A Tale of 2 WAHMs

Yes I know we are way past the 2nd lesson in Be a Better Blogger, but I did want to point out how I’m now using images in blog posts.

While I’m having a hard time using images in EVERY post, I have found a way to work them into some. I think the ones I have the most problems with are the recipes and crafts on Idea Queen’s blog, because I don’t feel right using “fake” pictures (if you know what I mean). Something about using a picture of something I didn’t make just doesn’t sit right with me. Although I have found a few general pictures that I’m alright with.

No matter though, because the main point here is that I AM using them. More specifically I’ve been using them quite a bit at my candle blog.

Several weeks ago I decided to start a new section called “candle of the day” so I had more to post about on that lonely blog. I mean how easy is it to post what candle or melt I’m burning every few days? VERY easy!

Because there’s so many scents to post about, it’s pretty easy finding a picture to go along with it. For example, I used a picture of a pineapple when posting about “Caribbean Morning” which has a very strong pineapple scent to it (along with coconut and vanilla).

Now even still I can’t post a picture for every scent, but pretty darn close. So far it’s giving the blog a lot more character and making the scents stand out more. (And just in case you are wondering, I’m getting all my wonderful images from here).

How are you adding in more pictures to your posts?

Your PMS Disaster Level: High

You are definitely a PMS disaster! At least you’re only scary a few days of the month.

Are You a PMS Disaster?

My Comments: Is there really anything I can say here?

Aren’t I allowed to ask for help? Or am I to pretend I’m perfect?

Long story short, recently I asked for something that could be considered a sales page review.

I did this because - well, not to toot my own horn here but, I have what I truly feel is an excellent information product for wahms with websites and online businesses. Especially for the newbies - but not exclusively to.

Not only do I feel it’s a good product, I also feel it’s very fairly priced. At only $9.99 - what wahm can’t afford this?

I’ve had nothing but rave reviews from anyone who’s read the ebook and taken the ecourse that follows up.

So, why am I not selling? It’s not that I’m not selling - because I am. It’s the fact that I thought I was going to be selling this product left and right. I truly felt as though I hit the nail on the head. But, it’s just not happening as well as I thought it would.

I feared it was because of my sales copy skills - or should I say lack thereof. I’ll admit it … I stink when it comes to creating a sales page.

So that said … I asked for a review. There was one comment made to me that kind of disturbed me. And no, it wasn’t necessarily constructive criticism. I didn’t just want to hear the good. I wanted to hear the bad and the ugly too.

I wouldn’t tell anyone else you are having trouble selling this ebook since the ebook makes you sound like if people follow your advice they could sell more.I wouldn’t have bought a single ebook from someone that I thought wasn’t succeeding online.

Hmm … so, just since I wrote an ebook … this means I’m supposed to be a guru in every aspect? Does this mean I’m to pretend to be perfect in every aspect? And more specifically, does this mean I’m not allowed to ask for help or someone will think I don’t “know my stuff”?

The answer to all those questions are a resounding No and here’s my reply:

I’m not at all concerned about who knows I’m having issues selling this particular ebook. I’m very honest with everything I do online.

Just because I’m not doing as well selling this ebook as I would like to be certainly does not mean that I don’t know how to run an online business nor does it mean that I’m not successful - it’s quite the opposite.

I’m also by no means saying that I’ve not sold any … my problem is that I’ve not sold as many as I would have liked to. With my conversion - it’s easy for me to see that there is a need for improvement.

If this ebook was about “how to write a sales page” then yeah, I would hope people would think twice before buying my ebook. Give me a sponsor ad to write, even a solo ad or signature line to write - I’m your gal. Need an article, ebook or report written - again, I can show you how to do that too.

These types of sales pages just aren’t my “thing”. What I do know how to do is everything listed in that ebook - how? Because it’s what I’ve been doing and succeeding at for the past 7 almost 8 years.

So for those of you that don’t feel as though you’re expert OR you do feel as though you are but are afraid to ask a question because you’re afraid that someone will feel as though you’re not as smart as you thought you were .. no worries. You don’t need to know everything.

