Fresh Out of Ideas

Today we have a guest post from Pam Steiner...

"So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Luke 11: 9-10

Have you ever just felt like you were

• fresh out of ideas...
• running into dead ends...
• banging your head against a wall...not sure which way to turn?

If so, I am certain you are not alone...I know I have often felt that way...and continue to feel that way more often than I like to admit. We start out gung-ho, ready to go on a project or an idea, and get up a full head of steam, and then we start running into road-blocks and obstacles, you know, those little daily frustrations that catch us off-guard and interrupt our plans for the day...or the week, or our life's goals...and pretty soon we find ourselves giving up on our dreams and schemes and going back to the status-quo...the ordinary life...the comfortable place where we aren't challenged to step out on faith and do something "outside the box".

We find ourselves slumped back down in our easy-chairs, pushing the buttons on the remote and looking for something to entertain ourselves...watching other people achieving their goals, obtaining their dreams, carrying out their ideas and finding success and happiness at the end of the rainbow. And we content ourselves by saying, "well, that just wasn't God's plan for me", or "I guess that wasn't such a good idea afterall." "It's okay for someone else, but not for me."

I don't pretend to have the answer to this problem that appears to be common to many of us. But God's Word, The Bible, does have a lot to say to us about how we should go about seeking His plan for our lives...The verses quoted above from Luke's Gospel are a good place to start:

• "Ask...Seek...Knock..." and then go to Psalm 27:14, which says:
• "Wait on the Lord;"
• "Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart;"
• "Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Oftentimes I have found that I have given up too soon, thinking that my plans must not have been good enough or in the right direction...when actually what I needed to learn was to wait on the Lord for His plans to come into fruition. Isaiah 30:18 says,

"Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him."

Lord, I am learning to wait on You...to answer my questions, acknowledge my seeking, and to open that door in Your good time...and I look forward to hearing Your still small voice saying,

"This is the way, walk in it,"...whenever I "turn to the right hand or whenever I turn to the left." (Isaiah 30:21)

Proverbs 16:3 reminds us to "Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established..."

and in verse 9 it says, "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

So the next time you find yourself running into those road blocks, stop and ask for directions...and God will direct your steps. You can't go wrong that way!!!

Have a blessed, productive day!

Pam Steiner has spent over 20 years in the ministry serving various churches with her husband.  She blogs at "Closed Doors, Open Windows" where each day brings a new challenge and a new need for discernment and prayer.

Romans Road Group Writing Project Download

The Romans Road special report is now ready for download!  We had 24 contributors for the group writing project and all of there submissions are included!  Feel free to give the special report away on your blog or Facebook page.  To make it easy for you I have created some copy and paste code for you to use:

<a href="http://faithfulbloggers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/romansroad-gwp.pdf" alt="Faithful Bloggers"> <img src="http://faithfulbloggers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/romansroad-cont.png" border="0"> </A>

Just copy the code in the box above and you can display the contributor image that links to the direct download of the special report.

I hope you will help promote the special report. It really is something amazing.

Thanks to all of your who contributed. You did an awesome job!

-----> DOWNLOAD HERE <-----

Romans Road: A Christian Group Writing Project

A huge thanks to everyone who participated in August's group writing project on Romans Road.  It's amazing and heart warming to think that all these Christian bloggers have come together to write about such an important topic - salvation.  Below are the links to all the bloggers who participated.  I hope you are blessed.

Romans Road

Romans 3: 23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Romans 3:10-18, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips: Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet [are] swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery [are] in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes”

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”

Romans 8:1, “[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“

Romans 3:23

Debbie @ Heart Choices - Christian Group Writing Project

Jessica @ By Grace Alone - The Romans Road

Amy @ My Life As Me - “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23

Romans 3:10-18

Haneefah @ Reflections of a Queen - There is None Righteous

Romans 6:23

Corrie @ Heavenly Crosses - Sin is Death.  Is There a Solution?

Nancy @ Nancy Lewis - Romans 6:23

Nickie @ Southern Expressions - CGWP: Romans Road

Romans 5:8

Janet @ Wildflower Thinking - Choosing Vulnerability

Joan @ Reflections - His Love

Karla @ Purify My Heart - A Lasting Impression

Romans 10:9

Nicole @ Breathe Again Magazine - Confess With your Mouth

Rachel @ Hopeful Morning - Romans 10:9

Romans 10:13

Vanessa @ A Sweet Fragrance - I am Included

Romans 5:1

ML Michaels @ Chronicles of a Writer - Romans Road

Romans 8:1

Sandra @ Be Encouraged - Stamped Approved!

