A Brand new blog, Maybe?

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ello, my name is Patricia.  I am a single person with 2 nieces, 3 nephews,  and love for Disney. I aspire to work with any company that I (1) believe has most of the values that I cherish, and (2) I have had a good rapport with now and in the past.  These qualities fit Disney for me.  I am a little bit Disney crazy.

So, when I tell you that I am going to start my second blog about going to Disney when you only have nieces and nephews, you might think that I am a little crazy to do that.  My first blog closed, not by the web host's hand or Disney’s but mine. 

The first blog was named cutely, but long-winded “Travelling to the Mouse’s House”.  Yes, Travelling was spelled with two “Ls” in it because I could not decide if I was misspelling the word or trying to be funny about this spelling. 

What was it all about?

Photo by Pixabay

It was at first about the misadventures of an Ohio woman and her family trying to get to Disney World. When I was a child, I lived 2 hours from Disneyland in California, and I loved it when the family came to visit, and we would make that track up to Anaheim, and visit Mickey, Minnie, The princesses, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, You know the rest, and had a ball.  Then we moved to the East coast and New Jersey.  If you want some non-Disney fun, this was the place to do it.  Finally, when I was 12, we moved to Ohio, and I have been here since that time, and I have been to Disney World a couple of times.  I was also part of Disney Vacation Club, which was a treat in itself, but I had to let it go due to financial reasons.

So that is what the blog was all about.

If I were to start another blog….

…. It would be something like that.  A woman and her family trying to get to Disney World, but it would not stop there.  I would talk about Disney, my views on Disney, and I would even take you along on my Disney trips.

Finding a name.

If I were to start another blog about Disney, the first thing I would have is a name without the name Disney or any of its trademarks in it.   Disney frowns on that sort of stuff.  In fact, unless you are approved by a company, rather is a big company like Disney or Amazon, or a small home business like mine, P. Lynne Designs, you would have to get permission to use the name.  So, since I have a business, I am not going to bother about the step I have to take in order to have something like “Tricia’s Wonderful Disney Blog”, or “Tricia’s Mickey Trip”.  I will revile the name at the end of this blog post.

Finding a purpose.

If I were to find a purpose about this blog, it would be all things, Disney, right?  Yes, but I have to present it like, professional and stuff.  I cannot be selfish about this blog either.   I cannot talk about my family all the time, nor they would want me to either.  Since almost everyone at one point or another want to at least visit Disney World once, I have to make it that way.  So here is a rundown of some of the things I want to talk about:

• The parks
• The resorts
• The food
• The special events in the park
• Other theme parks.  Disney is not the only one with the theme parks in the Central Florida area.
• The merchandise.
• Disney Plus
• What’s showing in the Theater
• Disney Cruise Line.  You know they have one
• Disney Vacation Club.  Not too many people know about this, but it is a good investment if you visit Disney World Resorts often
• Other Disney Parks.

OK, that is a few of some of the things worth mentioning.  Of course, I can talk about any and all of them, and I will at some point.

I do not want to be a repeater.

One of the problems with my last blog about Disney was I live up north, while Disney World is down south, and I felt that since I was not going to the parks much, I was only repeating what was in the news.  Yes, I want to report them, especially since I do not live in the Central Florida area, but at what point do I want to sound like I grabbed the news from the internet and run with it.  I am determined not to let that get in my way again.

When you feel like you are in a place in your blog that sounds like you are repeating old news and things of the past, remember that not everyone is seeing it for the 1000^th time, report it like it is your audience’s first time hearing about it. In other words, put your spin on the news.   To give an example, unless you are not a Disney fan, everyone is going to report on the rise of ticket prices in the Disney parks.  Report that, but put your own spins, such as your summary, good or bad, talk about your budget as you plan your next trip as a Disney fan, or a parent with 2.5 kids and a dog who needs boarding. I have grown as a writer since my days as the owner of Travelling to the Mouse’s House.

Finding an audience.

One of my other problems is when you live as “an introvert with extrovert tendencies”, as my pastor says, is marketing this blog, and this should not be a problem, but it is.  The point is not to make it a problem.  Disney has its fans, and fans for not take lightly when you belittle their happy place.  No one does, when someone talks bad about that thing they love.

For me, that is no problem.  I will report the good, bad, and ugly about Disney, but I will exercise more on the side of good things.  I do not like hearing about the Walt Disney Company’s greediness, being expensive, and trying to monopolize the world.  Do you think that we as fans don’t know about it?  The difference between a fan and a hater is we are willing to look past the company’s faults and failures, and little ticks, while finding the good in that little tick.  In Disney’s case, it is that little tick that might mean a new ride, a new resort, or even better service.

