I recently had to buy a NEW laptop because I spilled water in my other one and fried my motherboard. Now I didn’t spill the water on purpose, I was trying to avoid my 2 year old from grabbing it out of my hand when some accidentally flung out of the glass onto my keyboard. Now that I had to almost start from fresh, I need to find a graphics program to install on this new laptop.

On my old laptop, I used a few FREE graphic software programs that I downloaded online. While sometimes FREE is the most cost effective way, sometimes FREE software does not do exactly what you want it to do. So now I am shopping for a graphics software program to suite my needs. Since I am a web designer and a blogger, I am looking for something with lots of options. I want to be able to create logos, button ads, banner ads as well as edit my thousands of pictures I am always taking of my family.

So I want to ask you, what is your favorite graphics program? Do you prefer Corel or maybe Photoshop? Feel free to share what program you have or use in the comments below.

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A great way to make money when you own a website, blog or newsletter is through advertising. Depending on your site’s audience, you can charge others to place a text ad or image ad of some sort. I recently heard of a website called Project Wonderful. This site allows you to bid for advertising spots on other blogs or websites as well as earn money from others paying you to advertise.

How it works is simple. You basically create a FREE account and create an ad box. It will give you code to copy to your site. Within minutes, you will be ready to start accepting bids on your ad space.

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Mavenlink. All opinions are 100% mine.

When you own a business, being able to communicate with your clients is important to create a working relationship between you and your clients. With my business, I am always keeping in touch with my clients via email. When you have a large business, there will be times when you need more than just email to communicate with your clients. I was looking today at the Mavenlink website. If you have never heard of it, Mavelink is a company that has a program that allows companies to communicate with their clients with a user-friendly platform.

Mavenlink has a proven record with an excellent technology platform that helps you with the communication needs between you and your client. I only see this program getting better in the future with all the fast growing technology. If you are looking for an application or tool that will help your business, you should look at the different accounts that are available that you can sign up for. They currently offer 3 different accounts that each come with a free trial and no credit card required.

Why not give it a try, it is RISK FREE!

Enjoy

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I have over a dozen blogs. Some of my blogs are within another domain so I don’t have stats just for the blog like I have wanted until now. I did not know how easy it was to install the Wordpress Stats Plugin. I installed it on one of my blogs a couple days ago and within hours I had stats coming in.

If you have a self hosted Wordpress blog and want some stats, try using the plugin at:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Example screenshot taken from Wordpress site:

You basically upload the plugin, activate it and input your Wordpress API key. Easy as pie!

Enjoy

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Raising a Father. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love books that are about stories from the heart. The video below is about a book called Raising a Father that is written by a father who seen his flaws at parenting. This father realized that he was spending too much time at work which was damaging the relationship with his daughter. In this book, the author shares his real true stories about leaving the corporate world. He leaves his job to start a home based business which enables him to spend time with his daughter. This story is really inspiring because I too left the corporate world to run my own business from home to spend time with my family.

For the dads that spend too much time at work, I recommend giving this book a read. Some people just need a little inspiration to reach towards their goals. I had a dream for years of working from home and I took that dream and made it come true. There are times when I think that my family would be “better off” if I had the income from my old employer, but the time I spend with my family is definitely worth the pay cut.

What are your thoughts about dad staying at home with their families?

Enjoy

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Since I am a frugal person who saves money, I use “free graphic programs” rather then shelling out a ton of money buying one. The internet has quite a few FREE programs out there to edit and create images that are just as good as the programs you can buy.

I have heard lots of other moms talking about the program Picnik. This is a free graphics editor that is fun to use. It has a bunch of neat effects and fonts to use with your photos. What makes this program even better is you don’t have to download anything. You can create and edit your images online, without even creating an account. Of course you can create a FREE account or go with their Premium service that gives you more options. I went online this morning and looked for different tutorials for this program and found a fun one called Picknik Hair Color Fun. I just had to try it out with one of my photos of me and my son. In just a couple minutes, I turned this photo:

Into this fun photo below:

Neato huh?

Of course there is WAY more stuff you can do with Picnik. Last night I used my logo on one of my blogs to create a cute button image. If you love to play with graphics, I recommend playing around with this free program. There are lots of other tutorials you can find online, especially on YouTube.

If you need to make your own button image for your blog, I recommend taking a peek at Linda’s post “Make Your Own Cutest  EVER Blog Buttons For FREE“. She is the one originally introduced me to Picnik with her post.

Now go have some fun with Picnik too!

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©Terri Seymour of www.SeymourProducts.com

Social media marketing is extremely important to your business and as this marketing method evolves, so must you and your business. Social media marketing is marketing through online communities, social networking sites, blogs, etc. If you are not already utilizing social sites for your business, you need to start NOW!

