What is an internet entrepreneur to do when their computer goes on strike?

I have to admit I was totally frustrated, and the do it yourself person in me wanted to search and search the web until I found a solution to my problem. But I knew I didn’t have time, I needed to get the problem fixed, and NOW.

So I did what any other person would do, I called the Geek Squad. Which they were all very helpful (ALL 20 agents I spoke with over the course of 3 days!) Come to find out my OS (operating system a.k.a Windows Vista) is corrupted. We found this out after Geek Squad had removed the virus and then tried to install an update….which was a huge mistake!

For 2 days I would spend literally 6 hours to boot up my computer, and another 6 hours to boot down my computer (is boot down even a real phrase?) It was so stressful. I couldn’t work – that made me feel so helpless. The only computer access I had was to my husbands computer which is like 10 years old (OK maybe that’s an over exaggeration, it’s really 7 years old.) and with all that power (about a 9GB hard drive – no that’s NOT an exaggeration) I was able to simply check my email. Definitely no designing for me, ha!

So where am I going with this post? I just want to inform everyone out there, your computer is not 100% safe. SO many things can happen. Taking precautions to keep your information safe needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Turns out after all that we have tried to do to save my computer, we will actually need to obtain the recovery disk from the computer manufacturer and restore the computer back to what it was the day we bought it. Which means all software and files I have on the computer will be gone (trust me I have a lot of files, my hard drive was maxed out and only had 3GB left. Hmmmm….9GB doesn’t look too bad after all!)

Fortunately (Praise the Lord!) I was able to one last time access all my files in safe mode and put them on an external hard drive. All my kid’s pictures, and client work is now safe. My software on the computer will need to be re-installed which is fine I have the disks still available. It will take time, but at least I have what’s important to me.

As for what I have available to me now, well it’s a new computer. There was no way I could wait another week or two for the recovery disk to arrive in order to fix my computer and start working again. It’s not what I wanted to do, but it’s important I started working again.

After this whole ordeal I have learned some very important lessons:

1. Backup your files onto an external hard drive. Yes, there are online sites that can back up your information but the space you receive from an external hard drive for the money beats online backups by far.

2. Backup your files to a SECOND external hard drive. If the first one fails then what are you going to do?

3. Backup your files to a THIRD external hard drive. Hey you can never be too safe. Your kid’s pictures, and work files are worth it!

4. Obtain the recovery disk from your computer manufacturer to keep on hand. Not all computers come with a recovery disk, or a system in place where you can easily restore your computer back to day one. Having this disk on hand will ensure that if you ever have to restore your computer you can do so in a timely manner, and not have to wait on the delivery of your disk.

When you work from home your computer is your number one asset. Keep it safe because one day it may go on strike!

God Bless – Heather B. ;)

P.S. UPDATE: We are now auctioning off WordPress Cheat Sheets on Flippa. Let me tell you it is priced to SELL! You can learn more by viewing the auction here.

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

All across the web there is a network of work at home moms helping out a WAHM who was devastated when her 2 year old little boy, Kyle, passed away during his sleep.

I first met Melissa Ingold on a network I belong to called Mom Masterminds. Melissa is a work at home mom who owns the website Internet Marketing Sweetie, and recently she lost her little boy, Kyle who was recently diagnosed with Gaucher Disease.

Melissa and her family were just starting to get into the routine of taking care of a little boy who had special needs, and whom they expected to have a life expectancy of 10 years, when Kyle unexpectedly passed away during the night.

As a mother I can’t imagine the pain and the loss she is going through. And on top of that pain, her family is now faced with a very large funeral bill.

I know there has there has been a lot of loss this year around the web. It’s been a difficult year for a lot of people. However I feel the best thing we can do for others is to love, and to give in every circumstance. These are truths that I personally cling to because of my Faith in Jesus.

So with all that being said, the owner of Mom Masterminds, Kelly McCausey, is hosting a fundraiser to raise money to give to the Ingold family in order to help pay off Kyle’s funeral bill. I have to say this fundraiser is SO generous, and I am just so thankful to belong to a group of women who care SO much!

Blog Internship 10 Week Course ($29) – This is a great course designed to help you learn more about growing your WordPress blog. It’s a great price, and with Kelly as your host I know you will gain a wealth of knowledge. 100% of the cost will go to the Ingold family as well!

The final option is you can also donate money directly to the Ingold Family.

To learn more about this fundraiser and how you can help, please go here. Thank you!

God Bless YOU! – Heather :)

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

I currently have a complete website for sale.

