Remember how I scheduled the whole Before and After bloggy carnival for July 25th?

Well, scratch that.

Because yesterday I realized that I’m not going to be in town on July 25th, which means that I won’t be around to check links and fix links and delete silly spammers’ links on the Mr. Linky. And while I could probably find a way to make it all work, I have a fun family thing happening that day, and I really don’t want to disrupt the festivities by saying, “Would y’all mind if I just hopped in this coffee shop for a quick sec so that I can CHECK MY BLOG?” I think it’s just better to change the date.

I do apologize.

I’m thinking that I’ll move the whole thing to Labor Day weekend (calendar permitting, of course), which is a total SCORE for me because I have completed approximately no items on my to-do list. A to-do list extension will be helpful.

And just FYI: I’ll get a new button with the new date posted early next week. Because obviously that old button with the old date is just RURNT, ALL RURNT, COMPLETELY RURNT.

The end.

The first session that Mel, Shannon and I led at SheSpeaks was called “Blogging: What Works and What Doesn’t.”

You may have noticed that we went a little broad with our topic.

But the whole idea was that we wanted to be able to give information that would be relevant to both beginner and veteran bloggers, so a sixty-minute session on the finer points of search engine optimization might not have been very relevant to everyone in our audience.

Not to mention that what I know about search engine optimization wouldn’t fill up a thimble. So leading a session on that particular topic would be approximately as successful as if I decided to teach an advanced algebra class.

Which is to say: not at all.

So my part of the What Works and What Doesn’t presentation was about Finding Your Voice, but before I jumped into the particulars of that topic, I asked three general questions that I think all bloggers need to consider – no matter how long you’ve been blogging.

1. Why do I want to do this? – If you start a blog because you’re hoping to get a book deal or because you want to make some money from ads, you’re probably going to be disappointed. So if blogging isn’t fun for you, if you don’t enjoy the process of writing and posting and commenting, then this probably isn’t your ideal writing outlet.

And another thing – which I didn’t mention at the conference but I wish I had – is that ultimately, blogging shouldn’t be some extended exercise in networking. It’s about community, at least in this little corner of the web (and it’s NOT a replacement for real-life community, by the way). If you’re not interested in community, then you’d do just as well to type out your thoughts in Word and call it a day.

I’m just sayin’.

2. What’s my blog’s purpose? – It’s good to know this and be consistent with it. Are you trying to interact with an audience you’ve gained through books or speaking? Do you want to document your family’s life? Entertain? Encourage? Inspire? Exhort? Advise?

Think about it this way: if you started visiting here and finding posts about the best brands of car parts, you would be puzzled. Ditto for if you clicked over and found me talking about a critical piece of legislation that’s up for a vote in Iowa.

It’s not that you can’t go off-topic every once in awhile, but I think there do need to be some common threads that run throughout your blog, and if the purpose of your blog is constantly shifting, then those threads get broken.

LOOK, MAMA! I MADE A METAPHOR!

3. What’s my blog’s personality? Every blog has a personality, and ideally that personality is a reflection of the person who writes it. Authenticity is the thing that results in bloggers meeting face-to-face and saying, “She’s the same in real life as she is on her blog.”

Plus, a blog is easier to read if it has a reliable tone. People like to know what to expect when they click over. And if you’re happy one day, frustrated the next, manic the next, etc., people will get tired of the bloggy whiplash and quit reading.

This, of course, is just my opinion. There may be a large contingent of blog readers who enjoy moody.

So with all that established, there are three things I think you can do to help establish your bloggy identity:

1. You need one online identity. Be consistent with it. – It’s easier for people to get to know you if you comment under the same name as your blog, and if your blog name matches your URL.

For example, I comment as BooMama, the name of my blog is BooMama, and you can find my blog at https://www.boomama.net.

See how it all matches?

It gets confusing for people – and makes it difficult for them to keep up with you online – if you comment as Nancy, write a blog called I Love Corn More Than You’ll Ever Know, and your blog is located at http://youwillnotbelievehowtirediambecauseofthesekids.bloghost.com.

There’s a lack of consistency in Nancy’s approach.

When it’s possible, keep your blog name and your URL short and sweet. If you like using your real name in comments, then try using something like Nancy @ I Love Corn to help people remember where it is that you blog.

