In The Worx

Freebie Friday: Online Learning & Free Chocolate

Connie McVicker — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:48:30 +0000

If you’re like me and have a need to constantly learn or update your skills, then check out the online HP Learning Center. The HP Learning Center provides free, online classes that are available 24/7.

Wondering what kind of classes they provide? Everything from MS Office to Adobe to business basics to digital photography. I’ve been using the HP Learning Center for a couple of years now to keep up with technology and software and have never been disappointed. You’re able to learn at your own pace, at whatever time you like, and update your skills at the same time.

Check out their entire class listing HERE. Don’t see anything you like? I can’t really imagine there isn’t anything, but bookmark it and keep checking because their offerings change almost weekly.

OH, and don’t forget the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act - FREE chocolate every Friday all summer beginning at 9 AM ET to the first 250,000. See my original post HERE for a chance to get your coupon for a FREE Mars productSimilar Posts:

Freebie Friday (for real this time) - Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act

Connie McVicker — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:36:44 +0000

Ok, so I posted a freebie for Saturday earlier, but here is the real freebie for Friday…and every Friday through September.

If you haven’t heard, Mars has been giving away FREE chocolate all summer long during their Mars Chocolate Relief Act. Every Friday beginning at 9:00 AM ET through September, visit THIS LINK for a chance to get a FREE Real Chocolate coupon for your favorite Mars product. Be one of the first 250,000 to request a coupon each Friday and sweet relief is on its way.

Which Mars products are included in the coupon? M&M’s, Dove, Snickers, 3Musketeers, Twix, and Milky Way

The only catch is that you’ll have to wait for your coupon to come in the mail. They indicate 4-6 weeks, but mine have come within a couple of weeks at the most.

So get on over there this morning and secure your FREE chocolate!

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Freebie Friday (errr Saturday) - Pizza Hut Stuffed Pizza Rolls

Connie McVicker — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:31 +0000

I know pizza rolls have nothing to do with helping you obtain free tools for your business, but a girl’s gotta eat right? And besides, it is a holiday weekend, these aren’t just any pizza rolls, and who can resist free food? Certainly not me!

This Saturday, July 4th ONLY, those who follow Pizza Hut on Twitter or Facebook will receive a special code for FREE stuffed pizza rolls. How sweet is that? There is no indication on the offer details so I guess you’ll just have to follow them to find out. So go do it now before you forget and miss out on this scrumptious deal!

Happy Independence Day!

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Did You Know?

Connie McVicker — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:22:01 +0000

Did you know that you can create a backup of all your active lists in Aweber?

If you didn’t, it’s super easy and takes just a few minutes.

Login to Aweber
Click on the “Home” link
Click on the “Create and Manage Lists” link next to the “Current List” drop-down box.
Click the “Back Up & Export All Active Lists” link. You will get a pop-up window at this point. Select the email address to send the backup notification to and click “Export All.”

For now, that’s it. Once Aweber has created your backup file, you will receive an email message…the one you chose above…letting you know it is available for download.

At that point, follow all of the steps above, only when you get the pop up window this time, there will be a “Link to Download.” Click that link to download and backup all your active lists. This link is available for 2 weeks from the date it was created.

So how often should you backup your lists? I think it depends on the amount of lists you have, the number of subscribers, and how active your account is. I’m sure Aweber has backup methods in place, but nothing is infallible. Of course it also depends on what you’re comfortable with. Me being the queen of backup, backup, backup, I do this monthly on Aweber. However, if I had a ton more subscribers (hint, hint), I may begin doing a backup more frequently.Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday - Vecteezy

Connie McVicker — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:00:03 +0000

By now you know I love a good vector, especially when there is an entire site dedicated to offering FREE vectors. Well that is exactly what you get with Vecteezy…stupid name, cool vectors. (Hey that’s really their tagline…I don’t just make this stuff up!)

Vecteezy offers Free Vector Graphics for download by some of the best artists. Their site is updated every day, so be sure to bookmark and check with them often. Oh, they have a newsletter, too!

A few of my favs include:

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June Signature Specials Newsletter

Connie McVicker — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:52:12 +0000

Rev up your marketing with this month’s Signature Special! From now until July 10th, get a custom made-for-you HTML newsletter template designed by Signature Worx for only $225. That’s a $75 savings! And with only 50% down to get started, there’s nothing stopping you.

To read the full version of this newsletter, complete with promotional codes and active links, you’ll have to subscribe! But don’t worry, we won’t inundate your inbox - this newsletter is only advertised once a month! So what are you waiting for? Just click here to get started.Similar Posts:

RSSzine - Grand Opening Special Today ONLY!

Connie McVicker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:33:37 +0000

Ever wanted to turn your RSS feed into a high quality book or magazine? If you’re a blogger or podcaster you have tons of content that can be repurposed into a book or magazine format.

