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Saturday 9: Love Hurts

1. Tell us about the last time that you got hurt in the arena of love.
Love always hurts, whether you’re in a relationship or not. Love is grand, but love is also sucky at times. When you love someone, everything they say and do means so much more to you, and can often result in misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

2. Have you ever been part of the wedding party, other than your own?
No, although my husband was a groomsman in his best friend’s wedding, and our children are going to be the flower girl and ring bearer in my brother-in-law’s upcoming wedding. But I did help plan a baby shower once! Granted, I only picked out the invitations and the baby shower decorations, but it’s still something. <3

3. Let’s say you find yourself in Hell after you die. Think about everyone you’ve known in your life. Who would be the one person that would least likely to surprise you by being in Hell with you?
Just one? Hmm. I’d have to say my mother’s neighbor. That woman is EVIL.

4. What brings you good luck?
The # 4.

5. Do you have a photo blog? If so, feel free to share the link with us!
No, but I do share thousands of photos on Flickr.

6. What is your biggest source of news? (Internet? Newspaper? Television? Radio? The Daily Show? Other?)
The almighty interwebs.

7. What’s the hottest you’ve ever been in your life?
Temperature-wise? LOL.

8. If you had to choose a theme song for your blog, which would would you choose and why?
Christina Aguilera – Not Myself Tonight, because I have definitely changed over the past year, and I proudly embrace the changes.

9. Who was the last person you had an online conversation with that you’ve never met or talked to on your phone?
Dez, an online friend of mine.

I don’t know where I would be without my RSS feed reader. Once upon a time I used to visit blogs manually, but I could never keep up with all of them! Plus the varying layouts and colors and font sizes would give me a headache. These days I use Google’s feed reader — which syncs nicely with my phone, by the way — to keep up with my favorite blogs and websites.

Do you use a feed reader? If so, which one?

If you’ve been in the product reviewing world for any length of time, you will know that there are all sorts of products to review. Baby gear, cleaning products, cosmetics, jewelry, clothing, small electronics, and books just touch the tip of the iceberg. I have personally reviewed medications (OTC stuff, of course), eye and skin care products, even adult products and food.

Obviously, a line has to be drawn. Many bloggers are iffy on reviewing adult products, simply because they don’t feel comfortable sharing such intimate details of their life with their blog readers. Also, there’s the possibility of driving away more conservative advertisers if they read about your adult product reviews.

So, what’s a blogger to do? All I can suggest is that you figure out your stance and stick to it. It is entirely possible to review adult items, among other products, and still have a high status and popularity rating in the product review world, but you’ll have to work hard and word your reviews carefully.

If you have an Android-enabled phone, I highly recommend that you check out these awesome and FREE apps:

DailyBooth: the DailyBooth app allows me to upload a new or existing photo to my DailyBooth account

WordPress: WordPress has its very own Android app, so updating my blog and moderating comments is a browser-less breeze.

Mileage: the Milage app allows me to keep track of how much money I spend on fuel, and when, and the average MPG that I get with each fill-up, as well as the average of all of the fil-ups. You can track multiple vehicles, which is quite nice. I have been using this particular app since January 2009, so over the past year and a half my husband and I have been able to see – and cry at – just how much fuel we’ve purchased and how far it has taken us.

Facebook: the Facebook app does, as one might guess, what the mobile Facebook page does, except that it’s geared towards Android phones, and provides condensed, easy-to-access options and info

MySpace: ditto what the Facebook app does, only it’s for MySpace

Twidroid: a great Twitter app (note: newer versions of Android contain their Twitter app called Peep).

AnyPost: easily send updates (with or without photos – your choice) to Ping.fm, which in turn shares it with any connected social networks

Foursquare: a fun app that allows me to easily send updates and check-ins to my Foursquare account

WeReward: IZEA’s WeReward app is now available for Android, which means I can earn points (that can accumulate to be enough for me to cash-out for $10 via PayPal) for checking in at certain places and doing certain things.

I love sharing bookmarks via social bookmarking sites. There are literally hundreds to choose from, but here are my personal favs:

• Delicious (formerly Del.icio.us)
• Digg
• Faves
• Kaboodle
• StumbleUpon
• Wists

One thing I have been doing a lot of lately is product reviews. Any blogger can get started in product reviews, though keep in mind that most advertisers are going to be looking for certain criteria, including:

• An active blog — preferably one that has been around at least several months, and has a decent following (at least 500 unique hits per month)
• A Google Page Rank of at least 1 (remember, the higher the better!), and a decent Alexa ranking
• Detail-oriented posts that show your willingness to research a product and thoroughly represent it to your readers
• Interaction from your visitors

If you feel that you and your blog qualify, the easiest way to get started is to start contacting companies directly, pitch to them your blog and why it’s so awesome, and ask if they would be interested in coordinating a product review with you!

Have you ever noticed that on those days that you have a lot to do you never have enough time to get things done? My weekends are like that. Then again, I have a habit of saving some of my freelancing projects for the weekends, which I really shouldn’t, since it’s on the weekends that I do things with the kids.

In any case, people like my mom drive me crazy, as it seems like she has nothing to do and all day to do it in, yet never gets anything done. Grr!

WhatTheFont! is my favorite online font resource. The title is hilarious, since it’s obviously a direct spin-off of a popular curse-containing phrase, but more importantly it helps you figure out fonts that you just don’t know the origins of by allowing you to upload a picture. It traces the letters and curves, and comes up with its best guesses as to what the font in question might be.

I have used WhatTheFont! several times, and I’d say that 50% of the time it’s correct, or at least close. I love the fact that it provides names and links to the fonts it thinks may be the one(s), since you can then directly check out and/or download those fonts.

SEOMOZ has a fun little quiz (well, maybe it’s not so little, considering that there are 70+ questions) that shows just how much you really know about SEO. People think they know a lot about Search Engine Optimization, but the truth is, you may not know much more than the basics!

I went ahead and took the quiz, and here’s what I discovered: I suck. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who knows the basics, and little tidbits here and there, but clearly not enough to be classified an SEO expert by any stretch of the imagination!

One of the fun parts of maintaining a blog is being able to completely customize the look of it. Whether you self-host using WordPress or another platform, or you rely on Blogger, LiveJournal, or WordPress.com, there are tons of customization options. A lot of the free hosting platforms provide pre-made templates that you can edit. And if you self-host, there are many talented designers out there that have created free themes for you to use at your leisure.

If you find yourself short on time for design, one great idea is to come up with a fantastic look, and then just update its colors several times a year. This way you have a complete design that you’re familiar with and love looking at, but it never gets old because you can simply refresh the colors!