Blog O’ Obscurity

Let’s start with the bad news - the $700 billion bailout hasn’t solved the nation’s financial problems and the stock market slid below 10,000 today.  At one point it was down more than 500 points but ended the day down ‘just’ 369 (sorry - I just need to point out the fact that if you add up all the digits you get 18 which is the sum of 6, 6 and 6.  666.  Uh oh).

The good news is that oil is below $90 a barrel which means we should be getting some relief at the pump.  Already gas around her is down 70 or 80 cents from its peak.  I guess this means I can afford to buy supreme now.

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There are lots of ways to spend your money. However, there are fewer options when it comes to saving your money. Maybe that’s just a sign of the times. There are lots of options when you are considering savings accounts, but first take a look at Washington Mutual. Many of the big banks don’t offer very good interest rates on savings accounts. Look to WaMu for better rates than what you’re probably getting right now. Plus it could never hurt to actually save some money for once, you know, instead of spending it.

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So you’re looking for a little advertising juice in this crazy, mixed up economy. But you don’t want to spend a lot of money on it. That is to say, you’re NOT planning on spending more than a million dollars on 30 seconds of time during the Super Bowl telecast.

You don’t have to.

There are tons of ways to get the word out about your business or product in the internet age that people are just now starting to tap into.

First and foremost, if you don’t have a website then, for pete’s sake get one. This is a form of advertisement. And make it useful. Getting a website the just lists the phone number they can call for more information is pointless. Everyone still has phone books - they could have looked up the number on their own. Make your website stand out. Include details about what you’re selling and resources that can be helpful to your customer.

Second, get the word out about your website. Make sure it is listed by the various search engines out there. Go to different forums that discuss products like yours and talk yourself up. Tell people about your website. This is FREE advertising for you.

Third, find new and innovative ways to spread the word about your business. The world is just getting introduced to the concept of a BLOG (short for ‘weB LOG’) but blog writers already wield power. One person writes about something and others read about it. The readers may then in turn write about it and then their readers find out about it. It can (and has) gone on like this for quite some time. The information spreads by word of blog, so to speak.

But how can YOU get in on this? Do you start your own blog? No. You find someone who already has a well read blog and you convince them to write about it for you. SocialSpark.com is a company that will allow you to get in touch with these bloggers so that you can start your viral advertising campaign. You can sponsor just a single post or you can sponsor an entire blog for a time which will allow your banner ad to be on their site for as many days as you sponsor them.

Get started with these ideas and see where they can take you and your business.

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The award for Classiest Lawsuit (Not) has been awarded and it goes to the Spitzer Girl.

The award for Classiest Defense Against a Lawsuit (Not) goes to the Guy from Girls Gone Wild.

The first is suing the second for $10million saying he had no right to use her name to promote his videos and that, since she was drunk and 17 when he filmed her, she couldn’t have understood what he was filming her for.

His defense is that since she was drunk and 17 she couldn’t have legally entered into a contract so he doesn’t need to have one.  But he says he has her on tape with he ID giving consent.

I wouldn’t want to have to decide that case.

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Each time April rolls around I have to remember to pay the premium on the kids’ life insurance policies.  That’s right, I insure the kids.  It’s just enough to cover a funeral but I have no intention of ever saving up for something like that so the only way I would ever afford a decent burial is if they’re insured.  Of course, nothing is ever going to happen but having the insurance gives me one fewer thing to worry about.

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Here’s hoping you remembered to file your taxes in a timely fashion since I forgot to remind you.  But you’re responsible and I have faith that you did.  So now all you need to do is sit back, relax and wait for that rebate check we’re all looking forward to to arrive in the mail.  Or get direct deposited or whatever.

Some grocery stores are offering a 10 percent bonus if you give them your entire check to turn into gift cards.  But I don’t want to spend ALL the money on groceries.  And what if I don’t use them fast enough - will they start deducting money like so many of the gift cards now a days do?

I think I’ll use mine to buy gas.  It should cover one complete fill up including the forbidden top off.  Actually, with the price of gas right now, I better not top it off.

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Last April my husband received a job offer for a position he really wanted. The pay was about the same per hour as the job he had then but since he had been getting overtime and a shift differential, the result was that when he took the new position, we had to deal with a 30% pay cut. He began the job last June and since then, we’ve been really working on roping in our spending. Sometimes we’re successful (like when the car burned to the ground and he started taking the bus) and sometimes we’re not so successful (like when he bought me a brand new bike for my birthday).

At first I felt it was his problem to deal with. I’m happy he has a job that is a career instead of just a position. I’m glad he has advancement opportunities and I know that in the long run this job is the best financial decision we’ve made since we got married and for all of us (four kids along with we two) financial security is important. But I still felt it was his problem to solve since he was the one who took the pay cut.

So he solved it. A friend told him about the many possibilities that blogging holds for supplementing your income and he began this blog. One day he asked if I could help him out with a post. I said I hate blogs and would have nothing to do with it. A few days later he asked again. He had hit a writing wall and really needed an idea. I jumped in to save the day and wrote a post about a movie I had seen (National Treasure: Book of Secrets) and raved about the Disney short that opened it. Is it too ridiculous to write here that I got hooked? Too late, I already did.

