Online Donations: Make the Process Simple for Donors
A very good friend of ours recently passed away and in lieu of flowers the family asked that donations be made to a local charity which does fund-raising for colon cancer awareness. Being that Lester is my 3rd third friend / colleague to succumb to the disease, I was SO on it. Unfortunately, trying to make a donation on the site was a convoluted and frustrating process, so I gave up the first time. Two days later, only after reading a friend’s comments on Facebook – someone who expressed frustration with the donation process AND added instructions for getting through the rigamarole – was I able to make …
DRAM Class Action Lawsuit – Get Your $20
Canadians will get $20 back (maybe more) as part of $80 million dollar class-action settlement for overpriced electronics. Here’s the Press release: MONTREAL, TORONTO and VANCOUVER, Feb. 23, 2015 /CNW/ – If you bought an electronic device between 1999 and 2002, then you almost certainly paid too much for it. Now Canadians can get their money back simply by filling in a form on themoneyismine.ca. No receipt or proof of purchase is required to claim the minimum $20 compensation…
15 Virtual Conference Advantages
Between 2004 and 2010, I attended/spoke at a number of conferences, traveling from my home in semi-rural British Columbia to places such as L.A., Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., New York, Montreal, Miami and Dubai. As much as I love meeting my colleagues and students in person, I found the rigmarole of business travel exhausting. Contributing to the frazzle, is the fact that we spend 4 to 6 of the colder months traveling the southern United States in our RV. By the time we get home in April, I’m not keen to travel much beyond my backyard. Fortunately, for those who are likewise disenchanted with business travel, virtual …
Spring Cleaning for Your Blog
The birds are singing, the posies are popping and spring rains are making everything look shiny and new. Here are 10 tips to dust off your blog and give it a fresh spring feel. Update Your About Page Have you gained experience or earned new credentials since you set up your blog? Has the objective for your blog changed? Have YOU changed? One of the most frequent complaints that online daters have is that “in person, they looked nothing like their picture” — meaning that the picture showed a younger (and probably skinnier) version…
St. Patrick’s Day Sale at HostGator
Starting today – Monday, March 16th, 2015 at 12am CST, HostGator is running a St. Patrick’s Day Sale, featuring 55{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} off all new hosting packages, plus $8 domains! The St. Patrick’s Day Sale will run for a full 72 hours and end on Wednesday, March 18th at 11:59pm CST. Your Coupon Code is: GOLD NOTE: The offer is only valid on new hosting packages, not applicable on renewals or existing hosting plans. jQuery(document).ready(function(){items_str = “facebook,twitter,google,pinterest,linkedin,stumbleupon,reddit”; items_arr = items_str.split(“,”); ism_load_counts_from_db(items_arr, ‘https://rosalindgardner.com/blog/feed/’, ‘#indeed_sm_wrap_1758’, 1); ism_save_share_counts = 1; }); #indeed_sm_wrap_1758{ top : 20px;left : 20px;}#indeed_sm_wrap_1758 .ism_item{ }#indeed_sm_wrap_1758 .ism_item_wrapper{ display: inline-block;}0000000
280+ Spam Filter Words and Phrases to Avoid
Do you ever wonder how many of the emails you send to your newsletter subscribers get caught up in spam filters and junk mail folders? While checking my Gmail today, I was surprised to see how many marketers’ messages – to which I’d subscribed – were in the spam folder. A quick scan down the list and it was easy to see why Gmail deemed those messages to be junk… they were rife with spam trigger words and phrases. Here’s partial screenshot of what I found. I’ve circled and blurred the names of marketers (and affiliate networks) and placed rectangles around the spammy words and phrases. I particularly like ‘…
Responsive WordPress Themes for 2015
I had a problem on one of my blogs this week that I (wrongly) assumed was due to over-tweaking of its WordPress theme. To fix it, I went in search of a new theme to install on the site. Boy, was I surprised by the number of beautiful themes available, particularly the responsive theme designs and those with parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling is where background images move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2 dimensional scene. Parallax and other long scroll themes are best suited to business and ecommerce sites, i.e. a membership site. …
Former Student Hits it BIG
I feel like a proud mama every time I hear how one of my students has taken what they learned from me (and others) and gone on to become uber successful affiliate marketers. In this case, Jamie is a 38 year old musician — but it’s affiliate marketing that has put bread on his table. Really BIG bread. There’s an Aston Martin in his garage thanks to the 12 million bucks he’s earned as an affiliate marketer — primarily on Clickbank. Yes, that’s for real — he shows his actual tax returns on the net, something he probably learned from me. He’s now decided to teach others what he’s been doing so successfully — because he HATES the fact that ‘…
Get Mobile-Friendly by April 21st or Risk Lowering Your Rankings
In February, Google announced that it would start favoring mobile-friendly sites starting on April 21st. Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. Contrary to some bloggers’ interpretation of Google’s latest algorithm change, your site will NOT be de-listed if it is not mobile friendly. (Oh yes, all sorts of doom and gloom was unleashed, including coining of the fanciful term “Mobilegeddon“, which I quite liked — enough to use on this post’s main graphic. Google’s John Mueller posted the following on Google+ to allay those fears: It’s great to get people motivated to make their website mobile-friendly, but we’re not going to be removing sites…
Watch this Copyright Infringing Site Disappear
Since registering his domain in mid-February, James Reinhold has put a LOT of effort into building and marketing his new blog. He has already signed up 1390 subscribers to his newsletter by offering a copy of his new e-book. In the last week alone, James has created a new header graphic, replaced the theme’s standard favicon and added links to his social media sites. He also installed the MaxBlogPress Subscriber magnet plugin and placed new banner advertising in his sidebar and below the author’s box on his posts. What is MOST impressive however, is that he posted 19 full length articles and book reviews over just two days! OK, you guessed it, James Reinhold (most likely NOT his real name) is…
Facebook Groups Faux Pas
With almost 5,000 ‘friends’ from both my business and personal life, it’s not too often that I get really upset by what anyone does or says on Facebook. My Facebook timeline is open to everyone and all opinions… and although I argue a lot about politics with some folks, it’s rare that I would ‘unfriend’ anyone just because their opinion differs from mine. It’s good to share. We all learn something. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Basically, Facebook is what it is. HOWEVER, and that is a BIG however, what I do NOT appreciate, is being added to groups, especially those that I would never choose to join, had I been sent an invitation. …