Try this on for size.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Blogging course 2

I should say...I tried to post it the way they asked and blogspot wouldn't accept it. Does that say anything to them? We shall see.

c

Blogging course.

Okay, got this offer and I'm a sucker for free things. Ironically, it comes ONE day after I decided I really needed to get serious about this blogging thing. So, I'll give it a shot. Can't hurt, can it?

I'm evaluating a course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog. The best blogging techniques. How to get traffic to your blog. How to turn your blog into money. I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

I pasted it the way they asked...but it sure looks messed up to me. But, hey, I'm no computer expert. Weird, though.

I will keep you posted. I'm also going to try being more diligent about this blogging thing. However, I feel it only fair to warn you that I have umpteen diaries from my c hildhood with just about January written in. Need I say more???

Must go to bed.

Happy blogging, folks!
Cindy

Feeling like a slacker.

Okay, so I read my comment (in June) about how it's been a while and I'm ashamed that I haven't been on here in so long. Suffice it to say I have been taking a crash course in marketing and entrepreneurship in the past 6 months and I have learned SO much. I still love to organize and always will. However, for some reason, that wasn't going anywhere for me.

So let's start with a little update.

1. Organizing - still doing it a little, small orders here and there, getting my own life better together (finally finished the office, but the basement is still not done), but we'll never live on this yet. I have learned a few things. I like the home party aspect and helping people. But, I really think I enjoy product development better. We shall see.

2. My hubby now makes one-of-kind toy barns using 100% reclaimed barn wood. Sort of like building green -- on a smaller scale. This has opened a whole new world to this city girl. I could write books on what I've learned about the loss of our agricultural heritage because the barns that have stood for over 100 years are being torn down or falling down. Even the wood has history. However, if I wrote the books, I'd feel like I was gyping (sp?) people out of their money because enough has been written already. It makes me sad to see. This business venture has led me to my next point.

3. Marketing - why on earth is this such a game? Is it just me or is there way more written on marketing than there really needs to be? Can we not just say do your best for EVERY customer and leave it at that? Of course, then nobody makes money off of people who are desperately looking for ways to make money. Here's my marketing advice for free. Remember when you went to the store or online to buy something? Live through that experience again and do WHATEVER IT WOULD TAKE to please yourself. Honestly, aren't people pretty good at pleasing themselves already? I'm not trying to be narcissistic here, it's just common sense. Can you say "Golden Rule"? How many billions of dollars and destroyed trees do we need to see that if we really want to make something useful and get it into people's hands, we just need to please the customer?

4. Wal-Mart - Love them or hate them, they make doing business with them easy and shopping easy. I have been doing some research on selling new product through different retail avenues. It is insanely difficult to try to either get in touch with or discuss your product with certain retailers. And when you do finally get someone, you just get a nice note that says, basically, we don't want any new products that we don't develop ourselves. Wow. Now, some are stores that are trying to be more exclusive, I guess I see that. However, some are chains that want to compete with Wal-Mart and I think I see why they aren't doing as well as they would like. (Insert legal disclaimer: I am no expert and claim no affiliation with Wal-Mart or any other store or retail establishment. I am a normal person - some argue that fact ;-) - who is a mom, shops, tries to run my own business and do marketing for my husband's business. This is just my blog, feel free to ignore. This is a personal rant.) I don't know that Wal-Mart would even be interested in what I have to sell. For that matter, I don't know that any store would be interested. I obviously think the things I have to sell are great or I wouldn't be involved. All of this is irrelevant, though, to the process. I can't count how many hours I have spent online researching, reading, learning, investigating, whatever you want to call it, ways to get products into MANY different retailers. NONE of them were as easy or user friendly as Wal-Mart. With the number of small businesses starting every year and the number of new patents, etc. why is this such a difficult concept? If you have inexperienced people trying to market their products (many on a small or non-existent budget), why not make it easier to do? Wal-Mart has done that, I believe. There is still the argument that you may not want to start at Wal-Mart because of the perceived "value". However, they do make it easy and I think their competitors should take a lesson.

5. What ever happened to honesty? Seriously, I was told one time that I was too honest. Hello! I LIKE it when a salesperson is honest with me. Why is that hard to understand? Perhaps we should start a Simplified Business Program. Based on my earlier points, I will say our Simplified Business Program would include these three items: Generous narcissism (see #3), EASE of use (see #4) and Honesty. There you have it.

I guess that's all for now. Back to "online researching, reading, learning, investigating, whatever you want to call it, ways to get products into MANY different retailers".

Would love to hear your thoughts and I realize this is long and has very little to do with organizing.