Well you could buy those expensive programs or subscriptions OR you could hurry and get the brand NEW RSSzine for a fraction of the cost. The new RSSzine, developed by Penny Haynes, allows you to convert your RSS feed to PDF or a turning page magazine. Imagine sending this to your clients, potential clients, opt-in list, associates and more.

What can you do with your RSSzine?

Sell it as an info-product
Give it away as a promotional product for yourself
Use it as a bonus in joint promotions
Create an anthology of your entire blog or podcast, or
Break up your content by category and create multiple eBooks
Increase your search engine rankings by posting it on the internet (the links in the PDF can still be searched).
Create Tutorials or Online Classes, complete with audio and video
Introduce yourself to the non-blogging world by transferring your content into a universal format deliverable via email

Before now, creating an eBook, or one of those cool looking turning page magazines, was time-consuming and expensive. The cost WAS as much as $3.50 A PAGE! NOW you simply submit the link for your RSS feed and out pops an eBook or newspaper! THAT’S how simple the RSS to PDF process can be! It includes LIVE LINKS, and even includes links to your Podcast media files.

You can go one step further and create:

an online flash, turning page magazine from your newly created PDF or another PDF you have, and/or
a downloadable .exe version that can be burned to CD or DVD.

The RSSzine is regularly $100, but TODAY ONLY you can purchase both packages for only $50 during their Grand Opening ½ off sale and receive several bonuses, too. This offer is only available until 11:59 pm PDT so don’t delay and get your copy of the RSSzine today!

To take advantage of this offer, you MUST order TODAY!

ORDER NOWSimilar Posts:

Creative Spotlight: Elizabeth Biberger

Connie McVicker — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:03:53 +0000

I’ve been working with Elizabeth on design projects for a little while now on an as needed basis. We’ve designed newspaper ad templates, an email header, and a flyer or two, but this last project was to create a brand new website for her.

As a real estate agent in Duncan, BC, Elizabeth needed a presence on the World Wide Web and contacted us once again to fulfill her needs. Armed with a six page document spelling out all the features she required along with the type of information that would be on each page, Elizabeth and her team came prepared!

One of her requirements was for her team to be able to input and update all the content and listings themselves. This of course was going to require her site be built on a content management system (CMS). After reviewing all her needs, we quickly recommended using WordPress because of its ease of use and its almost unlimited capabilities. We designed and developed Elizabeth’s site meeting all her specifications.

Here are a few details about Elizabeth’s site:

Custom designed site built on WordPress platform
A partial list of critical plugins for her site:
- Akismet
- All in One SEO Pack
- cforms
- Exec-PHP
- FeedBurner FeedSmith
- Flexi Pages Widget
- FPP-Pano
- Google Analyticator
- Google XML Sitemaps
- Great Real Estate
- Lightview Plus
- NextGEN Gallery (customized)
- wordTube
- WP-DownloadManager (customized)

After working with Elizabeth and her assistant, her site went live on March 26th. We’ve since made a few modifications to some of the plugins and pages to suit their needs as they’ve worked with it. All in all, she is very pleased with the finished product…and her team is able to add listings effortlessly!Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday: Siena Icon Set

Connie McVicker — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:59:14 +0000

For this week’s Freebie, I’ve chosen Siena, a slick set of 200 free icons compliments of Webdesigner Depot.

Webdesigner Depot is one of my all time favorite sites. Not only are they giving this set away for free, heck they even give you 6 different rasterized sizes AND the vector files for every single one of them. Now THAT is something to be excited about.

Go get yours right now! You will have to subscribe to their RSS feed in order to get the password, but hey, what’s a couple of extra clicks for this sweet looking set?Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday: Whiteboard Modern Font

Connie McVicker — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:35:32 +0000

I love a good font. In fact those who know me probably consider me a font-a-holic, but I guess it is just the designer in me. Nevertheless the only thing better than a good font is one that is good AND free.

I stumbled upon the free Whiteboard Modern font from BittBox and quite like it a lot so I thought I’d share the link with you.

Image by bittbox

Happy downloading!Similar Posts:

A New (Unofficial) Arrival, Broken Promises, and Getting the Help You Need

Connie McVicker — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:31 +0000

I would like to welcome our newest addition to the Signature Worx team. Mackenzie Calin McVicker, who is no longer “in the worx”, was born on Monday, March 30th at 3:20 pm weighing in at 7 lbs. 15 oz and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. She is doing fabulous…other than not letting her mommy get much sleep. Mackenzie enjoys instrumental lullabies and long strolls in the neighborhood.

Here’s a picture of her…isn’t she just the cutest thing? Of course I am a little partial, so just agree with this new again mommy please! I live on coffee these days. In fact there is very little food because I simply forget to eat! Of course I never forget to feed Mackenzie which explains the pudgy little cheeks!