2. The look of your blog should reflect its purpose and personality.

THINK ABOUT the colors and the graphics and the photography you use on the masthead of your blog. Think about how much of “you” is on the front page (if you’re a published author or a speaker, you might have one of those cute little pictures where you’re crossing your arms and tilting your head at the top of your blog so people will realize that Hey, she’s the woman who spoke at my church).

But if you’re like me and want something a little more title-focused, then really think about if your font and your colors reflect the personality of your blog.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t go spending any money to personalize your blog until you know you’re going to stick with it. That would be like buying a car when you’re not really sure if you’re going to take to the whole driving thing.

Also: a general rule, readers prefer light backgrounds with black type. They like frequent breaks in paragraphs. They like fonts that don’t require magnifying glasses. And they typically don’t like music that plays automatically, nor do they care for things that blink.

3. The writing on your blog should reflect its purpose and personality.

This is the biggie, my friends.

Here’s the way I look at it.

There is only one you. There is only one person in the whole wide world who has your background, your experiences, your perspective. You have the ability to articulate the events of your life like no one else can.

So. Given all that, WHY IN THE WORLD would you try to sound like someone else? Why in the world wouldn’t you use the UNIQUE voice that God’s given you?

And your voice doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be yours.

The best way in the world to develop that voice is to write regularly. Your voice will get stronger and better the more you use it, and you’re shortchanging yourself and your readers if you’re content to imitate someone else’s.

That being said, it’s only natural that certain phrases are going to get passed around the blogosphere. I believe that’s what we call slang. And I think using a little bloggy slang every now and again is perfectly fine and normal.

What I object to is the notion of sitting down to write and thinking, “I want to sound like Veronica in this post. Or “I want to sound like Shaun.” Or “I want to sound like [some-other-blogger-whose-style-you-enjoy.]”

Bottom line: there’s only one you, sister.

So get after it.

The last thing I did in my little presentation was to show some screenshots of a few blogs that do a great job of keeping their look and voice consistent with their personality and purpose (I found MANY blogs that do this well). You can find that list here.

And I’m sure I said lots of stuff besides this stuff because, well, I RAMBLE, but this is the gist of it.

So there you have it. I believe I’ve fulfilled my advice-giving quota for the next, you know, forever.

Thank you and have a lovely afternoon.

Edited with new date and graphic.

Our first house was an old house. A really old house. A house so old that, when we first walked through it, we were able to look at the kitchen floor that had a slope of approximately thirty degrees and say, “Oh! Isn’t that charming?!”

And we meant it.

Clearly we weren’t thinking about that fact that if you dropped an apple in that kitchen, you were gonna be walking about six feet to pick it up.

We were undeterred by the kitchen’s hilly terrain.

And because the house wasn’t in pristine condition, I never worried too much about messing it up. The smallest cosmetic changes did a world of good, and I loved the whole process of transforming that house into our first real home.

And yes, that even includes the time that I ripped the carpet out of one of the bedrooms and gagged for about six hours as a result of all the exceedingly displeasing smells that seared themselves onto my temporal lobe, thus ensuring that I can never forget the foulness, EVER, and sometimes still catch a whiff of that carpet at the oddest moments, like when I’m walking through a parking lot or putting a puzzle together or unloading the dishwasher.

It was, in a word, horrific.

Thankfully our next house was in much better shape and didn’t require nearly as much work. The same goes for our current one. But this house was built in the early 70s, and there are parts of it that, while in fine condition, are a little dated. And after a year and a half here, it’s time for me to start tackling some of those things. Our master bedroom and bathroom are at the top of my list.

But here’s the thing.

If left to my own procrastination-oriented devices, I’ll make lots of plans for the master bedroom and bath, and I’ll make lots of lists related to the master bedroom and bath, but I won’t actually do a dadgum thing because I’ll get overwhelmed that I won’t be able to get everything like I want it.

Have I ever told y’all about my passive-aggressive perfectionism? It is loads of fun.

Anyway, I figured that since interweb accountability helped when I did this and this, it might also help when I’m working on our bedroom and bath.

And thus, a Before and After bloggy extravaganza was born.

Brings a tear to the eye, doesn’t it?

