A little Year end wrap up…

Where have I been, what have I been doing?

You know those Christmas Card letters? A little bit like that—with more snark.

Sometimes this year I have literally forgotten my blog’s password. I shock myself. But I’ve been having sooo much fun landing content in too many other places.

Working backwards:

• Figuring out the Wonderful World of Freelance Writing with SchoolFamily.com

I am writing a weekly column for SchoolFamily.com titled ‘GoodNCrazy Mom’. I get to write about all things related to my life as a mother of 3 school age kids. From weight loss goals with all kids in school, to whirlwind trips to Spain (what do you do with the kids when you leave?!) and pondering a little less holiday hustle and bustle… not everyone agreed with me on that one! And one of the posts was picked up by my School district’s Superintendent… he forwarded it to every teacher in the district! They had no idea what hit them.

Possibly my favorite School Family post so far… My Un-Resolutions for 2012, what are you NOT resolving to do this year?

• Getting my GalTime On (and then taking it back off again)

I have been the GalTime Local Ambassador Liaison for the past 6 months, I love the website and I have a passion for helping new online writers and mentoring and brainstorming, but in 2012 I will be stepping down from this gig, focusing more on my own writing (and getting more dishes done).

• I was asked to Join the Parent Advisory Board for Famigo.com

What a completely fun little company. They created an amazing cell phone app—check out their Android App, you’ll thank me when your kids stop destroying your phone settings! I get to flash my techy mom skills and I write a ‘mom-techy’ post twice a month over there!

• Project Manage Sponsored #TMOM Twitter Parties

Travelingmom.com is a niche travel info website and the community there is truly a blast to work with. If you haven’t joined in the #TMOM Mondays (9PM Eastern on Twitter) then you SHOULD!

• I’m coming up on 18 Months working with VolunteerSpot

VolunteerSpot.com is a free online sign up sheet service. It helps you organize your volunteers, plain and simple. And I jump in and play social media expert/consultant  and chief brainstormer on a regular basis. Plus, I personally love the service, I recently organized a Chili potluck dinner for my Cub Scout troop and it was oh so easy (and tasty!) with VolunteerSpot. (They just hit the 1 million volunteer mark! Yay VSpot!)

Fave articles I’ve written in 2011
(…I kind of think they rock):

Top Ten What I Wish I’d Known Then About Blogging — For TaraDara

Stop Annoying Your Teacher– for VolunteerSpot.com

Holiday Hustle and Bustle — for SchoolFamily.com

Un-Resolutions — for SchoolFamily.com

Seattle Streaker in Safeco Field — for GalTime

Getting Creative with Cub Scout Activities, turn them into service projects! — for VolunteerSpot.com

Recycled and Toilet Paper should NOT be in the same sentence! And Mom TP Types, Which Type are You? — for ToiletPaperWorld.com

And in my mom-life, what have I been doing in 2011?

• Foster Care, we have a 5 year old little boy living with us right now, making us a family of 6.
• My parent’s 50th Anniversary this summer in Southern Idaho, Way to Go Frank & Virginia!
• A family Trip to Lake Tahoe (never been, IT was amazing!)
• A Trip to Madrid with my husband while he was on a work trip! (Huge thanks to my mother for taking care of the kids!)
• Old Lady Basketball, every Tuesday night, whether we like it or not.
• Cooking a lot of Stove Top Stuffing Meat Loaf, I swear it’s my new favorite meal.
• Sooo much less reading. Who has time? But I did manage to read a few books this year: The Help, Gladwell’s Outliers, One Day, Tina Fey’s Book… I saw a lot of movies though.. does that count??
• Still haven’t taken a photography class, but I’m dying to begin using Adobe Lightroom. (Hello, 700 photos from the family reunion this summer!)
• Cub Scouts. I’m the new Den Leader, I have no clue what I’m doing most of the time… shhh, the boys don’t know the difference!
• Parenting a High Schooler, who has early morning seminary, and never-ending Play Practices (A Thespian!) We’re blaming her dad.
• Back to the Gym with a vengeance. I’ve lost ten pounds (when the scale is working right).. and I can’t believe it. I’ve never been able to lose any weight since my youngest was born (7 years ago). YAY ME!
• Blogging conferences: BlogHer11 August (Oh the fun drive to San Diego with @MaryHeston), Mom2.0 April (New Orleans! WOW.), BlissDom11 January (Travel in January is no fun, ended up staying the night with @Chaotic_Barb in Denver and how fun was THAT!?)