I would have posted one of the professional photos that were taken of her at the hospital, but unfortunately I don’t have any. Yes, my baby is 7 weeks old today and I still don’t have her photos, nor do I have her birth announcements. I just don’t feel like it is official until a birth announcement has been sent you know?

So this is the story of the seemingly overworked, over exhausted and over extended photographer. After not receiving my proofs in the hospital the next day as promised, it took me two weeks to even get her on the phone after leaving multiple voicemails and emails. She was nice, apologetic, and even threw in a few extras to my order for my trouble. She also went beyond that and said she would rush my order and I would have it in about a week as opposed to her normal 4-6 week turnaround time.

Unfortunately it is 5 weeks later and I still have NO photos or birth announcements! I called and emailed her a week ago and finally got a response from her yesterday, via email, but have to say that I’m not totally satisfied with her explanation. I hate to think the worst of people, but in this case I believe I’ve been patient enough. She responded that ’someone’ mailed my photos to me, but that apparently I did not receive them. So she said she will reorder them and they will be back this week.

So, first of all if I actually do receive my order this week, I’ll probably be a little shocked. Ecstatic, but nevertheless shocked. Why? Because it becomes difficult to believe someone when you are consistently promised something that never gets delivered. And when you were promised a rush before and not only didn’t receive it, but didn’t even receive a follow-up or anything, it just becomes even more difficult to trust them.

Second, I really *hope* that when she referred to “photos” she meant my entire order and not just the pictures. I ordered the largest package she had which included birth announcements…the ones our family and friends keep asking for…and a couple of other items that I cannot mention in case my husband reads this post. In addition I had to mail her christening invitation this morning to family and friends before they’ll ever receive her birth announcement. Now how messed up is that?

Third, when she and I spoke on the phone, I specifically asked to pick the order up rather than have it mailed. She literally lives about 2 miles from me, I didn’t want to pay shipping, but most importantly I didn’t want my husband to be the one who accepted the package because I secretly ordered something for him for his Father’s Day gift.

So how did this post go from an ‘unofficial’ announcement to a business lesson? Because this is the classic example of an entrepreneur who is obviously way too busy to run her own business. In case she is reading this, there is certainly no disrespect intended. Just the facts. I know because as a virtual assistant company, this is what we do. We help other entrepreneurs stay on top of their game, keep customers happy, while allowing them to grow instead of drowning. We teach our clients to delegate those things they cannot, should not, or have no desire to handle in order to thrive.

In this case though, there were multiple things that went wrong. They didn’t show with the proofs as promised, they were impossible to reach via phone and email, they made a promise to rush the job, they didn’t deliver the promise, there was no follow up on their part…ever, and now it seems that the postal service lost my order. Now this could be one incredible fluke or just a business owner who needs help.

So if you’re an entrepreneur who is burning the candle at both ends and trying to do everything yourself, then take a look at your business as a whole. When was the last time you asked your clients for their feedback on your customer service? If you can’t remember, is it because you haven’t had time since you’re so busy OR is it because you know their feedback would be less than satisfactory? Or maybe you don’t think there is a problem at all. Maybe you’re in denial that a problem exists.

Well let me set the record straight. Broken promises do not make for happy customers. Broken promises will not bring in new business. Broken promises will not send referral business your way. Broken promises will not make your business money. And broken promises will not make your business a success.

Broken promises will however take a major part in your business’s demise. Make no mistake about it because if it comes down to working with a company that consistently makes promises but never delivers or working with a company that takes the time to know their customers, takes the time to make sure that each and every job is completed to satisfaction, makes sure it’s done in a timely fashion even if it means hiring the help they need to keep up, and doesn’t get caught up in the insanity of running a business, the latter will win out every time.

The same goes for motherhood actually. With my first child, I had no idea how much my life would change. I had no idea how little sleep I would actually get. I had no idea how depressed I really was the first few months after the birth of my first child and I never once asked for help. I thought as a mother that I was expected to do it all, deal with it all, and take care of it all. Now that I’m a little wiser I know better. And I was certainly more prepared the second time around for Mackenzie. I know I can’t do it all. I know I can’t be everything to everyone and remain sane. I know to ask for help when I need it and I’m a better mother because of it!

So what kind of business owner are you? One that delivers great service or one who breaks promises over and over again only to leave you with no business to run?

So will I be seeking this photographer’s services in the future? It isn’t likely which is a real shame. I’ve seen her portfolio and she does really great work, some of the best I’ve seen locally. As a mom of two now, there are a ton of occasions in which I will need a professional photographer over the years such as family photographs, major milestones, annual pictures of the girls, etc. But I’d like to have the actual photos before my youngest daughter graduates high school!Similar Posts:

Google Feeds Gone Wild, Part 2

Connie McVicker — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:56:29 +0000

First of all, I’m back! Did you miss me or didn’t you know I was gone? Either way, I’ve just returned from my short maternity leave after the birth of my second daughter. I’ll be sure to post a special announcement soon, but there is some business to discuss first.

