I'm doing a lot with Wordpress this week, and I thought I'd take a moment to share. Did you know that baronesses like to blog?  And I've got 2 of 'em as clients.  Both want the Wordpress Thesis theme (if I can track down skins that are feminine-aristocratic enough...whatever that means.)  How in the world did I end up with blogging baronesses as clients?  Odesk.  The first one found me back last fall.  I've been doing small copy-editing jobs for her ever since, and

Since Diane (Reefswimmer) so nicely asked--and since every writer loves to be begged, I shall now blather on about my 21-year-old daughter's observations.  I've got Lie to Me cued up and ready to offer some mindless entertainment for the rest of the night (while I pretend to myself that I am actually learning critical lessons in reading facial expressions.).  So, let's just go right down the list.  (I'm not filtering...YOU decide what's worth thinking about.:-) Silly bandz...yup,

I'm trying to construct a good, self-hosted landing page.  It's about time I learned how to do that in Wordpress.  As I suspected, there is a good tutorial out there on stripping the Thesis theme down to the bare bones to make a perfect canvas for a sales letter. Once I get that time, it's all about the copy.  I'll be asking for critiques.... http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/thesis/how-to-create-a-sales-letter-landing-page-with-wordpress-thesis-theme/

..."It IS my birthday weekend after all."  My just-turning-21-year-old daughter flashes me a beseeching smile as she holds up the July issue of Self Magazine at the supermarket checkout. "You've had quite the unmistakable SELF since the moment you were born," I tell her as I toss the magazine next to the strawberry Twizzlers and red pepper hummus she's already picked out as birthday treats. Later, we chat and eat moo hsu pork takeout in paper-thin pancakes as she flip

I've always appreciated structure.  Tell me to free-write, and I'll just stare a hole through that blank page.  Tell me to write 500 words encapsulating the philosophical problem of other minds, and I'm good to go.  (I agree wholeheartedly with the metaphysical solipsists, by the way--there's really no such thing as other minds.  They're all just projections: constructs of your own mind.  No one else exists.) Ha ha.  Just playing around.  I wanted a reason to w

Some of you have asked me questions about Market Samurai, since I wrote about promoting it and shared my Squidoo review on that nifty keyword research tool. I wrote a detailed email response this weekend to another WA member, and I thought it might be mildly interesting to those of you who are trying (as I am) to get into your niche discovery and keyword research groove.   I'm not trying to pretend I've done anything so successful or emulation-worthy here...I'm still just an eager, niche-ho

I'm an affiliate for an ebook titled Eat Stop Eat (about intermittent fasting).  Good, authoritative book, good author...and I do believe in IF for a number of different reasons.   I've been getting promotional emails about a new book the author is launching about building muscle mass.  The title is Anabolic Again. I'm not venturing into muscle-building products myself--but I did want to let the fitness-niche folks know that the author is doing a 50% off promotion on that book to

Ebook readers have now become affordable.  The Nook (which I own and LOVE) has just become available in a $149 version.  It's a scaled-down Nook--but of course it has WiFi.  And it does pretty much everything you want an ebook reader to do. Now if it were the Kindle that had gone down so low, I would be more excited.  Amazon is still the 500-lb. gorilla in the digital book market--and the bookseller you buy from from is the bookseller whose reader will be easiest to use. &nbs

So I dust off my elliptical the other day after getting a dressing-room mirror look at what hours of Internet Marketing are doing to my muscle tone.   First thought:  too bad cellulite creams don't work.  Would be so fabulous if they did. Second thought:  But how many other women are trying on bathing suits and crying right now.  Traffic on "cottage cheese thighs" must be up this time of year.  Am I unethical enough to promote some miraculous anti-curd oin

Ever have one of those days when your very best rock fist gets covered by that flimsy piece of paper each time?  Or when your nice, open-handed zen paper-palm gets sliced straightaway by some bad-a** shears? Yeahhhhhh.  I always did hate Rock Paper Scissors. Wanna hear my story? (Oh please, please, please?)  And then I shall cease whining and segue into all that is pure niche-vana. I used to have a bajillion friends in these parts, because I worked hard at MAKING friends.  &