Cheerleaders
March 28th, 2008Cheerleaders
Bring Them To Us
While cleaning up Blog About Nothing, streamlining the categories, and fixing all of the old posts, it has come to my attention that there are far too few cheerleader posts here.
Cheerleaders are absolutely incredible creatures and I’m a huge fan of all things “cheerleady”. (Disclaimer: Female cheerleaders only. I understand the need for the guys to be there, spotting for the girls while they perform their awesome stunts, but I wear special goggles to filter them out from my line of vision.) The “Cheerleader” category was added on the same day this blog was created, even in it’s prior life (Blog About Nothing has been reinvented several times over the past 5 years or so).
I will be rectifying this cheerleader neglect right away. Blog About Nothing will soon become the online cheerleader capital of the world.
The Magic Of Children
March 28th, 2008The Magic Of Children
The Beauty Of Creating Them
My youngest daughter performed in a play at her school this morning. These school functions always seem like they’re a big inconvenience initially – juggling my work schedule to make time for it – but always end up being very much worth any perceived inconvenience. I wouldn’t trade the time with my children for anything.
It does make me empathize for couples who want to have babies, but are unable to conceive for one reason or another. But, I have heard many success stories from couples who tried in vitro fertilization – some that I know personally and others through mutual friends. This certainly explains why in vitro is an increasingly popular infertility treatment.
IVF 1, an in vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis center with offices in Chicago and Naperville, IL, is one of those responsible for some of these success stories. Dr. Randy Morris of IVF1 has been specializing in infertility and reproductive medicine since 1992.
Of course, there are alternatives available and each couple needs to evaluate all possibilities, and choose which path is best for them. There is a certain undeniable magic knowing that you, and your partner, have created a new life, together.
Why Your Blog Will Fail - Part V
March 28th, 2008Why Your Blog Will Fail
Part V
Final Destination
(Fifth and final of the five part Why You Blog Will Fail series. Click here for the previous part).
Hopefully you’ve already read Parts I – IV of this series. If not, you might want to go back and do so.
This segment will actually focus a bit less on why your blog will fail, or hopefully why your blog will NOT fail if you’ve followed the previous suggestions. Instead, we’re fast forwarding ahead in time a bit, to discuss the final destination of your blog.
Unless your blog is clearly a runaway success – possibly revealed by visitors, Google PageRank, Technorati links, Alexa rank, etc. – there will come a point where you will need to answer the question, “Did my blog fail?”.
If you’re blog is a runaway success, congratulations. You’ve done a lot of things right, and have probably learned quite a bit from the things you didn’t so quite so right.
If not, you will first need to define your measure of “success”.
Maybe your goal is to have a lot of visitors, or a lot of comments (these do not always go hand-in-hand by the way), or to make friends in the blog community. Your goal may have been to simply get all of your poetry online to share with the world, rather than publishing it in a book. Or, your goal might be to make a living from blogging.
Whatever you define as “success”, remember that you are the only one that will be able to declare that definition for your specific blog.
If at this point, despite all of your effort to avoid it, you feel that your blog has failed, then it’s most likely time to move on. You have a few options – you could just delete the entire blog, you could give it to someone, or you could reinvent it and try again.
It’s also possible that blogging, or writing in general, just isn’t for you. A lot of people buy a guitar in hopes of being a rock star, but quickly realize that playing a guitar is actually quite difficult, and without the passion for it, there will be no success. Blogging is no different.
And, that’s OK. Nobody is good at everything. Just because blogging may appear easy from the outside looking in, doesn’t mean that it is.
However, if you have reached that level which you’ve defined as success, then you should now look for ways to monetize your blog – that is, earn some money from it. You don’t need to think big necessarily, and money might very well not be your goal. But, if you can even earn enough to cover your web hosting, or your Internet connection, with very little effort, then allow the successful blog that you’ve created to pay for itself. You never know, many wealthy people began to amass their fortune quite by accident, just following their passion.
For those of you that have developed the successful blog, your journey is really just now beginning. If you haven’t already discovered this, you are about to. Successful blogging is very addictive. If you can create one blog and nurture it to success, then why not another blog about a different topic?
The answer is - there is no reason why you can’t. In fact, you will find that creating additional blogs is incredibly easy after you’ve become successful with your first one. That’s both the gift and the curse of blogging, because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to maintain all of the blogs that you potentially have ideas for. Be selective, and be successful.
No matter your goals with your blog, good luck with it. If you enjoy blogging as much as many of us do, you’ll soon find yourself ruling over a small army of blogs.
Save Money
March 28th, 2008Save Money
Why Online Coupons Rock
I ran across my very first online coupon about nine years ago while doing some shopping on the web. At this point, I’m not even sure that I can remember what that first coupon was for. But, I do know that with very few exceptions, I have not purchased anything since that first time without first searching for discount codes online.
Most recently, I used promotion code for 1800flowers found on 1-coupons.com when ordering some flowers for my beautiful wife. I was able to brighten her day with the surprise flower delivery, and brighten my own by saving money on the purchase.
Online coupons were easiest to find in late 1999 and early 2000. Many companies were offering huge discounts through many coupons and codes, until the burst of the Internet bubble in 2001.
A few years have passed now, and the online marketplace has grown significantly, leading many online retailers and service providers to again offer online coupons, providing us with savings.