If you subscribe to my blog feed, this may be the first update you have received in ages from In The Worx…that is of course if you solely rely on your RSS reader to keep up with your favorite blogs. Well if that is the case for you, let me apologize. Although I have been away for a few weeks taking care of my new baby, there has apparently been a problem with my feeds since JANUARY!

After having a major hiccup in early March when I was forced to move my FeedBurner feed to my Google account…you can read about that here…I thought this problem had been licked. Apparently not so much. It seems that there has been another issue with my feeds this entire time that I was unaware of until a few weeks ago. Anyone subscribed to my blog through their RSS reader hasn’t seen an update since January 25th. Well rest assured that I have in fact had many posts since then so please catch up as soon as you have a few minutes.

Of course I began researching the problem as soon as I found out. I scoured the Internet for answers, searched through the FeedBurner knowledgebase and FAQs, and even posted my dilemma on the FeedBurner Google group hoping someone there would be able to help. Not only did I find that people were having similar problems, but they were also getting nowhere and couldn’t get any answers from Google. In fact I was unable to find any kind of support from Google directly.

Now, being the relentless researcher that I am when presented with a problem…seriously I will spend hours and hours if that is what it takes…alas, I finally figured it out! Honestly this was a total fluke that I even found it, but I am so glad that I did because I *pray* that it is the solution for someone else so they too can finally stop searching for answers. So here it is folks:

How To Fix Your FeedBurner Feeds After They Stopped Working

Just by accident, I came across this page on Creating your WordPress feed (self-hosted WordPress) in the FeedBurner Help knowledgebase. Seriously folks, technically this topic has nothing to do with my problem and I just happened upon it by accident. Nothing on this page would have been of value to me, but this one little side note happened to catch me eye. It reads:

Note: If you currently use the old, 2005-vintage version of the Ordered List FeedBurner plugin that generates a FeedBurner-specific URL (an example: www.yoursite.com/feedburner_838196/), that URL is no longer available or necessary. You will have to reset your FeedBurner feed’s Original Feed address to now use your standard blog feed address. Additionally, you should examine any .htaccess files that control access to your WordPress installation’s content and remove any existing references that forward or redirect your feeds, as these references will no longer be necessary.

Hmmm, interesting I thought. I figured what the heck and went to check my Original Feed in FeedBurner. This was such a long shot at best given the fact that I don’t even use the plugin that it is referring to. But guess what? My Original Feed address was exactly in that format. I wondered if changing this would further screw things up, but decided to give it a shot. In fact, at the top of your Feed Details, there is a warning message that reads:

“You should not change “Original Feed” unless you move your original feed to a new domain or a new location on your existing server…”

So first I copied the Original Feed address it was showing and pasted it in Notepad for safe keeping just in case. I retrieved my blog feed address, pasted it in the Original Feed field, and saved it. Then I used the Ping FeedBurner page to ping my site to make sure that it worked. The ping worked so that was a good sign so far.

Now it was time for the ultimate test. I opened my blog in my browser, clicked on one of my RSS button links and voila! There they were…every post I’ve made since January 25th and prior to that date as well. It was a beautiful thing!

Now let the record show that I DID NOT change my Original Feed address at any time so it had to be changed by FeedBurner because I can’t think of any other explanation. So I’m not sure what Google did in January that would affect my Original Feed address, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only unsuspecting user. Maybe this was when they decided to change our Feed Address to include a ‘2′ (http://feeds2…), which caused millions of headaches, but nevertheless this whole conversion has been a debacle for me.

I hope this information helps solve someone else’s problem with their feeds. As for Google, I said it before…I’ve been a huge fan of many of their apps and offerings, but seriously, what the heck were y’all thinking? Or should I say NOT thinking?

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Freebie Friday - DryIcons

Connie McVicker — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:00:17 +0000

Where can you get fantastic, quality designed icon sets? DryIcons.com of course! DryIcons is a great resource with a huge collection of icons and vector graphics available in a variety of sizes and formats - and all for free. They also have great design and development tutorials if that’s your thing.

One of my favorite sets from DryIcons is their Coquette Icons, currently with 200 icons available in a four part series.

Check them out here, here, here, and here. But please don’t click until you have some time to kill because I guarantee you’ll be checking out the rest of their offerings for quite a while.

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Freebie Friday: Free Conference Calling

Connie McVicker — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:00:50 +0000

Ever wanted or needed to have a conversation with more than one or two people that your phone line can’t accommodate? Or find it is too expensive to use one of those conference calling services? Then try FreeConferenceCall.com.