Stumble Upon Is Your Friend

First I want to talk about Internet Karma.

You need to understand that helping your fellow bloggers only helps you. When you tweet out a link to a friend’s post that especially made you laugh, your twitter following sees you and thinks: ‘Hey she’s sweet and cares about others.’ And those same followers might read something you’ve recently written that was poignant and they think.. hey I’m going to share this with people I know.

That’s what Stumble Upon is for. When you ‘thumb’ a post you share with the Stumble Upon world something you love. I do stumble/fave my own posts, sparingly.

Second, Stumble Upon can act like a social media portal as well as a bookmarking source.

How? There is a whole ‘friending’ area of StumbleUpon. On the toolbar there is a ‘Stumbler’s’ area, and when you click it you see your Stumble Friends (or Stumble accounts you have subscribed to..) My account is GoodnCrazy.Stumbleupon.com feel free to subscribe and then have a look at the people I subscribe to and see if there is anyone on my list you already know! Subscribe to them as well…

Once you have a handful of Stumble buddies you can click your far left Stumble button on the toolbar and click through posts and articles THEY have given a thumbs up to!

Did you know you can Stumble a photo?

You must first click the post title of the article so you are on the permalink to the post and NOT the homepage. Then if you have downloaded the Firefox toolbar, you right click the image and then click stumbleupon photoblog it!

Today I give you a guest post from a well known lifestyle blogger (and friend of mine!)

Please welcome Katja Presnal from SkimbacoLifestyle.com

I love being a stay-at-home-mom, but truth be told – being a mom isn’t enough for me. It’s not that I don’t love my children, I do, and I’ve always wanted to be home with them, but I want something just for me. I’ve always wanted a career too. Or to own my own business. Today I have both, and I am still a stay-at-home-mom turned work-at-home-mom. I think you CAN have it all, be a present mom for your kids and have a career. Especially if you have it online. And if I can do it, you can do it too!

I recently wrote about blogging as a lifestyle choice, making a living from home with your kids is also a lifestyle choice you can make. There are so many ways to make money from home, and it can be overwhelming to even think how to start, so here are several suggestions for how to get started making money while you are home with your kids.

• Start Selling on eBay or Craig’s List

My sister saw how many small clothes my kids had and she recommended starting to sell the used clothes on an auction site. I made $500 in the first month and was thrilled. While it would have been nice to spend that five hundred bucks on something for me – I went to discount stores and flea markets to buy more stuff to sell on auction sites. It is a very easy entry way to start learning about sales and marketing online.

• Crafty? Sell Items You Make Yourself

If you are blessed with any kind of crafty talent and even better if you have the creative imagination to make products that nobody else has, you are destined to become the next Etsy success story. It’s not enough to have a great product, you also need to know something about sales and marketing to turn it into a living. A good rule of thumb is to be nice to everyone, and understand a lot of sales mumbo-jumbo is just remembering to do the right thing and treat people nice.

• Blogging

I know blogging is the hot topic of today, and it certainly has changed my life. But if you only think about making money and the highest income you were able to make from home, starting a blog isn’t a way to get instant gratification. Remember the used clothes I sold on an auction site? I made $500 the first month. But it took me two years to make $500 a month from my blog. However, there are many opportunities blogging can bring you and like mentioned, it has changed my life in a much deeper way than just making money.

