Category: Other Interesting Stuff

Quick Avatar Tip

heidic4 Comments on Quick Avatar Tip

When I first went online, I wanted to use anything but a picture of me. One of my kids, a photo I took, etc. Reluctantly I switched to my own photo. Cool thing is, I’ve since met others online in the offline world. Fun thing to do. Even better, we had no problem recognizing each other when we finally met face-to-face.

It is also good to stand out, do something different. I ran into this cool tool which takes your image and turns it into a polaroid like this:

Polarize your photo here. Can be larger than my twitter profile.

Market Your Business with Off the Wall Holidays

heidic7 Comments on Market Your Business with Off the Wall Holidays

I got many nice holiday greeting cards this past December from family, business associates, etc. The coolest ones are those with pictures on the front, very personal, all cards much appreciated. But what about rest of the year? Did you ever get a card for April’s Fools day? Wear Red Day? Web Content Awareness Day? Laugh and Get Rich day?

Each of us markets our business throughout the year. But I’d never realized that I should plan that in advance, using various holidays. If you don’t have a holiday that celebrates as you wish, you can even create your own holiday.

Last year I picked up a Marketing Calendar from Heidi Richards. It was a great help. That was when I realized the value of planning in advance. You ever see a holiday come up, traditional or off the wall, and say “Gee if I’d only thought of it sooner it would have made a great promotion for . . .”

Of course when the next year rolls around, you will find yourself saying the same thing again unless you plan. I’m looking forward to the release of Heidi Richards new Quirky Marketing Calendar to be released first week of February.

Cards are one of the cool ways to market through the holidays. To celebrate the launch of her new book, Heidi Richards is having a Quirky Holiday Marketing Greeting Card Contest. Lot’s of prizes, check them out at her RedHead Marking Blog

Twitter Plugins for WordPress

heidic13 Comments on Twitter Plugins for WordPress

I should have guessed it, as popular as twitter is among bloggers (for good reason), several wordpress twitter plugin have been built.

TweetBacks

TweetBacks

The first one I tried was Tweetbacks. The first time I used it I had a few thousand twitter spam/error comments added to my comment section. That was not going to work for me. I saw others where having the same problem and was about to uninstall the plugin, but two cool things happened. I could use TweetBacks clean up tool to get all the tweeter comments out of my database. And the plugin was upgraded. When I activated it with the newer version, my problems were gone.

Tweet this blog post and see if your twitter comment doesn’t show up here, maybe not immediately.

Retagrr

Retagrr is not a wordpress plugin, but a widget that will add your social media contact information and tweets to your blog. You can see this at the top of my right sidebar.

Tweet This

Tweet This plug in makes it easy for your readers to tweet your post on twitter. You have various options, under settings you can click Automatically insert tweet this links and you’ll see a bird like this at the top of your posts. Choose which of 6 url shortening service you’d like to use.
tweet this image

Or if you prefer, also check the box for Automatically insert a small link at the end of posts instead of a large icon at the top-right and it will look like this:

Tweet This link

WP Twitip ID

WP Twitip ID adds a twitter id field to the comment form and when your readers comment, if they add their twitter ID a Follow Me link is added to their twitter account. This plugin was harder to use as it requires editing the theme’s comment.php file. Be sure and watch the video on the page for help in this.

PingPress fm

PingPress fm is another plug in I’ll check out, thanks to @bluefur It sends out your blog posts to ping.fm . Which in turn updates many social networks.

I found other twitter plugins for wordpress I’ve not checked out yet:

10 Best Twitter Tools for WordPress Blogs

Top 5 Twitter Plugins to Incorporate into your Blog

This link will lead you to more WordPress Twitter Plugins

Update: Video on adding Tweet This plugin to your wordpress site

Happy Birthday Divas

heidic3 Comments on Happy Birthday Divas

birthday candle flower
Birthday Candle by Tanakawho

Were did the time go? This celebration snuck up on me. The Baby Boomer Diva’s are celebrating their 1st birthday.

(So we can just start over counting years and we are all one here. Or not quite one for those of us who joined later. Less candles to blow out, less counting. . .)

Much thanks to Beverly Mahone for starting this group, and the talent, heart, and wisdom of its members.

Now how can we have a birthday without presents? I remember questions about “What is affiliate marketing?” What do I do? Well Laura Wheeler has generously given me rights to an eBook on that very subject, and to celebrate the birthday I’ll make it free to download for the next month.


Essential Strategies for Earning with Affiliate Links
https://connectsimply.com/affiliatebook.pdf

So open up your presents. Not one of the Divas? No problem, join the celebration and pick up your book.

Cards to Iraq – Cards from Iraq

heidic4 Comments on Cards to Iraq – Cards from Iraq


from SoldiersMediaCenter

If you read my post on Remembering Loved Ones in Iraq, you will understand how those serving, whether military or civilian miss their homes and loved ones.

July is a celebration of our country and its freedoms and I thought it would be cool to see how many smiles we can put on the faces of those away from home. If you know anyone serving in Iraq, please send them a physical greeting card, I’ll pay for the first one. And/or forward this information to those serving and they can send a card back to their loved ones at home. As it is printed and mailed in the US, it will make it home in record time.

  • Forward this url or/and use it yourself:

    GetYourCardsHere.com
  • Click on the banner and turn up your speakers
  • Follow the audio prompts and send a card
  • Feel free to upload photos inside the card
  • If you want make your own card by adding a photo, after sending your first card, click on main menu, system training, then picture plus.
  • If you get stuck, contact me.

This is not a commentary on the pros/cons of the war. The purpose here is to brighten the days of those families whose lives are in a turmoil because they have a family member serving, whether military or civilian. Feel free to pass on this offer. Go brighten a day!