Exactly as the name implies, you get completely free conference calling that is simple and easy to use, and only requires your name and email address to open an account. You instantly receive a dedicated phone number and access code that is available to you 24/7 without the need to schedule or make reservations. I’ve been using FreeConferenceCall.com for well over a year now for all of my business conference calls. I’ve never once had a problem with the service, nor the quality of the calls, and have never been charged a dime.

So how many ways can you use FreeConferenceCall.com? Well the possibilities are endless I suppose, but just to give you a few ideas:

Potential Customers: Have multiple employees, associates, or team members? Use it to conference your potential customer with them to close the deal.
Current Clients: Again, if you have multiple people working for or with you, then conference all critical parties at once to discuss their project, brainstorm new ideas, or map out their next marketing campaign.
Groups & Organizations: Schedule meetings with the entire group for whatever needs to be discussed.
Family: Catch up with several family members at the same time. If your family is like mine, we are scattered all over the globe. Do you always call your mom on Sundays? Talk to your sister once a month? Phone grandma to tell her what’s new with the grandchildren? Why not talk to all three at the same time so you can all get in on the conversation and newest happenings. Heck, include your aunt, brother, and cousin, too! Each account accommodates up to 96 callers, so technically you could have a virtual family reunion!
Friends: Have a group of friends located nationwide or are just too busy to get together due to work, the kids, or different schedules? Haven’t caught up with your old college alumni in ages? Use FreeConferenceCall.com and talk to all of them…or just the ones you liked…at the same time.

There are so many ways you can use this valuable service. Long distance charges may apply, but there are no additional charges from FreeConferenceCall.com. But if you have an unlimited long distance plan on your phone, then of course there are no fees. Or if you have a cell phone plan with unlimited nights and weekends as part of your package, use it at those times and again, you still have no charges.

If you’re all about the bells and whistles, then you’re in luck because you can record your conference calls, too! Access your recordings by phone or computer, distribute them to a group, archive them for future reference, and even upload them via RSS or podcast…all for free. You also receive free call reports.

Who says nothing in life is free?Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday - Manage Your Fonts

Connie McVicker — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:00:48 +0000

If you are a fontaholic like I am, or just need a pretty good variety of fonts because you work in graphic and print design, then chances are you’ve been frustrated trying to find just the right font for a project. Choosing, comparing, and analyzing fonts is serious business. You could just keep selecting a different font in your document and see how it looks, only to do that about 50 more times, OR you can manage your fonts and save yourself a lot of headaches.

Font management you ask? Yes, of course! There is a really good - and free - font manager out there called AMP Font Viewer. Besides allowing you to get a quick overview of both installed and non-installed fonts, this program can also install and uninstall fonts on the fly as well as organize them into categories. I can feel your excitement already!

So why would you want a font manager you ask? Well for one thing, the more fonts you install on your computer, the better the chance of your computer programs slowing down, errors happening, or possibly even crashing. They use up a considerable amount of resources on your system that reduces efficiency and productivity. With AMP Font Viewer, because you can get an overview of non-installed fonts, you can keep all your extra, non essential, everyday fonts in a separate folder and install them only when needed, thus keeping your computer happy. And we all know that a happy computer makes a happy user!

AMP Font Viewer supports TrueType, OpenType and Type1 fonts, so you get the maximum use out this great little manager. Want to test the look of any font with your own text? No problem. Want to print a list of all or just some of your installed fonts with sample text for each one? Yep, you can do that, too.

It’s so easy to use you might even have a little fun while choosing the perfect font for your next project. So stop letting your font fetish take on a life of its own and start managing your fonts with ease.Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday - Free Premium WordPress Themes

Connie McVicker — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:49:34 +0000

One of my favorite things in the world is WordPress. I absolutely love it! Maybe that’s a little lame, but somewhere down the line over the last year I have morphed my skills and pushed WordPress to its limits by using it as a CMS to build great websites for my clients…that they can actually update themselves…rather than using WordPress as just a blogging platform. Just take a look at my latest Creative Spotlight on Mann Made Copy that was launched this last week…the entire site was designed and built using WordPress.

Over time, many people have asked me where I got a theme or where they can get one like it. Well, you can’t really as 99% of my design work and WordPress themes are all custom designed for each client. Of course there have been times where someone just wants me to install a premade or free theme for them to use as is, so I have a list of reliable sites that offer free WordPress themes. At the top of that list is WooThemes.

WooThemes offer premium WordPress themes at club prices, but what some don’t realize is they also have a nice little collection of free themes. At the time of this post, WooThemes offer 5 premium WordPress themes for free, each with its own personality. You’ve got the latest, Irresistible, with a bit of multimedia focus. A personal blogging theme in BlogTheme. Snapshot offering a photo showcase, portfolio, or design gallery. Another personal blog design in Typebased with custom widgets and integrated banner ad management. And of course a news theme in The Original Premium News Theme. And the best part is you get a premium theme at no cost so your blog or website looks professional and clean.

