“The RoseBouquet”

Yes! I have those Facebook LIKE and Comment buttons on my two SBI sites, and I think I can turn back to other things to improve and monetize those sites.

What I really need now is some friends who have Facebook accounts to visit my sites, and find some of those buttons and click on them, and make nice comments about the site or that particular web page. This will show up on the walls of your friends, and tweak their interest so they come to see my site too. That will greatly improve my visitor STATs! Best of all, if they really like my website and click on some affiliate links - ah-ha, then I’ll really profit!

I don’t want to push anyone to get a Facebook account just because of this request. This favour is totally optional. But so many millions of people already have Facebook accounts and don’t know how to use them. If you are one of them, here’s a wee thing you can do to encourage and bless me.

If - just IF you are willing to do this, here are the sites to visit;
www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
www.online-shopping-guides.com

Hey, I just went to peek at the STATs for January and I see a tremendous increase. The LIKE buttons have not been in place a full day yet, but 8 pages have had over 1000 visits a day already, with the one on eat-your-aloe-vera.html having 4198 for the month! Wow! The daily average for all the pages is 641!

The other one is making good progress too, but is just moving into the triple-digit figures. However, I should stop this before I make someone discouraged about their STATs. I really don’t want to brag; I’m just brimming over at good news.

I think yesterday I caught on to creating the Facebook “LIKE” buttons. I’ve struggled for two weeks to get the hang of it the SBI way. On Friday I finally got one step right that I’d been missing, but they were still not showing up on my web pages. I’d asked for help at the forum, but I’d also wondered about the placement of the first piece of code, and when I tried that, voila! - it worked!

So then I prepared my codes for the Aloe vera site again, the right way, and then I stumbled on the instructions for applying for a developer account at Facebook, so I could make myself a moderator over the comments that people might leave on my site. I got that part too, but ran out of time to paste all those codes on every page of that site. That part will now be easy, just time-consuming.

On Saturday night I tried those Facebook “LIKE” buttons, just the FB way on the http://revival-time-ministry.info site (for the ministry in Uganda). They are said not to be as good as the SBI way, but they showed up right away when I tested the code on 2 or 3 pages.

Now that I’ve got the hang of the two different ways, I need to tackle pasting the codes on each page of - well maybe not all the sites in my care. Some of them are on the back burner and need a complete renovation first.

See…? There’s another job for when I can hire employees or virtual assistants to do them for me. I’m starting a job list for them.

As part of my plan to learn how to use social media this year to promote my websites, I’ve been fussing with learning how to get the codes so I can put “Like” and “comment” buttons my sites. It is more involved than I’d thought. I’m hoping in another week to have them installed all over the two SBI sites.

It will be interesting to see whether these really increase visitors to the sites as they say. I’ll let you know when you can go click on my “Like” buttons and give me a spike in popularity.

I’m waiting for some “occasional clients” to get some material to me to update their sites, and another friend wants to discuss a site when they get back from Hawaii. That will probably not take too long, so I can probably tell another prospect that I’ll be able take his site on in a couple of months. So my Thursday nights will soon be promised away again.

How to fill the meantime? I’m grabbing time for my own projects and a learning curve. I think last Thursday night I caught on to how to change a Word Press blog theme to look like the site I want to match it too. That will be useful information for my clients as well as myself!

Just out of curiosity, how do you fill your “meantimes” when you are between projects or clients? Is that your time to veg-out?

Remember last week I told you about losing an important program for doing my work on web pages? Well, I hunted and tried to find replacement programs…. oh, a long saga over the rest of last week. Then suddenly on Friday morning, at about 11 o’clock, I found it by a slightly different name in one of my root folders. Oh what relief when I clicked on a file called quanta.desktop and my program opened up. Oh hallelujah!

Then there is the matter of computer monitors. It seems whenever friends or acquaintances got a new monitor (the LCD or LED kind), they would offer me their cast off CRT monitor. (Yes, those big monsters that are hard to lug around).

For years my policy has been not to sneeze at gifts, and to see if I can find a use for theses castoffs. My office was cluttered with them. Over the holidays I had carried about 5 of them to the landing at the top of the stairs outside my office. My plan is to wait until some stronger friend is available and ask them to carry them down the stairs for me. I nearly popped an aneurysm in my neck the last time I tried to carry two of them up.

However I was having frustrations with the biggest one that I was still using with my own desktop computer, even when I’d set the system font to a large size, and finally said to myself, “Squinting at the tiny font on this huge screen is nuts! I’m going to use some gift monies to buy myself an LCD/LED monitor too!”

A quick computer search before 5 pm showed me which store had the best price, and I headed across the city to that store. The lowest priced one was $80 and I snapped it up. I have not regretted it for a moment!

What a wonderful difference!

SarCan, here in Saskatchewan takes electronic stuff for recycling. I see with a quick search that there are other options in other places, so don’t take it to the garbage bin, but drive your stuff over to a recycling center when you are ready to get rid of it.