Ann @ A Grandmother's Journey - The Joy of Being Free

Caryn @ Caryn's Thoughts - No Longer Condemned

Charmaine @ Straight Paths - The Road Back

Romans 8:38-39

Carole @ The Faith Lounge - Red Words Lead to Love

Judith @ A Homemaker Speaks - Group Writing Project: Romans 8:38-39

Ashely @ AP Free Writing 101 - God's Love is Greater

Christen @ The Uncontainable Truth - Romans Road

Kim @ The Phone Tree Bible Study Blog - No-thing Can Separate Us

Lois @ Building Blocks 4 Life - God is Always With You

The special report with all the entries will be coming soon.

Thanks again to all who participated.

Blogging A-Z: D for Design

When starting a new blog there is more to the design than just the header and other graphics.  It"s the layout, careful consideration of blog categories, etc.  After blogging for a few years and doing web design and development for over 8 years I learned what tends to work and what doesn't.  Here are my suggestions:

1. Lose the large header.  This is something I still need to implement here at Faithful Bloggers.  By having a large header on your site you are wasting valuable real estate.  People visit your site for your content not for your huge header.  By using a smaller header you will have more room for content, possible advertisements, opt-in lists, etc.
2. When determining the layout of your site, think about where you want your visitors eyes to go to first.  Plan your blog layout based on your visitors needs.  Make it easy to navigate around and easy to read.
3. Turn off the music that automatically plays.  Most people will immediately click away from your site if you have music that automatically starts when the page loads.  If you really want music available, make it an option for the visitor to turn on.
4. Don"t clutter your sidebars, unless that is what you want people looking at.  Your content is what you want people to read and see, I assume.  If you clutter up your sidebar with ads and buttons, you are taking your visitor"s attention and putting it elsewhere.

These are just a few little things that can make a huge different in your site.  Do you have any tips?

Energize Your Blog

Today's post is going to be a little different. Recently, the good folks at BlogEnergizer.com have offered to write any blog an exclusive interview so I said yes and here's the interview with team leader, Lynette Chandler. I hope you find lots of good information in it as I have and don't forget to vote for me because the interview with the most votes will win some cool prizes. Question 1: Is Blog Energizer easy enough to use for a brand new blogger?

Well, we don't actually provide any tools or software (yet). What basic members get is a list of resources every week. How you use the resources is up to you, however as I wrote to our members not too long ago, even if you don't find the resources relevant to your blog, train yourself to approach them from multiple angles and you'll often find so many things to blog about from one suggestion.

Question 2: How can Blog Energizer help a brand new blogger?

The Premium membership is going to be the most useful for new bloggers to build a pattern of regular blogging and help them learn to recognize posts that can and should be monetized as well as build writing skills. This is because Premium membership comes with 90 blogging prompts every single month and where applicable, we also provide suggestions what type of products and recommendations that the blogger can put into the posts to monetize their blog.

As for free members, we also put out blog topic suggestions. And like I've always encourage everyone even the free resources we share like coupons, deals, free downloads they can put up on their blogs, if cultivate a habit of looking at them from a different angle they can be great ways to start a conversation on your blog with your readers.

Also, when we find people seeking guest writers. I'm sure you may have been told guest blogging is one of the many ways to get your name out there. This can be quite valuable to a new blogger. We save you time by letting you know who would love to have you. And these are just a snapshot of how being plugged into our membership can be useful.

Question 3: How can Blog Energizer help a blogger who doesn't have trouble coming up with content?

Then the best way to utilize the membership is as a springboard for your shareables. What I mean is, create free ebooks, reports, themes, software, audio even videos that other bloggers can share or write to their readers about. Take time to come up with activities like this Interview Project we did and use our membership base to generate initial interest. Request blogs to be guest blogger once in a while. All these help you build your brand, spread the word about your name and ultimately, bring traffic.

Question 4: If you could only give one piece of advice about blogging, what would it be?

Use your own domain. Whether you plan to monetize it or not. Don't put your brand name in the hands of others and don't build traffic for other people's domain. When you use your own domain, you have better control in the future and be able to take that traffic with you no matter what blogging tool you use.

Question 5: What types of niches would benefit best from Blog Energizer?

Well, we try to cover a wide variety but sometimes things just happen to fall into its place. And we go where our members lead us. Most of our members tend to be women and or solo entrepreneurs. So the topics we often suggest is catered to them, entrepreneurs, home, family, education and health bloggers tend to benefit the most.