So next time you’re in the market for a great, premade, premium WordPress Theme, check out the free ones from WooThemes. If none of their free ones do it for ya, don’t overlook their premium themes for purchase. They are quite inexpensive and worth every penny!Similar Posts:

Google Feeds Gone Wild?

Connie McVicker — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:24:51 +0000

I’ve probably mentioned several times how much I love Aweber. Nothing has changed, but this last week I was shocked to see my blog broadcast, that is released to my subscribers every Tuesday through Aweber, was…well a little off. One of my good friends, and subscribers, forwarded the broadcast to me asking, “What the heck?”

Well it didn’t take me long to see exactly what she was referring to. Seems instead of sending only the last week’s new posts, it included a slew of older posts from December…ten of them to be exact. I’m sure my other subscribers were just as confused and wondered why on earth I would send these old posts from last year.

Racking my brain, I couldn’t figure out why this would happen all of a sudden. I hadn’t changed any of those blog posts, I hadn’t changed my blog broadcast in Aweber, so what happened?

I immediately put in a support ticket to Aweber to see if they could help figure this problem it out. After investigating my problem, their reply alluded that it looked as though my RSS feed had changed. Well it only took me a few seconds to realize they may actually be right. Just the week before I had logged into my FeedBurner account, only to be met with the following message:

Now, this was a little weird. First of all I have never received any communication via email or otherwise that Google had acquired FeedBurner. Second, there was absolutely no information on this page, just an ultimatum basically, to move my feeds to a Google account.

This is not exactly the right way to go about doing things, Google. I mean I’m a pretty big fan of Google, and use many of their applications, but the least they could have done is give someone a head’s up on what is going on and about to happen, especially on something that is this sensitive to my business and can potentially affect my subscribers.

So I go through the seemingly quick process of moving my feeds - I mean I have no choice in the matter after all. There is no work around here, no way to view my feed information, no way to access my actual FeedBurner account, until I go through the process of moving them to my Google account…and all seems well.

Until of course my blog broadcast goes out the following Tuesday with ten old blog posts from December, most of which were a series from my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway promotion. How could Google be so careless to allow this to happen? I mean Google isn’t exactly a Mickey Mouse setup…they are Google for heaven’s sake.

So to my subscribers, I do apologize for the hiccup of last Tuesday and hope that you didn’t miss the actual new posts that included Freebie Friday - Douglas Vitkauskas Fonts and Creative Spotlight: Wee Walk for Clyde’s Hope. As for Google, well, I hope they have fixed the problem for others by now instead of letting everyone fend for themselves in a situation that we had no say so over.Similar Posts:

Creative Spotlight: Mann Made Copy

Connie McVicker — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:11:26 +0000

My good friend, client, and business associate, Jaime Lee Mann, has done it again. For those of you who run a business at home, with children, and wonder how the heck you’re going to balance everything and get it all done, I swear Jaime makes it look so effortless. Of course she will probably disagree and say she is as clueless as the rest of us, but once again, she has totally amazed me.

Jaime first started her virtual assistant business, Mann Made Time, back in the summer of 2006. This is how Jaime and I first met because I had also just started my virtual assistant business earlier that same year and we found ourselves in the same virtual circles. Jaime first contacted me to design a logo for Mann Made Time, which then led to designing her business cards, brochure, and ultimately her website. Since that time, Mann Made Time has gone through a complete rebranding, which Signature Worx had the pleasure of designing again - everything from the logo down to the website. This is how caricature Jaime was born.

Late last year, Jaime once again contacted me about designing and branding her new copywriting business, Mann Made Copy, and so the creative juices began flowing once more. One of the wonderful things about working with Jaime is that I know her so well - her likes and her dislikes - that she doesn’t even feel the need to steer me in any particular direction. In fact, I think she thoroughly enjoys just sitting back and seeing what I come up with on my own - as if she doesn’t want to taint my creativity.

After many hours of collaboration, today, Mann Made Copy was launched. Although Jaime has been writing forever, today she is officially a copywriter, not a virtual assistant. She has been heading down this road for close to three years now and has finally arrived. I know she is so proud! Oh, and on a side note, the entire site was custom designed and built using the WordPress platform as a CMS.

Check out her snazzy new Mann Made Copy logo and website, and if you’re in need of a fabulous copywriter, then Jaime is your gal. I get nothing in return for saying that or for recommending her, other than the sheer pleasure that I know you will be completely satisfied. After all, Jaime is my first choice for all of my copywriting needs - I don’t leave this stuff to just anyone you know?

