Fibro Friday blog link-up week 390

WELCOME to this week's Fibromyalgia link -up where we share information about this chronic pain syndrome which has a multitude of symptoms. The butterfly is often used as a symbol of fibromyalgia as it shows both fragility and strength and represents the people living with it. 

We have many of these strong fibro warriors writing their stories and sharing them here each week. This week we highlight Katie Clark whose goal is to help others while helping herself. She has posts on the emotional health aspects of chronic illness including her interesting experiences with Unlearning My Chronic Pain, You’ve Gotta Be Kidding! Looking Back at Childhood Fibromyalgia Symptoms and EMDR Therapy: Rewiring the Fibro Brain.

It would be wonderful if you could share a link to your fibromyalgia story here this week. If that is not possible we would love you to visit some of the links here and have fun finding some new fibro friends. 

Blogging when you have chronic illness conditions

Claire shares 6 tips she has learned from blogging, over the last few years, when living with multiple chronic conditions.

As many of us with health issues will know, working a traditional job can be a challenge with long hours, commuting and the difficult aspects of a work environment. Now I didn’t ever imagine I would be blogging with chronic illness (and about chronic illness!) back in the day when I was still at my previous job, but I almost can’t imagine not doing it now.

Blogging has flexibility as one of its main benefits. It can be done from your sofa or your bed, at whatever time of the day works for you and in your pyjamas if you wish! All of which can make it a great choice for those with chronic illness for whom a 9-5 job would be impossible, or really problematic. Aside from the financial aspect, it also helps us become part of the chronic illness community and personally I find it motivating to have my own little project. I hope this post on blogging with chronic illness is interesting, and has a few helpful tips too!

Some things I have learned recently about blogging when you have chronic illness conditions:

1. Have a rough schedule, but a flexible one – I try and do one chronic illness post a week and one new recipe. This is the ideal, but if it doesn’t happen due to symptoms, then I give myself grace over it. Staying up until midnight to finish a post is rarely a good idea and may have you feeling even worse the next day.

One way to help prevent fatigue and still be consistent with social media is to schedule your posts. There are lots of ways to do this such as the scheduler within Pinterest, or Tailwind. 

2. Pace yourself – I work blogging around other necessary tasks. Doctor’s appointments, medical admin, life admin, and catching up with friends and family come first, blogging comes second. Make sure you take breaks, take your meds at the right times(!), and have time away from your computer screen.

3. Find your niche and one that you are passionate about – if you don’t love what you are writing about then you simply won’t write! Or at least find it tedious to do so.

4. Make some chronic illness blogger friends! I am very fortunate to have quite a few such friends now and it is so lovely to be able to bounce around ideas, ask for advice or simply gossip about anything but blogging! To my two favourite blogging friends (both beginning with S!) – I love our group chats, and you both make me smile so much 🙂

5. Consider monetising your blog – if blogging is a passion of yours and you have a degree of readership, then it can also help your finances. And we all know that the chronic illness life is an expensive one! Working with an ad company is one way to earn money, you can use affiliate links or work with brands on paid posts. I can’t promise you it will earn you millions, but it should at least cover the costs of hosting, domain, photo editing etc.etc.

6. Promote your posts! While you may get lucky and get good SEO without ever promoting your post, it is fairly unlikely. Sharing your posts will get it out there, and social media is key in my opinion. Pinterest is my best referral platform by a long shot, but I also share on Twitter and Facebook and I have a weekly round-up of new posts and a few older ones on my Instagram stories each Sunday.

READ THE FULL POST AT Claire's Blog 'Through the Fibro Fog'. It's titled 

Blogging with chronic illness

Claire has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, dysautonomia, hEDS, MCAS, and interstitial cystitis. Her blog 'Through the Fibro Fog' offers tips and tricks for living with chronic illness, as well as simple but delicious low histamine recipes. Please visit her blog

Fibro Friday blog link up week 389

WELCOME and ¡BIENVENIDOS! to this week's Fibromyalgia link-up. It's great that you could join us in helping to share fibromyalgia awareness and to spread it far and wide. 

We have many great bloggers here who join in each week and we hope you will be one of them too if you are not already. A regular blogger joining in each week is Irmizza Fibromialgia who blogs about Fibromyalgia in Spanish and has a blog that translates into English - Fibromialgia, Dolor Invisible or Fibromyalgia, Invisible Pain.

