I found this look meter at Casual Friday Everyday.
It is a neat little meter, since it turned out she looked more like me. LOL… They make you enter your e-mail and information, so if you have a phobia like I do about that, you won’t want to go here. I had to make fake everything like I always do and it is annoying.
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I have been having a dilemma with the blogger of the day posts being well, boring and the fact that the category page is beyond boring to look at.
I was talking it over with Matt from Blog About Your Blog and discussed getting some sort of logo. He though it was a good idea. Now, generally…I am pretty good with graphics. This case though, I had no idea what to do for it.
I passed my wants over to Ilker from The Thinking Blog whom just happened to have just released her portfolio page which she should include my favicon in, by the way. It is still wonderful.
Anyways, she sent me back 6 designs all with gold and black which all look pretty great. I am tickled, smiling ear to ear with them. I went ahead and added the one to all the past post and all the posts that I have that you can’t see yet. I will eventually rotate them in a random sort of way because I love them all. They are all the same though for now.
Anyways, I am very happy with this. If you need design work…I highly recommend Ilker. She is wonderful beyond belief.
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If you read Problogger, you will know he is offering some sort of competition and is asking for prizes. I somehow doubt my offer will be one of those accepted as there seems to be some significantly more expensive things being offered.
These are the best potty training tool ever. Kyra doesn’t need to be given them anymore and doesn’t really request them like she did at first. I still have about 2 pounds left in the open package, so I figure there is some other deserving about to be potty training parent or maybe just a hungry chocolate lover.
Me… nope…. I am trying to eat healthy. Yeah trying, I still sometimes steal from the potty treat bowl though.
This is the XXL bag though a full 3 lbs and I offered to ship it internationally to the winner. We will see if it gets accepted, somehow I doubt it will though and I am not that pessimistic as a person really. If it isn’t accepted though, I will figure out my own little contest with them, so either way someone is getting a whole lot of M&M’s.
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The other day, I did this Fab 4 Meme. One of the questions was my 4 favorite foods and I had a really hard time answering that because I am really not a foody. I don’t eat food because it tastes good or whatnot, I eat usually because it is easy or convenient. I would rather not eat many a time. So, it is hard for me to think of my favorites.
Well… Macaroni and Tomatoes should have made my list though. I was eating it last night thinking why didn’t I put that in my list of favorite foods, so…I thought I would share with you the most simple and cheap dish in the whole wide world and one that I love.
You make elbow noodles about a cup, but up to a cup and half, boil the water you know the whole bit. Boil them up like 10 minutes. For this you don’t really want them soggy soft. Drain them off and leave them in the strainer.
You can either use fresh tomatoes or canned. If you use fresh, chop them up into salsa size pieces, so very small. If you use canned, get the ones that are petite sliced.
You put in about 2/12 cups of fresh tomatoes or one standard can of sliced ones. Put these in that pan you just took the noodles out of, put them on the heat for a few seconds.
Add about 1/4 cup of sugar and about 2 tablespoons of salt.
Add back in your noodles there, simmer for about 30 seconds.
Vavoom…. You have one of my favorite dishes. Now of course you can get fancy with this, by adding some meat or some garlic and herbs. I though like it best plain. I love tomato flavor though.
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Could you live in this bus comfortably?? Can you imagine driving down the road with your car quite literally underneath you??
I think I could live in there except it would only look nice like this about an hour. Kyra could really do some damage, but I am right behind her. It would be so fun to rent something like this though for a weekend…anyone have one of these for rent???
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I had fun checking my sites rankings in Google yesterday. I have been getting increasingly more visits from the search engines. Thanks Google, as usual. Google has sent me almost 1500 visitors this month.
It is the new ones that are surprising me though. Altavista and Arianna have sent me there very first visitors this week.
Anyways, this is all becoming more and more fascinating to me. I was doing various searches though and checking where I was ranking. I do this sometimes, but not as frequently as some other bloggers that I know.
I am surely Ladylike4 though in the search engines. For Google, if you search for “ladylike4″, I am pegged in slots 1-70 and I didn’t check higher than that. Yes, that is me in all those places. It is not all directly to this page obviously, but it is comments I have left or other sites where my username is ladylike4. They are all me though…
Another statistic thing that baffles me. Yesterday my RSS number was 50. It seems like every single time it gets to 50 than the next day it is down in the 30’s. Why is this?? It is 39 today.
I got an e-mail yesterday as well that made me smile. It was someone wanting to start blogging asking about starting out and how to get traffic. The normal questions, but this person refers to my readers as massive. That made me smile because I don’t often think about it. I do get a lot more traffic than when I first started and the traffic is a great incentive to keep on writing on here. I don’t think this site would be what it is without my visitors.
Hi Jennifer!
I came across your blog page recently while I was researching doing my own blog site and I just had to ask how you manage to pay your bills with blogging about everyday stuff like you do? Your readership is massive and I was just curious about how you started your blog and how it grew to what it is today. How did you get your advertising? What sort of topics do you discuss that seem to capture the attention of many? How do you attract so many people to your site? Im just exploding with questions and I was hoping you could give me some advice. Any would be appreciated! I have yahoo IM if you would like to chat sometime (if that is easier for you than email)….my ID is __________.
I hope to hear from you soon!