Before you go on your way, won't you show Courtney some love by voting for this interview at http://blogenergizer.com/teip-vote/ ? I am certain she appreciates every one she gets.

Have You Written An E-Book?

Writing a blog gives you an excellent segue into creating an e-book or special report to sell or giveaway.  For instance, if you participated in the last group writing project about Psalms 23, you saw that I combined all the submissions into a free special report. Special reports and e-books don't have to be hard to create.  Collaborating with another blogger makes any even easier. I've written a couple special reports. If you are interested you can see them at my main website.  But what I really want to know is if you have written any e-books or special reports.  If not, what is holding you back?

If you have written an e-book or special report, leave a link in the comments so that everyone can come check it out.  If you haven't, leave questions in the comments area and I'll get them answered.

If one of your problems is coming up with an idea take a look at my free report, 101 Christian Themed E-Book Ideas.  Hopefully it will help jump start you to get writing.

Blogging A-Z: C for Colloraboration

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Most people start a blog in order to be part of some sort of community.  The types of communities vary from person to person depending on the blogger's goals.  Many mom bloggers just want to connect with other moms so have some sort of adult connection.  Other mom bloggers want to review products and host giveaways.  Bloggers want to connect with other bloggers of a similar mind.  Collaborating with other bloggers help build that community. Just by participating in the group writing projects here at Faithful Bloggers is a form of collaborating with other  bloggers.  By joining the group writing project you help grow your blog, Faithful Bloggers, and the Christian blogging community.  It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Here are some ways you can collaborate with other bloggers in your online community:

• Guest Posts
• Cross promote blogs or products
• Host a radio show or podcast together
• Create a video together
• Write a special report together
• Start a group writing project
• Plan and host a Twitter party

Working with other bloggers will only help your blog.  Just make sure that you don't neglect your in blog while helping others.  Keep in mind, in order to get the most out of collaborating you need to collaborate with bloggers in your same niche and community.

Have you collaborated with other bloggers?  How so?  Did you see a benefit from it?

Blogging A-Z: B for Balance

When I first got serious about blogging something I always struggled with was balance between my blogging life and my real life - my faith, my family, my responsibilities as a wife, etc.  I'm sure many of you have struggled with this same thing a time or two.  Blogging can be additive and it's important to find that balance. Matthew 6:33 tell us, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." We must always put God first in our lives.

Do you forgo your morning Bible study in order to write a quick blog  post?  Or do you spend time you could be praying to tweet?  It's so easy to get caught up in all the blogging and social media things going on, but we have to always remember that we need to seek God's righteousness first.

Same thing applies to our families.  Their needs come before blogging and life on the Internet.  It's always seem to like be walking a tiprope, finding that perfect balance.  But really when you think about it - is blogging and social media really more important than God and your family?

Thankful God Answers Prayers

Last Friday I met up with a good friend that I hadn't seen or talked to in a long while.  It was great.  Good Tex-Mex and great conversation. One of the topics we got on was about prayer and how awesome it is that God actually takes the time to listen to all our prayers and answer them.  Even prayers about our blogs and online businesses.

I shared with my about a specific prayer request I had and was answered.  In less then two weeks I am traveling to the NAMS conference in Atlanta, GA.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Got the conference ticket.  Bought the plane ticket.  But still needed a place to stay.  The original plan was to share a room with 3 other ladies  but last month all 3 of them decided not to go to the conference for different personal reasons.  Luckily, I found another set of roommates.  Please keep in mind, I did not want to room with someone I didn't know so I was being kind of picky.  These new roommates, I didn't know in real life but did know pretty well online.  However once again these ladies decided to stay home instead of attending the conference as planned.

So now I'm thinking, Lord, am I suppose to even go?  I can't afford the hotel room by myself for 5 days.  So I try to cancel my plane ticket.  Unsuccessful.  Stuck going.  Then I start praying.  Lord what is your will?  Am I suppose to go the conference, if so, please provide the money to pay for the hotel room by myself, or if not, please allow me to be able to get a refund on my plane ticket.

Guess what?  God answered my prayer and quickly.  Within two weeks I made enough extra money through my design job to completely pay for the hotel room.  God is good and He answers prayers!

Don't let anyone ever tell you prayer doesn't work.  It does! I'm living proof.