There are several blogging and writing jobs online that you can also pursue. One of the best ones out there right now is the Cheap Sally one year blogging contract. Cheap Sally is a couponing website and they are looking for bloggers to write about deals and sales on their blog for 2012, and offering a $100,000 blogging contract! If you already like saving money and writing, then this sounds like an opportunity of a lifetime to me. Get the details for the gig and apply now at CheapSally.com.

Work/Life Balance for Work-at-Home-Moms

I think the biggest challenge for work-at-home-moms is to find the balance between work and family, and it is not as easy to work from home full time as it seems. It has so many benefits though that I highly recommend giving it a try with some of these easy ways. Often even a small income that you are able to bring for the family makes a big difference these days, and once you start reaching out to other work-at-home-moms, you will realize we are a fun bunch and always helping each others to succeed.

Katja Presnal is an Addy Award-winning social media strategist and owns the Skimbaco® blog network and lifestyle brand. She inspires to live life to the fullest and does it by combining social media with everything else she loves. You can connect with her on twitter @katjapresnal and read more at her blog Skimbaco Lifestyle .

Please note: Carissa was in no way compensated for this article/guest post.

Time = Money

No one knows this better than a blogger in the poor economy year of 2011.

If you are a blogger who has been writing on your own website for more than 6 months you’ve probably been contacted by a brand or PR agent. And at first you were all, surprised, ME? Really, they LIKE my site, they want to work with me?! You were impressed  they found your blog at all.

In fact the brand was one you’ve gushed about with girlfriends at bookclub! When they asked you to write about a new product release or a service campaign they were involved in, you said heck yes! And told yourself it’s enough that it’s ‘just for the exposure’.

Soon after another company offered to send you a bottle of their newest product in exchange for a giveaway of the same product or for a review & write up on your site. You were still willing, after all, you received something for your time, right?

No Thanks I’d Rather Get Paid In Toilet Paper

What if I really don’t need the widget/gadget (or heaven forbid) another bottle of lotion? I can’t really feed my kids with that. I certainly can’t fill up my gas tank with it. IF they want to send me something practical like toilet paper, wonderful! I ALWAYS need toilet paper. Week after week after WEEK.  But lotion? Yeah, there’s only so much lotion I can use (even if I love it!).

I understand they need to get the word out about their product. But a product that has little practical value or worth less than $25-50 isn’t worth a BLOGGER’s TIME. You can’t buy my space for a bottle of lotion. Toilet paper?

Yes, feel free to send it my way.

The Blogger Unpaid Bell Curve

Most new bloggers go through a cycle like I’ve just described. At first they have little traffic and no brand association. But slowly they increase traffic and jump on the Twitter stream, maybe attend a blog conference and quickly PR agents follow. That same blogger might write and work with several brands for a few months, only to realize hey? I’m getting paid NOTHING and often giving out a lot of creative ideas and content, not to mention press for a brand or company.

Soon they slide back down the curve and decide their own content is more important than simply writing a press release for a company. And they also realize free product isn’t worth their writing time and influence.

It’s Time For Bloggers To Get Paid

Determine what your time is worth.
Ask around, find out what types of paying gigs other bloggers are getting:

• Sponsored Posts
• Guest Writing on Company Blogs
• Advertorials
• Press Junkets (not usually paid but expenses often are)
• Joining a Blog Tour
• Paneling a Twitter Party

Anecdotally, I have been told that bloggers charge between $25 and $500 for a one time sponsored writing gig depending on their overall traffic and social media influence (this may or may not include a product sample). Blog tours usually include a more well rounded campaign, including: blog posts and/or giveaway posts as well as time spent on a Twitter party or other Social Media outlet.  Also be sure to calculate the time you spend running a really great giveaway. Ask for hourly compensation for the time spent.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned finding an ad network, or selling your own sidebar ad space. That’s because the amount of work you need to put into finding your own sponsors tends to outweigh the price you’re able to charge. Some bloggers make this work, but they are far and few between. And your traffic must be HUGE to get involved with a trusted ad network.

