About this blog...

Brummet's Conscious Blog began back in the day of MySpace - remember when that was the place to be? lol How things change. We moved over to Blogspot.com in 2008, and have been there ever since. Like most authors, the first traditional publisher that we worked with explained how important it was to create a blog - so we began this incredible 17-year journey based on that advice.

When Dave and I made the decision to live and work as consciously as possible - this included using the blog as a tool to inspire proactive, positive change in the world. When you browse the blog it is easy to see that this focus, this theme is reflected in the colours we chose, the content we publish, the imagery we use, the types of extra pages we create and what we include in the sidebars.

You'll find articles on green living, reducing waste, saving money, writing industry, business and leadership advice, self-help articles, poetry, gardening tips and much more. You'll also find several genre-specific series, such as the Recommended Resources posts, which celebrated non-profit organizations, highlighting their work and including their URL in hopes that readers will check them out. It is also a useful post for other organizations, in that they may find like-minded groups out there that they can collaborate with. There's also the Just For Writer's post offering valuable, free resources for fellow writers to benefit from, which is published monthly.

There are many aspects to managing a blog, and for us - running such a diverse business - it helps us share more information than we can reasonably include in our main website. The ability to create numerous blog pages helps a great deal. We have one that allows us to connect with local residents while helping volunteers and organizations meet and collaborate. Another page lists our most recent online media appearances, so people can click on the links to find our articles, interviews, etc. The About This Blog page shares guidelines for submissions and brief insight our lifestyle and business. The final two pages share media endorsements and reader reviews of our books.

The sidebars offer important and valuable space as well. We use this space to share numerous links to our books, amazon page, social networking sites, websites and lots more.

The imagery we choose to use tends to be beautiful nature shots, bountiful garden images, scenic photos taken during drives, views taken while lazing on the deck or pictures of current projects we have been working on. We created the background, images and banner header, chose the colour themes and ads as with our focus in mind.

As you can imagine, the blog has evolved since 2004 into the organized information-hub and powerful networking tool that it has become. Initially, learning and managing the various aspects of a blog took a lot of time and an investment in learning new skills. In the beginning I was probably doing at least 10 hours a week working on the behind the scenes activities from dealing with queries to writing, scheduling and uploading daily posts, searching for content or writing it. These days I spend a lot less time blogging – by choice. I spend a 3-days per month just scheduling posts; I tend to schedule content for publication several months in advance, leaving just a few dates open throughout each month for last-minute inclusions. A few hours per week are needed to manage queries, submissions and communications. I will drop in once every few days to manage comments, check out the stats and share posts on social networking sites.

"Blogging should be looked at as a long-term commitment 

and so you need to pace yourself. 

Decide what is truly do-able and stick to it.

 

Determine how you might use the blog 

and what you will or can possibly offer." 

~ Dave Brummet

With the popularity of the blog and its long publication history our business gains the beneficial image of being established, accomplished people. This impression gives people confidence in our knowledge and abilities, and are therefore more likely to purchase one of our books or utilize one of our services. When I query a member of the media - they are able to view previous media appearances, reviews of our books, learn a little about us and read samples of our published work... all in one place. I am also able to offer additional promotions of media appearances via the special page of media links and by using our strong social networking platforms. People are much more willing to work with us when they know we have an audience and that we will work to promote the event.

Brummet's Conscious Blog makes it easy to approach other bloggers, businesses, organizations and authors for networking and cross promotion projects. The valuable blog content that we publish is easy to share on genre-specific social networking groups, because it is helpful and is not coming from the mind-set of selling to the audience.

Numerous PR agents and blog tour organizers connect with us regularly regarding possible features on our blog, and this opens up to creating relationships with those PR specialists and increasing exposure for our Purple Snowflake Marketing book with people who work in the world of writing.

Blogging offers us a chance to share our passions, favorite poetry and inspiring quotes. We get to highlight people who are making a difference in the world. It offers a way for us to connect with new visitors and potential book readers who found the site through topic searches online.

We try to be tasteful about the frequency and types of self-promotional posts that we utilize, sharing these only once in a while. However, we do include a couple links at the end of every post.

Promotions for the blog include sharing the link in numerous locations on our main website, where we also have a special page dedicated to this and other social media. The blog's URL is included on social networking profile pages, is often mentioned in direct communications, in social networking posts and genre-specific online group communications. The URL is often shared during our various media appearances, as well as in our article bylines and email signatures. We also take extra time to occasionally share special blog posts on social networking sites (or groups). We actually run 2 blogs and each has a link referring to the other. Additionally, our guests and their agents are encouraged to promote the heck out of their appearance on our blog.

Over time, our passion for blogging grew exponentially; it is not just about selling books, networking with others or promoting our business. When the stats show that people around the world are enjoying our blog, it really feeds my soul – it is like a jolt of coffee for me. We love hearing from readers too, who share how a quote made their day brighter, or how they were inspired by something they learned on our blog. 

I get all jazzed up and inspired by the fact that the simple act of sharing information has a very good chance of influencing positive change in the world... That is an incredible feeling!

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Visit the Brummet's Main Website

Find them elsewhere online HERE 

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