the Buffer buttons so that you can share any page quickly and easily! You will have to check out my post regarding Buffer when you get a chance. Don't forget to visit their Blog, which is another extension to this great tool!

Most of us have heard of Blog Hops and there are a few tools that you can use to create a Blog Hop but I continue to be loyal to Linky Tools.  Since I love Blog Hopping I thought there must be a way to do Facebook Fan Page "Like" Hopping. So once I figured it out I wrote a blog post tutorial on creating your very own Facebook Like Hop right on Facebook! 


You are welcome to join the Facebook Hop we have going on at Women Entrepreneurs too! What better way to Hop around all the Facebook Fan Pages and Blogs while you are on Facebook! 


Mr. Brent Riggs has also created the Linky Followers Tool, which as rumors have it, Google Friend Connect may be going away, so this will be a great substitute. 

I have really enjoyed using RSS Graffiti on my Facebook Fan Page. All of our members love that their blog posts are being pulled and showcased on our Page! I was looking high and low for an application that could do this automatically. I wanted to be able to post unlimited RSS feeds and then I found RSS Graffiti! I was ecstatic!

If I could remember who invited me to Empire Avenue. I would like to give them a big thank you! At first sight I thought, oh no is this a game?! How naive I was! "Social Media Rocket Fuel" is right!! You can build and join Communities, start Missions, Network with other members, Increase your Klout, Twitter followers, Blog Endorsements and Facebook Likes all in one place!  


First things first, like with all Social Networking sites add your picture and Bio. Then connect your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, Foursquare, WordPress, Google and Blog accounts. 


Then you can start "buying stock" (with virtual money called Eaves) and networking with other members and watch your share price go up and your following increase!

As a Mom Blogger I love to support other women in the blogging community. I was given the opportunity to review an eBook and I truly recommend it to all women bloggers out there. Get Famous is full of blogging tips for the new and seasoned blogger. 

Pinterest is the fastest growing site out there today. I personally love photography, pets and travel.  However, if you have a business I truly recommend that you join. You are able to pin directly from your website or blog and create Boards in categories. If you were to have an Etsy shop for example and you add prices to your pin, your price will automatically be included on a banner across your pin. There are many benefits when using Pinterest, too numerous to outline here in this small post. 


These are my favorites for now. As you know new ones will be added what seems like daily! With every Social Networking site, you need to be social and of course network! It really is that simple. Enjoy!



Related Articles
Did Triberr Give Me Klout? (mombloggerbuzz.com)
How I Use Pinterest (mompreneurmogul.com)
How to Make Money Blogging-Get Famous (mombloggerbuzz.com)

Lisa Ladrido is an R.N. Mom Blogger who is passionate about Social Media, Personal Development and Health and Wellness.

She has 5 sons and lives in Washington State with her husband and their furry four legged children!

My blog: Mom Blogger Buzz: Can One Smile Change the World?

Toe Tapping Fun for the Entire Family!

Here is a great review and Giveaway by Michelle from Powered by Mom! The Giveaway starts Saturday February 18th! Have fun!

I was very excited when I was selected to do the review for Farmer Jason, Nature Jams. I love music and like most people I have my favorite bands and genres. However when you grow up with a musician for a father you have no choice but to listen to all types of music, thank goodness. My father played and loved classical, blues and Jazz of which I complained about as a child but it must have sunk in somewhere because as an adult I love it all.

The best way to instill a love of music in children is to capture their attention first and keep it there. What better way than with songs and music you find yourself humming and tapping your toes too!

How to Create a Facebook Fan Page "Like" Hop

FreeDigitalPhotos Australian Sunset by Mapichai

Most of us have heard of a Blog Hop or adding a Linky to our Blogs to create a Blog Hop.  A special thank you goes out to the original creator of the Blog Hops, Mr. Brent Riggs for creating this wonderful tool!


The other day I was reading his MckLinky Blog and one of his users created a Facebook Linky Hop! What a brilliant idea. Blog Hops are all over the place but I hadn't seen a Facebook Hop.


Jodi Friedman has a Photography Challenge and is using the Linky Tool on her Facebook Page. If you are a Photographer there is still time to link up, through 3/1/2012!


