My Small Break...

Hiya all, sorry for the unannounced break. I’ve had a personal meltdown recently and I’ve only been able to take care of the bare necessities (like work, home, kids). I’m looking forward to spending this weekend fixing up my blogs a bit. I’m going through and taking out the affiliates that took me down or whose sites don’t work, changing some links, and rearranging my content. I’m planning to have a new contest soon, too, so come back often!

When You Need Content...

Content is a very important part of any blog, even personal blogs. Sometimes, in order to keep your readers from straying, you need to update at a time when it’s just not possible for you. Sometimes you may be too busy, or even just on a creative block, but you still need to keep updating for your readers and, if you have them, your advertisers.

A possible alternative to writing your own unique post is to use one of the free articles at Article Alley. You can search through the 1/2 million articles written by over 60,000 authors for one that fits your blog. It’s not just for blogs, you can add any of this information to your website. It’s helpful for those who want to post about something, but don’t really have all the facts. I found a site where someone teaches you how to use a certain site, but because she used all the wrong termanology, it made no sense. A quick look over to Article Alley could’ve helped her.

Personally, I wouldn’t just take articles from this site and post them on my own site. I like to take inspiration from others’ posts, then post my own unique content  based on this. I would go through and pick a topic like How To Create Helpful Error Pages, read it through, make notes on points I feel are important, then make a few notes on points I think they missed. After that I would construct my own article based on this, then cite that article as a source. I think that is the best way to use this service.

Of course, another good idea is to submit articles. Many times I’ll want to write about something that doesn’t really go along with my blog. Sometimes I just put it into my personal blog (because I can do whatever I want there) but to help me build up my own site I could post an article on Article Alley and get a link back for it. Then, those who use my article would also need to link me. It’s just another great way to keep your blog interesting and to get noticed better.

Small Updates...

Hi,

Just a few small updates for you.

I’ve adopted a lil gummy bear named Mika. I wanted to adopt Mika because that’s my baby nephew’s name. And he’s the cutest baby. You can see my gummy bear at the bottom of the sidebar.

I have some new affiliates. Thanks to Jake and Stephine for accepting me.

I’ve been thinking about making a new design, but with all I have going on right now I just don’t have the time. So I think instead I’m going to focus on making this one work better for me. The sidebar is very sloppy and I want to clean it up. The navigation is pretty poor, too. I’m going to work on that, as well as see how impossible it would be to get my site validated. Hoping to release some new goodies soon.

I also wanted to bring on someone to work with where I can help them optimize their site. Help them make it look nicer, load faster, validate it, etc.. and then post the results on the site as sort of a guide. If you’re interested in this (a service that would usually cost hundreds of dollars), please let me know. You’ll need a couple of hours for about a week to work with me on it.

It’s Coming...

What’s coming? I think a new design may be coming. I’m not sure why, but I’m ready to move on from this one. There are some things about the navigation that are really bothering me. I may invest some time in making things work better with this template, but if I can muster up some creativity, I may just redo it all.

Since the last update, I’ve put up some new Jojo PSDs. They’re cute, I think. I tried to make a set of it, but I only ended up being able to do two of them. They match, though, so they should be pretty good for layouts or blends.

Today I put up some new stock photos, too. We went to the park for a while and I was going to take photos but the D60 was full and dead, so all these were taken with my p-o-s camera. They’re still pretty nice, though. I hope you can find a use for them. If nothing else, they’d make decent brushes or even textures.

I was playing around and made some new 88×31 buttons, too. So use’em and link me. Let me know if you do so I can link you back.

Tracking Leads...

One of the biggest issues I’ve had with advertising online is that I don’t know where links are coming from, what my visitors are doing once they get to my site, and whether or not their staying.  The goal of any online business (even just a paid blogging site) is to convert those visitors into customers or ad clickers. It’s important to know how and why they came to their site and why they’re leaving so you can give them the information they’re looking for without them having to search for it.

ROI Analytics is a website that offers you the ability to track these visitors to make the most out of your advertising budget. With a site name like “Lala Land”, you never know what people are going to show up. It’s important to make sure my advertising clearly states what you can expect from my site to make sure I only get visitors looking for what i have to offer. By tracking these visitors I can find out if a certain ad placement is performing well, or if people feel misled when they arrive at my site.

I’ve signed up for the free trial on this site and I have to admit, it’s a little overwhelming. I’m glad they offer training and even consulting, because it’s important to me to make sure my business can perform well for years to come. The ad placements I set up now will effect my company in the long run and I don’t want to waste money with the wrong ads. I’m glad there’s a solution to ensure a return on investment from my marketing budget.