by Shannon on January 24, 2012
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Hey Ladies, step away from the computer for a bit. Grab a cup of hot coffee, a book and take a moment for yourself. This post is for the men in your lives.
Guys Valentine’s Day is just a few weeks away (Tuesday February 14) and even if we say we don’t want anything, trust me, we do. So I’ve put together a little Valentine’s Gift Guide for the work at home Mom in your life to make shopping simple.
Flowers are great, but a Rose Flower Pen is a whole lot more useful. I can never have too many pens actually and this flower pen would be a daily reminder of your love. At only $1.99 a dozen wouldn’t break the bank.
Heart Shaped Cookies. These smiley faced cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day. Plus I won’t want to eat all of them so the whole family can enjoy.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries. I love just about chocolate anything (except bacon and bug varieties, ewww) and these are no exception. Plus they are made with real chocolate.
Jewelry! Hands down you can’t go wrong with jewelry. I love this Aquamarine Sterling Silver ring for a couple of reasons. One it is my birthstone. It is also customizable with your choice of gems and metals. Plus it is a stackable ring so you could get one with the birthstone for each of your children and it makes a Mother’s Ring. Awwww.
Tea. I am a huge fan of loose leaf tea and find great enjoyment out of my daily cup (or two or more) of tea. This Bento Box of Green Tea is not only beautiful, it is practical too. Work at home moms appreciate practical. They also offer many other tea gifts to choose from too.- Clean the House. I think most work at home moms would agree that we work two full time jobs. One is our work at home job and the other is taking care of our family and household. Having someone else clean the house (or cook the food, take care of the kids for the day, etc.) would be a very welcome present.
by Shannon on January 19, 2012
Last week I received a letter in my post office box and quickly realized it was junk. I almost tossed it away. Then I realized I that I could do one better and turn this into a teaching opportunity. It was for a company wanting to submit my website to the search engines. And I know from talking to some people they ask: Should I be paying for search engine submission?
The letter and envelope looked official enough with a logo. It referenced a domain that I had recently registered. It says under description of services:
ANNUAL WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE LISTINGS FROM JAN 12, 2012 THRU JAN 12, 2013 TOTAL $85.00
Hmm, okay. So what do you get for that $85?
SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDES DOMAIN NAME SUBMISSION TO 20 ESTABLISHED SEARCH ENGINES UP TO EIGHT KEYWORD/PHRASE LISTINGS MONTHLY SEARCH ENGINE POSITION AND RANKING REPORTS.
This “service” only takes checks and there is no where on the order form to list the eight keywords or phrases, so I guess the choice is up to them. You are supposed to enter an email so that you can receive a report from them.
I did visit their website in the name of research and found out that some of the search engines that they work with are Google, AOL, ExactSeek, Cipinet, Netscape Search, Scrub the Web and more.
I sure hope alarm bells are not going off in your mind.
Never ever pay to have your website submitted to the search engines. It is not necessary and a waste of money. Please if you get a letter like this (or email or tweet, etc) then just throw it away.
Instead do some simple things instead. Create an xml sitemap for your website with the help of the Google XML Sitemap plugin if you are running WordPress. Make sure your site is included in Google Webmaster Tools and that you submit your sitemap. Write some really great guest posts on other blogs. All of these ideas are free. The search engines will find your website and it will just cost you time.
by Shannon on January 16, 2012
I’ve had a few days to recover from Affiliate Summit West 2012 and have been thinking about what I learned this time around. I know for me, that my experience keeps getting better each time I go. I learn a little bit more each time about what I want to get out of the experience. Here are ten things that I learned at Affiliate Summit West 2012:
[click to continue…]
by Shannon on January 14, 2012
Day 3 of Affiliate Summit West began nice and early with the Early Morning Whiteboarding session with Eric Nagel. It was a bit subdued after a late night of karaoke and a bit of a delay in getting coffee, but it was very informative. It was well worth getting up early for.
Whiteboarding with Eric Nagel
After that it was time for a breakfast. I really enjoy the meals at Affiliate Summit (not so much for the quality of the food) but the chance to get to know some new people and reconnect with old friends. Plus you don’t have to miss out on the conference by trekking off to a restaurant somewhere else.
[click to continue…]
by Shannon on January 13, 2012
Day 2 of Affiliate Summit West didn’t begin as early as I would have liked. I really wanted to attend the Early Morning Whiteboarding session with Eric Nagel, didn’t quite make it. It was a just a bit too early after the late night the evening before. I did begin the day with a decent breakfast provided by the conference and then headed over to the Opening Keynote.
It was given by Jon Spoelstra. I thought that he had some really great ideas of how to succeed in business, including his idea of “new as a way of life” but most of his examples were dated. Still I did enjoy hearing him speak.
[click to continue…]