So here’s what to do if you’d like to join the fun.

Grab the button by using this code:

<a href="https://www.boomama.net/2008/06/17/itll-be-just-like-hgtv/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h134/boomama205/BeforeAfter3.jpg" border="0" alt="BooMamaBeforeAfter"></a>

Then write a post that tells us what your goals are. Maybe you want to paint your kitchen cabinets, or maybe you want to rearrange your den, or maybe you want to weed the area around your mailbox and then plant some flowers there. Whatever suits your fancy.

And your post doesn’t have to be long. A list-o-goals would be perfectly fine. Here are my goals, by the way:

1) paint our bedroom
2) paint our bathroom
3) paint the storage cabinet in our bathroom
4) tile our bathroom floor because there is CARPET in there right now but I can’t talk about the carpet anymore or I’ll start to itch

And if you only have one goal, that is perfectly fine. Not to mention reasonable. I just have a lot of goals because I’m ready to get this stuff done, and I figure that if I work on these projects a couple of days a week for the next four or five weeks, I should be able to get ‘er done.

On September 26th I’ll put up a Mr. Linky here, and you can add your post so that we can all see your fab Before and After pictures. You can tell us all about your project(s) – what worked, what didn’t, and maybe even share some helpful hints for people who might want to do something similar.

And then we will all gather ’round for a group hug.

Oh, I’m totally kidding.

Kinda.

Have fun, y’all!

…I’m talking about food over on the AllAccess blog. I’m also sharing a couple of my mama’s recipes.

Big fun in store, my friends.

Big fun indeed.

I was all prepared to be done with the giveaways. Really. I was.

I decided to take a break from them for awhile because, well, they’re time-consuming, and I figured that unless I ran across some Deeply Memorable Music, there was nothing I could give away that wouldn’t keep until fall.

But then I found out about Ethel gloves.

And I just had to – HAD TO – share them.

Say it with me, internets: SASSSSSS-SY.

And who says you can’t be sassy when you’re working in your yard?

They’re also super-durable. According to some information that the Ethel people sent me, the gloves are made to fit the contours of women’s hands, they’re made from four-way stretch Spandex and breathable, synthetic leather materials for flexibility and lightweight comfort, they’re designed to protect with an elasticized extended cuff and reinforced fingertips, and they’re machine washable.

Plus, lest you forget: SASSSSSS-SY.

Seriously. These gloves are so cute that I’m wondering if I can’t wear them all the time.

Like, you know, to the Walmarts or the Publix.

I’ll be just like Doris Day in “Pillow Talk.” Only instead of pairing my gloves with a belted dress, a saucy hat, and a mink stole, I’ll be wearing them with some cropped yoga pants, a t-shirt and flip-flops.

It’s a look that could TOTALLY catch on, don’t you think?

Why, I believe I’ve solidified a new fashion goal.

Anyway, the people at Ethel gloves have very graciously offered to give away five pairs of their gloves to five lucky winners, and here’s what you have to do to be eligible to win.

1. Click here to visit the Ethel gloves site.

2. Check out their five different styles. You’ll find the styles listed across the bottom of the main page – just click on the style’s name (“gala,” “expression,” etc.) to see a picture.

3. Come back here and tell me which style you like best.

4. The end.

And if you see all the sassy on the Ethel site and think YOU HAVE TO HAVE THEM RIGHT THIS SECOND, you can enter in the discount code “Boomama” and get 10% off your order for the next thirty days.

Also, I could write an entirely separate post about how much I adore the name “Ethel,” but instead of doing that I think I’ll just call dibs and say that NO ONE ELSE ON THE INTERNET CAN NAME A DAUGHTER “ETHEL” EXCEPT ME.

I FEEL THAT’S TOTALLY FAIR.

See? I am very reasonable.

And good luck with the giveaway, y’all!

*until I change my mind and do another giveaway, thank you.

This giveaway is now closed.

This post of Angie’s is one of the best things I’ve ever read – and hit me right where I’m livin’ on this fine Saturday afternoon.

Well, it actually hit me where I’ve been livin’ for the last four or five days – but that’s really neither here nor there. I just felt the need to clarify.

You know me. I tend to ramble.

Anyway.

Thanks, Kelly, for the link. It’s a good ‘un for sure.