Archive for October, 2007
Jesus said that in order to follow Him I have to hate my family. This has been on my heart a lot in the last few days. Hate is a hard word to swallow, especially when it comes to family.
A quick word review finds us looking at the Greek word “miseo, misos” and the very last definition in my Strong’s is “to love less.” Now this is something that makes sense to me. It was even something that I had just come to determine on my own (as I was pondering some scripture I had just read). It is also much easier to do (not that I think walking the right path is ever EASY).
If I want to fully focus on God’s will and God’s way then I can’t worry about others. The concerns and the attitudes of my family can’t override the will of my Father. If they hold a higher position than Him in my life then that’s exactly what will happen.
God doesn’t want me to forget my family or walk away from them. He knows how important support is for my walk. The perfect relationship would be one that is spiritually connected and blood connected.
Instead, God wants me to be at a place that if family were to make me choose then I would choose Him – without hesitation and without guilt.
Maybe it’s not as easy as I was thinking at the start. Loving someone and being willing to walk away may be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
October 22nd, 2007
Making money has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of days. Yesterday it dawned on me that the key to making money on my blog is to bring traffic to my blog. It doesn’t matter whether I’m trying to sell something on my site or just trying to sell ads. If no one comes then that is it.
Today I started searching for the key to driving traffic to my site. It only recently dawned on me to do a Google search for “increase web traffic.” There are probably dozens of phrases that I could use. What I have found so far is a mass of articles that give great ideas for driving traffic to where I want it to go, and a couple of websites that are simply a must for bloggers.
Performancing – I’ve been visiting this site for a few months now, but have concentrated on the “monetization” aspect (even though Raj has encouraged me to focus on traffic). Not only does Performancing have numerous articles about increasing traffic, but there are also some great hints on every thing from blog design to content, and a listing of blog jobs.
http://performancing.com/promotion/3-ways-to-immediately-increase-search-engine-traffic
http://performancing.com/promotion/10-tips-for-more-blog-traffic
http://performancing.com/5-surefire-steps-to-increase-readership-300-or-more
http://performancing.com/what-should-come-first-traffic-or-money
http://performancing.com/promotion/general/how-to-make-your-blog-sticky
Copyblogger offers great tips for online marketing success. It’s one of the sites I have been encouraged to visit on a regular basis because of all the useful articles. These blogging sites are also great because of the connections that you make.
http://www.copyblogger.com/viral-copy/
http://www.copyblogger.com/building-traffic-to-build-your-fan-club/
Problogger is another of the must visit sites for bloggers. It has a wealth of information, contests, and encouragement.
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/15/building-readership-by-monitoring-what-other-bloggers-are-writing/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/14/driving-traffic-to-your-new-blog/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/07/14/finding-readers-for-your-blog-what-we-wish-we-knew/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/06/21/10-techniques-i-used-to-go-from-0-to-12000-rss-subscribers-in-seven-months-with-no-ads-or-leverage/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/06/04/5-uncommon-ways-to-market-your-blog/
Although these are some of the most popular blogs about blogging today, the blogosphere is a full of great people with great ideas. The more people learn then the more they seem want to share. Many of writers will respond to comments and questions you have about what they have written. Unlike other forms of media, blogging really is a relationship.
Although I don’t visit all the sites as often as I should, there are a few more articles and places that have caught my attention.
http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/10/09/5-things-that-will-improve-your-web-site-traffic-plus-1-to-avoid/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/how_to_get_traf.html
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/21-tactics-to-increase-blog-traffic
http://www.chrisg.com/how-do-i-increase-traffic-to-my-blog-faq/
http://danemorgan.com/article-marketing-blog-promotion/19/
http://blogigs.com/a-simple-blog-promotion-tip-for-newbies/
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/blogging/5-ways-to-increase-internet-traffic-to-your-blog-or-web-site/
http://www.internetwondersezine.com/blogging/7-tips-to-improve-your-blog-rank
Weekends are my new time to build my traffic. Since the whole family is in and out all day, it’s not like I can concentrate on writing hard core articles. Systematically, these tips will be implemented on my site. Some of them I already do, although I’m not nearly as consistent as I should be in my blog promotion activities. Some of them are new (and may be impossible because of dialup). All of them are worth a shot – especially if I want to reach my goal.