By the way, you should really check out and subscribe to Jaime’s Mann Made Blog, too. I can never get enough of how Jaime can pound out a story from a regular, everyday event and turn it into a business or life lesson.

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Freebie Friday - Ornate Swirls Vector Pack

Connie McVicker — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:00:19 +0000

I recently ran across Room122 during one of my late night surfings and found quite a few offerings that are totally worth taking a look. Since I know most of my readers are not designers - this is why they hire me - I know you love it when I point you to great vector art and designs that you can use on your own for those smaller projects that does not require my knowledge and skills.

Today’s freebie is a pack of vector ornate swirls, great for use in backgrounds, as borders, or just a decorative element in your design. The designer, Nathan Brown, offers these very detailed swirl vectors for free from his website.

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Creative Spotlight: Wee Walk for Clyde’s Hope

Connie McVicker — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:56:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to post something I’ve been working on. Busy is an understatement these days since I’m in the final stretch of my second pregnancy and baby is due in just a couple of weeks! So there has been a LOT of designing and getting ready for baby going on, and don’t forget I have a 3 year old to boot!

One of my good friends, and client, Susan Verucchi of Clyde’s Hope, runs a non-profit organization providing education and assistance to hospice patients and their families. She is a force to be reckoned with and always seems to find a way to help families in need during such a difficult time.

Signature Worx has pretty much designed everything for Clyde’s Hope from their logo to their website and everything in between. When Susan is planning an event, I’m her first call to collaborate with and begin designing whatever she needs from event logos to the event t-shirts, flyers, and banners.

Next month, Clyde’s Hope is catering an event just for children to help raise much needed money for the organization. Susan asked me to design a logo for the Wee Walk which I happily did for such a great event.

The 1^st Annual Clyde’s Hope Wee Walk will take place on April 25, 2009. Registrants, age toddler to 6 years old, will raise money for the event and then participate in a walk where they will receive a medal upon completion. The event will be filled with other activities as well. Check out their website for more details.

Oh yeah, they also have a “Pot of Gold” raffle going on now through March 17, 2009, where one lucky winner will receive ½ the pot of gold of all raffle tickets sold. The other half will help provide for the needs of hospice patients. You can purchase your tickets through their website by clicking on the little leprechaun.Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday - Douglas Vitkauskas Fonts

Connie McVicker — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:00:37 +0000

As a designer, fonts are certainly at the top of my list of needs. A font can make or break a design, so good, quality fonts are a must in my world. Of course some of the best fonts are only for purchase and can be quite pricey. So when I come across a great font that just happens to be free, I’m pretty excited. But when that same designer also happens to offer several font designs that are just as tasty - for free - then I’m just plum tickled.

Douglas Vitkauskas offers a slew of free fonts, 63 at the time of this post, over at FontSpace. He also has a collection of fonts for purchase on his website that are really nice.

A few of my favorite free ones include his Choice, Revolt, Blank, and Good Luck for You fonts. What’s your favorite?Similar Posts:

The Brightside of Late-Night Surfing

Connie McVicker — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:37:19 +0000

Ok, I’m a pretty simple girl and it doesn’t take a lot to impress me with a truly useful item. Being a work at home mom, I honestly don’t leave the house much. I like being home and in my neighborhood, and frankly in this economy, we just simply don’t spend money on needless things - only groceries, gasoline, and necessities. And when I do venture out to a store, it is normally a very quick trip; get in, get what you came for, and get out.

So these days I rely on the Internet, newspaper ads, and the few baby magazines I receive due to the pending birth of our second daughter to come across anything new or of interest. I know…not an exciting life you’re probably thinking, but hey, it works for me at this moment and I’m perfectly content in my own little world.

This past weekend I came across a little item in the March 2009 issue of my Parenting Early Years magazine that (I think) is just pure genius. As a mom and entrepreneur, I find myself doing a little late-night surfing in the dark, all while trying not to wake my husband. Enter Mr. Brightside - a small LED light that plugs into the USB port on your laptop to give you just enough illumination to actually see the keyboard. It even has a flexible neck so you can direct it exactly where you want it to glow. Now apparently there are other similar items out there as I found when surfing for Mr. Brightside, and this may not be new to you, but remember what I said…I don’t get out much!

But the difference between Mr. Brightside and all the others I found is the size and, most importantly, the price. Besides being super small and lightweight, Mr. Brightside is only $8.99. Let me say that again…eight dollars and ninety-nine cents! Now for those of you who are hurting in this economy or just simply watching your pennies - and for those of us with a baby on the way with many added expenses, $8.99 is not only affordable, but for me, totally worth it for those late-night surfings. And besides, Mr. Brightside is just too darned cute don’t ya think?

Where can you get Mr. Brightside? Jump on over to Bigger & Brighter to check it out. Oh and for all you savvy coordinators out there, it comes in four very cool colors: Black, Cherry, Lime, and Blueberry. Of course I’ll be going with Mr. Brightside in Lime - after all, it is my “signature” color.

