Inner Ramblings

Zookoda Email Newsletters for Blog Readers

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:53:56 -0400

I had something really cool happen to me: I had someone contact me and requested email updates when my blog is updated! Unfortunately I am not Internet savvy enough to figure that out on my own so I went searching for something that could help me out.

During my search I found Zookoda, which is a great marketing service available to bloggers. Zookoda enables blog authors to send a daily, weekly or monthly summary of your latest blog posts directly into your visitor’s inbox. Best of all, it's completely free! The program offers a lot of great features like custom newsletter subscription forms to enhance your blog, offers newsletter designs to match individual blog designs, schedule recurring broadcasts for each day, week, or month, and access mobile users by email blog content in text format. Zookoda also offers real-time reports to ensure that bloggers are informed about email success and blog visitor habits. Each email is tracked during delivery, providing open, bounce and click through information. What a concept!

So, not only does Zookoda help market your blog, it also helps keep all the information straight and easily accessible. I don't think it can get much easier than that... and it's free so you won’t lose a dime! Sign up today and see all the wonderful things that can be done to market your blog. It only takes a minute, and the benefits you receive from taking a few moments to do this are priceless, especially since the service is free!

IzeaRanks

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:34:13 -0400

Thank goodness! There’s finally a ranking system that reflects the real score of my blog!

I got penalized by Google in the beginning of the year because I have some sponsored posts on my blog and I lost my page rank that I worked months to acquire. Not only did that mess up my whole blog system, but it really hurt me in regards to the extra money I had been making. To a lot of people $100 or so a week isn’t a big deal, but to us it meant a lot. The weeks when Sean didn’t get paid it sometimes made the difference between making a car payment or not. That’s huge!

Now there’s Real Rank, a system that was created by using real data to calculate which blogs are getting the most traffic and have the most influence on the web, such as webpages linked to the specific blog (otherwise known as inbound and outbound links). IZEARanks ranks the top blogs in the blogosphere via actual site statistics, not an “inturprutation” of estimates. This great ranking system, IZEARanks, even has a page where you can see how your blog relates to other registered blogs in real time, and offers a graph for visual people like me who don’t really “get” numbers.

Thank goodness this system has come about! Maybe now I can get back into the paid for blogging market. I’ve missed it, because it’s such a win-win situation for everyone involved. Advertisers get exposure and bloggers get to do what they love to do. How can you beat that?

Ebay

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:45:57 -0500

I have some listings on Ebay now. I know you're all sick to death of the soap thing, but if you could just indulge me and let me know what you think? Price wise and design wise? It's hard to judge yourself!

Website is up!~

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:43:45 -0500

Yay! She did a great job too.

Take a peek! It's her 'rough draft' and there are going to be some design changes as more people are added, but I think it looks pretty great!

Design Time

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:10:36 -0500

I've been sitting here for an hour designing my ads for the website. My mom took Ian to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese tonight since I've lost my voice, so I'm here alone working.

I'm out of practice since I haven't been doing any marketing (*sniff*) since September, but I'll get it back!

Even the Best Laid Plans

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:36:26 -0500

I've already done a batch of soap and am now sitting here having a cup of coffee. I'm sweating and coughing but I refuse to take my temperature because that will just clinch the deal.

I have a specific goal in mind for the number of soaps I want done in time for the vendor fair on the ninth and I think it's feasible, even with all the other stuff I have going on. I'll have to get to Brandon either today or Thursday to get more supplies- I can't believe I'm almost out!

I had another dream about my ex. It was so strange because I could see it happening in real life... mostly. After his initial denial that he was who I knew he was, we finally sat around and talked while sitting at a bar. He explained his life and the pain he felt over losing his wife and daughter due to misunderstanding, and I explained mine while also tiptoeing around the sadness I felt that our lives ended up so far apart. We talked a bit about the past a bit and about our futures... In the end we hugged and our parting conclusion was the we wouldn't speak again, but that if we needed the other we would be there. Interesting.

I have some work to do on my 'spiritual' stuff and I need to spend some time going over last Sunday's message. Today will be a good day for that since I feel so lousy!

Decisions

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:59:52 -0500

I have made the decision to get up this early every day. I find I am most productive either early in the morning or late at night, so I'm going to try and make this a habit.

I figure that I can start the coffee, do my computer work, and maybe start a batch of soap before having to get Ian up for school. This way, by the time I make it home again, the first batch will be done and I can get a second batch in before lunch.

I have to get moving! I just got asked to be in another Vendor Fair on December 9th so I have to get my base back up again!

I know some people have expressed an interest in coming to a fair with me so, if you are, let me know. I'd love the help!

Still Going

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:16:42 -0500

Tomorrow I start my soap making all over again. I got the materials last week so I'm ready to go, and I have no excuses not to get moving. I have some special orders to complete first and then I'm going to concentrate on the 'other' stuff, like promotions and setups in different stores that have expressed interest. I'm going to be busy!

High Yield Investments

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:50:41 -0500

I have money in a few places like stocks, a Roth IRA, and in an ING account, but I'm thinking of moving it around a little bit. I've been thinking about high yield investments because right now, at my age, high yields are a good idea for me.

My mother, being the good financial planner she is, has been trying to convince me to move my money for a while now but I've been ignoring her. Part of it is lack of interest, but another part is true lack of knowledge. I don't know much about investing, so I didn't want to listen to what she was telling me. It was too complicated!

Diamond Bay is a company who's site explains who they are, their mission, and gives a comprehensive look into smart investing. For instance: Real Estate Trust Deed investments produce a high margin of return with a low margin of risk, which is just what I'm interested in. Right now there's a 12% return rate on high yield first trust deeds and hard money lending systems. Not only is that great for retirement, but it could serve as an income, and it's fantastic for my IRA investment portfolio!

This is a sponsored post

Continuing Real Esate Education

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:43:45 -0500

It's about that time of year: Time for me to stress about my real estate continuing education! Had I been on top of my game I would have already completed it, but I let it slide. I have until March, but I need to get moving now because it's over 40 hours!

I'm going to get my real estate agent training done by The Real Estate Training Center this time. They offer classroom courses as well as self study (the way I'm going to do it this time), and they have all sorts of interesting classes I can take once I'm done with the continuing education I have to take. My father and I were just talking about getting involved in foreclosures, and The Real Estate Training Center happens to have a class on Foreclosures that looks interesting. Maybe I'll talk my dad into taking it with me!