Thankful Thursday is being hosted this month by Women Taking a Stand

Group Writing Project: Romans Road

Since the first group writing project was such a success, I thought we could do another one. How it works:

Each blogger that wishes to participate will choose a topic from the list provided and write  a post about that topic on their blog.  Once the post is up, the blogger will need to leave their link in the comments section so that everyone can read it.

Once everyone has submitted their posts, I will publish  a round up of all the posts with links back to the blogger’s blog. The entire writing project will then be complied into a special report for the bloggers who contribute to giveaway for free on their own sites.

This month's topic is Romans Road.  As Christians we know the importance of salvation.  Let share that with the blogging world.  Each blogger will select a verse from Romans Road and write a post explaining what that verse means to them.  It can be as long or as short as you want.  It can be a personal testimony, a devotional, or Bible study in nature.  It can be a photo that you believe describes the verse.  Anything goes.

Romans Road

Romans 3: 23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"

Romans 3:10-18, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips: Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet [are] swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery [are] in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes"

Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 10:9, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Romans 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:"

Romans 8:1, "[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

Romans 8:38-39, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

If you choose a verse, please leave a comment saying so.  I understand we may have more than 9 bloggers who are interested in participating and that is fine.  Duplicates are fine, but please make sure all verses are accounted for at least once before duplicating choices.

You will have until Friday, August 13, 2010 to choose and claim a verse and then until August 20, 2010 to write your post and leave a link here in the comments to the permalink of your post.

Oh yea, there is a prize for participating too.  Everyone that participates (those who actually write a post and submits the link) will be put into a drawing to win a free 30 minute blog/online business coaching session with me.

I can’t wait to read everyone’s thoughts!

Edited:  Since I was unable to announce the group writing project to the newsletter list, I am going to extend the deadline to chose a verse to Tuesday, August 17, 2010.  Thanks.

Blogging A-Z - A for Article Marketing

If you are looking to find new readers and increase traffic to your blog, you should try article marketing.  I know a lot of people claim article marketing is dead, but I have great results with it. What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing is when you write an article and then submit it to various article directories on the Internet.

Article directories are depository for publishers to find free articles for use on their websites, blogs, newsletter, e-zines, etc.  The catch is that they have to use the article as is and they must include the author bio and links.  Once you submit your article to directories, publishers find it and publish it on their sites while linking to you.  Not only do you get the link back to your blog, but hopefully traffic from it too.

I have been using article marketing as my primary method of marketing for Christian Mom PLR.  While my numbers don"t double or triple, I do see a study rise in traffic and sales.

Article marketing can also be used to brand yourself as an expert on a topic.  The more you write and publish on a certain topic, the more people will see you as an expert.

Here are a few article directories I'm familiar with:

• EZineArticles
• SelfGrowth
• ArticleCity

There are tons of them out there. A quick Google search for Article Directories and the first resource mentioned is a site that lists the top 50 article directory sites. (If you choose to use any of them, be sure to check them out first and make sure you follow their rules.)

Have you ever tired article marketing?  If not, what"s stopping you?

Not Going to BlogHer

I'm not going to BlogHer.  I didn't even want to.  Well that's not entirely true.  My best friend, Louise, is going and I would have loved to go just to spend time with her.  But the actual conference, I have no desire to attend.  But I know a lot people do.  No matter if they go for the actually conference to learn, to network, or just to met online friends in real life, going to conferences can be a lot of fun.  But so can staying home and joining blog carnivals like Blog Hop '10 being hosted by Robin at Pensieve. So about this blog...

My name is Courtney and I am the co-founder of Faithful Bloggers.  My partner in crime had to step aside due to a pregnancy and other family obligations.  Faithful Bloggers is a community aimed to encourage and educate Christian bloggers.

Faithful Bloggers is actually a network of 3 sites:

• Faithful Bloggers - where we write about blogging as a Christian
• Faithful Devotions - where we write Biblical based devotions
• Faith Approved - Reviews and giveaways from Christian moms

And we also have a blog directory to find other awesome Christian bloggers and hold a weekly prayer meeting on Thursday nights at 9pm CST.

If you've visited us from the Blog Hop - thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to leave a comment and your link so I can come visit you too.

Tips for Writing a Devotion

One of the many ways Christians use blogs is to write devotions to encourage others in their faith.  Devotions are most often lessons learned through an specific experience that has an impact on your faith in God.  Writing devotions is a ministry and comes from the heart and that should be seen in your writing. Here are some tips to writing a great devotion.