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Freebie Friday - Sticker Icons

Connie McVicker — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:00:49 +0000

Today’s freebie is a great set of vector sticker icons that are only available over at You the Designer. These would be great to use in your print or web design projects.

Happy downloading!

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Giving Your Campaigns a Dry Run

Connie McVicker — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:30:31 +0000

This entry to my blog is probably more of a rant than anything, but I just can’t help pointing out the multitude of mistakes made by this organization. This isn’t a large organization, but a local one that seriously did not think through their campaign, nor did they go through the process themselves or they clearly would have known there is a BIG problem.

A few weeks ago I received a flyer for our local athletic association through my daughter’s preschool. They handle all the local county baseball and softball leagues for children. The flyer included the type of sport, age divisions and registration fee for each one, along with their website address. Note there is no phone number listed on the flyer which is a huge mistake as they may be missing out on potential registrants who do not have access to the Internet.

So, as I usually do, I head on over to the website to get more information. Our daughter will be 4 years old in a couple of months so we thought it would be good to get her started with T-ball for that age group. I mean who can resist a bunch of 4 year olds running amuck on the field learning the basics of baseball? I can totally picture her out there on the field while hubby and I are cheering her on in the stands!

The website is not professionally done, but initially it looks to serve the purpose of providing information. It is after all a volunteer organization that relies on donations and registration fees to support them. I proceed to search for more information on T-ball, things such as: 1) what date do they start?, 2) how many times a week do they practice and/or play?, 3) what time does practice and game time begin?, 4) how long does the season last?, etc. All of these are valid questions I believe.

First of all, after searching the site high and low, clicking on various links, I cannot find any of this information on the website for any one of the programs. I do however find the registration button, so I think to myself that maybe the information I seek will be included there. After going through 2 online waivers and releases in which I have to agree that I’ve read and understand, I finally get to the registration page. Unfortunately though there are still no answers to any of my questions, only an online registration form.

Frustrated at this point, I decide to visit their contact page. It includes various individuals with titles along with their organization email addresses. Ok, no problem, I’m certainly no stranger to email, so I choose the appropriate contact person for the sport I’m interested in and send a message…which bounces back to me as Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender. The report says that it is not a valid email address.

Ok, so back to the website I go in search of a different solution. I see they have a general email address, to which I send my message. Would you care to guess what happened? Yep, it bounced back, only with a totally different error message…that my email address does not have the permission to send e-mails to the mailing list. Huh? Seriously? Whoever set up this website and hosted email addresses clearly does not know what they’re doing or simply does not take the time to manage things very well.

Of course now, I must, as a last resort, pick up the phone and call to get this information. I think to myself that I should have just done this in the first place and saved myself all this trouble, but getting information online and via email is second nature to me and how I do business so that is usually my first action anyway.

Now back at the website where they clearly have a Baseball/Softball Hotline telephone number on every page of the site…I call. I’m greeted with a standard greeting and 2 options: press 1 for soccer or press 2 for baseball. I choose option 2 of course, but you won’t believe what happened next! It repeats “NWRAA baseball line, effective 4/21/08.” over and over and over and over and over again, without ever allowing you to speak to someone or leave a message. Even pressing “0″ gets you nowhere and you still hear the same looped message over and over…which tells you nothing!

So at this point it is safe to say that my daughter will not be playing T-ball this year, at least not with this organization. I have exhausted every single way to get in touch with them to answer my questions, but to no avail, which is a real shame. We were all ready to make total fools of ourselves while encouraging and cheering the loudest for our daughter from the stands.

What is the moral of this story? It really doesn’t matter how large a corporation or how small a non-profit organization you are; whether you’re a strictly online business or have a physical storefront. When you completely miss the boat on a campaign that is intended to bring in money, and you don’t go through the entire process yourself, or you just take a backseat and assume that things are working properly, then you set yourself up for failure. And unfortunately in this case, the failure affects not only the business, but the kids who would have been excited to play.Similar Posts:

Freebie Friday - WP WooThemes Ultimate Icon Set

Connie McVicker — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:00:12 +0000

It’s the kickoff of our Freebie Friday where each Friday I’ll post some of my favorite freebies from the web.

Today’s freebie is from WooThemes, the makers of premium WordPress themes that make you go…well…Woo!

Earlier this week, WooThemes released a brand new, FREE icon set. The WP WooThemes Ultimate Icon Set is a free download that contains 79 icons, sized at 256×256 pixels and available in both PNG and GIF formats. WooTheme members can also download the Illustrator file that will give them high-res, vector copies of the icons as an added bonus.

So what are you waiting for? Download this fabulous icon set today! Similar Posts:



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