When I bought my new Gibson SG guitar and Marshall amp last year (which is an absolutely rockin’ combination by the way), I utilized an online coupon code during the purchase. At that time, I saved 15% off my purchase, as well as free shipping. We’re talking close to $500 here.
By using online coupons, I saved quite a bit of money while Christmas shopping for our kids last year. Saving on the two digital cameras we purchased for them, as well as the new Nintendo Wii game system, allowed me to save on items they really wanted.
Don’t assume that whatever you’re in the market for doesn’t have an online coupon or discount code. You can find coupons for everything from web hosting and insurance, to flowers and toys. In fact, it’s safer to assume that for whatever you need or want, there like is a coupon for it.
Extended Maintenance
March 27th, 2008Extended Maintenance
Let’s Call It Ongoing
OK, so I lied a little bit in that earlier post about the maintenance…
The maintenance will be continuing for a while. I’m trying not to disrupt the flow here too much, and definitely trying to avoid the destruction of the database as I’ve done previously. Mostly it’s SEO work, code cleanup, and some streamlining of the categories and links.
More Remodeling
March 27th, 2008More Remodeling
But This Part Was Easy!
Awesome! In the seemingly never-ending remodeling of our home one of the current projects is replacing windows and, of course, our window coverings.
In our dining room, we wanted to replace the blinds with either roman shades or café shutters. Well, this was much easier than expected – once I found the Discount Roman Shades prices at selectblinds.com. We’re going to save over 25% when compared to the prices at our local dealer.
The roman shades will take care of the immediate portion of this project, but we have many more window coverings to order and I expect we’ll get all of them from selectblinds.com. With their excellent prices and 150% Price Guarantee, we’d be crazy to go anywhere else.
Search Engine Optimization
March 27th, 2008Search Engine Optimization
It’s Hard To Stop
Over the past couple of months I’ve just started to become more interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Only over the past couple of weeks have I really begun to get serious about it.
So far, I’ve learned that the more I learn, the more I still need to learn. SEO is really cool stuff, and as someone who appreciates technology, logic, and algorithms, this is exactly the kind of geeky stuff that I enjoy. But, man, there is a ton to learn.
One of the speed bumps in this learning is that there’s still a lot of guesswork involved with Search Engine Optimization. Oh, there are some things that have been proven to help - or hurt, as the case may be - but Google or Yahoo can change the rules at the snap of a finger.
So far I’ve found a lot of great information out there and I’ve been sifting through it, and trying to comprehend it. I’ve put some of the theories into practice - mostly on my other websites - and I’m analyzing the results.
This will be a learning process for the foreseeable future.
What Is Kernicterus?
March 27th, 2008What Is Kernicterus?
We Hope You Don’t Need To Know
Are you familiar with Kernicterus? Hopefully your answer is “no”, and hopefully you’ll never need to learn more about it.
Sadly, others have learned firsthand that Kernicterus is brain damage caused from untreated jaundice soon after a baby is born. Luckily, Kernicterus only develops if the jaundice is untreated – and jaundice does not always lead to Kernicterus. But, since jaundice is usually easily detected, and easily treated, it’s very logical to ask “Well, how can any baby possibly develop Kernicterus then?”
Clearly, children who develop Kernicterus quite likely are victims of medical malpractice. If your child has been diagnosed with Kernictus, you owe it to yourself, as well as your child, to read more about kernicterus law.
Unfortunately, there are many frivolous lawsuits that make the headlines today. The absurdity of many of these might very well dissuade people with legitimate cases from coming forward. While most ethical people would agree that those frivolous lawsuits raise the costs of insurance and services for all of us, that should not prevent anyone from pursuing settlements for legitimate claims. And medical professionals, more than anyone else, need to be held accountable when their errors, neglect, or incompetence cause permanent damage to one of our family members.
If you have a child with Kernicterus, you both may very well have a long road ahead of you. But, with your own research, and with the assistance from qualified legal professionals, that road might be a bit easier to navigate.
A Bit Of Maintenance
March 27th, 2008There’s a bit of behind-the-scenes maintenance going on right now here at Blog About Nothing. Some links and internal structures may break in the process, but should be resolved before the next new post.
Your Personal Economy
March 27th, 2008Your Personal Economy
Thoughts On Finance And Credit
In the United States, there’s no denying that both the mortgage and credit industries are going through quite a bit of turmoil right now. I do hope, however, that most of the educated people out there realize just how much the media hype and sensationalism are contributing to the perceived level of turmoil – which is quite greater than the actual problem.
There’s no denying that the economy has slowed, and the high cost of fuel is beginning to trickle down to the retailers and suppliers, and the cost of goods are likewise rising. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
Downturns in the economy are an excellent time to re-evaluate your own personal economics. Are there places where you can save money that were easily overlooked when you were less concerned about the economy?
Are you still driving that gas-guzzling SUV? The one in front of me at the gas station last week pumped $98 into the tank. If that were me, I would have been on my way to the car dealer that afternoon. A Honda Civic is starting to look very attractive right now. Of course, I would visit the auto loans archive at creditloan.com before jumping into any car loan. With a few preventative steps, you can make sure those gas savings aren’t eaten up by a high-interest car loan.
In fact, creditloan.com has quite a bit of information that can save you money, on everything from auto loans to home financing. They even provide links to solutions for consumers with bad credit. They should definitely be one of your stops while you work on improving your personal economy.