The sale of Motivated WAHM will include the following:

• Complete transfer of domain name ownership.
• Complete blog with content already posted (over 65 posts!)

Motivated WAHM Site stats:

• Motivated WAHM is an online resource website for the internet mom in business.
• It has a page rank of 2/10
• MWAHM has established several online link partnerships with other Work at Home websites.
• Has a business directory.
• Average Monthly Income: $10 from sales of PLR articles packs (not included with the sale) and directory listings sales.

Motivated WAHM is a great foundation for someone who has the time to put into growing the website and adding valuable content.

Asking Price: $150 OBO

If you are interested in purchasing this website then please contact me here!

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

However it’s the summer – and I LOVE the summer. Swimming pools, cold icy drinks, soaking in the sun, fun days at the park – it’s enough to make a girl so happy that she is all delirous and decides to giveaway free stuff!

Yep, I must confess I’m that girl, ha!

From now until July 30, 2010 we are currently giving away a free matching banner and button design with a header design purchase.

Time over here is very limited so we are only offering it to the 3 people who email me requesting this deal!

Then once I email you back saying yes the deal is still available you can then make your purchase here!

If you have any questions then you know I’m all ears – you can contact me here!

I hope you all are having a fabulously fun summer! OH, and if you miss out on this summer deal, no worries, we have another one coming up soon – so stay tuned. :)

P.S. Have you checked out our portfolio lately? If not you can check it out here – I updated it pretty recently!

P.P.S. If you are looking for something a little more than a header design, like say a complete custom design then we have a deal for you too! For the first three people to contact me you will receive our repeat client discount of 10% off a custom design. OH and our queue is open for July. If you are interested in this deal just contact me here!

On a little side note – have you seen WordPress 3.0 yet? If not you can check out the video below – it’s pretty awesome!

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

Staci check your email box because you’ve got mail! Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone you participated in the giveaway. Stay tuned for more giveaways like this one!

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

One of the biggest boasts of Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate, and one wordpress users love to hear, is it’s easy-to-use. From installation on, very few of us want to code anymore and worry about messing up our site. So was it as easy as advertised and as helpful?

Max Blgo Press Ninja Affiliate has one link to click in your admin navigation to get to everything you need to set up. I love that everything I need to use the plugin effectively is right here on this one page.

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From the Ninja Affiliate dashboard you can add a new link, set up the keywords, click to look at conversion stats, backup your plugin and alter any options you set up previously. No fancy wording, merely click on the add new link to get started!

When you add a new link it walks you through everything needed to get posting this affiliate link live. After saving your options it then gives you a direct link to use if you want to track conversion on other blogs, forums, and social networks and have it pointed to this friendlier looking link url.

I really appreciate the option for campaign tracking as it keeps everything handy instead of needing to log into multiple affiliate programs to see what links are working and not working. You can log into your worpdress admin and check the stats for the affiliate link. Sub-campaigns can also be set up. So if you are going to test links out on twitter and facebook, two different links can be created in order to track which website gave you the best click-thru rate. Ideal option!

Setting up the option to limit how many times a keyword on a page, post, or the full site gets linked to is a big difference to me. Too many keyword links can make a site look spammy and that is not helpful for affiliate marketing and return traffic.

When you set up the link with keywords, it will automatically insert the affiliate link when you click publish button. But if you want to use a link with a different keyword or just manually insert a link, there is a handy dropdown menu with your links ready to click and insert at a seconds notice. A quick pop up will show and you can change the keyword to whatever you prefer as you go.

Ninja Affiliate is very easy to use, and the time saved not having to look up your affiliate links and not logging into multiple sites to check stats will be better spent on creating new content and marketing!

We give Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate TWO THUMBS Up!

Giveaway!

The creators of Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate have been generous enough offer the Girly Blog Designz readers a FREE license to giveaway to one lucky winner.

To enter the giveaway just do one or all of the following:

1. (1 entry) Simply post a comment to this post your name and valid email (email will only be seen by me and used to deliever the license at the end of the giveaway.) stating why you think the Ninja Affiliate plugin will help you grow your online business!
2. (1 entry) Post about our contest on twitter! Then COME BACK HERE AND POST A COMMENT with a LINK to your twitter status. Here is the tweet you can use:
   

   RT @hbixler03 – Ninja Affiliate Plugin: Easy as advertised? (Review AND Giveaway!) ==> http://tinyurl.com/gbdninja

3. (1 entry) Follow us on Facebook! We now have a new Facebook Page and would love for you to join us. To gain another entry join us on our Facebook Page and then COME PACK HERE to post a comment stating that you are following us. Be sure to submit your email address!

