Friday, April 17, 2009

Excitement!



The Wells Fargo Bank in our little city of 6800 was robbed this morning!

I couldn't get anybody at the bank to talk to me yet. Nobody was hurt thank God.

Finally gonna bite the bullet and hire a part time employee! She starts next Tuesday.

Yeah! it's the weekend!!!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Will New Business Come This Week?

Recovering from having skin cancer removed from my lip last week. Most of the swelling has subsided, but still have 12 stitches running from base of my nose through my lip.

Trying to zero in on my priorities for the week; and intend to make myself and 17 year old daughter, the top items on the list. Shes got prom and graduation coming up (expenses, expenses). I'm staring at a week of deadlines and meetings (with a face full of stitches LOL); at the same time wondering if new business will come in this week.

I remain optimistic.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Trade Marked Names Are No No's

This probably should go without say. Whenever planning to start a new website, make sure the name of your site isn't already trademarked.

http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm

The site I created iMompreneurs was infringing upon two different trademarks. Mompreneur and iMom. Though I may have been able to win the arguments, I didn't want the headache.

Needless to say, the name has been changed. The iMompreneur.com is now www.aMomEntrepreneur.com

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Getting the Hang of it

Not sure why it seems to be so hard to make regular postings.

Today was our regular Tuesday Rotary Meeting. The guest speaker for the day was from the local community college; a Texas history teacher. This is keeping inline with what the City of Kennedale had going on this weekend celebrating Texas history.


While blogging, what are you supposed to post? Business blogs or personal blogs? Should they be separate or are they the same?
This photograph was taken at the Celebrate Texas parade.

My oldest daughter is having some problems with her back and spine; I hoping nothing too serious.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Important Thing



Family. The most important thing in my life.


My daughter is painting an oil on canvass of a picture I shot while covering a funeral of a fallen soldier.


She plans to give the painting to the family.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Distractions


I'm so distracted this week; I've got so many projects going on - I'm not really sure where to begin. Kennedale News has to be at the printers by Wednesday (this is Tuesday and I haven't created the file yet), Kennedale Racing needs to be at the printers by next week [not even started on the March edition yet] and my other websites need tending.

On top of that I've a health concern going on; skin cancer (small and treatable) but the medicine omg - has horrible side effects......[If you are a praying person, please add me to your prayer list].

What do you do when you're over extended and needing to focus?
Here's a pic of one of the stories that will run in Kennedale News, this week. It's about a "Donkey Basketball Game" at the jr high. It was hilarious. The people that participated were from city government and the school district.







Saturday, February 7, 2009

Canned Food Drive

As publisher of the local newspaper I was invited to take pictures of elementary school kids bringing canned goods up to our church. There are 7 4th grade classes and each class collected over 100 cans. This photo will appear in Kennedale News next week.

iMompreneur created


Like I need another website to keep up with.......I'll be official launching iMompreneur very soon. It's currently sitting at iMomPreneur.

I am also looking for founding members who would like to share their expertise.

I created this site with the idea, of helping mom business owners and work at home moms. It is a place to network, share ideas, harness the power of the internet, and grow your business.



If you are a mom-preneur, please join me in my quest.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Matt Logelin & Ning

This post came from Rachel Sarah's blog. I'm posting because I've been intriqued by Matt's story [I think you will be too] and trying to drive more traffic to Single Rose. (Matt lost his wife and is raising their baby daughter by himself).

Another tool I've began to use is Ning; which I hope will be a traffic generator for my websites, though I haven't pulled them to my domains yet.
Single Rose
Kennedale News
Kennedale Racing

Still trying to figure out the blogging thing; haven't done it enough to separate my posts into categories. Just found out I have skin cancer. Basal cell carinoma - which they say is the best kind of have if you have to have it.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Harder than I thought it'd be

Trying to keep a blog is harder than I thought it would be.

It's difficult to come up with something of substance at the end of day.

Today was a holiday for most. My daughter and husband included; except my brain never stops, not even at the dentist this afternoon.

I'm at the beginning on the week where I have to be getting the newspaper ready for the printers by Wednesday, for distribution to the city Friday and I haven't even started yet.

My singlerose.com business partner is wanting a meeting to discuss the relaunch of the newly designed site, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit him in.

I did manage to compose and send the weekly enewsletter to the singlerose.com list-serve.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Customer Surveys

As everyone knows collecting information on your customers is crucial to your business success! You have to be able to know certain specifics on your website visitors: likes, dislikes, habits, demographic info, etc

What you do with that information and how you present it is extremely valuable in marketing your business. It can and does make the difference between securing that new advertising campaign and not!

Periodically I will run a survey on Single Rose or Kennedale News to get the populations current pulse. I'm running a survey on Kennedale News right now, because the City is trying to establish exactly where most people in the community are getting their information.

The point of this post is to share a free, easy, survey site with all of you. It's free to a certain point but if you need more than 10 questions or need more than 100 responses, you have to upgrade. The first level is $15 per month. That level will allow you, I think up to 500 responses. They provide you with real time reporting stats, which I love. The site is Question Pro. Question Pro also offers Micro Polls, which are one question surveys you can embedded into your website.


Sunday, January 4, 2009

Email Newsletters

Subscriber email is the gasoline that powers the website machine. At least that seems to be true in my case.

If you want visitors to come back to your site, send them an email with your website updates.

Putting out a quality enewsletter that will engage your audience often enough, but not too often that you piss off people is the trick.

Make sure you're collecting information from your visitors and make sure you use the information that you collect.

Single Mother Sentiments

This video is about my first book, Single Mother Sentiments: Real Life Reflections from Divorced, Widowed and Never Married Mothers, and the Single Rose Angels Assistance Program. The book is available on Single Rose.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram said, "It's a humble book, but in its own way says as much about the struggling single-mom experience as any sophisticated sociology study could."

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Virgin Blogger

I'm hoping to become proficient at the blogging thing for two reasons:



1) to further promote my publishing business and personal income.



My current websites are Single Rose - THE Resource for Single Mothers

Kennedale News - The official newspaper for the City of Kennedale, TX

Kennedale Racing - Serving the race car drivers and fans of Kennedale, TX



2) to help other people also be successful.



I'm a work at home mom/webpreneur and plan to use this blog to share my thoughts, successes and failures as I try and continue to make a living during these tough economic times.



I'm a blogger virgin, so commentors be gentle!