Increasing Website Visits

Remember when I wrote some posts about SEO and increasing visits to your website? Since I have started I have noticed that I have had a 20% increase in traffic month over month. I started slacking over July and my increase was only 9%. Even after I wasn't paying attention to SEO, I was still reaping the benefits from concentrating on it before. If only I could apply myself and focus on it more.

If you're in the same boat I am in - if it is hard for you to keep SEO on the front of your mind while you are blogging or building your website, then you may need professional help. I recently visited http://www.discountclick.com/ to see what they have to offer.

What they do is focus on the SEO of your web page for you. Their goal is not only to increase your traffic, but also to increase your revenue. This type of service is ideal if your web page offers a product or service. The more people who visit your website, the more people who are out there that know about your company. It's not hard to figure out how that is going to help grow your business!

DiscountClick also has an Ad Service. They will market your website in order to help you increase your traffic. This combined with the SEO is a sure fire way to increase your website visits. You've probably read it on the internet a thousand times already, but the best web page or business in the world isn't worth anything if no one can find you. If you're struggling to get more visits to your web page, then you may want to contact the folks who make it their business to try to improve yours... I'm just sayin'.

Jena's Hair Design

I just want to give a shout out to my brother's fiance, Jena. She is a hair stylist in Vancouver, WA and has just recently started her own blog called JenasHairDesign. She does cuts for the whole family, is a color specialist, and she also specializes in formal hair for weddings, graduations, holiday parties, and girls' night out!

A lot of people don't think about how fun it would be to have your hair and makeup done before a girls night out! Jena is super fast with her updos. They always look fantastic and her prices are the best out there that I have ever seen! My sister-in-law, Bethany, my sister, Cindy, and I have all gone to Jena for special occasions. She did Bethany's wedding party, and she also did our hair for Bethany's bachelorette party!

I had my hair done for my birthday because I knew my friends would want to take me out that night. Jena did my hair in the morning and the style stayed in all night long! I love it when she does flat iron curls in my hair and gives my hair body that last all day.

Even if you aren't in the area, you can still check out JenasHairDesign for tips on caring for your hair and also how to prepare your hair before you see a stylist for an occasion. Some people don't realize that you're not supposed to wash your hair the day of your event or to put in any product that day since it weighs the hair down. There are also pictures from her portfolio and celebrity styles to inspire you.

Tell her I sent ya!

Prepaid Phone Service

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you know me at all then you know that I am addicted to my cell phone. Even before I had a smart phone, I was constantly on my phone, and not only talking. I always described myself as an "unlimited everything type of girl". I need to have unlimited talk, text, and web on my phone or I pay bazillions of dollars in overages.

Unlimited plans are just one way to avoid wireless phone bill overages. One way that is gaining in popularity is with a prepaid phone service. While some carriers deal exclusively in prepaid service, I think that nearly every wireless provider out there has some sort of prepaid service. Actually, now that I think about it, I am pretty sure they have to. Wireless phone service providers are considered a utility and therefore no one can be turned down for service. A prepaid service requires no contract and a very limited risk for the service provider, so it's a way to get around paying a deposit that might be required of someone after a credit check.

I myself use a post paid and a prepaid service. One service that I have not used is Boost Mobile. That isn't because of reputation, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Typically, I have found that prepaid services offer you a less reliable coverage area. Even large companies that do post paid and prepaid services, will have a smaller coverage area for their pre paid customers. Still, I find that those larger name companies have larger and more reliable networks anyway. They usually own more cell towers first hand and therefore your reception and call quality are increased.

A nice thing that boost mobile has is a program called Re-Boost. The re-boost program allows you to refill your prepaid calling service multiple ways. You can pay online, over the phone, or in person. I use a go phone from AT&T and this is the same set up they have as well. While both providers will allow family / friends to refill your account, boost makes it a little easier by having a "gift" button on their website. It seems to be geared more towards a set up that will allow people to make payments on your airtime.

One big difference between the AT&T go phone and the Boost Mobile program is that on Boost, you can use a Blackberry as a phone. Personally, I would never use a smart phone on any other network besides AT&T. Because of the simultaneous voice and data alone. I think using a smart phone on any other network makes the phone less smart; it just doesn't do as much and it doesn't reach its full potential. On the other hand, large deposits, or a desire to avoid a 24 month commitment can turn many people on to the prepaid services. While there are people out there using Blackberry devices on AT&T's go phone plans, this is not typical. The reason is because there isn't a data plan on the prepaid service that can support the Blackberry's data usage in a cost effective way.