Social networking enables business owners to get extreme exposure for very little or no cost. You can use social networking sites to build your reputation, brand your business and increase your customer base. The marketing potential of these sites is phenomenal!

Now you can’t just register, make your profile and then never go back. You have to keep your information fresh, add new content, always be looking for new contacts, etc. Meeting new people, whether they be potential customers, business associates, or just people learning the ropes, can be very beneficial for your business and your reputation.

These sites allow you to make yourself much more accessible than just having your own site. Whenever possible, use your business name as your username to help make your business more recognized.

Social marketing sites can also help you get more links thus increasing your search engine ranking. People who find your content and information helpful and useful will link back to you which will in turn cause your own website to become more popular.
You can also use your social site pages to gather information and feedback from people on your products. This can help you improve your business and improve customer service.

By participating in social marketing you can find partners/associates for joint ventures. You can cross promote and build solid business relationships that can help everyone.

By providing good and fresh information, resources and content, you can build trust with your visitors, associates, potential customers, etc., thus building your business a strong reputation. Building relationships is the foundation for a successful business.

Adding pictures of yourself and/or videos can go a long way in making your social media marketing more effective.

The three main steps in social marketing:

1. Make Your Account
2. Always be adding new content, links, products, resources, etc.
3. Add friends, followers, contacts, etc. as much as possible.

This can be very confusing so start slow. Learn from other social marketers. Study social marketing strategies. Take it one step at a time.

My three favorite social sites are:
Twitter.com
LinkedIn.com
Facebook.com

Come on over and see me sometime!

Social marketing has made its mark and it is here to stay. You need to utilize these sites to make your mark as well.

About the Author:

Terri Seymour (also known as “The eBook Lady”) has over ten years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site at http://www.seymourproducts.com for resources, $1 resell ebooks & software, free tutorials, affiliate programs, free ezine and free business ebook with Master Resell Rights. http://www.seymourproducts.com/free.shtml

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One of my favorite ways that I make money online is by writing. I really have a true passion for writing and make some great money doing it online each and every month. When I was young, I wanted to write children’s books. I even had a poem published in one of those poetry books.  If you have a passion for writing, you can seriously make an extra income online. There are tons of different ways you can make money with freelance writing, blog posting, articles and more.

Lots of moms (and dads) are making money writing articles for the website Examiner.com. I have not personally made any money myself, but I am going to sign up for the program to see what it has to offer. What is Examiner? It is the insider source for everything local. They are the fastest-growing local destination site on the web with city editions in over 90 major markets across the U.S., and millions of visitors

Examiner is looking for thousands of writers that they call “Examiners” who can create original content that entertains and informs their readers. Examiners can reach millions of readers, they earn money generated by their articles, and build their writing portfolio. Does it work? Yes, thousands of people have already become Examiners.

You don’t have to be an expert writer either! If you like to write, apply and see what happens.

Earn money generated by your articles. Write for Examiner.com.

Enjoy
Stefani

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Speek. All opinions are 100% mine.

Many times teleconferencing can come in very handy for your business. I have been on many conference calls for different businesses that I have been involved with in the past and thought the concept was great. You are able to get many people on one conversations I should say.

If you are involved in direct sales, you have probably heard of or have been involved in teleconferencing. It is a way that you can get your whole team on the line to share what you have to say. There is a FREE web-based teleconferencing system that is in private BETA right now that you might want to take advantage of. This system simply dials out to cell phones, landlines as well as VOIP programs like Skype too!

If this is something you think might be useful to your business, you can give it a FREE try. Why not give it a try and see how it works? Hey, maybe you want to get all your family on the phone for a big reunion call!

If you would like to try this service out and maybe provide Speek with some feedback, register for private beta. Using this link makes joining easier!

Until Next Time
Stefani

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For those that shop online, I found another site that allows you to earn cash back while shopping online. This site is called Big Crumbs. Membership is FREE and when you join, you have access to exclusive deals and can earn cash back at top retailers and member stores. I can’t believe I have not joined this one sooner. Not only do you earn money on your purchases, you EARN MONEY for referring others and make money with they shop.

What is neat about this program is they give you the option when you join to become a Crumb Saver or a Crumb Earner. If you don’t plan on referring people and plan to earn money back by shopping, you would want to choose the Crumb Earner because you earn a higher percentage back. The Crumb Earners are those like me who want to try to earn money by referring others to the site to earn. So with this program, you can MAKE MONEY by others purchases as well as your own.

Another bonus with Big Crumbs is the large number of BIG merchants involved. If you are an eBay seller, you have access to promotional tools that allow you to post deals and listings directly to members of the site.

Get Your FREE Membership to Big Crumbs

Enjoy
Stefani

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