Please be sure to post a comment with your name and a valid email for every single entry you make! Thank you!

Winner will be announced on June 18, 2010!

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

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This beautiful 3 column EXCLUSIVE premade WordPress theme is great for any blog looking to create an inviting, yet simple home like feel, for their readers. Add a touch of summer to your blog with the Summer Garden Exclusive Premium WordPress Theme!

All of our EXCLUSIVE premade WordPress themes include the following:

• Free Installation within 48 hours of purchase (unless purchase is made on the weekend, and in that case your theme will be installed on Monday)
• Customization of the Header with your blog title and slogan.
• Exclusive use license – which basically means this theme will only be sold ONCE!

Cost: $175

To purchase this theme then simply click on the buy now button below!

This theme is only available for WordPress users that currently host their WordPress blog on their OWN domain name. The “Summer Garden” Exclusive WordPress Theme is compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

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Are you craving a new Custom WordPress Design for your blog? Then Contact Us today to request a quote!

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

You can go through the more popular methods of creating backlinks. Social networking, social bookmarking, blogging and other tools take time to get established. If you are looking to drive more traffic now, then you may want to look into paid linking services.

Why Backlink in the First Place?

Like we said, backlinks can increase traffic to your site. Anytime that someone sees your comment on a post or an article in a directory that they want to use, they will also have links included that they can click to check out your other work on the website.

Whether your site sells a service, information or a product, the increased traffic will potentially increase your sales and conversion rates. That is always a good thing.

Not only will people find you through your backlinks, but the number of backlinks help when search engines rank your website. It is every website owners dream to be in the first page of search results.

That way, everyone will see you first. Most people don’t look past the first page anyway since it is rightly believed that the results deemed best by the search engines can be found there.

Paid Linking Services

Paid linking services speed up the process of finding good quality links for your website. It works this way. You pay a monthly fee to “rent” a link from another website. These websites will be ones that are of high quality and rate high on search engines.

There are two ways to acquire paid links:

• Use a paid link service.
• Go to a company directly.

Most people will opt for the first one but you must be careful. Search engines like Google are cracking down on paid links. To them, paying for a link doesn’t demonstrate that your site is creating a quality backlink.

The website “sponsoring” you may never have known your site existed before you asked for their links. On the flip side, sites that have worked hard to build their brand want to share the good fortune, so why shouldn’t they get paid for it?

Internet marketers suggest that if you use a paid link service, don’t go with the overt ones. Try text link ads since they are integrated into the body of the content and are harder to separate from other hyperlinks.

You can also go to a company website and petition them for use of their link. They may say no or ignore you altogether. You can make a reasonable rental offer for their link and they may accept or not. But, you won’t know unless you try.

Using paid links is one way to get the ball rolling on your traffic situation at your website. You can use paid links in combination with other methods to see which will bring you more traffic and more sales.

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?

When you run an online business website and/or a blog, there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. Providing quality content alone can take up several days not to mention handling the marketing and the administrative duties.

For a few fortunate entrepreneurs, they have learned the benefit of outsourcing. With more time to concentrate on lead generation and traffic, guest blogging is more fun than marketing campaigns.

Blogging?

If you have written content for your site, then you can write a guest blog post. They are usually shorter and slightly less informative.

That doesn’t mean that the quality of the post isn’t good, it just means that the surface of a topic is touched upon so that the reader will look forward to future posts for more information.

The field is wide open for you, initially, you’ll want to blog on topics with which you have at least a passing familiarity. As you establish yourself as an expert in your business area (through other marketing tools), others may be beating down your door for the opportunity to have you guest blog for them.

Choosing Where to Blog

Choosing the quality of your guest blogging venues is as important as choosing the quality of your backlinks. Always go forward and not backwards. Start with friends and business contacts.

The super busy folks that are familiar with you won’t usually pass up an offer to have someone else blog for them.

An intimate knowledge of the blog topics gives you an idea of what topics will work and which ones won’t. Try to choose a topical area where you can write a series of similar articles.

For instance, choosing a 4-part post on constructing email templates for your affiliates is easier to manage than four different post topics. Besides, your readers are sure to come back for more of the same.

Blogging Nuances

Ask about links in your posts. Some blog owners may say yes to contextual links or just offer you a bio box. Take either one and use it to your advantage to create quality backlinks.

Interact with those who comment. Getting to know your audience will increase their trust of you and the chances that they will click on your link and head on over to your website.

Want to increase backlinks to your site? Guest blogging for others whose sites can elevate your status swells the traffic to your site so you can make more sales.

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?