Posted Thursday, July 8, 2010 by |
Hey guys, JJ from MomsCashBlog is around here somewhere but in the mean time, I decided to stop by and give you a little preview of the new theme (before she notices, of course). I’m Enkay from the Blogosphere and i have put together this theme for JJ and I wanted to get your feedback. The new theme is coming soon and I figured that the best way to get the readers all revved up was to give you guys a sneak peak at the new theme. Do I think we’re giving too much away? Of course not, because we all know that until we see the real thing, we can’t enjoy the complete experience and that’s what these images are meant to do. I have two preview images here for you today and I want to start off by showing you the completely re-done top half of the blog. I will go into more details but for now, I’ll let you soak it in. Go on, soak it in!
Ahhh, that’s right. As you’ll notice quite a few things have changed. Although the true details of what is changed will be talked about once the new theme is live. I wanted to give you guys some idea of what the theme re-vamp involved. There are quite a few steps involved and maybe many of you aren’t familiar with how I actually design the blog. The idea is that on a limited time frame (usually a couple hours a day for a week), it sometimes becomes difficult to completely re-do a design from scratch so my steps are as follows:
1) Find a theme that suits my needs. That’s right! Starting off with the right theme means you have a backbone all ready for you. All you have to do is go in and add your creative genius!
2) Add critical components. What I mean by that is adding things such as the logo, the menu bar, the sidebar components and footer components. These can include anything from twitter, to recent comments to tag clouds, etc.
3) Add graphics. The most important part of a design is to make sure that your graphics flow with the blog. You’ll notice the new enhanced graphics used on the new theme. It still retains some of the old design charm but adds a whole new modern appeal to it.
4) Test the theme for inconsistencies. What I mean by this is that sometimes when you develop a theme, what you miss out on are the little things. The spacing may not be right and things of that nature. Although this doesn’t sound like a lot. There were quite a few issues on the new them that took about 40% of my time!
5) Add the money-makers. This includes your Kontera, InfoLinks, Adsense and advertising network type stuff. Generally, this isn’t a big deal so it doesn’t take much effort but adsense integration can take a while to be effective.
6) Test the theme again and correct errors. Testing the theme one last time is key to the process. I realize, as early as about 15 minutes ago, that I missed out on a few things and that I have to go back and edit them.
Alrighty then, time for the bottom half of the new theme! Have a look!
As you’ll notice everything has been streamlined and that’s the key to any new design out there. Simple, effective yet modern. I hope you guys like the theme. We’d love to hear your feedback. If you haven’t heard of me, I am Enkay from EnkayBlog.com and WhatISeenToday.com. I will start blogging soon again so stay tuned for that but in the mean time, if you need anything, do email me at enkayblog (at) gmail (dot) com! Thank you so much for stopping by and we hope you love the new theme!
Posted Saturday, July 3, 2010 by |
May and the month of June have been hell for MCB. With malware hitting my site in May up to 3 times and then in June, was just too much. I was so tired of emailing back and forth to Hostgator and then begging GoogleWebmasterTools to please reconsider my site and get it back up and running. After checking with my hosting company, they indicated that… “the last time Google found any malicious content was 03/13/2010.” Yet I’ve had several attacks since March, and here I was in June of 2010. It’s hard to make money with one’s blog when it’s going off-line a couple of times a month. After all that is the purpose of having this blog, to make extra money.
I took a chance and reached out to a fellow blogger that I was hoping would say yes to helping me. The internet can be very tricky, people can pretend they’re something that they’re not, some will inflate their income tell you they have many more blogs than just one. But they’d rather not tell anyone the name of the other blogs/websites. I never understood the reasoning behind that one, well maybe I do. But for some reason I believe that when you are a blogger your dealing with a different caliber of personalities. I found that out when I first started my blog, you can connect with some of the nicest people you will ever meet. I’m still friends with many bloggers, with emails and phone calls back ‘n’ forth.Oh I’ve encountered one or two blogger (bullies ?) that didn’t like the idea of me buying “this” blog. No matter what I did back then those bloggers would never come around and finally gave up writing rude and snide things about me. But that was back a few years, before I even really knew about blogging, hell I’m still learning everyday.lol With that said I reached out to a blogger that I knew was smart with codes, ftp’s, and all of those other things I needed help with. That blogger was Enkay, I had started visiting his blog back a few years ago, and knew from reading his post and comments that this was a very educated & honest guy with a good head on his shoulders. I also felt that I could trust him and I knew he had what I needed…. HELP.