It would be great to be one of those bloggers that makes thousands of dollars off their own site and that the news stations turn to when they need an “expert.” That won’t happen because some magic elves build my shoes while I’m sleeping. I have to build the traffic.
In the mean time, I’ll continue to use my blog writing as a teaching tool. The unique writing I do for my blog (with key words, length, amount of articles, and turn over time) pushes my skills and makes the other genre writings much cleaner. Hopefully, by focusing on the content and by following all of these great suggestions, my numbers (and feedback) will continue to increase (and so will my income). I promise to shout it out when I reach the mountain top.
October 20th, 2007
There is only one way to know what God wants for my life. There is only one way to hear His voice and understand his directions. There is only one way to love, trust, and obey the Father.
Henry Blackaby writes about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the Mounties) in the bible study “Experiencing God.” It seems those training in anti-counterfeiting spend all their time studying the real deal. They never look at the ways the criminals counterfeit. They don’t study the fake bills. Over and over and over the real money is closely observed. The Mounties become so intimate with the real bill that they can easily spot the fake.
The only way to know the right path for my life is to know the Path Maker intimately so that I can spot the fakes. Spending time in the Word (reading, studying, memorizing), spending time alone just listening to the “still small whisper, and spending time talking with God about my dreams, hopes, desires, and even frustrations will assure me of the right walk.
If I can make each movement of my day, from rising out of bed to fixing the meals to writing my articles, completely focused on His person, His purpose, and His ways THEN I will have made it.
October 19th, 2007
Saving your money doesn’t mean avoiding fun and excitement. There are plenty of things that you can do (yes with a family) that will cost you little or no money.
1. Rent a movie – FROM THE LIBRARY. It’s free and often if they don’t have the movie you are looking for you can request it and they will call you when they get it in.
2. Go on a hike. Some of the State Parks or National Parks even offer free guided tours through the attractions.
3. Tour a local plant or factory. There is an ice cream factory near our home that gives tours for almost nothing. There is also a genuine blacksmith that gives tours for free. Our family has toured goat farms, fire stations, and museums, all for the low, low cost of FREE!
4. If your child shows and interest, call and ask. Many businesses will be glad to give a tour (although you might have to get some friends to go along so you have a large enough group). Call the local newspaper, television station, or radio station. It will probably be just as exciting for the adults as it is for the kids.
5. Check out the local festivals. There are literally thousands of these things going on all the time: Harvest festivals, fiddle festivals, strawberry (or other fruity) festivals, winter festivals, spring festivals, renaissance festivals, and even a poke salad festival. Many of them are free and offer activities that range from acting performances to hands on treats for the kids. Your local chamber of commerce (or a quick search online (should offer you endless possibilities for your weekends).
When the money gets tight, or even if it’s just the money holder 
, there are still plenty of things that can be done to entertain the family. Take some time to investigate all the free offerings that are available in your community.
October 19th, 2007
Writing the perfect query is the only way to make it in the print industry. There are hundreds of places that accept (and often prefer) full manuscripts. If you spend hours on a piece and it is rejected, then you are back to square one (only now you have a file full of articles that have never been published – I know, start a blog).
The great thing about queries is that you don’t have to write the whole article before you find out if the publisher is interested. The bad thing about queries is that if yours is accepted then you better be able to meet the expectations that it delivers. I have written BAD queries, great queries that I couldn’t produce the article, and great queries where the articles were accepted (and the check has cleared). Here are some of the tips that I have stumbled over through the years.
1. Know the magazine that you are querying. That means that you need to find some of the magazines and read the articles. You need to know the tone, the material, and even the grammar (some use contractions, some don’t). Many magazines have an online site where you can see some of their archived articles.
2. Know the person you are querying. You will have to find out the editor of the department (don’t trust the website, the market guide listing, or the magazine). The best bet is to call. The print industry is one that is always flipping. If you send your query to the wrong person then it will most likely find its way into the garbage before it is ever opened. Also, make sure you have the right spelling and title.
3. If you haven’t written the article (and I usually don’t) then at least have an outline to guide your query letter. I wrote the perfect query letter and a major print magazine asked to see the article. Only, I couldn’t figure out how to make the exact idea in the query into a flowing article. It was rejected, and they haven’t asked to see another of my articles since then.
