Happy Monday! I would be more excited about autumn, but apparently the DC Metro area will be reaching 80 degrees tomorrow. No wonder everyone in my house is sniffling, sneezing and coughing.

So the DC Ladies wanna know … what’s my best tip to help me with organizing my blog. This one is pretty easy because I LOVE anything to do with organizing and productivity. I am sure some of the bigger blogs have editorial calendars and such, but not this gal. I try to keep up with once a week and when the mood strikes. So my favorite way to organize things is with Gmail.

I always have some type of technology within reach so I jot my blog ideas, sentence fragments and ‘things to remember’ in a draft email. So when I am feeling the urge to write, I just pull from my draft email folder and put my notes into prose.

I’ve been blogging for a couple years now, which might just be a record for me! I am sure my parent’s attic is filled with half full diaries because I would be gung-ho and lose interest. That’s exactly why I started with a free WordPress blog, then after proving I was going to keep up with it buying a domain and moving to self hosted.

As I’ve mentioned a billion times before, I write for me. This takes off so much pressure to be grammatically correct, guarded and, well, perfect. But I do try hard so I utilize a few tools to build my blog and have fun.

{Wordpress} I started using WordPress because it was free and I knew a lot of people who could troubleshoot with me if I had questions. Luckily WP has a TON of resources from user forums, videos and guides for all levels of techies.

{Feedly} I get a lot of great ideas for blog topics from other bloggers. I organize them all in Feedly so I can flip through during lunch or before bed. It’s simple to organize and add or remove blogs.

{PicMonkey} This might be my ultimate favorite because I am such a visual person. I use the paid version of PicMonkey, but the free version has a TON of great tools for editing pictures, creating a collage or even designing just about anything! I used it for Mike’s first birthday invites and every collage for my blog.

{Networking} I live in the land of ‘who do you know’. Sometimes it’s helpful, but other times it’s exhausting, however it does pay off! My giveaways have been from successful networking and the outpouring for the diaper drive came from networking as well. Bloggers helping bloggers, companies trying to spread the word, friends who know someone who can troubleshoot. Don’t hide behind your screen bloggers!

If you are just tuning in, I am taking part in the DC Ladies Blogtober so I can talk about some more creative things. What is it about fall that makes me creative, but lazy? Your guess is as good as mine. Moving on …

{WRITE FOR YOU} When I started Muddling Momma, I blogged just for me. It was cathartic and gave me an outlet as I started the process of getting pregnant. I didn’t write for anyone else, so there was no pressure to meet word counts, worry about the ‘right’ thing to say or censor my words. If other people read my blog, then that’s great, but I am not choosing topics based on what I think other people want to read all the time. I don’t think strangers care for a second about my monthly posts about Mike. Those are for me and my family – and that’s okay.

{GET HELP – FOR WHATEVER} I can write and I know just enough about technology to muddle through things, but when I was ready to take my blog to the next level with a dedicated domain, I reached out to my friend Ashley from Radiant IT Consulting. She handled a lot of the background stuff I didn’t have time for. Ya know, some things are worth paying for.

{KEEP EXPECTATIONS IN CHECK} I see article all the time about how to make money blogging. Sure, big time bloggers might be making cash, but figuring that out, finding sponsorship opportunities and navigating affiliate links take time and time is money. If you are starting a blog to make money, you will probably fail (how’s that for girl power). If readers see you are pimping all sorts of random sponsored posts, you will lose credibility. If your blog is based around cooking, there is no reason you should be reviewing tires.

{READ OTHER BLOGS} My Feedly is well stocked with all kinds of blogs because I love reading blogs and I get some awesome ideas. Like Blogtober! I read DC Ladies and saw this concept, so I jumped in. I also get ideas for topics to cover and opportunities.

{JUST WRITE} Even when nothing is going on just write. You are writing for yourself right? So why does it matter if you are just doing a weekend recap.

Share your blog in the comments so I can follow you!