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Posted Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by momscashblog |
Turning Ones Passion into a Business
We are always looking for new ways to make money online. We discuss affiliate marketing, starting a blog, or dropshipping with websites. But have you heard of “the Maker Movement” or “hobbypreneurs”? It’s considered a “boom” on the internet, turning ones passions into small businesses. A person with a gift for knitting, the arts, jewelry making, writing stories or poetry whatever hobby you are into, can now make you money on the internet. Taking those hobbies and creating a store online (small business) with the help of new internet applications that are coming out almost everyday, anyone can now feature their wares on the internet and make money.
A lot of us have heard or are members of one of the very best sites on the internet for people with any kind of artistic know how, or a passion for crafting and that would be Etsy’s dot com. It is like a global marketplace where one can buy or sell their handmade items and turn them into cash. Martha Stewart has featured Etsy’s on her show several times as her favorite craft website. If any of you haven’t ever visited http://etsy.com you’ll see some of the most talented & unique craftsmanship, give it a look. Etsy’s gives you, the artist or craftsman a chance to make money and show your work on your storefront.
People of all ages are turning their passions for crafts,hobbies, writings, & music into businesses where it can either be full or part time jobs. Typically some of these ventures do just start off as a hobby or a love for a certain craft and later it transforms into a business online.
On Demand Publishing
Since the use of the internet, computer programs and high tech tools, things have been easier and cheaper to make in this age of internet technology. You can now become a published author with your own hard or soft cover books. There are POD “print on demand” dot coms, self publishing, and ODP “on demand publishing” dot coms now. One can get their stories, cookbooks, how to books or even that book of poetry you have always thought you had in you published, printed and you can start selling it at Amazon dot com or maybe Barnes & Noble. Have you had dreams about vampires, like Stephanie Meyers phenom author of the Twilight series? I know she didn’t go with a ODP “on demand publishing” but just think about it, if you have a story in you you can get it published now without having to go through a large publishing company just to get turned down.
On cnn.com I had read an article about the subject of “on demand publishing” where the Director of http://lulu.com (which is one of the many “on demand publishing co.’s that one can find by a search) Gail Jordan was talking about all the great things that this fairly new nontraditional publishing companies can offer anyone who wants to write and get published. Jordan was saying there is no one telling you that they want you to change chapter 6 to chapter 10, or that the title doesn’t work for them, remember you can’t get rejected. You pay for these services and they give you what you want without making you change anything. Let’s not forget that this could be considered “Green Publishing” you are only getting a certain amount of books printed so trees are being saved by using these services. (more…)
Posted Saturday, December 26, 2009 by momscashblog |
Bloggers Get the Word Out
When you have a blog on the internet whether it’s a blog for “making money online” or a blog about “affiliate marketing” or just a “blog about life” every once in awhile you’re asked to participate in helping a good cause. Having your own blog feels great because you know that you are reaching thousands of people and that you have the ability of lending a helping hand to people that work for some of these great causes. This is one of those times, and it’s the pleasure of MomsCashBlog to be able to help The Fresh Air Fund in any way that we could and this is my contribution. We are asked to get the word out about a Spring Half Marathon that will be held this spring/March 2010 in the Big Apple and they need runners, sponsors, volunteers, and of course donations at any time are always welcomed.
First about The Fresh Air Fund
The Fresh Air Fund is a not-for-profit agency that gives thousands of inner city children a chance of a life time. They have been giving these children this opportunity for more than 130 years which is really an outstanding accomplishment for a non-profit agency. Fresh air says it all, for these children get a chance to get out of the city in the summer time when the cities are hot, steamy and ozone levels are high. They get to enjoy several weeks with a sponsored family that may live by the ocean and make sand castles in the sand, jump & run from the crashing frigid cold waves of the Atlantic ocean and breathe in the fresh salt air. Think about a child that has never left the confines of the city-” the cement jungle” but are given a chance to stay at a camp with clean blue lakes and wildlife all around them, now imagine sitting around a camp fire at night toasting marshmallows. Seeing skyscrapers & tenement buildings standing tall & straight every day of their lives, but for a couple of weeks they get to enjoy beautiful trees standing tall & green reaching upward for the clear blue skies. They may take hikes in the forest and see wildlife that they may never see again. For these two weeks of the summer these children become part of another family doing all the things that some of them may never get to experience. Playing family board games on a rainy day at camp, maybe tenting in the back yard, or helping with the family veggie garden and tasting fresh fruit that they picked with their own hands. These are all memories that these children will cherish for their lifetime and you as a sponsored family will feel great knowing that you gave some child a chance of looking at the world in a different light and may lead them on a completely different path later in their life. Everyone wins in this program.. (more…)
Posted Saturday, July 25, 2009 by |
OK, I am back! I’ve had a lot of medical and legal things to deal with because of my hospital stay and I needed a little vacation. The good thing is that MCB makes money even when I’m not here and I actually made very good money while in a coma — but it’s not a good way to monetize a blog so I don’t recommend anyone try this at home! lol Now the first thing I want to do is thank everyone who wrote to me and let you know how I’m doing. Your prayers and good wishes were a big help to me. So, from the bottom of my heart, Thank You!
