On the road to bettering my blog I’m having to make some decisions about what to do about my other commitments. My family is my priority so I will continue to volunteer at my daughter’s school and at my church. I am beginning to look at what is earning money for me online and what isn’t. The things that aren’t I have to put into a category called “Time Wasters”, “Web Promotion” or “Fun”.

From there I will discontinue what takes away too much time and doesn’t help me in some way. One example of this sadly is having a store on eBay. As much as I enjoy selling on eBay my husband is unable to help me as he was before. Our store is sitting pretty much vacant with the same items in it for a long time.

I think we’ll list all of our inventory in our store and have a clearance sale, then close it. Then we’ll sell by auction if it is worth it for us. We can use Craigs List for the other items and yard sales. I may even donate some things or use them as giveaways on my blog.

My focus has to be on blogging. My stress level is too high when I am attempting to do too many things and my work shows it too. I don’t want to end up sick or searching for how to get rid of acne because of a breakdown or a breakout.

Cutting back is a necessary evil for my business strategy now.

I’ve set my goal to be an A List Blogger. “In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.” Author Unknown

I intend to work at this with all I have. I may have some things that can hold me back, my health being the biggest obstacle, but I can and will make a way around the difficulties that can occur. I know that everyone has problems. You can either face them, ignore them or give up.

I don’t give up, that’s not an option. I don’t ignore the issues I have because that would cause me more grief in the long run. I face them and find solutions. I try to prepare posts in advance and keep them in draft so that I can publish them if I am sick. I also have a good support system in place who can do guest posts for me if need be. Most important of all, I try to keep as healthy as possible by watching what I eat, taking my medications and keeping my doctors’ appointments.

I’m learning how to improve both my blogging and my internet presence by joining forums and taking part in online conferences. I also use Twitter to make connections and stay informed of the latest trends in blogging and the news of top name bloggers.

One thing I’ve learned from a recent conference from Lynne Terry was digital footprints. She wrote a post, Social Media (A Warning) about it. This is where I am going to be doing a great deal of work, changing how I use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

So, watch out blogging world, here I come!

My enthusiasm for photography is growing as a hobby but also to use for work as a blogger. I’m finding that posts with decent to good photographs get more traffic than posts with poorly done photos or those without any photos.

I’ve been working at learning to use my camera with different settings, with and without flash, changing the shutter speed and the aperture settings. The one thing I am still having problems with is that my hands shake making the camera unsteady.

With finances the way they are a tripod is out of the question. They are expensive and even if I find a used one online the shipping costs too much. I know having one would help me out a great deal as I’m finding so many out of focus photos plus my camera tells me when it’s shaking.

I was looking for a sale, just to see what the price would be to satisfy my curiosity. I couldn’t believe it when I found a Floor Standing Tripod for only $13.99 with free shipping! The Ambico V-0640 Fashion Tripod features:

• 2-Way panhead and quick shoe
• 180 and 360 head adjustment
• Sturdy steel twist-lock legs with easy-grip rubber feet
• Camera mount pivots for shots at almost any angle
• Sure grip handle for panning
• 10.5″ – 40″ height with an 8.8 load capacity

The regular price is $69.99. So the savings is $56. What a bargain dahling! Buy.com has Weekly Deals that are worth checking out. I like to look for gifts for the upcoming holidays, for birthday gifts that I can keep on stock for birthday parties that my daughter is invited to and for things we need around the house too. The electronics department is my favorite though. There’s also books, DVDs, CDs and right now Halloween costumes and toys on sale. I like the variety and finding new things each week. It makes shopping online fun.

Tonight Peanut’s school PTSO had a fundraiser for All Children’s Hospital. We had a Movie and Pizza night. There was a $2 donation requested to see the movie Cars, as much pizza as you could eat, popcorn and lemonaide or gatoraide.

I’m proud to be a part of a school organization that not only strives to provide for all of the children at our school but for worthy non-profits too. At our last meeting we voted to pay for a field trip for a child whose parents could not afford it. This is happening more and more as the unemployment rate in our county is skyrocketing. We also are planning a Costume Party, Fall Festival, Winter Wonderland and Spring Festival. There are many other things we do for the students such as help the PE coaches run their Field Day, help teachers run fundraisers for their students for field trips, supplies, books, yearbooks, etc.

Our next event is the Costume Party on October 30th. I’ll be there helping children make cookies. It’s all for the children, the school and the community.