I’m also not a big fan of spending time writing or working with the current blogger intermediaries where your only income option comes in the form of a ‘chance to win a $50 gift card’. I don’t have time for sweepstakes.

I’d rather get paid in toilet paper than in lottery entries.

What types of paid gigs are working for you?

All thoughts on this post are my own.

And who knew there are websites that only sell Toilet Paper? (There are). And ToiletPaperWorld.com contacted me after this post and freaking PAID me in TP to write for them. Yes. I’m serious.

Toilet Paper Mom Types: What Type Are You?

Dot is Great.. She gives me Chocolate CAKE!!!

I’m quoting Bill Cosby. He sing-songs this. Only it’s ‘Dad is GREAT… he feeds us chocolate CAKE!’ (For Breakfast.)

I feel like a little kid who was offered cake for breakfast. That’s how happy I am. See… last weekend, out of the blue my website was down. And it felt like I had been punched in the stomach. Your blog sort of becomes another appendage after years of feeding it,  stroking it’s ego, and especially after working through a whole WordPress transition. That was like giving birth, I swear! All painful and stressful while waiting for the new baby to emerge….

Okay enough metaphors. Dot from Dabbled.org was the miracle WordPress midwife who helped GoodNCrazy make the giant leap from Blogspot to self hosting ‘real’ website. However all along there was a funny glitch. I had already purchased my hosting (for a total of 18months!!) before consulting the Guru. Turns out that was a big mistake.

Dot assured me the hosting service she used was fabulous and if I ever wanted to switch after my LONG contract was up, she would totally help me. Her favorite server hosting company is BlueHost. Have you heard of them? About $7/month and get this… They give you a free Domain Name for life! No more renewing your URL. {Even if you already purchased yours, they will help you transfer it and then they will renew it from then on!}

Back to my nightmare last weekend. My server is inexplicably down. They call to tell me my account was canceled and that one whole year later I didn’t qualify for the ‘free’ extra six months after all. REALLY? SRSLY? Cuz, HELLO… the only reason I was duped into using your service was the fact that in EMAILS you promised me the 6 months free. And then there were fees. Extra fees for a database upload. ‘Oh you need a database for WordPress??’, they asked me. Well DUH! Yes you need database access for WordPress! They allowed it. (Gee thanks I thought.) ‘Oh it’s extra for the DNS switching stuff‘, they tell me AFTER I’ve paid them for the year-plus 6months free. Again with the hidden fees I’m thinking?

There I was, server down, hosting company refusing to respond to me, either by ‘support ticket’ email or via phone.

Tail between my legs I begged Dot to please SAVE my blog! And easy as cake… she referred me to her BlueHost affiliate link and I had my server up and running and she helped me get my WHOLE site moved over in a matter of hours. By Monday morning I was GoodNCrazy once again, not 404error – sorry no website here….

If you are thinking about making the switch to WordPress. YOUR FIRST STEP is getting a reputable hosting company. Please feel free to Use Dot’s BlueHost link.. I promise you’ll be happy you did!

Your Second Step is talking to Dot about blog design. She’s the artist who created my Crazy Tree Header complete with linkable social media icon ornaments! (I know you love it and want one for yourself…) Please check out her Web Design: DabbledStudios.com and her quirky blog: Dabbled.org. (Imagine a Platypus Cake??)

And if you really must have chocolate cake now… Dot is more than a Jack of all trades.. in addition to all her artwork and blog design, she is also the creator of one of my newest favoritest Foodie Websites: FoodWhirl.com. I LOVE subscribing to this site via email. I get 3-4 new recipes delivered to my inbox everyday! I’ve tried her pizza recipe, her smoky lentil soup recipe and many more… She had a whole week dedicated to BACON.. I mean does it get any better than that!?

FoodWhirl.com Examples

There is a great feature on the FoodWhirl site they call the spotlight. YOU can submit foodie articles to FoodWhirl.com! How cool is that! Reminds me… I have a cream puff recipe I SO need to share with the FoodWhirl world….