As you explore whatever you are willing to devote your new blog too, help your reader become a forever friend of your blog.  You may have to report some bad news, such as your new crafting tool having some first-time flaws issues, your favorite Harley Motorcycle has a recall, a new rule that demonetizes your blog and takes away some of your devoted readers, but at the same time, report that   Overall, you want your reader to be informed of a profitable solution that does not cost them a lot of money for the fix.  After all, you are here to help, inform, and to educate.

workaround instruction how to call customer service, or that minor little discover you have made yourself that hopefully does not violate EULA (End User License Agreement).

Monetization

This is by far the hardest part of owning a blog, and although I am not an expert in this, I would like to educate and do research on how I can fund my blog.  This is what I am working on with the other three blogs, and I can say that it is not easy.  I will post a longer post on the monetization of blog posting, but there are the ways I am doing so:

            Affiliate Marketing- this is promoting business and its products.  The biggest affiliate is Amazon, but there are others, such as Sale-a-share, CJ Affiliate, Clickbank, and many others if you do not want to get into Amazon.  You can also go to a company to see if they have an affiliate program.   One example is I am a marketer of the Amazon Affiliate program, which has many facets, including being a seller.  I have a seller’s account.  Whenever you see this notation on a blog post,

“Disclaimer: P. Lynne Designs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. “

Photo by Pixabay

On my blog post, it means that there is a product that I am promoting on that blog post.  It also means that I get a commission from your purchase, but you do not have to buy the product.  I have to by Amazon and the FTC that governs all affiliate programs, including Amazon’s. 

            Freelancing:  I am a freelancer is both writing and graphic work.  My specialties are Blog post, ghostwriting and regular document writing, and resume writing in the writing industry. Logo, stationery, cards (Both Business and Greeting Cards), invitations, and copywriting for Graphic Design.  This does not mean that I do not like a challenge.

The key is to learn how to set your own prices.  Setting them too high means no customers, but setting the prices too low also means no customers.  Set your ground rules, but offer something unique makes a returning customer, and they will bring new customers to you.

            Sponsorships and advertising:  I find that this is the oldest way to monetize your blog, and it is done by marketing another person’s product or concept. 

            Create a course:  People love to know how you made a buck or two, why not sell in the form of a course. You have something that is very valuable to the general public and plus it is a tried and true concept.  For example, I am always intrigued on the notion of getting to a million-dollar business while in my underwear.  This was the first course I bought in the early 2000s.  The concept is sound, and it was the same marketing concept I paid thousands of dollars for at the university I graduated from in 2003 (thank you Dr. Otte and Franklin University- I will be back for my master’s degree).   Anyway, I paid for this course, and I did not see any value in it because I had already learned it some months earlier, but that does not mean that another person who did not know this marketing concept could not benefit from this man’s teachings.

Today, I do not know how many emails I have gotten of people selling their concept of making a few extra monies for the bank account.  I also have taken 3 courses from a woman, named Renae Christine, who have some of the same principles as my former university, but the difference is she throws in a different teaching technique than any of my instructors did at the school.  There is also Freelance University, that I am attended right now, and it too teaches you how to freelance. 

The point is how to market the course and what to charge,

Selling a book or a product:  This my last point on the subject.   You can publish an e-book or a regular book, which is very easy if you go through sites like Amazon.  It used to take months to write down a concept, edit, and send it to a publisher. You can now email it or send it through Amazon’s vast website.  I briefly touched on products earlier.

So, to put it together:

To recap:

1. The concept of your blog
2. The approach or plan for the blog
3. You know your audience
4. You have the name of your blog, and
5. You know what topics you are going to cover.

Your blog is only halfway there.  If you are going to make some money with the blog, then you need to find ways to do that, and it varies from person to person. 

Let me know what you think about this concept of starting a new blog.  Is it something you are interested in the comments section.

Writing and advertising

(c) Kim Rempel

OK, I want an honest answer.  How do you feel when you see these two words in the title?  They are very simple to interpret, but I have come to find out after earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing and advertising, and now running my own blogs, that a person perceives it in one or two ways: Yeah and nah.

First the yah (yes for proper English enthusiasts, such as myself).  Writing and advertising go hand and hand, like peas and carrots, Fred and Barney, shoes and socks, and Mickey and Minnie.  You cannot have one without the other.  (Well you can, but that is not the point I am trying to make).  In order to succeed in marketing, you have to know how to write well. Advertisers do not like misspelled words, unless it is a play on words, and then you have to know when and how to use them. 

People live for advertising.  After all, what influenced you to buy the kind of car you have, the clothes you are wearing, and phone you are talking on? There are more than one type of advertising.  There is print, internet (online), television, radio, and word or mouth advertising for starters.  When a friend tells you that they like a certain brand of food for the economic value of that food (AKA price) that is advertising.  When you go to the library, and you see that the branch you are in have Dell computers with the Windows operating system in them that is advertising.  Want Coke and the venue you are at carries Pepsi products?  You guess it, advertising.  Think of advertising as a major influence factor in your decision making.

