For some reason my domain wasn’t set to auto-renew so I luckily got in just in time so I could keep AGn Designs up and running without any downtime. The server has been on the fritz for most of the evening, if you’ve noticed a 500 error – trust me I’m fully aware of it.

I just finished up work for the day, took me a few hours longer than anticipated but I think that was based on the fact that I’m having some trouble concentrating. I have quite a bit of email to go through as well. I’ve been slacking, but honestly I’ve just had more important things to do. I’m working on a new project, I’m getting clients taken care of, if random questions here and there go unanswered for a day or two that’s just how it is. I’ll have all of them cleared up tonight though, I should be sitting here for a little while longer before I take a shower and get myself ready for bed.

Bella’s being obnoxious lately, she refuses to eat anything half the time and she’s been right at my feet for what seems like the last 24 hours. I usually can’t leave the room without having her right behind me but today it’s just growing to be annoying. I can’t even move my chair without the risk of rolling over her paw or her tail. She has a bed in the office, she won’t really sleep in it though. She was in it for a while today but then Sean came back in the office and for some reason once he showed up she wound up right back underneath my chair. If she was just under the desk itself it wouldn’t be that bad but right under the wheel of the chair is just unsafe considering how often I move around. My back has been killing me, so sitting still for too long just doesn’t seem possible anymore.

Time to get some write-ups taken care of.

Karen is in the process of looking for a new job. The company she currently works with is absolutely horrible because it’s being run by someone who saw a price tag and not the actual business behind it. They’re lucky if bills are paid on time and it’s been noted on more than one occasion that they’re just sneaking by on getting the payroll taken care of. So naturally she’s tapped into every possible site on the internet looking for work. Monster, CareerBuilder and even CraigsList haven’t really brought up anything for her. I pushed her in the direction of looking for corporate finance jobs because that’s probably going to be the best thing for her. She’s digging through their site at the moment, I just hope she’s able to come up with something.

It’s FinancialConsultantRecruiters.com, they’re a executive search firm that has finance jobs and their professional recruiters/consultants have executive and entry level jobs in the corporate finance field available now. I just hope she’s able to come up with something because she’s had no luck looking anywhere else.

:: crosses fingers ::

I’m having some trouble with WordPress today and I’m not quite sure why. I keep getting a 500 error every time I go to login and get some things done. It only shows up at random, I’ve got Tony working on it at the moment. Didn’t mean to interrupt his lunch but hey – I’m paying him so hmph! Yes, childish I know.

I’ve noticed a rise in people having a complaint about the new way of doing things with a paid blogging company I work with. Instead of 3 posts per day, per blog in the database, there’s now only 2 posts per day and those new to the system feel as though they’re being raped out of money. Thing is, the intent for this company was never for these people to fully switch their sites over to a money making machine and any true paid-blogger knows that putting all of your eggs in one basket is just plain dumb. Many bloggers earning the $2000 a month and up income aren’t only working with one paid to blog company, they’re working with about 10 of them – trust me, I’m one of them.

However, this doesn’t mean that the only reason I have a blog is for the sake of making money off of it. I work from home, yes, but more than 70% of my income is WORK based, I do run my own company you know? I’m not sitting at a website at 9am to midnight hoping to get an opportunity as it’s posted and then participate in the op orgy to post articles completely irrelevant to my website. Everyone wants to go for that $20 and up post, even if it has nothing to do with their daily lives. I’m sorry but a 18 year old blogger knows nothing about refinancing student loans for college graduates so why are they going to take it? They want a fat wallet.

Yes, everyone wants a fat wallet. This is why people work their asses off on a regular basis. The difference is, when you’re sitting on your ass just crossing your finger for one of these ops to show up, you’re really not doing much of anything. Many blogs around the internet are losing their readership because of sponsored blogging. I’ll be the first to admit that I use my site for monetary gain but I’m also still keeping up on my daily life here as well. Posting sponsored entry after sponsored entry is something being done all over the internet and many people have noticed that they’re no longer getting the hits that they once used to.

Some have smartened up, they’re no longer paid posting on 10 different blogs and found an actual income from outside sources. You’ll still see entries popping up here and there but for the most part they’ve gotten themselves on an actual payroll that isn’t based post-to-post.

I completely support anyone who writes sponsored posts. I just won’t be floating around those blogs as frequently because the bulk of them all have the same entry just written a different way and I’m sorry but if your site has absolutely NOTHING to do with the entries you’re posting, it’s really nothing more than a waste of time. A fat wallet is great but no readership won’t keep that wallet very fat for long. You can easily be taken from a PR6 to a PR4 with the loss of back links due to paid blogging, no more high paying ops for you, no more fat wallet, and no more actual visitors. Something to keep in mind the next time you log into your paid blogging system. Pace yourself with other companies outside of a fast-paced-blog-orgy and really think about what you’re writing about, if it doesn’t connect to your website, even if it’s a quick $30 – it’s really not worth the write up.

I’m done with the August theme. I’m thinking about launching early considering I can’t stand this blue thing. But I have all of that stuff on auto-move so I’ll just wait and go from there so I don’t mess anything up. Jenny saw it last night, thought it was cute – that’s good enough for me. I made her an icon to match my template and now she’s all smiles.

(more…)

My friend Pat is in a band that’s been traveling basically everywhere. They started off as local hotness and has now skyrocketed to a large success, especially among college campuses. They were once Hyjinx but now known as Stealing Jane. I asked him about coming down to Dewey because it’s a massive college town and he said that there’s some big band thing going on in September that they’re waiting to hear back on – YAY!.

Either way their music rules and based on the last I heard they were doing really well on merchandise sales too, shirts are flying off the rack it seems. Their EP is about to drop so they’ve been looking into expanding their merchandise to include baseball caps, mouse pads, pens, stickers, bags and other fun stuff. So this is where my actual point comes in.

When it comes to band based merchandise, owning a shirt just won’t cut it sometimes. What would you like to see with a band name on it? They want something unique, I’m sure. They used to do thongs but those went too quickly and strangely lonely boys were the only ones actually buying them – lol.