4. Read the guidelines. If you have a fiction story and the magazine doesn’t accept fiction, don’t waste the time or money to send the query no matter how good and perfect you think it might be. The guidelines are there for a reason. Follow them specifically (including number of words) or you will not make it into the respond pile.
5. Check, recheck, and then have a friend check your grammar, titles, and names. During a day when I sent out multiple queries, the name of a rival magazine ended up on another’s query. I wasn’t shocked when I got a form rejection letter. Why should they take the time to look over and evaluate a query when I can’t even take the time to be sure I’ve got the right magazine?
What makes a good query? Everyone you will speak to will probably have a little different formula for what they write. This is a layout of an accepted e-query:
Jane E. Doe
Editor
I Want to Write Magazine
1234 Grammar Street
Hometown, Al 12345
Dear Ms. Doe:
Paragraph One: Attention grabbing sentence or anecdote
Paragraph Two: Basic outline of the article, the length, and the section of the magazine it will most be suited for (shows your knowledge of the magazine).
Paragraph Three: Use a few sentences to tell about whom you are, what have happened in your life to qualify you to write the article, and any experience you may have had (DO NOT say you are inexperienced!). My first query simple said something like “I am a freelance writer with a desire to share my personal struggles to assist others in their walk.”
Paragraph Four: Just a simple “thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.”
Sincerely,
Your name
Your name
Your address
Your phone number
Your email address
Learning to write the perfect query is the best way to send your writing career to the next level. If you don’t have friends that write (or that will be honest with you) then subscribe to an online writing forum for advice and suggestions. The key is to keep learning, keep perfecting, and keep trying until you get to where you want to be.
October 18th, 2007
There hasn’t been a time in my life when I didn’t wonder what God had planned. While some things seemed simple – mother and wife – others have been one giant road block after another – writing, teaching, and speaking. Today was the first day that I realized it’s not about the “big plan.”
God has one purpose for my life – that is to live in a personal, intimate relationship with Him. If I spend all day today just working on that relationship and looking for Him right now, I don’t have the time to think about the plans He is laying out for my tomorrow. He will take care of what He is doing.
I see Mark in a whole new light – “don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has worries enough of its own.” I had thought it was talking about the fretting kind of worry (how will I pay my bills? What are the kids doing? What about that promotion?). Now I think it’s just talking about living. That’s why it’s included with the passage about not thinking about what to eat or what to wear.
It almost goes against nature to think that God is concerned about my clothes, or my hair, or my weight. The truth is that He is more concerned about anything that I am because that is the way a parent works. But the great thing is that He takes it one step farther than we parents could ever do. If I will focus on NOW and do what I know to do then my Father will take care of tomorrow. He will lay out the “big plans” and He will have me prepared to take on all that lies in the path.
If you are not sure about the direction you are headed, take a moment to step back and talk to God. Work on that intimate relationship with Him that He designed you to have. Listen to His words and His direction. Do the things that you KNOW to do (even if it’s just read, study, and pray) and wait for Him to make Himself clear to you. If you know the Father then you will always know when He is direction you.
October 18th, 2007
Society has designed the system so that you will be in debt for most of your life – all of it if you plan right. The mortgage industry has developed loans that will allow people to borrow more – which have pushed up the price of houses, requiring people to pay more for less house.
It seems like an endless cycle – but you can get out now!
A traditional mortgage will cost you three times what you agreed the house was worth – if you pay off in the full amount of time allotted. If you make one extra payment per year, the number of years decreases. Now pay on the principle each month, and you could decrease your mortgage term to as little as seven years. That means you will be debt free AND you will have paid thousands less in interest.
There are mortgages that are beginning to make their way into the United States that are designed to help you pay off the loan faster. Basically, you put money into an account to pay your mortgage. At the end of the month, everything that is left over (after paying your monthly payment) is rolled over to principle. If you don’t have a mortgage already, this could be the path for you.
If you are already locked into a mortgage, you don’t want to go to the expense of moving to a new lender. It is possible to use the same concept – if you will just be disciplined about it. Set aside ¼ of your normally monthly payment. At the end of the month, if you haven’t HAD to use the money, then pay it on your principle.
It’s really just one simple step that will buck the system and have you debt free before your children can even spell the word.
October 18th, 2007
My husband made a decision that affects my whole family – without talking to me. Every fiber in my body wants to knock him in the head, but that would be wrong (it would, wouldn’t it?). IF he had talked to me, I would have counseled him differently. The trouble is that he DIDN’T talk to me. He made the decision on his own and now I have to live with it.