Heidi

Tagged by a Dog!

heidic3 Comments on Tagged by a Dog!

Lion Chasing Zebra
Image by Emerald Isle Druid

First my cats play tag. If I walk past without saying “Hi” they reach out and tag me. Doesn’t matter if I’m indoors or out.

Well evidently dogs play tag too, online even. I’ve been tagged by Bob, a dog that is enjoying life on a road trip. Today he is in Arkansas and must have really long paws to tag me across the border into Texas.

Here are the rules:

  1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
  2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
  3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
  4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
  • What was I doing 10 years ago? Full-time Mom and then son with 7 still living at home and my oldest getting ready for college along with a 1 year old.
  • What are five things on your to-do list for today?
    1. Mow yard
    2. Grocery shop
    3. Pick up kids from swim practice
    4. Update blog
    5. Send a card
    6. Show someone how to send a card easily

    Opps, more than 5, my To Do list gets too long.

    • 3 ) What snacks do I enjoy?
    Yogurt
    Strawberries
    Grapes
    Cheese
    Crackers

    4 ) Things I would do if I were a billionaire?
    Buy land, buy more land, place in the mountains, by the ocean, etc
    Travel
    Fund worthwhile projects and include ways they can become self-funding
    Have a home with a wonderful view, grow own food, water wells, solar/wind power, etc, hire help, a small community which would support itself if need be.

    5 ) Three Bad Habits
    Walk barefoot
    Check email too often
    Not enough sleep

    6 ) 5 places I have lived…
    Riverside, CA
    Altus, OK
    Penn Hills, PA
    Orem, UT
    Bossier City, LA
    Farmington, NM
    Lawton, OK
    Nash, TX
    (OK, I can’t count)

    7 ) 5 Jobs I have had
    Babysitter
    Fast Food
    Catering
    Pre-School Teacher
    Income Tax Preparer

    Thanks Melodieann! Visit her Travels with Bob
    Tagging:

    Betty Lynch of MyCountryKitchen

    Aspen of Aspen the Yorkie Only fair to tag a dog, since I’ve been tagged by one.
    Susan Lowe of California Musing
    Cats Only Blog Now if dogs are playing tag, shouldn’t cats too?
    In which case we have to include Catnip Loving Prince Muddy Paws’ Blogging Cat

    Maybe we can get these dogs and cats playing together online. Anyone who knows where that zebra or lion blogs let me know. They like to play chase.

Things I’ve Learned From My Kids

heidic13 Comments on Things I’ve Learned From My Kids

Mad Barber

In honor of Mother’s Day, a little true life humor for mothers everywhere.

  • Money can burn a hole in your pocket. Add a 9 volt battery to a pocket full of pennies.
  • Bread twist ties will conduct electricity, esp. when you put directly into wall plug. Blackens fingers too. Caution, loud pop may be heard and parents will investigate.
  • Your little sister’s dolls attached to ceiling fan, doesn’t usually break any windows when they fly off.
  • Jumping off the roof into the back of a pickup truck makes for a hard landing, better to hit the softer ground.
  • Riding your bike into a UPS truck can cause you to lose 3 years of memory.
  • Riding your bike too close to your sibling during a race can cause the handle bars to lock up and result in a very bad case of road rash.
  • Miscalculating the size of a hole when jumping over on your bike has been known to crack bike helmets, even the frame of your bike.
  • Taking the brakes off your skates and speeding down a steep hill can cause you to do a flip when you hit the divider in the middle of the road down below, landing you in a driveway, and creating more road rash.
  • Jumping in front of a log rolling down hill, can cause the log to knock you down and roll over you.
  • No such thing as a child safe home. Toddlers will gladly open child proof medicines and cabinets for you.
  • A toddler can dismantle their crib, removing all the bars.
  • Car cigarette lighters can burn your fingers if you heat them up and put your finger in it. Then you have the dilemma, “If I tell Mom I burnt my finger, she’ll know I played with the lighter which was off limits, but it hurts so bad.”
  • Standing under a tree throwing bricks up to knock down your ball usually ends with a trip to the emergency room.
  • Tripping down the steps at the hospital on the way home can land you back in the emergency room.
  • So can fainting.
  • You can play in a mud puddle without getting your clothes dirty by taking them off.
  • Rocking chairs are not the most stable thing to climb on to reach that computer your parents put on the tall shelf. One more way to get back to that emergency room.
  • Your sister’s hair elastics with the balls on the end make great sling shots. Care is needed when you bite one ball and pull elastic with hand. If your hand lets go before your teeth, it backfires, chipping tooth.
  • You can also break teeth playing gutterball in the pool, best not to do this Friday afternoons, dentists are hard to find.
  • If you sneak out of the house for a trip to the store while your big brothers are busy playing computer games, picking out some candy bars, saying “I’m hungry! I don’t have any money. I don’t know where my mom is!” does not get you candy bars, but a ride home in police car.
  • Some girls will do anything for chocolate, including a preschooler grabbing a container of chocolate frosting, locking herself in a room, hiding under the computer desk, taking screwdrivers with her so no one can unlock the door before chocolate is consumed.

Living Your Dreams

heidic2 Comments on Living Your Dreams

daffodill glow

No, I’m not dead, my computer did crash, not dead either, up and running, more on that later.

Spring break and Easter weekend. Spending some down time with the family, offline, beautiful outside, everything is in bloom. My husband isn’t sure that is a good thing as he suffers from allergies and my car has a yellow film on it from pollen.

But before I log off for the week I wanted to share a video I ran into online several months back, which is one of the best examples you will ever see about living your dreams and enabling others to live theirs.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

A must watch! This Easter season, as we talk about life, remember part of life is living your life, living your dreams, enabling others to live theirs.