Boost not only advertises that you can use a Blackberry on their prepaid phone service, but also that you can use the phone online for web browsing and social networking. I've had a facebook for a long time now, but I never started using it until I got the app on my Blackberry and later on my iPhone. In fact, more people are accessing their social networking sites via mobile devices than they are on their home computers! The reason is because it is fast, efficient, and instant! Your status update can read, "Having lunch at fair" with a snap shot of your kid covered in ketchup - as it really happens. If you only access your social networking site from home your status update is more like, "Got up, had coffee, went on a walk, bought groceries, took the kids to the fair, Johnny covered himself in ketchup, now I'm sleepy". Several short updates not only get more attention and comments, but they also keep your friends more informed of the fun little details of your day. Being able to snap a pic of my kid and send it straight to facebook is something I take advantage of every day if not several times a day.

Samsung Captivate

I had the chance to use the Samsung Captivate last week. I was very excited to have the chance to get to know this phone. Over the last year, I have used several different smart phones. The Nokia E71x, the Blackberry Bold 9000, the iPhone 3Gs, and now the Samsung Captivate. As a side note, I have also used the Palm Pre Plus for a very short amount of time as well.

I really wanted to love this Samsung Captivate. I have been waiting for an Android phone to come a long and sweep me off my feet. The Samsung Captivate came pretty close. The 4" AMOLED screen was amazing. The uploading and downloading speeds were awesome. After using an iPhone for the last 6 months, I was anxious to change the sounds of my email alerts and SMS notifications.

The customization on this phone was definitely my favorite part about using this phone. I created an entire Yoshi Sound theme that I downloaded right to the phone using a free application. It took me back to my blackberry days when I could find anything I wanted for free if I only looked hard enough.

My least favorite thing about this phone was the battery life. It died or nearly died several times a day. When I would plug it in, it would take over an hour to fully charge. I used advanced app killer to be sure that I wasn't running any apps in the background. It didn't really make much of a difference.

This was the only phone that has ever come close to taking me away from my iPhone. Personally, I didn't think that it would be very difficult. Even with extended use, the Captivate didn't integrate itself into my life the way my iPhone did. I guess I am more vested in my iPhone than I thought.

I Finally Got an Opp!

I finally got my first opportunity to do a sponsored blog from Izea since the updates. This opp did not come from the new social spark 2.0 as far as I can tell. They seemed to come from the old system. I didn't notice anything different. I did get some emails telling me that I qualified to do several different blogging opportunities today, but when I went to the website, I was mysteriously not qualified. This has been happening a lot since the updates. It's a little frustrating. Okay, it's a lot frustrating.

some good news is that I got something called a "cast call" from the new Izea 2.0 to do a certain paid blog. I am hoping this means that the opps for the new social spark 2.0 will start rolling in. It's hard to say. I have received these types if emails before and about 60% of the time, I get to take the opp. I haven't done an opp since this time last month and I'm sick of waiting. I hope things pick up soon!

Linens N Things Coupon!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LinensNThings. All opinions are 100% mine.

I spent the weekend trying to get organized. I started by taking everything out of the dresser drawers in the bedroom, refolding them, and placing them back all nice and neat. It took a little while, but it was worth it when Shawn noticed and said thank you.

The next step was beginning to organize the kitchen. Cleaning it from top to bottom and then throwing out things that I don't really need. Every time I start to throw out what I don't need, I find that there are more and more things that I DO need.

Fortunately I LOVE home organizational products. My favorite place to pick up items to make my home rub smoother was Linens 'N Things, but the store in my area closed a few years ago. I know that they are still available for online shopping which I love, but they charge for shipping and handling which I do not love. Well, no longer! Use this discount code LNTFREE when you shop on LNT.com to get free shipping on your order!

Get your home organized, or add pretty things to your already tidy home on LNT.com and then get the shipping and handling covered with the coupon code LNTFREE because after all of your hard work in your home, you deserve it (and I do, too).

Movie Night: Finding Nemo

Friday night we had a movie night again! I was very excited because it had been so long since we have done this. Caleb was thrilled. Hr made repeated requests for The Princess and the Frog, but we had borrowed Finding Nemo from my sister and I had planned to watch it with him.

Caleb loves fish and he dropped the idea of the frog movie in exchange for the idea of a fish movie. He spent most of the movie naming the sea creatures and their emotions. Mostly he said, "The fish is saaaaaad", but he also said, "The baby turtle is happy" "the bird is silly" and "the fish is happy".

I realized that Finding Nemo is actually a very sad movie with a very happy ending. It also follows in the footsteps of nearly every Disney Movie in that the main character has lost at least one parent.

I was surprised that this movie wasn't a bigger hit with Caleb. He loves sea animals, like I said he knew the names of nearly all of them in the movie. He enjoyed the sharks, but their mood swings were over his head. He thought the turtles were cute, but he couldn't understand everything they were talking about. I think we will watch this movie a couple of more times before returning it to see if he starts to catch on.