Hi all you Ultimate Bloggers!

Glad to meet you…
Hope you like my blog, it was recently re-designed by the wonderful @DotatDabbled of DabbledStudios.com!

I love the bloggy world.. welcome!
I’d love to connect on Twitter @CarissaRogers

More about me…

What is #UBP10 ?

It’s a blog hop..no it’s a carnival linky…no it’s a PAR-TAY!!

I’m talking the Grand Poobah of all carnival link ups and you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun!

Hosted by the fabulous, the gorgeous, the who needs makeup anyway??… 5minutesformom team. Bottom line? TONS of prizes. Hundreds of giveaways. You think I’m kidding don’t you? I’m not…

Click over to the prize listing page…

ULTIMATE BLOG PARTY 2010

Choose the top 3 (or 10 or 20.. there’s plenty to go around) items you’d like to win and… WRITE about it.
Link up a blog post to the Ultimate Blog Party and you’ll be entered! (If you don’t have a blog.. no worries.. you can still enter..)

Even better?
If you are hosting a giveaway there is a master link up of all grand daddy link ups during the #UBP10. Last year I think there were into the THOUSANDS of giveaways linked up.. you don’t want to be left out do you??

Oh… and by the way… Tonight… Friday the 8th.. I have been invited to hang with the cool kids over on MomTV for the #UBP10 bodacious LIVE webcam chat! (I may put on make up.. shhhh.. don’t tell…). A bit scary to be LIVE and on Camera!

Find it on MomTV.com/UltimateBlogParty.html

Topics will cover current blogging issues.
Do you have a blogging question?
Do you want to hear from Janice and Susan the super duo creators of 5minutesformom?
Then Join Me! (Okay… bribery… prizes will be given away DURING the live webcam…)

I have 4 copies of MemoryMixer software to hand out…! (In order to win you have to be over on the live chats.)

Also there will be a Twitter Chat Monday night at 9PM Eastern.
Hashtag #UBP10 (Yes more prizes!)

HMMM… let me see…

I’ll take number 11…

$100 restaurant.com coupon
Provided by: Amy LeForge of Earnest Parenting

or

number 28…

From MomFuse.com
Guy and Eva Necklace
Provided by: Jessica Fuqua – Ind. Guy and Eva Advisor

or number 31 and 32

Gift cards
Provided by: Jennifer Sikora (For Such a Time as This)
Provided by: The Frugal Novice

how about number 37..

A visa card
Provided by: Grocery Shop For FREE!!

Ohhh this is fun! Better than shopping…
Number 96…

Yummy Laundry products from Mrs. Meyers
Provided by: Mama’s Laundry Talk

And bless her heart..USC33

$50 in Lindt chocolates
Provided by: Michelle

I could kiss her… !

What do YOU want to win??

photo credit: SEPBLOG

HOO-RAY!!

It’s taken me several months but here I am. WordPress UP, yo.

And now I am super busy learning everything I can about WordPress and my Theme (Vigilance). Wow, I feel like a 3rd grader attempting to learn calculus.

“Sorry Miss Ashley, how do I locate the CSS file again via my FTP client? I can’t remember where my pink crayon is….”

I’m gonna need a lot of help. So if you already invented the WordPress wheel… will you please share a spoke or two?

Thanks.

I AM SO EXCITED!

WordPress is on the way.
I love blogger don’t get me wrong and I’ll still be thrilled to help anyone out with their blogspot issues.

But.
I’m dying to try out something new… see if I’m missing anything on the wordpress side of the fence. SEO plugins, A NORMAL comment section, A WHOLE new blog look….

Reminds me of my camera. I pushed my little point and shoot TO THE LIMIT. I was SO ready for a Digital SLR.

It’s time for a NIKON kind of blog I tell ya.
And since this month is my 2 year Bloggavurshury….. !

MY blogspot-switch-to-wordpress is brought to you with the help of some friends of mine..