To add irony to this insult, I am leading a bible study that is focused on control – how we have to let go of control on many things (like husbands) and focus on the things in our own lives. I had just bragged (always a BAD sign when dealing with scripture) that I no longer had issues with control. Then the phone call came, and all I wanted to do was control (manage, salvage, fix) the situation.
Instead, I took a note from the upcoming weeks study and tried to respond with God’s love and God’s knowledge. It’s not easy, when every atom of the flesh is crying out “have you lost your mind?” There were not a whole lot of words I was able to form. I think I mumbled something along the lines of “okay.”
The good news in all of this is that I am forced to confront the fact that God is my strength. God is my provision. God is my peace. It’s a good thing, too. Otherwise, my husband would be sleeping on the porch with the dogs. 
October 17th, 2007
Just when you think you’ve got it all under control, someone pulls the rug out from under you. There is nothing more frustrating than working hard to balance your finances only to have the unexpected plunge you towards darkness. There are some hard things that you can do when the money squeeze happens unexpectedly (lost job, death, sickness, etc).
1. Call your mortgage company (and any other places that you might have debt). Many have a hardship exception that will allow you to wave a couple of months’ worth of payments. This alone could be a life saver.
2. Sale off the luxury items. Do you have an extra car? Do you have some boy toys – like a four wheeler, a boat, or a motorcycle? Maybe you have lots of jewelry that you don’t wear anymore. Sell any item that you don’t need. Not only will you have the money from the sale, but you will save on insurance and other miscellaneous expenses.
3. Give up the little things – because they can add up quickly. This means no more eating out, no more coffee stops, and no more cable. Sorry, but tough times call for even tougher measures (particularly painful during football season).
4. Take what you can. There will be opportunities to work that you might normally pass over. During this time, every penny will count. Take the jobs that come before you until you make or find the job that is for you.
Just like there are things you can do, there are also things you don’t need to do.
1. Don’t panic. You are not the first person to face a crisis and you won’t be the last. The ones you not only survive, but over come, are those that remain calm in the storm.
2. Don’t whine to everyone you see. This will be one of your first instincts – resist with all your might.
3. Don’t give up. Like I read once, “tough times never last, but tough people do.” You may not be able to get rid of the problem, but you can find a way to manage it.
4. Don’t give in. There will be enough external pressure coming at you to cook a roast – stay focused, calm, and looking for the silver lining. By keeping a positive outlook you will be able to keep the nasties at bay.
It is possible to survive what ever life might throw at you. No matter what the situation might be, it will always be worse for you because you are the one going through it. Take some tough steps, do what you know to do, stay positive, and you will overcome!
October 17th, 2007
Christmas can be a budget busting experience for one and all. Ten years ago, when we had NO money, we began a tradition that makes the holidays less stressful for all.
1. The first year, we only spend $25 on the child. Each year we add $25 (to cap out at $300). It may not seem like much, but what does a one year old really need? As they get older, they will never be able to say “you spent more on him than you did on me.”
2. No matter what, we don’t give more than three big gifts (we put the same rules on the grandparents). People think more about what they give if they are limited.
3. No buying for extended family. This has been tough, because everyone wants to give everyone something. Instead, we spend a couple of days making goodies that we deliver on Christmas Eve.
4. The kids have to save their own money to buy gifts for Christmas. They get a tiny allowance each week (if they do their chores consistently) so they have some money. Plus, there are always opportunities to make more money (like weeding the garden, washing the car, babysitting, etc). Limited funds means they have to budget out what they will spend, shop wisely, and often cooperate to get the gift they want.
5. Stocking stuffers can’t cost more than $10. I use to aim for $5, but that is almost impossible these days. Stocking have been filled with oranges and apples on more than one occasion.
6. For go the junk. All year, we talk about things that we need and want and are interested in learning or doing. We try to match up gifts with these desires. Instead of buying something just to have something to buy, we focus on things that we can get excited about. (Pass on the new, hip remote control gadget and get a super set of Legos for my builder. Pass on the “in” toy and get a microscope set for my science son).
Setting out to buy gifts for out family is as much fun as getting gifts. Budgets are limited, thought is taken, and the holidays aren’t just about spending anymore.
October 16th, 2007
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