By the way, I have a feeling as soon as I get a chance to implement some of the tips shared with me, asking for a review is going to end up being one of the best things I’ve done

Well this is cool … after I did the favorite’s organization challenge, I wasn’t sure how quickly I’d be able to come up with another one … ha, needless to say it didn’t take too long at all

(Just leave it to the queen of un-organization … I’ll come up with all kinds of ideas!)

This morning I stumbled upon an email that I was supposed to have replied to at the beginning of last week - not replied too. A little later this morning I was searching for another email that I just knew I had kept. After searching and searching - wasting entirely too much time … I figured it out.

Time for another quick organization challenge!

As you can tell, this time we’re working on those email accounts. I honestly hope for your sake that yours doesn’t look anything like mine did.

I used to have a little personal ‘un-written’ rule that I never allowed my inbox get any “fuller” than what I could see on the first page. (And this really wasn’t all that long ago …)

That means, by the way I had my settings set, I could only have 50 emails sitting in my in box at a time. And this worked … for really long time. Ugh, not so much the case anymore! Little by little I changed my settings until I reached the maximum amount of emails to show per page - 200! But here’s where it gets scary … I had 238!

Yikes - it was certainly time to do something.

I’m happy to announce that I now have 99 emails showing on my first page of email! (Okay, I’m not really happy or proud to say that but … gee, it sure is better than 238!)

Anyway, that means I took care of 139 emails. (Okay, is that scary or is that sad? I’m thinking I need my VA to do a little more work for me - what do you think?)

So, what did I do?

First I went through every single email and I was happy to find that a few pieces of spam were mixed in there - you know the ones that have a “way past” date. Of course they were easy enough to take care of - it’s called D-E-L-E-T-E

I have a tendency to write emails to myself. Am I the only strange one who does this? ROFL! Seriously, if I want to remember something or check into something later on … I’ll email myself so I don’t forget. I took all these emails, opened up a notepad and started myself a list. That probably took care of about ten or so emails and turned them into just one.

After that I went through all the emails that needed a home. I have another tendency to let emails pile up in my inbox - emails that I do need to keep a hold of but don’t necesssarily need anything done to them right now. So, I created some new folders and sent those emails home. (And by the way … that’s just a new habit I picked up, lol!)

Eventually I had quite a handful emails that just had something that needed to be taken care of. These were things that were not really important so I just left them pile up. I took the time to do what needed done and deleted those too.

(Although, I have to say I did find another email that was supposed to have been taken care of a while ago also. I was so embarrassed to reply to that one - luckily I know she’ll forgive me!)

So after I got all those taken care of I did go one step further and set up a few filters. Hopefully this will help keep my inbox a little more cleaner and my whole email account a little easier to navigate. I can say it looks great!

Now if I could just get back to 50 I’d be in heaven … although something tells me that’s not ever gonna happen again! lol!

Maybe no one else is even going to do this challenge with me … lol … I’m probably the only ones with these odd tendencies and habits. Please leave me a comment and either tell me I’m not alone or … share your strange tendency with me.

Please … I sure could use some re-assurance here!

Congratulations Ladies!

I’m a little ashamed to say that I didn’t even know this day existed! But I think it’s important that we celebrate it.
Hey, it’s important to celebrate anything if you ask me!

Come celebrate with us:
http://mommyshelpercommunity.com/phpBB2/about10351.html
(And no worries … it’s never to celebrate!)

Once in awhile I’ll spot a post or two on my favorite blogs I just have to share. Well this is  not just one blog post, but a whole series of posts.

I’m very impressed with the new series “Be a Better Blogger” by Lynn Terry. She’s been posting a new tip daily and going into detail on how you can be a better blogger. I just started today with the first in the series - Write a Better About Me Page. This post explains the series, how she’s got them listed, and of course gives you some tips to start with.

I’ll be following this one to the end of the month, and I’m excited to see what she comes up with for a full 31 days!

As I try to get myself a little more organized, I’ll try to post a quick Organization Challenge here that might help you too.

If you’re anything like me - your Favorites Folder is probably an absolute mess!  Think about it - does this sound familiar to you? 

