Humblewings

My sister just started a new blog called Humblewings.

Make sure to check it out.

Information Metropolis

Another website added to the empire, this one will be more of an informative one, thus it is called my Information Metropolis, or InfoMetropolis for short.

It will be an eclectic mix of information for a bucketload of various topics, and as such in the future will be made interactive such that you list what you want to know, and infometropolis will answer it for you. Pretty far reaching for a website.

Hybrid Cars

Hybrid cars are one of the newest things available to help the environment. By driving a hybrid car, you will not only be burning a lot less gasoline, but also saving money at the same time.

What could be better than that?

I suggest that you get a hybrid vehicle for your next car. Our next purchase will be a Toyota Prius, but other automakers such as Ford and Honda also have excellent hybrid models, including hybrid suv's.

F.O.C.U.S.

By learning to focus better, you'll find that you get so much more done that you thought was impossible.

My wife goes to nursing school full time right now, and I have 4 at home that I home-school, 1 boy 6 years old, 3 girls at 7, 8, and 9 years old. We also have a 10 year old daughter in a private school.

In order to get any work done, I block our time in 30 minute to hour increments, for example, one hour helping them with math, one hour reading, one hour free time for them while i work on article writing, 30 minutes to do a blog posting, 1 hour for research, 30 minutes for a family workout, etc.

It sounds complicated, but really isn't once you commit to it.

The main problem I had when I started working full time online was FOCUS, and I still sometimes waste time surfing instead of working, or reading about all the great new Internet Products I could buy when I should spend time writing content instead.

Once we started homeschooling last year, I had to really get dedicated to maintaing a proper focus and still work daily at trying to keep the right mindset to balance family and work obligations without feeling like I have neglected either.

I developed an acronym that helps me out, hopefully it can help others:

F - Find a place to work with minimal distractions
O - Organize (my desk was a mess, but now I can find stuff quickly)
C - Concentrate on only one project at a time
U - Use tools you have (Go through those folders of PDF's and software)
S - Set a goal and stay on target to reach it.

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year in this, the Year of the Dog. Today we went to The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in downtown Dallas to celebrate. They had kite making, instrument making, karate exhibitions, and Chinese dancers. And at the end of the day they had a Chinese Dragon, which was pretty cool for the kids.

After all of that, we then went and had Chinese food, so I think we pretty much covered all our bases today. Dori is currently studying China at Hockaday, so hopefully the visit helped her out a little, and we also swung by the Dallas Museum of Art to get some pictures of Marie with some art to enable her to finish some of the homework she has from her Art Appreciation class. Tomorrow we'll have the kids do a journal on their experiences this weekend.

Anchor Text Explanation

Anchor Text: the phrase that you click on to link to somewhere.

for example, in your signature you have your blog as:

http://antiquediva.blogspot.com

so the anchor text that people click on is the whole thing:

http://antiquediva.blogspot.com

now if you had it as Antique Diva

then the Antique Diva part is the anchor text that is declaring you to be the
antique diva.

the code for that is simply ANCHOR TEXT YOU WANT TO USE

Building a Wardrobe

Yesterday I built a new wardrobe for my son. We bought it at IKEA, and for those of you who don't know who IKEA is, it is a Swedish home furnishings store. They have all kinds of furniture and pretty much everything else you need to complete or complement your home.

Anyways, one of the things we were really in need of was a wardrobe for Christopher, as the dresser he had fell apart. Combine a 6 year old boy with a 6 year old poorly designed particleboard dresser, and you have a recipe for disaster. The drawers were always being pulled all the way out, handles mysteriously coming loose, bottoms falling out.

So we bit the bullet and got him something new so that he could be more organized, and wouldn't feel like the girls were always getting stuff and he wasn't.

The directions for the dresser were pretty odd, at least considering the last directions I followed when building something else that wasn't purchased from IKEA. There were no words whatsoever, only pictures of each of the pieces and the numbering to tell you what order to do it in.

I had it done in about an hour.

Compare that to directions you get for lots of other things, where you have massive amounts of text and very few graphics. You may think you are getting your message across by providing all the text, but unless you give clear illustrations that text doesn't always draw everybody in like you think it should.

That is why I feel text only based copy is leaving out quite a few of the new generation when you try to sell. Most of the youth (those under 30 I would say) grew up in a world (American at least) where visuals are key. Whether you have pictures, images, videos, text boxes, testimonials set off to the side, whatever method you use, just make sure you are breaking up the copy to include more graphic elements, and you'll find your response rate going up.

Another Day Gone

Today was a good day work-wise. I accomplished several little jobs on my to-do list, and now the only major job I have to tackle that is still undone is to clean my office.

I vowed this year to get organized, and so far have started a filing system and started using an organizer. The only major obstacle to my organization is my desk. For one thing, it is facing totally the wrong way for feng-shui purposes.

I have myself facing the corner as that was the best place to put it when I first started my *ahem* corner office, but now realize that me staring at either the monitor or the two walls is not as conducive to working as I originally thought it would be.

So, the main thing I need to do is clean it off and then turn it so that I am facing the door. That way the energy can flow in towards me, instead of hitting my back and going away.

So, guess what I'll be doing tomorrow...

Yep, rearranging.

The other key project is to put a wardrobe together for Christopher. So far the poor boy has had everything as hand-me-downs, from bed to mattress to dresser. So we went out this weekend and got him a new wardrobe at IKEA, and the fun will begin tomorrow when I start to assemble it. Wish me luck!

My Meeting With Rusty

Rusty is a service dog. What he does is helps enable those with less than normal sight to get around.

When I first met Rusty on Friday, for some reason I had always thought he would be yellower, but he is more a whitish cream.

If ever you wondered what a good service dog was like, then Rusty is the dog you should meet.

He spent three days attending a seminar where there were people clapping, yelling, laughing, and just generally making fools of themselves.

Through all of it he was unflappable. He laid in the aisle, showing everybody that he was in charge, and if people got too out of line, he would just give them a look, as if to say, "hey, chill out".

I learned a lot from Rusty this weekend. He taught me that no matter what the chaos is that goes around you, that as long as you stay focused and do your job to the best of your ability, then nobody will question you or challenge you.

He showed the true meaning of focus and dedication.

San Francisco Seminar

Well here I am on the last day of an Internet Marketing and Copywriting Seminar. So far we have learned a lot of new stuff, and now I will be busy as hell trying to implement everything.

I did get a new website up, so if you have any questions at all about organic gardening then go on over to http://www.thecompostking.net/ and ask away.