So I decided that I wanted to have a Facebook Fan Page "Like" Hop. Just like our blog hopping but now using the URL to our Facebook Fan Pages instead.


If you have a Fan Page, you are welcome to link up from here too!



My light bulb moment or as Oprah has coined it, "Aha! Moment", was when I soon figured out that the only way to add this code to my page was using an HTML application. DUH!

Steps:

• Go to Facebook and type html in the search field. I chose the first one because it is so simple to use, but that decision is up to you. 

• Create an account with Linky Tools if you don't already have one.
• Complete all the steps that Mr. Brent has set up for you.
• Type in your Facebook Fan Page URL not your blog's!
• Copy the code like the one below

• Return to your Facebook Fan Page where your new HTML Application is located and click on the drop down, as shown below.

• Paste your Linky Tool code in the space provided. You are able to customize your message with photos too, using HTML. Then select Update. 

Please be aware that every application is different.  Just follow the instructions, copy and paste your code and you should be fine. 

Please note that the following will  not be available to do once the new Facebook Timeline comes to Facebook Fan Pages. Wait you aren't finished! Now go back to your Facebook Fan Page and click on Edit Page. 

• Click on Manage Permissions
• Then find the Default Landing Tab:
• Find your Hop Application, mine was called Welcome!
• Then Save Changes!

This way when people come to your page they will first land on the Hop, or to whatever Landing Tab you would like them to first see when they get to your page!


I do recommend that you have more than one Admin connected to your Fan Page.  If you see on the picture above, click on Manage Admins and add your trusted Admin Buddy! It is just a safeguard in case Facebook gets cranky with all of your new found activity a.k.a Fans!


Okay, now you are done! Have fun Hopping, I mean Liking!

New Linky Followers Tool Can Replace GFC!

Visit Linky Followers 

I was introduced to a new tool that you can use to replace the Google Friend Connect Widget!  Thank you Lisa Cash Hanson aka Mompreneur Mogul for pointing this out to all of us! Please visit her blog to join in on the Linky Followers Party Hop!


You know the handsome face behind all of the Linky Tools and Blog Hops, right? Well Mr. Brent has done it again, he has created a new Linky Followers Tool to replace Google Friend Connect!


On his Blog Brent states, "As you've probably heard, the popular Google Friend Connect ("GFC") is going away March 1st for non-Google blog platforms like WordPress, and the scuttlebutt is that it will be eventually phased out completely to be replaced by Google+.  GFC was never really so much an "I follow this blog" tool as it was an attempt at the whole Facebook "friend, like" concept."

This is an example of what it will look like once posted on your blog.

When you get your widget code you will see the number 64 in the code. That is the default number of followers that will show up once loaded on your blog. You can change the number to less or more depending on how many you would like to show.

Join Me on Facebook for Our Facebook Page Like Hop!

Join in on the Facebook Page Like Hop! Please Visit and Like Everyone's Page Here on Facebook! Add Your Facebook Page URL and Add Your Linky, Which Will Then Connect to Your Facebook Page!

FYI Tip of the Day! Like pages as yourself , NOT as your Fan Page, as only then will the Like count! As a precaution you should also have more than one Admin on your pages too.

Let's Link Up and Have Some Fun!  I am hosting a Facebook Page Like Hop. Please add your Facebook Page (not your blog) Linky to the Hop and follow everyone on there!

Guest Post: Something About George Clooney!

Recently I had the pleasure of writing a guest post for my dear friend Sharon from Moms Madhouse Advice Blog~A Blog W/ Sprinkles of Truth!

She was having issues with her eyesight at the time and wasn't able to post on her blog.  So our Exalted Sisters Tribe on Triberr got together and sent her a handful of posts for her blog.

Her four year old daughter happened to be talking about Italy on that particular day so I decided to send her my post about George Clooney!

I met Sharon on VoiceBoks this past year and we have become quite close.  We have had our Lucy and Ethel moments on Twitter and Facebook, she cracks me up all the time! 