I’ll be busy working on a project, doing some research along the way and I come across another site that looks like something I might be interested in.  If I stop right there and start looking around the site, checking out the “cool new tool” or what have you … what happens? 

I get totally side-tracked and my project gets tossed to the wayside (resulting in getting nothing accomplished).  Oh and let’s not forget the other new site you just found on this site too. 

Let’s face it … the internet is a wonderful resource just packed full of site after site, resource after resource, tool after tool … yeah, you get the idea I’m sure.  I know I’m preaching to the choir here.

So, what solution had I come up with?  Let’s just toss it in my favorites so I can come back later!  I do try really hard to NOT be one of those people who toss it in my favorites only to never return.  There was some reason I put it there in the first place.  I try really hard to stop back later - when I have time.  (Oh did you see that?  I just made a funny!)

So this morning, I’m looking for something specific in my favorites and oh my gosh - what a HORRIBLE mess!!

I took a good 30 minutes and REALLY looked over my favorites.  Gee, it’s amazing what you’ll find in there!  LOL!  I did get rid of a handful of links in there - more specifically because they weren’t going to be any good to me anymore.  (ie: I had a “great new idea” and have since decided against it.)

I created a bunch of new folders within in my favorites to get them more organized.  Wow - what a difference!  It looks so much neater and it will be so much easier for me to find what I’m looking for.  (And it fits all in one glance - no more arrows to scroll down farther!) 

Through all that - I now have only 3 links that didn’t “fit” into any of my folders.

So, what do you do?

Go through your Favorite - hopefully most of them you’ll remember WHY they are there but if you don’t - open the page and take a QUICK LOOK.  (No surfing allowed during this challenge!)  Hopefully then you’ll remember why it’s there. 

As you’re looking through - you’ll notice some that will be able to fit into a “category”.  When you come up with a category, create a new folder and move all the links that relate to that folder. 

Repeat this until you have a nice set of mostly folders in your favorites. (You’ll want more folders than individual links.)

DO remove sites that you’re sure you’re not going to use again but DO be careful! 

Against the normal “way” DO keep it if you’re not sure . In about a month, go back through them again and if you’re still not sure … then you could probably get rid of it. (Mark it on your calendar, put it on your to do list - whatever it takes for you to come back in about a month.)

But DO NOT go on a mass deletion session!  I don’t want you coming back here next week and yelling at me because you remembered why you wanted that site and now you have no idea where it was!  (lol!) 

Guess I should add my own little disclaimer statement here ….
I cannot be held responsible for any sites you deleted - you’re on your own!  

Do this right now. But, if you just “happened to come across this blog post” while working on a project and you don’t want to do it right now. Add your name and email address in that little subscription box on the —> right —> and I promise, you’ll be reminded to do this later.

Oh and of course you should also add this blog to your favorites - create a folder called “Visit Once a Day”

Join me in this challenge!

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Yesterday I made a request on a group for people to send me links of their personalized children’s products. I’m working on a new page on Idea Queen, and decided it would be better with links to stores. Well that and I was slightly stumped - I needed suggestions. A link back is only fair.

Most of the suggestions and sites were absolutely wonderful. Those I got anyway, as I tend to weed out those who don’t read instructions by throwing in a different email address to send replies to. Wouldn’t you know that works pretty well, since if they hit “reply” sending it to the wrong address and ignoring most of the email, they usually have ignored other important guidelines as well.

But I digress.

As mentioned, most sites were great. However, there were some that were just……wow. Now I may sound like a total snob, but if your site is embarrassing, I don’t want to link to it. I found myself making excuses as to why I couldn’t link to some based solely on the fact that I didn’t even want to look at the site, let alone recommend it. (If some of you are reading this, know some sites DID have a solid reason I couldn’t list it and it wasn’t your design!)

I know my sites aren’t perfect. Quite a few of them need a serious overhaul and redesign. I’m also not picky to the point I shame sites with poor SEO layout or aren’t W3C compliant. I can overlook those for the most part (unless your site is set up to sell SEO services, then I AM picky if you aren’t following basic SEO rules!).