I gradually took over the blogging. Well, not that gradually - I started the next day getting opps and writing posts. If an idea struk me for a blog post, I would write it down. I had an endless supply of ideas - and I went through every single one. The blogging has been a great boon for us. Realistically, we would not have made out as well financially if this chance had not been presented to us. Realistically we would not have made it this long without someone in the family getting a second job and realistically (due to scheduling and a decided lack of paying employment on my part) that someone would have been me. (I hate being realistic. Can’t I live in the world of naive optimism?)

So now I’m a stay at home mom and a stay at home blogger. I get to contribute financially to the household (which I’ve always felt a need to do but not in a ‘May I take your order’ kind of way) and I get to see my husband more than if either of us had gotten a job outside the house.

Maybe you think that blogging isn’t for you. I would say that blogging is what you make of it.

Maybe you think that this is pie in the sky money that you’ll never see. I would chime in with my salesperson pitch and say I felt just the same way when I started. Except I’m not a salesperson (as evidenced by my lack of a mint green satin jacket and greased back hair) and I really did feel suspicious of the idea when we began. Turns out the internet is not old enough to be as jaded as I am and I get to pay the bills with the new income.

If you have a blog already going, you can probably start right away by just signing up with some different sites like the up and coming SocialSpark.

If you haven’t started you blog yet, get one going where you rave about your genius children. (My 1st grader can use rectum in a sentence.) There’s no WAY you’ll run low on ideas. Then sign up and see where your blog takes you.

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You only have 6 days left to file your taxes.  Of course you’ve been planning for this day for an entire year and now that it’s here and you know you’ll be receiving a huge refund, you filed two weeks ago.  Or you’re like me and you decided to wait for the very last payday possible instead of kiting a check on Uncle Sam.

Even if you’re one of the people who don’t file taxes usually, you should this year because that’s the only way you’ll get your hands on that rebate check the government passed so ‘quickly’ in order to avert recession.  I guess their definition of fast and my definition of fast differ on a fundamental level.  Or maybe it’s an East Coast thing I just don’t understand.

So go fill out that 1040EZ and make sure you keep a copy for yourself.

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I just read an article about Starbucks not paying tips out properly and it made me think about the nature of tips in general.  everyone knows you are supposed to tip your waitress - they don’t even make minimum wage.  Some say 15%, some say 20% or more; some say don’t tip if service is bad and others say that you tip no matter what.

The debate continues with who you tip other than waitresses.  There’s the pizza guy but do you tip per pizza or do they also get a percentage?  I know at least one person who does it the percentage way but the idea was completely alien to me because I can’t quite figure out what that could be for.  A waitress works for as long as you are sitting at her table but the pizza guy just finds your address.

I tipped a masseuse once.  Even though I paid through the nose for the massage, I was told it’s proper to tip.  I was happy to because it was a really good massage, but exactly where does the fee I paid go?

My parents used to give tips to the paperboy but there aren’t any paperboys anymore so we don’t have to worry about that one.  We do have to worry about the barista, the hairdresser and the ice cream store scooper.

I’ve seen tip jars at the cookie store and just about any food service counter you walk up to.   These people make minimum wage (which ain’t much) but I don’t interact with them for more than a few seconds.

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I actually got to visit alot of places while on vacation with my family when I was young. For several years, we had a big family vacation each summer. Once we went to Colorado, once to Michigan, once to New Mexico and once to Florida (that was actually for a funeral but we went to Disney World so we could call it a vacation). By far, the place I visited most was California. Usually I would go to Disneyland but, once upon a time, the family car packed with 9 people went to San Francisco.

We’ve all heard Bill Cosby talk about San Francisco (if you haven’t, you MUST) and he does not exaggerate when he talks about the hills. Of all the things to do in San Francisco, my dad decided we would go down the curviest street in the world and so we proceeded to Lombard Street. The curves are tiny and they plant flowers along the sides to mark where your grave will be when you die there. At least that’s how we felt as we slowly snaked our boat of a station wagon HAULING A TRAILER down the street. Even if my dad had not chosen to ignore the sign that says trailers aren’t allowed, we couldn’t have turned back since everybody else who went on vacation that summer also decided to go down this street. We were all white knuckling it but we finally made it to the bottom without running down the flowers.

Now if you actually want something fun to do, go to the San Diego zoo. What I remember most about that place was the fact that it was beautiful. I’m perpetually exposed to ‘beautiful mountain vistas’ (read: dead hills) and ‘gorgeous sunsets’ (read: smog filled air) of Arizona so I know ugly when I see it. I saw no ugly at this place. It was the perfect temperature (I suspect they ran air conditioning out there) and all the animals were out (which they won’t do during an AZ summer). For the first time, I actually saw the animals my local zoo claims to have but which I had never seen.

Summer is coming up so if you need family vacation ideas, now is the time to start looking. Trusted Tours and Attractions can be one of the resources you use. You can sign up for their newsletter and have them think up ideas for you. If you sign up soon, you’ll be entered in a drawing for an iPod nano. The offer ends March 31, 2008.

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