Con Fibromialgia...Trataremos de Vivir un Poco Mejor! Dolor Crónico: Fibromialgia, Dolor Invisible... Para Quienes Padecen Dolores Durante Años. Poder Conocer de Manera Simple, Síntomas y Tratamientos which roughly translates to With Fibromyalgia ... We Will Try To Live A Little Better! Chronic Pain: Fibromyalgia, Invisible Pain ... For Those Who Suffer Pain For Years. Learning a simple way, symptoms, and treatments. Some of the treatments she blogs about include The seven most effective treatments and Pain and fatigue in Fibromyalgia, find relief with neurodynamic mobilization.

We hope that you can join in and share a link to a blog post that you have written about fibromyalgia. It would also be wonderful if you could share the link up to others or visit some of the links that interest you. 

Blog post starters to improve your posts

Here I am explaining all about post starters and how they can benefit your blog. They have helped me get more clarity for my readers and maybe they can help you too. This is part of our Blogging Help series. 

WHAT ARE BLOG POST STARTERS?

Blog post starters - you may have learned about them at school when they were called topic starters or story starters or introductory sentences. They are the sentences that lead your readers into your post. They introduce what the entire text is about so that readers know what to expect. They explain the purpose of your post. 

EXAMPLES OF BLOG POST STARTERS

This post discusses . . .

I'm exploring the interesting idea of . . .

This is an easy-to-read guide, that will help you find...

I'm super excited to talk about...

It's time to review some of the most annoying...

Below, you will find . . .

In the first post of the series we explored...., and this post is all about...

In this post, you will learn...

I’m going to give you a step-by-step in how to...

This,..., has happened to me many times so I am going to help you...

WHY WE SHOULD USE BLOG POST STARTERS

• They help your readers understand what the post is about.
• They are useful when sharing your post on social media. 

You may already be using these but maybe you are not. I see many bloggers that do not use these and just launch straight into their topic. Often they waffle on a bit, I cannot understand what the post is about and I lose interest. 

Sometimes, as bloggers close to our own topic, we can presume that our title says it all but that may not be true. Other times readers are drawn into reading a post by a cryptic title and the use of the blog post starter really helps them understand what they will be reading about.  

If you are not using post starters, please consider doing so, as it makes it much easier for the reader to decide if they want to keep reading. Anything that helps your readers is good... right? It also helps build trust and authority in your blog in general. It gives confidence to your reader that you have a topic and you are going to stick to it.

If you share a lot on social media, including other people's posts, you will understand that blog post starters help others to reshare your posts in a way that makes your topic clear. 

Consider which of these is better to share and makes more sense to potential readers:

1. It Was Just Crazy.

Remy needed the vet and then the car broke down. We went to so many places I can't even remember. 

OR

2. It Was Just Crazy.

Today I am going to explain about the unbelievable events that occurred on the craziest afternoon of my life.

Maybe you will agree with me that 2 is much better as it explains what the blogger will be blogging about? 

HOW I CREATE BLOG POST STARTERS

I often create my post starter after I have finished a post. This way I can summarise what I have written about. For me, it is easier to just start writing and to commit some thoughts to paper before considering the introduction. This allows the creative part of my brain to have free reign before I use the evaluating part. 

I hope I have convinced you to start using this idea in some of your posts, if not all of them. Also adding post starters to your old blogs is a great way to revamp them and reshare them. I would love to hear from you in the comments... do you use this device when blogging and what do you call it? Maybe you could share a link to a post of yours where you use an introductory sentence?

In addition to using strong blog post starters or sentence starters, you want your entire post to read smoothly and coherently. Grammarly can help. Their writing suggestions flag confusing sentences and provide feedback on how to make your writing clearer, helping you put your best ideas forward.

YES I AM A GRAMMARLY AFFILIATE and they do have lots of FREE services including their Basic writing suggestions that check your Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, and Conciseness. 

YOUR EXERIENCE WITH OPENING SENTENCES ON YOUR BLOG.

Maybe you already use what I call 'blog post starters' on your blog. Maybe you did this from your school days or maybe you learnt this as you were progressing on your blogging journey. Or are you someone who just launches into a post? I would love to here from you about your experiences and how you start your posts... do you have a formula? Please let me know in the comments below.