But hey, if it is still working, consider donating it to a charity that provides computers to those who can’t afford them. There are still many people left who don’t have any computer at all, and no hope of buying one.

Oh say, thanks to all my friends who rejoiced with me over my tent garage or carport, and my crocheted collar recycled into a cute hat!

As I had planned, I spent last week in prayer and planning at least the first three days. Thursday and Friday I spent here at the office, and I got three computers installed with the latest version of openSUSE 12.1 (One old laptop didn’t turn out so well). I also did some serious housecleaning and moved some furniture around, hoping to be ready for more volunteers and eventually employees here.

There’s still a number of projects on my to-do list that I didn’t get to, so I’ll have to squeeze’em in where I can throughout the year.

One frustration on this desktop is that now I can’t find the program I used to use for creating web pages! I only found that out yesterday, so there’s something I MUST work out today.

On my aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com site I had announced a new ezine to start in January, and promised to send out a small aloe vera plant to the first 20 subscribers. Well, I had 58 by yesterday, but getting addresses to which to send the plants is another story. Some emails bounce back and some don’t reply. Anyway, by this morning I had four and I took them to the post office to send off this morning. The interesting thing is that so far none of those went to a Canadian address Two went to USA addresses, one to Ireland and one to Pakistan. It’s all an experiment to see what is entailed if I should go to selling my plants world-wide. (Looks like at the least I’ll have to charge enough to cover the shipping costs).

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holidays to rest you up, and that you have cheerful prospects for the coming year. Remember, we can choose our attitude.

This is a busy week, as some families have some gatherings before Christmas and some right on the 25th and some in the days that follow. Those that I ask all seem to have either plans to have others over for a holiday feast,or are invited to another home. That’s good.

I keep asking though, in case I come across some lonely soul that has no invitation at all. I’m planning to make a turkey meal on Sunday and take it over to my brother Tom’s apartment, but I think he’d let me invite someone else to join us - he has in the past.

My own printed Christmas mail (reading materials) is making progress. I finally had all the pieces designed and the first batch printed on Friday. By late Sunday evening I had added P.S. notes, and addressed 50, so yesterday I printed another 50 and got more addressed last night, but I’m not done yet.

I always save the digital version for last as I know they won’t have to deal with postal jams. But since this is my last issue of the RoseBouquet before Christmas - (and remember, my break/retreat week next week when there will be no issue) - so I have just taken time to get my digital mail up on my site, and a link ready for you to help yourself to as much of it as you want.

So please head over to this page, and read as much as you want of my CHRISTMAS MAIL.

There’s a Christmas card, two letters, and a short story/brochure, and some of them come in more than one format.

I trust you will have a very Blessed Christmas and a wonderfully Happy New Year.

And listen, if all those good things don’t drop into your hands or lap over this holiday period, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world, or that nobody loves you. Some of it is up to you to create by taking the right attitude, and a lot of it is up to your relationship with God. He is the source of all good things. Zero in on obtaining His gifts, and everything else will change accordingly.

Are you one of those super-organized people who have all your Christmas mail sent out already? Now you are able to sit back and enjoy all that comes your way in mail or otherwise, right? Hmm! I admire you.

I managed to finish designing my Christmas card on Sunday night. Now I just need to print them, and stop trying to improve it more and more. There’s always room for improvement, but with time sensitive stuff you sometimes have to declare it good enough.

Then I realized that my Christmas letter is mostly about myself and my business, and my plans for 2012. I need to write another letter or page with more about my Christmas thoughts. I hope to squeeze that in somewhere today yet.

Next there is still a Christmas CD to polish off, and to make copies. After that I’m ready to start bundling up my parcels and addressing my snail mail.

You may recall that I usually save my digital edition for my online friends for after I get the snail mail out, because I know those emails will get to you immediately. So watch for my Christmas mail in another week or so.

On Saturday I baked a big batch of Mom’s favourite yeast Peppernuts to take some to the Potluck and some for the office party next week. These are like small buns or rolls, spiced with cinnamon and black pepper and sprinkled on top with coloured sugar. There’s still the hard peppernuts to finish baking… but I’ll get to them when I get to them.

(Oh dear, I should have prepared the recipes to share. Well, if you are interested you can ask. No point in bothering everyone with them. ;))

Say, maybe you are way ahead of me in that area too, and have completed all your Christmas baking?

I will really try to be all caught up by next week. That reminds me to announce that the RoseBouquet will take a holiday the week after that. So no issue on the 27th of December. You’ll be busy anyway with your family events or just recovering from all the celebrations.

P.S. Did you find my Christmas Trees page last week?
Table-Top-Christmas-Trees

I got some great feedback to last week’s issue of the RoseBouquet, particularly about the free fur coat. It feels a bit like bragging or breaking confidences to dwell on them too much here in this public way, but hey, sometimes I think it’s good to mention these things and share the fun.

