MOMETEK's Guide: Promotion

Showing posts with label Promotion. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Making a Website for Profit? Part One.

Linkware Freebie Image use it however you like all I ask is a credit link to : thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ or www.lumaxart.com/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Found another freebie. It's another free web hosting site, but this one is quite simple. So I decided to create a mock website that might make money, and post it step by step here.

First things first: How to make your own website in minutes.

This link goes to Strikingly, a very simple website editor. I did sign up to their affiliate program but only after I messed with it.

If you don't see the link above, then you probably have adblock on. You can use the site link below, then click on "Create Your own Site With Strikingly" at the bottom. This would be a bummer, because ads like this do support this blog.

This site is quite simple. You sign up free (or you can pay for a better choice in templates and tools), then you pick a template, then you add or remove sections, modify them, then publish. It's so easy, you don't even need any knowledge of web design as the templates pretty much do that for you too.

Since this was a mock site, I went onto a random name generator. "Redonex" sounded cool, so I went with it. I'm not sure what it means, hopefully nothing offensive because that's now the name of the site:

http://redonex.strikingly.com/

The bulk of the video that's on the page was created in Flixpress (no affiliation there) , then I mashed it together in Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Then added a few of the built in (and cheesy) titles.

I don't really like the newer WMM. Perhaps it's because I like the ability to edit each track separately. The older XP version allowed me to edit the video without touching the audio. I ended up buy Magix as the open source software was too complicated for what I needed. I'll have to make another video editing software blog soon.

The sunset photo is a picture I took outside my house when I lived in Brandon. It's in one of the free download links below "Images".

The team photos of me, myself, and I were taken by my built in laptop camera. Not the best lighting, but I am surprised that they did come out okay. Use a white sheet and some lamps, and the photos will come out better.

Then of course you have to have comments. Facebook is already available in the "apps" section. So I used that.

Then I added a donate button so you can beg for money. That said, in my next blog, I'll replace it with something a little more tangible, like links to a few books I find interesting or even a book that I made myself...

Oh, did I just type that? Well, that's all you know at the moment.

Last but not least, I bought a domain name from www.GoDaddy.com, since I already have an account with them. I bought it at the time of this post, so it's not quite ready yet.

Strikingly also has a domain service that is included in the premium account.

On to Part Two

Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Kitchen Tool to End all Kitchen Tools.

A few weeks ago, my blender arrived in the mail. I went with the same one I had last time for several reasons. One of the reasons is that it's the only blender I could find that has a 550 watt motor.

The other reason was price. At the time of my purchase, it was a little less than $70. It lasted me two years before the blades broke, but most blenders last about the same length of time and have a much smaller motor. They have since changed how the blades attach. So far, the blades haven't randomly fallen off, which I believe contributed to their demise.

It comes with four blades, including an aerator which allows you to whip cream and egg whites. I have also whipped egg whites and cream with the four blade attachment so you aren't limited to use just one blade.

As a matter of fact, I pretty much just use the four blade for everything. I'm kind of lazy like that.

I haven't used the food processor until recently. In Vermont, I was able to buy almond meal easily for a reasonable price.

Here, on the other hand, almond meal seems to cost an arm and a leg. The only way to get it reasonably is to order it online and it takes a few days to get here.

Since I didn't want to wait and I like to keep my limbs, I opted to make my own almond meal in the food processor. It took only a half a minute and the results were impressive. Now I can have almond meal whenever I want for the price of almonds that I buy in Sam's Club. Although it's still better

The real test will be 6 months from now. Since it replaced most of my kitchen tools, I use it even more now than I ever did before. I'll have to keep you posted.

You can check out (and purchase) the blender here.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Review: Google Glass

I had signed up to Google Glass to eventually get the opportunity to get my hands on one... I couldn't get one then because I had missed out on the opportunity.

So, I figured I would have to wait like everyone else when it comes out to market and get it then.

Then I got the email (see left). Yes, I was invited to try out the "Explorer Program". I figured I would probably get the glasses, try it out, review it, then send it back.

No, I have to buy it. Since we are financially tight at the moment, that's not possible.
So, I decided to do my review anyway, based on pictures I've seen on the internet.

Google Glass (http://www.google.com/glass/start/)

That is so cool, and if you look here at all the other images: http://bit.ly/1nWJzk7 You can see that it looks really, REALLY cool.

Getting the email then looking at images didn't help. I now want it more. It's like shopping for groceries when you are hungry and you only have $20 in your pocket and you see your favorite chocolate bar "on sale" right there when you walk in. Now I really, REALLY want one.

Even if it is for a week, I would LOVE to have these and try them out. I so want them.

... And thus concludes my review.

You think that was awful? I do too. I want to be able to review more gadgets that would help moms everywhere make their life a little easier. In order for me to do that, I need money. That's right, people who review products actually have to PAY for those products.

Perhaps you would like to help? You can by shopping at my "A-Store" or you can contribute to my "encouragement fund" (see donation button in left column). You can also click on the "Promotion" label and buy from the links. Then share this page.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Blog Promotion with Zemanta

Image via CrunchBase

My experience with Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ had been awful when it comes to getting shares or even hits. I think it’s partly luck as my post gets pushed down by a wave of cute kitten memes, political rants, and timewasting, but very interesting videos. It’s also partly because I don’t feel comfortable spamming people with links to my blog.

I had better luck with a plugin called “Zemanta”. It inserts a sidebar that allows you to quickly find images for your blog as well as articles that are related. When you click on the articles, sometimes, you get clicked-back. Almost all of my comments came from these links.

I had stopped using Zemanta as it is a bit flakey with Windows Live Writer (WLW). WLW is something I use when I want to blog offline. I can’t get to blogger when I’m in the car and there’s no free wi-fi around. When I get home, I usually would connect to the internet, allow Zemanta to load, add all of the extras, then publish it to my blog.

At one point, WLW started to crash before I could type anything, so I finally just turned off the plugin. Sure enough, my legitimate hits went down.

A couple of days ago, I tried Zemanta again on live writer and found that it worked – somewhat. It seems that when WLW cannot connect to the internet, which happens frequently, it crashes.

That said, I manage to get a few more posts up using Zemanta (mostly on my newer blog) and sure enough, my legitimate clicks went up again.

Even if I have to edit my blog later in blogger online to include Zemanta content, I will continue using it.