The way I see it, your website is your online image. I think most would agree with me here, too. Think about it - would you buy candles from someone at a craft show sitting in a tattered shirt and stained jeans? How about if they didn’t bother to brush their hair that day? Do you trust them as much as you would someone who looks nice? The answer for most is probably NO.

You may think me snobbish, but it’s not just me. There’s a lot of people (aka YOUR CUSTOMERS!) who pay attention to image. Lucky for us who do business online, we don’t have to dress up to impress our customers. Our website is there to do that for us. And a tacky looking site isn’t going to impress the.

A clean, simple design is really all you need. When you start adding things you think looks “cool”, your customers might think exactly the opposite. I know you can’t please everyone, but a nice looking website for the general public is a must online. Always have someone other than friends and family review your site. It might get ugly, but you need to think of the comments as what a potential customer might think. They really aren’t “just being mean”. They are helping you present yourself better online, thus improving your sales. Don’t get mad, just make changes.

So take a look at your site. Is it embarrassing or can it sell? Excuse me while I go look at my own sites now……. :wink:

©Lisa Barker

(An excerpt from Lisa Barker’s book Just Because Your Kids Drive You
Insane…Doesn’t Mean You Are A Bad Parent!)

I rarely take my kids on a clothes-shopping expedition–unless it’s for
the child in tow and all the rest are at home. This means I have a 90%
record in my favor of happy, well-behaved kids when shopping for
clothes.

Unlike me when I was a child, my kids aren’t running through the aisles
or hiding themselves in the middle of a circular rack.  I have kids
who actually look forward to clothes shopping.

That is, until today.

I haven’t been shopping seriously for clothes for myself since my twins
(now eleven) were about the age of their youngest sister who’s now
three.  That was back in the days when just about the time I was
completely down to my underwear one or both of the twins would whip open the
curtain of the changing room, much to my chagrin and the surprise of all
the other customers in the vicinity.

So, eight years later, I’m a little wiser and really desperate.  I tuck
the two little ones in the double stroller and embark on my daring
mission to seek clothes for my new body that, after five kids, is a new
body.

Well, we’re at my favorite store—the one where I mooned everyone
eight years ago. I’m relatively sure that no one remembers me.  I riffle
through the racks like a clerk at the post office sorting mail.  Yep,
nope, maybe, nope, nope, YES!

Once I accumulate a load of ‘yesses’, I pile them on the stroller and
park the kids just out of arm’s reach of the dressing curtain. I’m fast,
I’m greased lightening and I’m in and out of outfits so fast I’m
busting a sweat. And then it starts.

At first it sounded like the low growl of a finely tuned Chevy. But it
begins to build and crescendo with vehemence. I peek out of the curtain
just in time to see the sweet blonde head of my three-year old rotate
360 degrees. Her eyes cross, that deep guttural growl sounds again and
then—yikes!  I duck back in the dressing room before the pea soup can
hit my new skirt.

The three-year old tries to take her two-year old brother’s head off
(she sits behind him in the stroller) while he simultaneously attempts to
reach back to scalp her.

Okay. Time to go. Wait—just one more thing!

“BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Snorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre.”

One is possessed. One is out cold.

We check out. It’ll be months before these two won’t shriek when they
see a rack of clothes.

But hey, good news! One skirt was half off…and the toys were free!

LISA BARKER of Greenfield is a syndicated humor columnist and mom of
five. Her latest book is “Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane …
Doesn’t Mean You Are A Bad Parent!” See JellyMom.com for more
information.

You’ve Been Bit By the Shopping Bug!

You’re constantly adding to your wardrobe - and it shows However, you can show some restraint. You love good deals. Your love of the clearance rack has paid off… You probably have only maxed out card or two, if at all!

Do You Shop More Than Most Women?

My Comments: Hmm … well I tried to answer this as honestly as possible. This is a little closer to what I would love to be, lol! I’m certainly not constantly adding to my wardrobe - as much as I would love too, rofl! I certainly show good restraint (don’t have a choice but to). I definitely love a good deal and yeah, that “C” word is my favorite in the English dictionary. And gee … I haven’t maxed out a credit card in years … probably at least 11.
 :lol:  That’s in the time I refer to as BK … Before Kids