1. Use Bible Verses - Devotions are all about how our life experiences effects our relationship with God.  The Bible is our one resource to know how we should be living so whenever discussing life experiences, I think quoting Bible verses are very necessary.
2. Make it personal - Most people learn and are encouraged by people who have gone through a similar trial or situation. Sharing your personal experiences will not only help others but will also offer you an emotional release and give you an opportunity to praise the Lord for what your learned from that experience.
3. Pray - Before writing any devotional pray.  Ask the Lord for guidance and to give the word He wants you to use.
4. Keep it short -You want to write your devotional without being overly wordly.  You don't want to lose your message by going off topic.  So keep your devotional on topic and remember less words are often better.

Writing devotions is not for everyone.  I admire those who can write a devotion that changes people lives and encourages others to have a greater relationship with the Lord.

Do you write devotions?  If so, leave your link, so we can visit.  Do you have any any tips to add to my list?

Writing Opporunity

My friend, Heather, is looking for writers for her site Devotions for Moms.  There are two ways for you can write for the site: Paid Writer

As a paid writer you would be required to write up to 2 devotions per month and the writer will be paid $10 for each devotion.  This paid writer will not be able to promote anything and will not be placed on our website as a writer. Basically the paid writer will be a ghost writer and will hand over all rights to the articles submitted.

Guest Bloggers

They are also opening up to writer's who would like to write for for free and in return receive the opportunity to promote your blog, product, business, etc. This opportunity is available for anyone who is interested.

If you get approved as a writer for Devotions for Moms you will be listed on the writer's page, receive 1 link within your bio on the post, a link to your twitter account in our sidebar, and one promotional link within our sidebar as well. Guest posters are required to submit at least one post per month in order to remain an active writer of our website.

All writers must agree to signing our statement of faith and writer's contract before starting. If you are interested please fill out his form - thank you!

Please note that Devotions for Mom is not a part of Faithful Bloggers.  Heather is just a friend and I though there would be some great matches for writers here in the Faithful Bloggers community.

Creating Christian Content Online

As a Christian blogger or writer, you know what a useful witnessing tool blogging and online content can be.  Every word you write can potentially be the right word for someone to hear what he or she need to further their walk with God.  So it is important to make sure that your blog or any other content you create, is promoted well, to reach the people who need it most. Creating Christian based content is not always the easiest thing to do.  When writing a Christian article or blog post you want your message to glorify the Lord and not others.  You want to be able to encourage others in their faith.  At times trying to get that message across is just hard to do.   It is something I struggle with at times and I know I'm not the only one.

Next month I will be releasing a new special report - Your Guide to Creating Christian Content Online.  This report will cover how to brainstorm ideas, tips for actually creating content, and ideas for the different type of Christian content you can create.  It's my goal to release the report on August 1, 2010.  I would appreciate your prayers in meeting that goal.

Do you have trouble creating content for your blog?  If so, let us know in the comments.

courtneysig

Ambassadors for Christ

Part of being a part of a community is dealing and interacting with other people. The blogosphere is a community and being a blogger makes us a part of that community.  Some of the people we interact with as part of the blogging community are Christians, but a majority of them are not. As Christians we are an ambassador for Christ within those communities so the way we act and treat others is very important.

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ..." 2 Corinthians 5:20

How can we show brotherly love to online communities and be an ambassador for Christ?

1. Watch what we say - We need to think before we speak, or tweet or publish a blog post, or post something in a forum, etc.  Proverbs 13:3 tells us that "He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: [but] he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction." Often times speaking our minds without thinking about it first leads to destruction.  In the blogging world that could mean a lot of drama or fights across blogs or Twitter.  As ambassadors for Christ we to encourage others, not put down or intimidate others.
2. Be a blessing - Jesus was all about helping others and we should be the same way.  If you have the opportunity to help a fellow blogger, do it.  It can something as simple as leaving a comment on a blog post, retweeting something important, or it could be offering up a guest post or making a monetary donation.  There are many ways you can be a blessing to other bloggers and many times all it takes is a some kind words.
3. Pray - In my opinion the best thing you could ever do to support a person or community, is to pray.  If you know a blogger is having a hard time, say a quick prayer for them and let them know you are praying for them.  Just knowing someone cares can be an encouragement.

What are other ways we can be ambassadors for Christ in the blogging arena?  I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and opinons.

Psalms 23 Group Writing Project Download

As promised I have combined all of the entries in the first ever Faithful Blogger's Group Writing Project into a downloadable special report.  It has over 40 pages of devotions all focusing on Psalms 23. You can download it below by clicking on the download link.  Also feel free to give it away to your readers on your blog.  If you need help with this, just let me know by emailing me by using our contact form.