On the other hand, perhaps you get to be privy to me "organizing" my thoughts and recent frustrations.

Have a blessed day!!
Cindy

It's been a while.

Well, I suppose I should update anyone who's reading this on the organizing I've been doing (that IS the point of this whole blog thing, keep myself accountable). Since I already said I wouldn't be organizing much until after the graduation, there's not much to update on that front. However, I have finished half of the cookies (the number is now at 850, instead of the original 1200 - it was just too many cookies) and tomorrow I will make another type and start on the photo board.

All in all I think I've done pretty well. We did get the garden planted, the flower beds cleaned up and the school room at least straightened, if not organized. So, this week I will finish the cookies, help with some of the rest of the food for the grad party, do the photo board, and basically get everything in order for next Saturday.

DH took the three girls to where he's working now, so ds17 and I are going to be working hard this week without distractions.

Hope all of you are doing well on your organizing. Feel free to leave me messages on what you're up to and we'll help each other out.

One last thing...I put my utility chair to the test this weekend for sure. Went camping with the whole extended family on dh's side. Loved the utility chair and the tote. I took the tote off and used it for taking my reading materials, Bible, etc. DD4 loves to sit on the little chair, it's just her size. I used it more than once for a footstool when we were all sitting around the fire. My sil even sat on it and leaned against her dh while he was sitting in the chair behind her. Definitely worth the money, in my opinion.

Have a great week, all!
Cindy

Goals for this week.

Organizing will have to take a back seat to other things this next two weeks. My son is graduating from high school and I am working on stuff for that. I get to make 1200 cookies. :-) THAT is going to take some organization itself. Actually, I like doing it, it's just finding the time to get it all done. If I do a little bit at a time, it should work out just fine.

Good news, though. My sister came to visit (with my parents) and was an immense help with getting my thoughts together for a photo board for my son's Open House. I can't thank her enough. Didn't put it all together yet, but got it all thought out and feel so much better about it. Sometimes starting is half the battle. Isn't it like that with just about everything, though? Once you get moving, the momentum is there to keep you in the game.

One more thing accomplished last week..........THE SEMI-ANNUAL CLOTHES EXCHANGE. That is in all caps on purpose. At our house, with three girls, it tends to get chaotic and messy. It took three days, but it's finally DONE. Wahoo! Everyone has summer clothes out now and has something to wear when the temperature starts rising. Middle daughter seemed to have WAY more clothes than she needed, so we passed some on to people who can use them. In my constant effort to streamline our lives, I try to limit the amount of clothes we all have (to say nothing about making laundry more managable). It's not so hard for me, I tend to fall back on my comfy clothes for around the house. The girls, though, like to have "more". Doesn't usually matter what...just more. Makes me think of one of my favorite movie lines. It's from the remake of Sabrina (with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond). They are at the beach house taking pics and he tells her to take pics of all of it. She says "More isn't always better, Linus, sometimes it's just more." I love that line. SO true and so helpful to remember, especially in our culture. Every commercial, every billboard...almost everything around us is constantly telling us we need more. When, in reality, most of us could stand to do with a lot less...and enjoy what God has blessed us with MORE. Okay, done soapboxing.

The next big thing we got done was to weed the perennial garden. I am too ashamed to post a before and after pic here. Suffice it to say, it was a huge job, dh helped immensely and I am so grateful to have it done. I need to do some fill-in planting and the perennial bed will be stunning. The columbine are beautiful and I love to just wave my hand over the lavender and smell it. Yummm!

Tomorrow, planting day. We will all be home and will be planting our vegetable garden. We will probably also go get some raspberry plants and put those in the ground, too. I'm looking forward to it. In typical overzealous fashion, I planted WAY more tomatoes than I actually need. Actually, there is a method to my madness. When I first began starting my own plants, I managed to kill most of them. So, this year I planted enough to make up for my black thumb tendencies. Oddly enough, every plant survived. Now, I have well over 100 tomato plants and even if I can for a month, would not use that many tomatoes for the next year. Oh well, live and learn.

Goals for this week:
1. Garden planted
2. Flower beds finished
3. School room organized (this will probably be a many week project)
4. Cookies made.

I'm tired just reading about it.

Have a blessed week, all!
Happy Organizing!
Cindy

Change of plans.

I knew it was too good to last. lol The girls realized that they would miss their ice cream outing at church on Wednesday night if they went away this week. So...I don't get any days alone. Oh well, now they can help me with the organizing. It will probably take a little longer and my wish list in shortened considerably. Feel free to keep me accountable, though.

Cindy