Sheila Sayah, today’s extra fabulous guest blogger is a mother of 3 from Springfield, NJ who blogs about playgrounds!  www.njplaygrounds.com Here’s her story. 

I'm not into playgrounds... yet I have a blog dedicated entirely to NJ playgrounds with pictures, descriptions and some great information. I have over 700 playground images and have posted about 65 play areas. 

BUT WHY?

Well.  The fact is I am cheap, but I enjoy taking my boys to new places and exploring. Plus I love to share great finds, and talk to people.  So there you go.. or I go. Whatever it is?  I also am a horrible writer, that's why I became an engineer in my pre-baby days or daze? hmmm...maybe both.  See, run-on sentence, already and I just started :( 

There's so many reasons to start a blog. 

•Sharing information about your life

•Sharing information about your family

•Sharing information about a specific interest

•Sharing advice and support

Does blogging make money?

Yes, tons!!! Well, it can, here's an article about it.  I haven't found out how to be one of those special bloggers, Saucy Apron?  I sense we need your help.  Honestly I haven't made any income yet, but I keep broadening my circle and I think I may make some money soon with such great advice from others in the blogger community.  I had no clue that I would start having relationships with this entire different world.

So how do you find your inner blog?

First of all, big disclaimer here, I'm not an expert by any means, but here's a few questions you may want to think about when finding your inner blog.

1) What are you passionate about?  Is it traveling, cooking, sex, antiques, pink bathrooms?

2) How can you inspire someone else?  What is the contribution you want to make to make a difference? There are so many cool things you can do to inspire someone.  Creating a community for similar interests, Bringing attention to a cause, Being a facilitator for connection, Sharing old photographs and history. 

3) Who is your audience? Is it a small circle, family?  friends? special group? 

4) You can do your own website, but for beginners you may want to check out wordpress and blogger when you want to start-  I use wordpress, but blogger is good too.  Do you want your own domain name?  Then you have to purchase it if it is available and then find someone to host it.  I use dreamhost, but there are tons, godaddy, network solutions, etc.

5) Tell your family and friends about it

6) Talk to other bloggers and network- Twitter is great for this and message-boards about your specific interest is another avenue. 

If you want your blog to stand out, it helps to find a void and fill it. For  my case it was that there was no great web listing of playgrounds really on the internet for NJ since they are free, so that makes my blog unique.  What's interesting is when you start branching out you find more people with similar ideas.  Now I have found other playground enthusiasts in the US that each have their own unique site.  I think it is awesome and already may be forming a partnership with another NJ Playground lady to join forces, only that lady makes money. 

Done writing, Saucy, what do you have there in the back?  I'm starving!