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Glossary: Applet

October 28, 2008 By

Applet

An applet is a small program or application, which is usually written in Java, and runs on a Web browser. An applet powers some of the fancier features of Internet pages, such as animation. They download quickly and are used both online and offline. Applets can be scrolling text, buttons and such, but are also used for much larger things like games and word processors.

An applet can be embedded into a webpage and usually has several settings that will allow you to personalize it. For instance, if you insert an applet that will work as a menu, you can specify which options should be in the menu, and which pages should be loaded upon clicking on an option.

A great site to learn more about applets and how they work is Echo Echo.com. And, it’s a great site to visit if you’re new to the internet, blogging or just want to spruce up your internet savviness (that’s a word, right?).

Filed Under: Blogging

What’s Your Price for a Post?

October 28, 2008 By
changepurse

What’s your price to give another site a little exposure on your blog?

I’m not referring to ‘review posts’ where you take the time to personally try out a product, then write a complete review about it.  I’m talking about simply posting a short blurb (150 words or so) and linking to an event or resource in order to give it some buzz and links from a relevant site.

What do you or would you charge for this sort of post?

Would you be interested in being on a list to receive notices about blogging opportunities for moms with family or craft related blogs?

Leave a comment and share :)

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Glossary: Attachment

October 26, 2008 By
attachment

Attachment

A file or group of files that is included with an e-mail message. You can attach files through most e-mail programs. To attach a file to an e-mail, simply click the “attach file” button or similar button.

Most e-mail programs I use have a cute little “paperclip” button for attaching files. Once you click that, a menu will open that allows you to browse through your computer to find the file or image that you’d like to attach.

Examples of things that would typically be attached to an email are:

  • Text documents
  • Spreadsheets
  • Pictures
  • Videos (if the file size isn’t too big)

Some email program’s spam fighters may prevent attachments from being sent or downloaded for fear of a harmful virus so never open any attachment you receive from someone you do not know.

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Blogging Mom, Get Your Gravatar On!

October 25, 2008 By
gravatar-in-comment

If you check out the comment area of Profitable Mommy Blogging (and many other great blogs) you’ll notice that the blog theme has been set up to display a photograph of the commenter.

Have you wondered how it is that they are able to do that and how the heck you can get your pic to show up when you leave a comment?

It’s done automatically with Gravatars.

A Gravatar is a ‘Globally Recognized Avatar’.  An Avatar is simply an image used to represent you on the internet.

I think having a Gravatar set up is great for developing your web presence.  I love seeing smiling faces in my comment section and I love know that the blogs I comment on will sport my face for everyone to see.

To create your own Gravatar you will start by getting a photograph of you saved on your computer.  Don’t worry about it being a headshot or and don’t be concerned about size.

Now to go to the Gravatars website.

You’ll create your account based on the email address you use when you’re leaving comments on blogs so enter that first.  You will receive an email from Gravatars to confirm this address.  The next step will be to set up a username and password and upload your photo.

Once your image is uploaded you’ll be able to crop your photo just the way you like – hit save and you’re done!  Now this image is associated with your email address and anytime you comment on a Gravatar enabled blog, you’ll see it next to your comment.

Why not try it out right now?  Show us your Gravatar!

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Glossary: Affiliate

October 24, 2008 By
momstalkaffiliateogo-med

Affiliate

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of business on the web, and an effective way to promote businesses and products. When you become an affiliate with a specific company, or affiliate program, you are awarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer that you provide to the company.

The basic set up, from the affiliate side, goes as follows:

  • You (the Affiliate) find a company or product that you would like to promote.
  • You join the “affiliate program” of the company and receive the tools by which you can send customers to the company’s website. This most often includes a special URL link, which will let the company know that the customer has come from you.
  • You will get credit when people visit the company’s website. Details can vary, but in most cases you receive a percentage of the revenue from sales that customers make from following your link.

[Read more...]

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Twitter Tools for Blogging

October 23, 2008 By
tweet-tools

In my last post about Twitter, I mentioned some Twitter tools that would help you get the most out of using Twitter to promote your blog. There are a lot of different Twitter-related websites and services and the list grows longer every day. I even received an invitation to Twitters Anonymous this morning. I sure hope someone wasn’t trying to tell me something!

The first type of Twitter tool I want to mention is the Twitter client which basically means a program you can use to access Twitter in ways other than going to Twitter.com. Two of the most popular are Twhirl and TweetDeck, both of which use the Adobe Air platform.

The advantage of using a Twitter client is that you can access it from your desktop without having your web browser open. They update automatically so that you’re not constantly having to refresh. It will also notify you when there are new tweets or DMs (direct messages) by either a sound or a pop-up or sometimes both. [Read more...]

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Digging In From the Top

October 23, 2008 By

Last night I was joined by Berni Dourlain to continue our discussion on blogging.

If you missed our initial interview, catch it here. We decided to start from the beginning leaving the coding and actual setting up of the blog for later but to cover what and to whom you blog.

Forgive if we jump around in talking as my 8 month old son kept distracting us! [Read more...]

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Profitable Mommy Blogging #2

October 22, 2008 By
Standard Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup

Welcome to Episode Number Two made just for you – the mom blogger who would like to find ways to earn an income from your love of blogging.

There are a lot of ways to profit from the skills you’ve been building up as a blogger.  Today’s guest is a very good example of this.

Guest: Tammy Munson of Army Household 6 joins me to talk about how her role as a military mom blogger has opened doors for opportunities to provide services as a new media Virtual Assistant and earned her invitations to blog professionally for military organizations.