Maria wrote: “Delightful piece and pic on gift fur coat - you are a riot!”

When I wrote to thank her for what I took as a compliment, Maria replied, “Absolutely!!! I am still laughing - and waiting to visit with my daughter to share. This is a ‘woman thing’ I think!!”

I told her that someone else in church had offered to give me a fur coat too, but that hasn’t happened. Yet.

Judy M. was kind enough to subscribe to one of the ezines I mentioned last week.

Carol O wrote too, but touched on many things, and we just began to get better acquainted. Maybe the central bit to quote is where she said, “I really admire your gifting, creativity; energy and tenacity to provide your readership with such informative information. How and when did you recognize that this was your destiny/calling in life? What kind of vitamins do you take?

Thanks for permitting me to share with you. I’m exhausted from hearing all that you do!”

Well, as I gave her my long, wordy answer (and I see now that I overlooked parts of her questions), I had a moment of Epiphany myself, seeing how God has brought me from where and who I was to where and who I am now. Perhaps I’ll have to turn that all into an article sometime.

Though, as you’ll recall, at the beginning of 2011 I decided to drop the weekly article because of my time crunchers. Hmm? So how will I get that done then? …I don’t really know right now.

I was explaining to someone on Sunday, that the best way to cope with an overwhelming schedule is to live in the present moment and only deal with the issues of this project at hand, not the ones further down, as that will just frustrate, discombobulate and waste time.

But I will have to review all my scheduling the last week of December when I believe I’ll take the week off to think and pray things through and tie off loose ends, and see if I can give myself more breathing room in my pace for 2012.

That reminds me to announce that the RoseBouquet will take a holiday that one week too. So no issue on the 27th of December. You’ll be busy anyway with your family events or just recovering from all the bustle.

I’m still working on who to give my Thursday evenings to (client-wise).

Meantime, I’m happy to report that two long-term projects reached a milestone in the last few days.

Back in June I decided to work at revamping the site, Generosity-Alive.org with a new template and look and to theme it around more profitable keywords. However, this scheduling matter was a problem. I solved it by saying that I’d use whatever was left over after I did my bookkeeping on Friday nights, and it would just take as long as it would take. Some Friday nights there was no time left over, and as I reported last week, sometimes I might just fall asleep.

This past Friday however, I just managed to finish converting over the last six pages. It was too late to tackle the upload of all the pages, and I knew there might be some trouble-shooting to do if I found problems. Saturday morning I decided to sacrifice the half hour I usually spent on a devotional article page. I hoped the upload would only take half and hour. Unfortunately, I took more like two hours, but I just crowded other things further into the day. And the regular pages are now up! Hallelujah!

I still need to tackle the redesign of the blog to match, and checking out other things like a forum, etc. Oh, and I need to go through all the pages and add some affiliate banners too.

It has not been as many months that I’ve worked on a new template design for the aloe vera site, but that was a Monday morning project. I had just enough time to finish the last page before lunch yesterday. (A potential Thurs. night client had dropped by and delayed me). So I decided to give up half of my lunch hour and do the upload so that it wouldn’t have to wait another week.

The only error I see so far is that the new ezine subscribe box does not show up via the includes line. I need to either paste that code in manually on EACH page, or find out why the includes is not working in that instance. But I’ll deal with that next week. I’m just happy to say that this site is now done over and though it too, needs more affiliate banners, I’m hoping that the AdSense will start paying off quickly. To have a look you need this link; www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com

My Thursday night client has backed out for financial reasons, except when a new book comes out that needs to be put on his site. I was going to keep quite about this for a while as I have some personal projects I’d like to sneak into that slot. I’ve already been telling people who ask for my services that they need to stand in line and take a number. That is - wait until I have an opening.

Well, this morning I had a phone call from a long-time friend who had not emailed me for quite some time. He said that he’d been trying to reach me at the old email had for me, to ask if I’d help with their ministry website. (They have since found someone). I gave up that ISP address a couple of years ago because of all the spam coming through on it.

Now, at the end of that old email address of mine was a business man who wrote back to my friend and said in essence, “Hey, I need a web designer too. How do I reach that Ruth?”

There are two ministries for whom I built websites, and I sort of look after them, but they need more work. Now I feel like I better contact them and see if they really want me to advance, or shall I take on a new client.

In fact, another friend from way back said some weeks ago when we were on the phone that he needs a website. I gave him my standard answer, “take a number!”

Today I’m asking myself whether he’s got # 3 in the waiting line. I should check with him too, before I take on anyone else.

Hmm.. And I was hoping for a few quiet Thursdays to take on a learning curve regarding designing my own WordPress themes. Dare I hope that I can do that yet while we sort out who next gets to reserve my Thursday nights?

What do you think are my chances?