Sharon is a mom of 6 children and writes about all the fun that happens at her house.  She is a riot and I recommend that you take a peek at her blog!  Here is her Blog Button:

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• Four reasons why I finally like Triberr (businessesgrow.com)
• Guest Post-Something About George Clooney!  (sharon-moms-madhouse.com)
• You Didn't See Mommy Kissing Anybody...Got It? (sharon-moms-madhouse.com)
• Why I Nominated Triberr on Mashable (Even Though I Don't Use Triberr) (converstations.com)
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Buffer | Twitter | Facebook | Triberr

http://bufferapp.com

I love anything to do with Social Media, extensions and applications! When I see something new and if I feel I could use the tool then I will check it out! So a few days ago while I was Stumbling around I found Buffer!

The creators of Buffer, Joel Gascoigne and Leo Widrich explain how it works, "We designed Buffer to offer you a both personal and yet more efficient solution to handle Twitter.  Buffer makes your life easier with a smarter way to schedule tweets. Work out all your tweets at one point in time during the day.  Then fill up your Buffer with your tweets and Buffer schedules them for you.  Simply keep that Buffer topped up and you will then be tweeting consistently all day round, all week long."

Of course you can schedule your tweets with either TweetDeck or Hootsuite, as I have used before. One of the features that makes Buffer different is that it also includes the "Inspire me!" button.  Different quotes will appear for you to tweet to your followers.  If you "Post Now" your post will immediately show up on Twitter or if you choose "Add to Buffer" it will be scheduled to tweet in the future based on the schedule you have chosen.

Right now Buffer is available on Chrome, Safari and Firefox, or you can add the Bookmarklet.  I only use Chrome, so I am not sure if the Buffer icon is visible on the other extensions' tweets.  As you can see below Buffer appears on the tweet.

Click on Buffer directly on Twitter and then you can edit and schedule your RT.

You can even check the Analytics of your tweets right on Buffer. Here is a tweet that went out today at 12:17 PM.  So far there were 35 clicks and 2842 potential views. 

I am enjoying the ease and time saving features that Buffer has to offer both on Twitter and Facebook. I have also been using Buffer on Triberr with the Promotional Tweets.  My Christmas wish is that Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo from Triberr will add the Buffer icon as an option for us to use when we share our Tribemate's posts! 

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

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Mom Bloggers~ A Great Community for You!

I wish I could remember how I stumbled upon VoiceBoks, so I could thank the person who had this badge on their blog.  I know I must have been Blog Hopping for sure. However, thankfully I did and joined this great Community.  The group of mostly women and yes even a few Daddy's are gently and graciously guided by the creator of VoiceBoks, Lexie. Besides having a young baby and husband at home, VoiceBoks is her other baby! 

She has created a community that embraces the promotion and support of others.  Once you join you are greeted immediately by members who make you feel like you are stopping in for a cup of coffee and sitting down at their kitchen table.


We have Blog Hops integrated on the site, wonderful groups that help you gain followers to your blogs utilizing the different forms of Social Media, education and support.  Some of the categories that you will find here are Pregnancy, Children, Health, Recipes, Deals and Steals and an organized Directory.  The Directory includes Arts and Crafts, Go Green, Parenting, Party Ideas and even Shops, to name just a few.


When I watched this movie "Oh, Thank Goodness, It's Not Just Me!", I thought of this wonderful group and community called VoiceBoks ~The Voice of Motherhood.   


Make sure your volume is up, click Play and Enjoy this quick movie! 

"No matter what stage of life a woman is in, Oh Thank Goodness It's Not Just Me by Lisa Hammond and BJ Gallagher, shares a message of hope woman to woman and heart-to-heart: You are not alone. The authors encourage women to overcome self-doubt, anxiety and self consciousness by connecting and sharing real-world experiences with each other." 


"Oh Thank Goodness It's Not Just Me illustrates the power of sharing stories and celebrates women's interdependence. It taps into the power of connection and community, eliminating the need to be perfect, while giving women the freedom to share their feelings, to forgive both themselves and others and to ask for help. The book allows women to see the possibilities of rebounding and reinventing themselves." 


"Oh Thank Goodness It's Not Just Me shows women that they are not alone in their feelings and experiences—that they are free to share who they really are with the world."

To me this book and movie describe exactly what VoiceBoks is all about. Just click either of the VoiceBoks' Badges and come and visit us, you may want to stay awhile!

Lexie Lane and Ro Little have also created WikiMommy! You are welcome to visit this great addition to the VoiceBoks Community and even become a contributor!


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