When Tammy started her family blog it was for herself.  She called it therapeutic.  Little did she know where it could take her.

Topic: Exciting resource for Mommy Bloggers.  Read this post about a weekend spent with some cool Mom Bloggers, then sign up for notices about Lynn Terry’s Webinar Series.

Coming up next week: Entrecard discussion!

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An Interview With A Blogging Newbie

October 21, 2008 By

Last night I met with my friend, Bernadette Dourlain and her 8-year old daughter Cordey, at the local Panera Bread.

Berni has heard me talk of blogging, WordPress, search engine ranking- you name it. She wanted to pick my brain on how she could add ‘something’ to her Tomboy Tools website so that she could share home project tips and advice. So of course I wanted to share with her all she could do with a blog to help her business grow.

Before she could ask me questions I was ready with a list of seven questions to see what she knew of blogging and how it could help her accomplish her goals. Here is our conversation (minus a few off topic jabbering as you would find with friends): [Read more...]

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Blog Header Winner: Lexi of My Life Shift

October 21, 2008 By
congrats

Congratulations to Lexi of My Life Shift!  You are our first contest winner at Profitable Mommy Blogging.

You’re going to be blessed with a terrific custom blog header graphic from Heather at Girly Blog Designz.

We can’t wait to see what she creates for you :)   Be sure to come back and tell us about it!

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Can This Mommy Blogger Stretch?

October 20, 2008 By

If you are here learning about the new tools and tricks to help you monetize your blog then you’ve heard of the term ‘Mommy Blogger’ and probably consider yourself in this category. Have you heard of ‘Niche Blogger’? In a recent post by Lynn Terry at Click Newz she recapped her time at BlissDom ‘O8. Sure it was a recap of events, but I got so much more out of it.

The Mommy Bloggers that Lynn spoke with all mentioned they’d be happy getting $500 a month to compensate their time and resources blogging. Wow! $500 just for talking about things you are willing to talk about anyway- doing something that you are passionate about. Seems like a lot right? [Read more...]

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Glossary: Adwords

October 20, 2008 By

Hi there Mommy Bloggers! Back again with another definition in our “A to Z Guide to the Internet”.

Adwords

Google’s advertising product and main source of revenue is Adwords. Adwords offers pay-per-click advertising for text and banner ads. When advertisers use Adwords to promote their product or service, their ads appear on any related website or blog that is using Adsense, or when a keyword is used in a search on Google, Adwords places your ad in the sidebar of the search results. Placement of the ad depends on how much paid for the ad.

Adwords advertisements are short, and consist of a title and two content lines. Advertisers pick keywords that relate to that their ad, and then bid on these keywords. They pay each time someone clicks on their ad. The advertisement will take the clicker to the merchant’s website.

Keywords cost more when they are more popular. If a lot of people are bidding on the word “blogging” the cost per click will be much higher. Depending on the keyword, a click may cost anywhere from $0.10 to several dollars.

In Our Opinion: As a mom blogger – Google Adwords is probably not the best way to drive traffic unless you have a sure way to monetize that traffic – so tread carefully!

Filed Under: Blogging

Get Your Mommy Blogging Off To A Colorful Start With Epson

October 19, 2008 By
epson-workforce600

How often have you been sitting on the couch working on your latest profitable blogging post and needed to print something? If you are like me you’d rather be sitting curled up comfy then at a desk. Personally, I will save everything I need to print in a folder so I can later plug my laptop in- Not the best solution.

Now with help from Sparkplugging and Epson you can print from anywhere in the house! Talk about a sigh of relief for the upcoming days of winter when a snuggly bed is the prime area for blogging. When I saw this contest for a chance to win a Epson Workforce 600 I was blown away. Then I noticed it’s not just a printer they are giving away but a whole new branding opportunity with a custom logo from Randa Clay Design!

Here are a few ideas I came up with for using this prize: [Read more...]

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How To Buy A Domain Name for your Mom Blog

October 19, 2008 By
web-research

A domain name is the web address of your website. For instance, wahmtalkradio.com is the domain name for Work at Home Mom’s Talk Radio, and showmomthemoney.com is the domain name for Show Mom the Money.

Here are some tips for choosing a good domain name:

  • Go with .com – most people are going to remember .com. Domain names that end in .net or .org for instance, may be easier to find than domains that end in .com, but if you have a different ending, you could end up losing customers.
  • Spell things correctly – if you want to name your blog “sewing by Susie” and it’s already taken, don’t misspell words on purpose (example: “sewing by sue-z”). Misspellings are hard for your customers to remember, and if they type in the correct spelling of the domain, you may end up sending them to someone else’s blog. [Read more...]
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Introducing Alaina Frederick

October 18, 2008 By

Hello! My name is Alaina Frederick and I am another new blogger here at Profitable Mommy Blogging. I am a mother to three boys and have had an interesting journey to mommy blogging.

Almost five years ago I decided to quit my corporate banking job to be home with my first born. The first months were spent adjusting to motherhood and not having a set schedule of any kind. As trying as new parenthood can be I wanted more- I needed to keep my brain active on a different level. I tried my hand at direct sales, three different companies to be exact. After valuable time and financial resources I came to the conclusion that it was just not for me. Then we moved from our small rural town to a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. – vastly different in lifestyle and cost-of-living. I began researching ways for us to save money so that I could continue being home with my kids- what I found was a whole work at home world and cloth diapers (yes, you read right!). [Read more...]

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