Down On Our Luck

I’ve been seeing people posting their typing test results lately and I just couldn’t help but try it out. My mind had a difficult time comprehending what to do when I come to the end of a line, but I’ll go back and try again. I know I’m better than 69 words per minute.

69 words

Speed test

This was pretty fun, I can see where it would land up being a time waster if one is not careful.

This site also had me thinking about more unique ways to make money; I’m sure it’s ad supported and it’s pretty unique. Kudos to the owner of this one.

As you may know, I am always interested in ways to increase my online income, but the trick is these things can’t take too much time out of my busy days. I have found Vikingblogger.com as a great way to stay on top of blogging information as well as a way to learn a few tricks and tips.

Vikingblogger is holding a contest to give away a total of 20,000 Entrecard credits. If you choose not to use them, you could always sell them for cash on eBay or directly through your blog. I’m not even sure what I would do with this many credits, but I guess I can figure that out if I win the contest. To enter, you need to blog about his contest and subscribe to his RSS feed.

About a week ago, I started a series about why I stay with Q, who is a compulsive gambler. Since then, I have really started to do some soul searching and introspecting. I really think that the second reason I stay with Q has to do with the fact that I thrive on stress. I’m one of those people that is constantly late for everything, partially because I’m busy and I try to get that one last thing done, but I think another reason I’m always late has to do with the fact that I like the adrenaline rush that I get when I’m late. At the time, I hate it, but I always seem to go back to this ugly habit.

Back to what this has to do with Q. His gambling has caused unnecessary stress on our relationship and in a backwards twisted sort of way, I really do think that I thrive on this. He goes and gambles and I build another Squidoo page, he gambles and I go and list more games for sale on the website. I know this sounds quite weird, but I think this is a big part of why we are still married.

Let me know what you think. If you’re working through a similar situation, I would really like to hear from you.

Since I have joined Entrecard I have been visiting some very well done blogs and read some great tips which have given me inspiration to make changes here. I have added the email RSS feed over on the side along with a Feedburner link. The AddThis widget is still there, but I don’t know if readers were getting confused, or if my content just really stinks; the lowdown is I wasn’t getting subscribers and something had to change. We have removed most of the Adsense links not because they weren’t getting clicks, but the ads which were served had been gambling links; not cool. I think moving one column over to the left has really helped clean things up and I will be reducing the size of my header image or going with a whole new WP layout shortly. I just have to decide if I want to spend a ton of time trying to figure out how to change what I have already.

I’ve added a Topspots widget from scratchback.com over on the left hand side; we accept tips through here for only $1 a piece. We’re also giving Empty Space Ads a shot to see how well they do. I’ll be writing a full review on their widget shortly, but I want to do some more playing around with this first.

I’ve also added a Favorites page with links to the sites I regularly use where I make money online. I’ll be changing this page shortly and posting about it, so stay tuned.

My whole goal with these changes is to start converting the Entrecard traffic I’ve been receiving to readers. I’m still leaning towards splitting this blog into two, I’m just fearful of spreading myself too thin as I have two other projects in the works yet.

Let me know what you think about the changes and if you think I should split this blog.

Until later, Brenda

As promised, I am showing the top 10 droppers on my blog as of this morning. If you’d like to see your blog here, make sure to stop by every day and drop. I also make sure I drop on those that have dropped on me first.

1. CK Marketing
2. Wild Clips Comedy
3. Juliana’s Lair
4. ahkong.net - Deimos Tel`Arin domain - Gamer, Blogger, Philosopher
5. Ez DIY Electricity - Residential Electrical Wiring Projects Made Easy
6. My Library
7. A Journey of Dreams
8. The Realtor
9. joanjoyce
10. Rambling On

Thank you all for visiting as much as you do.

Brenda

Q, in a way I was serious when I said that my Valentine’s Day gift to you was a roof over your head, but I found this surfing today and knew you just had to see it.

Until later,

Brenda