@dotatdabbled
{All the artwork and the coding and adjustments of my free theme: Vigilance}

@telling_dad
{Helped me upload the database and the WordPress.org files}

@scrappinmichele
{Helped me upload the theme initially}

@theworkingmom
{Jen does amazing work, and has answered a lot of questions and says she will help me on my WordPress journey… I intend to keep picking the WordPress knowledge out of her brain in fact…}

I kept thinking all of this could be done for under $200. And no matter what I did or who I asked. It just wasn’t possible.

I’m dreaming that the handful of coders I know will get together with the fun graphic artists I know and make mommy blogger wordpress babies… ones that are birthed with-IN a mom blogger’s budget.

Either that or maybe we need bloggy insurance for upgrades?

So Where Can I Get Great Quality
Free Photos and Images For My Blog??

The 3 places most people check first:

3 Stars
Similar to PhotoExpress without requiring your first born to sign up. The selection is just as good and there are no limits that I can see. Most photos need attribution and are clearly marked as to how they should be used.

One thing that bugs me: when you search for ‘red’ for example; it first comes up with a list of ‘premium’ images from Dreamstime.com. Fine, realize it’s an ad and move on because few images from Dreamstime are free. Scroll down to the Stock.XCHNG images which are free. Also when you click the download button it first opens a giant image and you then use right click to save the image( instead of directly).

Upside: It’s easy to upload and add your own images to the overall collection. I don’t consider myself a professional photographer, hello(!) if someone likes my photo? I’m
thrilled. Happy to share in fact.

EveryStockPhoto.com

1 Star
I like the idea of this site. But really it’s the middleman; adding another step to your photo search. It’s a search engine for ‘free’ stock images. Mostly it comes back with images from: Flickr, PhotoExpress and Stock.XCHNG. Technically it should be making your search faster. HOWEVER. Especially on a Flickr photo I feel like I have to click over to be sure I’m cleared to use it on my blog. That’s 3 clicks and I still have to chose a size and then download the image. If it says can’t use for commercial (slashed dollar sign), I stay away. I’d prefer the search limited to only images that are clearly okay to use.

Morguefile.com
2 Stars
The main problem with Morguefile is that the variety is so limited. A search for ‘Grandparent’ nets a whopping 14 images, and then they want you to jump to Dreamstime.com for ‘more’ images..(remember that’s really an ad). ‘Red’ came back with a lot more and the images are good quality, but ‘Kitty’ only gave a hundred or so…. And ‘woman computer’ brought up a ton of images but none with both a woman AND a computer. The search filter system is cumbersome and frankly hard to use. I just want to type in a couple keywords and have the image show up! It is easy to download images though, and I saw no limits.

Upside: This feature on Morguefile is totally cool! A direct crop and post feature, I tried it with this rose image. (The credit part below the image came with the html; simply copy and paste.)

Photo credit: solrac_gi_2nd from morguefile.com

Dreamstine.com
iStockphoto.com

For blogging purposes: These get a big thumbs down from me. The selection of truly free images is so small it’s worthless to spend any time on the sites. And the whole credit system is clearly built for bulk users. You save if you purchase a lot of credits up front… They each allow a certain amount of free credits upon signing up.. but it’s too gimicky for a blogger like myself. They both have a fabulous selection of high quality/professional images but you have to pay for them.

There are likely hundreds if not thousands of other Stock Photo sites out there. But these are the ones I keep coming back to over and over.

And For Fun.

ffffl*ckr.com
This website is more like an application, running on the Flickr Search API.
Try it. It’s such a fun time-suck! You click an image and ‘favorites’ from that photographer show up.. then click again.. and before you know it.. you’ve lost a good 10-20 minutes of your life!
Plus if you ‘log in and fav‘ it will access YOUR flickr favorites and you can begin jumping around the favorites of the photographers you have faved. Plus you can add to your Flickr fave list by clicking the fave button on new photos… I wish it would limit by copyright, now THAT would be an awesome time-suck.
Let me know if you like ffffl*ckr!?