Fibro Friday is about Fibromyalgia awareness

Awareness, of anything, is about informing and educating and by sharing our stories about Fibromyalgia we are trying to do just that. Awareness is also about wanting those who suffer from this condition NOT to feel alone.  Understanding is key to coping with this complex condition. People with Fibro are affected in many different ways: in physical activities, employment, education, social interactions, relationships and emotional well being.

Spreading awareness of a disease may also in the long run help to create more treatment options and research and eventually a cure. We all live in hope.

You can help others grasp understanding of  Fibro by letting them know about this link up, visiting and sharing some of the blogs that are linked up here and by sharing an article here if you are a blogger. Thank you.

Pamela Jessen from There Is Always Hope

This is Pamela Jessen from There Is Always Hope

Pamela has been sharing her story since early 2016 at her blog There Is Always Hope - This is my life with Fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue and invisible illness. Besides Fibromyalgia, Pamela talks about her Osteoarthritis, Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (Dish), Hip Replacement, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Myofascial Pain, Diabetes Type 2 (on Insulin), Gastroparesis, Hypothyroidism and Bipolar Disorder. 

Pamela is a wonderful advocate for showing that everyone can share their voice and raise the profile of these diseases.  She is a volunteer with Patient Voices Network - an organization in British Columbia that allows everyday people to have a voice in how healthcare is delivered in that area. She says:

I want people to know they can have a say in BC's Health Care and that voice can be in any number of different ways. It's important for our voices to be heard and I love to talk about how that works! 

Some of her posts include:

• One Is The Loneliest Number 
• Creature Comforts
• An Attitude of Gratitude
• Let's make One Thing Clear

You can connect with Pamela at her blog, and on her facebook page. She would love you to visit and leave a comment.

What is a pillar post?

If you are a blogger you definitely need to not only know what a pillar post is you need to write at least one and probably 5 to get more traffic to your blog.

A pillar post is the type of information that your readers would search for in google.

A pillar post is a post that holds up or supports your blog.

It is a post that you are really proud of and that you are extremely happy to share.

It is usually a longer, rather than a shorter post.

It should be an in depth post covering one specific core topic. (Think about having 3 core topics)

It should use a specific keyword or related group of keywords.

It should be thorough.

It should ideally be about the core principles of your blog.

It could answer questions that your readers want answered.

It should be relevant and useful to your readers.

It could explain a theory or concept.

It could be problem solving.

It should be an evergreen post, meaning that it stays relevant overtime.

It must be your own unique work and hopefully have some unique ideas.

It would be amazing if it was groundbreaking or not found on many other blogs.

WHY IS A PILLAR POST IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BLOG?
Pillar posts, or cornerstone posts, as they are often called, will help your blog be found in search.
They help people understand what your blog is all about.
Help you become an authority in your niche.
Also they are great to share so other people know what your blog is all about.

GOOD NEWS
You may already have some posts on your blog that, with a little bit of work, can easily become great pillar posts. If you can answer the question better than anyone else your post will become worthy of linking to.

HEADLINES AND KEYWORDS
Choose your relevant Keywords and place them in the title and in the first paragraph.
Here is a FREE keyword shortcut from Neil Patel called UberSuggest.  Just type in one keyword and UberSuggest will generate more words for you to consider. You don't even have to add your email.

WHO CALLED IT A PILLAR POST?
In 2006 that great Australian/Canadian blogger Yaro Starak used the term in an article on Problogger 

Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

It's time for Fibro Friday

As people living in chronic pain we often try anything that we find hoping that it will help reduce our pain and many other symptoms. The thing is that just as each person may experience different symptoms they also may find different things that help them, There is no one size fits all with Fibromyalgia and no one thing that everybody finds helps them.

Last week I enjoyed reading many different ideas for reducing symptoms: Sue talked about Chronic Magnesium Deficiency and whether it was aggravating our Fibro; Melissa gave me her 22 suggestions for increasing energy (and who doesn't want more of that); Cynthia discussed why she does yoga to help pain and Julie explained myofascial release therapy. 

There were so many great articles if you missed them you can find them all here. I wonder what we will find at this week's Fibro linkup below?