As far as answering her questions. There are no secrets to getting more readers. It takes time. Every site starts with there first visitor and hopefully that first visitor will tell 10 new people and those 10 will tell 10 more. That is how traffic comes and goes with all sites generally, so the total secret to traffic is time. Yeah, TIME… This site is over 2 years old and has been regularly updated for that entire time.
I also do sponsored reviews and posts now quite frequently. I didn’t do my first one though until I had been writing for a year and that was a year to the day.
It was so nice to get this e-mail though. It made me smile wide for at least an hour. I am willing to help anyone that wants to start a site though, just send me a line. Time is the biggest secret though.
You can message me as well. I am ladylike4444 on both yahoo and AIM messengers. Yeah, ladylike4 was taken at both places when I signed up. I have to warn you though that I do leave my messenger program saying I am online when I am really not. I never change my status and just leave my computer, so if I don’t answer. It isn’t that I won’t. It is that I am not there really.
There you go for FUN statistics.
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I recently got a Facebook account and now have figured out how to make this widget thingy. If I know you from here, go ahead and add me to your friends. I am not extremely active on there, but maybe I can be convinced.
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So, over at Build a Better Blog, they posted this article with 15 Good Blog Posting Tips, I found it interesting, so decided to share how I do it with you, if you haven’t already figured me out.
1. Be really clear about why you’re blogging, who your ideal reader is, and what your core message and/or theme is.
My ideal reader is any one really. I tend to lean towards other bus drivers though and other moms. I have a small male readership that is mostly other bloggers. Who knows what they see in hanging around?? LOL… Let me know okay??
2. Write with the reader in mind: what’s in it for them?
Sorry, I write whatever pops into my little head. It is a rare glimpse unedited of what is inside my head…what is not to love about that??? Not sure what else in in it for you reading here. This site is mostly for my entertainment. Sorry….
3. Write declarative sentences: short and to the point, right off the bat. No starting with: “I was thinking the other day about…” or “Summer’s almost over and…”
I think I am declarative. Oh no, was that not declarative???
4. Write less. Omit all unnecessary words. (Hint: this requires you actually read your post before you publish!)
Nope, I rarely read it first. I am a non-editor. I edit and nothing gets posted. I usually read my posts when someone comments on it and I don’t remember what they are making the comment about. Is that revealing or what???
5. Write good headlines, using your strategic keywords (the ones you’ve researched and know will pull in the readers you’re looking for). Put keywords first if you can.
I don’t do keyword research. Yeah, you got it none. I do pretty good though for admitting that. I do sometimes search for my site using the Search Engines and I usually do end up finding me. I am well listed even though…I barely try.
6. Write a good first paragraph using your keywords. Tell readers what your point is right away.
I again don’t do this. I am totally failing you now aren’t I??
7. Keep paragraphs short, only one or two sentences at most, then break. White space is your friend.
I actually do this very well. I hate long boring text in huge bunches, so I don’t use it naturally without trying on this site.
8. Use subtitles to make your posts easily scannable.
I don’t do this often, but occasionally I do.
9. Break your post up after 2-3 paragraphs using the Extended Post feature, so that readers are asked to click here to continue reading.
Oh never, I would never ask my readers to do something I hate doing. I hate clicking to continue reading an article. I never subscribe to partial feeds either. If I don’t get the whole story in my first glance, you probably won’t find me even reading the first two paragraphs. I just move on. This is a funny tip though because Build a Better Blog the site where these tips came from. They do a full feed, but this continue reading junk is on their homepage. You see…I never go to there home page. I use the feed and when I click an article, it takes me to the full thing. Hmmm!
10. Don’t take yourself too seriously; keep a sense of humor but be cautious about trying to be funny; people read things the wrong way.
I follow this one. I think??
11. Write like readers were paying you and their subscription is about to expire.
Who would pay to read about the life of a school bus driver. I will except subscription monies, set your own price. I take paypal.
12. Avoid business jargon, empty phrases, and clichés that are too cliché.
It is a good thing I don’t know any business jargon and what is cliche? How do you type that funky e thing? That isn’t on my keyboard.
13. Use bulleted points and lists as often as possible.
Woo Hoo! A list….
14. Don’t be afraid to voice your opinions
If I’m not opinionated enough for you, let me know!
15. Always ask readers for their opinions, their experiences, their input.
I love my commenters, read up there on the right and you will see it written out again.
There you know all the tips and how I am such a failure. Are you doing any better???
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This latest comment on the Slumber Party post from a Debra. I am going crazy trying to think of a Debra in my life. The e-mail with the comment is just a hotmail one, sort of like a person hiding. They do use it though because it is the same one they leave each of these Debra comments with. The comments are always all caps and always sort of mean sounding.
Wow! Though does this Debra not like me or something. LOL….
The comments remind me of my mom, so I do wonder if this is my mom’s way of leaving comments. Her name is Lynn though? She asked me about pictures online and if I was scared with them on here. Well, that is obvious isn’t it?? I am not scared. I do think about being so public sometimes, but I don’t want to live secretly from anyone. It is easy for me to be very public as I really don’t have anything to hide. I am proud of my life and my site here.
If you can tell me who DEBRA is better, let me know. I am really interested.
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A friend of mine e-mailed me this link to the ways to get to a live person on the phone for hundreds of companies today. I thought I would share it here.
There are so many companies that there is at least one that every person is on hold for at least once.
Anyways, it is called the gethuman 500 database.
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