I want to take a moment and thank all of the bloggers that contributed to this wonderful and moving special report.  The emotion and words that went into each person's writings is amazing and obviously led by the Lord.

For those who contributed to the group writing project, I also created a badge for you to place on your site, if you wish, stating that you are a contributor.  You can find it under the badges page.

DOWNLOAD HERE (Right Click and Save As)

If you were not able to join us on this writing project, I hope you will join us next time.  I'm in the planning stages of the second group writing project to start in August.

Can I Get Your Help?

Remember this post I wrote about choosing a web host?  Well I entered that post into a contest currently being hosted at MomWebs.  8 bloggers have entered and now it's time for people to vote for who they think deserves to win.  I would really appreciate it if you could hop on over and vote for me.  All you have to do is leave a comment saying that you vote for Courtney Chowning.  By voting you are also entered to win a $100 gift certificate to Mom's Talk Biz. First place wins 6 months of free web hosting and second place wins 3 months of free web hosting.  Free web hosting, no matter the length of time, would be a great help to the Faithful Bloggers Network.

To vote, just click HERE.

Thanks!

Help Writing Blog Posts Consistently

For some writing comes very naturally.  For others it takes a lot of time and hard work to just write one blog post.  If you are one of those bloggers who struggles to write consistently, then blogging daily can be a daunting task.  Even the best writer can suffer from writer's block and have moments when they are unable to create new content.  Here are tips that can help you when overwhelmed with writing blog posts.

1. Pray & Ask For Guidance. Ask the Lord to give you the words you need to write your posts.  Pray before you start typing or even start thinking about a possible topic.  If the Lord has given you a topic to write on, it will usually be easier to actually write the post.  I know that is not the case in all instances but prayer and guidance from the Lord does help.
2. Write In Advance. One way to avoid the writing blues is to do all of your writing at one time.  If you publish 5 blog posts a week set aside one day each week to do nothing but write those 5 posts.  Once you have them written, you can then schedule them to be posted on a certain date.  This way you have fresh content being posted everyday on your blog but you are actually only writing once a week.
3. Write Less. If you are having trouble writing posts for everyday of the week consistently, consider just writing less. Instead of writing 5 blog posts a week, just write 3 and then have a guest blogger post on 2 days.  Guest posts are great in the fact that not only do they give you a break from writing, but they can also offer a fresh perspective on certain topics.    It can be good a thing to give your blog readers a little variety and different views.
4. Use PLR To Get Fresh Ideas. PLR stands for Private Label Rights and basically means that you have the right to use the articles as your own.  You can edit the article and then use it as a blog post.  The great thing about using PLR articles is that the data is already in front of you – all you have to do is rewrite the information that is already there.   This saves time because you do not have to brainstorm blog post ideas or do the research.  It is already done for you.
5. Article Directories. If all else fails you can find some free reprint articles in your niche.  Places like EZineArticles is one resource to find free articles that you can post on your blog as long as you leave the author bio intact.

Of course these are just a few ideas to help you keep your blog updated with fresh content on a consistent basis.  How do you keep your blog fresh with content?

Content For Your Blog

You hear it all the time "content is king" when it comes to blogging.  I disagree, the Lord is my King, even over my blog.  But the general idea is that content is important and with that I agree.  You create content and your readers come back looking for more content.  Most of us assume content has be to written and while that is usually the most common type of content you see online, there is more than the written word. Just ask Jendi of Simple Vlogging Tips.  Her blog is mostly video based but she does supplement with written blog posts as well.  Videos can help make your more approachable and gives your readers a glimpse of who you really are.  I haven't done much in regards to videos but do plan on changing that.  I even have a group project in mind involving video that would be similar to the group writing project we just completed.

Podcasts and audio downloads are also another option when creating content.  You can record a devotion or a blog post or article and allow your readers to download it.  You can even offer it through iTunes to reach a greater audience.  What I like about audios and podcasts is that I can download them to my phone and then listen when I'm in the car driving or when I'm running and exercising.

At lot of times photos can convey more than words.  Using a free tools such as SlideRoll or PhotoSnack you can easily create a slideshow to showcase your photos in a fun way.

The important thing is that you consistently provide your readers with information that they enjoy or can benefit from.

Do you incorporate video or audio on your blog?  How so and leave a link so we can come check it out.