If you’ve read my last post, you know that I went into the hospital with kidney stones and ended up in an induced coma. What I didn’t say is that I was kicked out of the hospital after leaving the Critical Care Unit. When I say “kicked out”, I mean kicked out! I was told there was nothing wrong with me. I was in pain, very confused. I was being treated for pneumonia and could hardly talk after being intubated on a ventilator, but I managed to call my sister and tell her that a doctor/hospitalist told me I “wasn’t in a hotel and it was time for me to go!”
My sister called the Hospital Patient Advocate from the legal department and made arrangements to meet him in my room. A Patient Advocate is supposed to intervene in situations like this and legally should be on the side of the patient… but he clearly was there to represent the hospital/doctor and not me! At the same time, one of the nurses laid her job on the line and put a complaint in to the Legal Department about the doctor who was discharging me. So the Patient Advocate had 2 formal complaints, one from a nurse and one from my sister, but none of this mattered. He told us that if the doctor (hospitalist) said I was able to go home then I must go home. My sister said “I was told she had pneumonia and she clearly isn’t well, so I refuse to take her home!” He said “then we can have a van drop her off at her house.” She said “do you realize that just the other day she was in a coma?” He said, “yes, I’m aware of that, but she is fine now”. Sister: “then I will bring her right back down to the Emergency Room!”. Patient Advocate: “If you come to the ER we can refuse her.” They argued back and forth and his last words were “Sorry, but she has to leave.” So, I was given a dose of morphine for the pain and some discharge papers that said I had a “small bowel obstruction” (with no mention of kidney stones or anything else that happened) and sent home on one of the coldest nights of the year.
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Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 by momscashblog |
From a coma to my blog — Part 1
It’s been 2 months since I went into the hospital with kidney stones and then had my “near death experience” and I finally feel pretty much back to normal — or as close to “normal’ as I’ll ever get! lol I’m told these are some of the first questions I had when I awoke from the coma… “Where am I?” and “What day is it?” and the strangest one of all, “Oh no, did my blog expire?” lol They say everyone laughed and was relieved that I hadn’t lost my memory and that I was pretty much all right in the brain department. They say I also worried about my cat, my bills, my finances, and my house… so basically I woke up worrying! lol
I think everyone has wondered what it feels like to be in a coma and now I know. For me it was confusing. The last day that I was conscious blurred into the day I woke up, but I do know that I was irritated, upset, and felt very helpless. Waking up on a respirator is not fun! I have since learned that they have to take the respirator and breathing tube out of you the moment you wake up… it would be nice for the patient if they could take it out BEFORE you are conscious. That way you could just open your eyes and wake up peacefully… like they do in the movies! But that’s not how it is done. If you were dependent on a respirator to breath while in a coma, they take the breathing tube out the minute you wake up. If they find that you can’t breath on your own, it goes right back in and you get heavily sedated until they decide what to do. Luckily, I could breath on my own and did not become dependent on the respirator/ventilator to breath for me. (more…)
Posted Sunday, April 5, 2009 by momscashblog |
Here’s a guest post from a fellow blogger who is truly inquisitive about the economy, stock market, and all things financial. Investment terms can be overwhelming and hard to understand, but if you study up on just a few terms a week, you can become a savvy investor in no time — or at least you can talk like one!
Learn New Wall Street Terms
by InquisitiveAboutFinance
This latest downtrend or recession has taught a common man many new financial terms. These terms are not new to the financial sector, they were just buried under the good economy for some time. Now, they are becoming part of our everyday conversations.
1. Ponzi Scheme: A Ponzi scheme is also known as a pyramid scheme. It’s a fraudulent investment plan promising very high returns to investors from their own money or money paid by earlier investors rather than from any actual profits earned. One common way for the Ponzi scheme to attract investors is with the promise of high short term returns. This scheme was named after Charles Ponzi who made this scheme popular in the 20s. Thanks to Bernie Madoff this scheme was brought again into the limelight!
The US Federal Trade Commission says that because of the pyramid’s very nature, at least 70 percent of those who invest in a Ponzie Scheme will NOT see any returns and will lose their investment. It is mathematically impossible to recruit enough investors to pay out to all levels of the pyramid. (more…)
