Fund Raising

Several new ideas are brewing. One is to form a co-op for creative writers on the main site. Each person could include a banner and/or a sample of their story in exchange for providing me a link, banner or writing sample on their site.
This prompts me to make a story co-op blog. Unless your name is Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, you probably need all the free press you can get. In a greedy world, folks helping other folks is more necessary than ever. Can't say it's ever gotten me ahead yet but I still believe in it. And maybe I've learned a trick or two in my many years being a pain in everyone's ass. I'll get started on it right away.
Our other new fund raiser involves selling candles. These aren't just any candles. They're long lasting, smell great, melt evenly, don't send up puffs of sooty smoke to char the candle or the jar, and if you're a believer, believe me that they appeal to both air and fire elementals. You can carve your wish in the candle and boost the power of your spell. Or just burn them to enhance the atmosphere in your home. Great for aromatherapy too!
To check out the candles go to Cie's website. If you sign up to be a distributor yourself you can get one big candle ($18.95 retail value) plus 12 votives every month at wholesale price, totalling $36 per month. If you burn a lot of candles this is a damn good deal especially for candles of this quality. Or just pick and choose from the catalog. For every jar candle sold I get six bux to split between covering operating costs and donating to WHO mental health division. Pretty cool!
Should you choose to participate you get a nice candle AND good karma. And who couldn't use more good karma? If you have any extra shoot some my way!
Blessings,
Lily

Traffic Exchanges

Broke people trying to advertise invariably turn to traffic exchanges. This blog is in the process of reviewing a bunch of different ones. Traffic exchanges are a real pain in the ass. You want to find a few that give you a lot of return for the time you end up spending surfing, and maybe a couple that you'll consider upgrading with so you don't have to surf as much. The aforementioned blog may be able to save you some time. It's pretty new but I think will grow into a good resource.
So far this is my favorite traffic exchange. My experience has been very positive and I'm actually going to upgrade.

It's To Die From!

I'm just setting up some graphics that I may use in the future. I use the "My Space" graphics a lot even though I don't have a My Space account because they're free use. And wouldn't all the teenies that use My Space just, like, throw up and die to know that some old hag was, like, using THEIR stuff!
It's such fun realizing that one day these teenies will be all, like, old and wrinkled and they'll be, like, getting all botoxed out and stuff. Not me, thanks. I was always a big bad curmudgeon. The exterior is just starting to fit the interior.
Pardon me while I play with some graphics.

Myspace Layouts


Myspace Layouts


Myspace Layouts



Myspace Layouts



Myspace Layouts



Myspace Layouts



Myspace Layouts

D'oh!

This may seem like a no-brainer, but when you use free traffic exchanges, such as those listed at the bottom of the blog, you need to be sure that you assign the credits you earn or buy for your site. I didn't catch onto this right away. My excuse is that working nights for so many years has fried my brain as well as my adrenal glands.
Also, be sure you've input your site address, any banners you may have, and think up a clever text link. If you're like me, advertising seems a bit like selling your soul. You also have to consider who your targets are likely to be. For instance, while people on a metaphysics forum might be interested in a text link that says Horror Fiction Meets Metaphysical Truth, horror fans are probably more likely to be intrigued by one that says Sex Drugs Rock and Vampires. Try a few different things and see what works.
I think I'm going to try the evil Google Adwords again. Hope it works better this time than it did when I was trying to sell adult products. Marketing erotica and sex toys may have worked for Phil Harvey, but I think that by now Adam and Eve (Phil Harvey's company) has taken over the world. The adult market is pretty well saturated.
So here I go, surfing for points. Hope I catch a decent wave.
Yeah, that was bad. Kill me now.
Here is a free traffic exchange for you to try. I don't have an assessment--I'm just trying it myself. But since it doesn't cost anything, it can't hurt to check it out.

Host Monster and Page Wizard

Host Monster is my hosting provider, and their rates are very reasonable. For HTML 'tards like me, they also offer the horrible Page Wizard to help you construct your web pabes. Sadly, Page Wizard is better than a lot of WYSIWYG page design programs out there, and I can tell you that I find it heinous. I can't wait until I can afford to try Dream Weaver.

What's wrong with Page Wizard, you may ask?

The main things are:

It doesn't support Javascript

You can't import web pages you've already designed elsewhere

Limited fonts

For fuck's sake, get some new templates already! Not everyone is interested in business templates.

At times when you want to change the font, it resists. You have to cut the text out of the "insert text" box, then delete the text box and start fresh with a new one.

I don't know that any of the other hosting provider's WYSIWYG designer offerings are any better. Hostmonster has been pretty good to me. The one time I did have to call them I got someone who actually spoke English, was able to answer my questions and resolve my issues quickly, and didn't call me "sir." Click the link at the bottom and check them out.

A word to the wise: If you encounter anything that tries to suck you into paying for service with the hosting provider Midphase, run away very, very fast. Their crappy service has its tech support routed to India, where they hire people who do not have very good command of the English language and you will never get your question answered. It is also impossible to cancel your service. Midphase sucks, do not use it! My experience with them when I was attempting to do affiliate marketing was horrible.