On the other hand, there are the naysayers. (Or no for again proper English).  They loath adverting because it either promotes greed, lust, and want.  I have not seen protests against advertisers or writing for advertisers in my lifetime, but I know they are there.  Perhaps against polluting the air, the environment.  Again it is mostly word of mouth.  They do not like the commercials online, on the airwaves.  I wonder if these naysayers say anything, do they know that’s advertising too.  I do not have a problem with advertising, I just have a problem with what is being advertised to our young.

Today, I saw a video on Facebook.  It was tagged by a friend of mine, and he had a problem with this boy dancing like a girl.  You know, very female-like.  The child had to been about 7 or 8.  He was doing a dance battle with a girl.  I watched the video, and I had a problem with both of them.  The girl was around the same age, and she did a little acro, (what they call gymnastics these days), a little twerking, the same as the boy, and again I had a problem with both of them.  You know where I am going with this, and you know where they learned it from.  It was part sass, part dance studio taught, but look what is on tube.  Sex and sass is all the rage, and these kids do not want to learn the cutesy dances.  OH no, that is too babyish, but even the babies do not want to learn it.  I am going to leave it at that, because we will be having a whole new conversation here.

The point I am making is love it or leave today’s advertising, it requires writing, even if you are writing out a plan of attack.  I even pointed it out in one of my posts last year that you need to have good writing skills.

So how do you feel about writing and advertising?

Advertising on my blogs

Disclaimer:  This is not an inspirational post by any means.

Up to now, the only thing I have in terms of advertising on my blogs are any affiliates that I endorse or that are run by Adsense.  So far, no good.  No one is hardly clicking, and I am stuck on $34, which is a total of 5 blogs, Hubpages, and YouTube.  After all, a girl has got to eat around here.  I can sit here and beg, beg, beg, but that could and will turn some people off.  So, I am going to start having advertisements on my page from people.  I have not set up the pages yet, and it is going through PassionFruit.  I will let people know on each blog (and soon to come website (Over a year in the making ) who I am looking for in an advertiser.  If you are a business person, start thinking about if this is a good fit for you...

Below are my Blogs:

My Ambiance Life:   You are presently here.   I am looking for people who freelance anything:  Writers, Artists, speakers mostly.  State who you looking to work with and what you do (article writing, blogs, jewelry maker, scrapbooker, etc)

Simply Organized Crafts:  Even though I have not written anything in over a month on this blog, I do writing in it more than you know.   This blog is mainly on tips that deal with the house.   I have the blog, and I am working on the website to which the blog with be attached to.  I have not decided if I am going to make the advertising page on the blog side or the website side.  I will let you know.  In either case, I am looking for people who give tips and or services that have to do with organizing, interior decorating, cooking, and financial advise.  I do have a little tech knowledge on there, but I am finding that it deserves its own blog, but I have not decided if or when I am going to start that.  For now, tech has been put on the blog side of Simply Organized Crafts.

P. Lynne Designs.  This used to be named MDN Creates, and I felt like I have out grown this name.  This is my scrapbooking business.   I offer tips and tricks to creating the most beautiful pages on a budget, as well as making cards of all sizes, and altering things like notebooks, clothes pins, and boxes.  I also show what I made, in hopes to inspire the crafter in all of us, or at least try to.  In the near future (or when I get the money) I will become a Stampin! Up Demonstrator, and that will be present as well.   I am looking for like minded business people who do craft (it does not have to be paper crafting) who are looking for a way to get their business out there.

Tricia's Baskets.  This is my Longaberger business.  I am an Independent Longaberger Home Consultant, and that will not go away when I start demoing Stampin! Up.  I show people on this blog how to decorate, organize, and entertain with the products, as well as any specials the company has or of they want to join my team and the Longaberger family of consultants.   For this blog, I will be honest and wrestled with it a bit.  I want new customers and I want people to come to my team if they want to sell Longaberger products, but would I be taking that away from me if I invite other direct selling companies to advertise on this blog.  No I will not, so this the type of business person I am looking for....consultants of any direct selling company, except adult companies.  Sorry, I do have to draw the line somewhere, and I do have family friendly blogs.  I am sure there is a place for companies like Passion Parties, but I do not want to draw attention to that either.

Traveling to the Mouse's House is my last one in the blog area.   This blog is about traveling to Disney, and money saving tips that makes even the most budget conscience person want to go.   I drawing my inspiration from three trip experience to Walt Disney World, and several trips to Disneyland, as well as what is trending at the parks, and my own spin of what other bloggers writing about on their blogs.  I also draw inspiration from my current planning to visiting the resort in December 2013, and the obstacles I am facing with a family of 10 (4 adults, 3 children, 1 teen, and 2 seniors).  This is frustrating at its finest.  I am looking for travel agents who not only specializing in Disney travel but any travel.   If you specialize in giving advise to travelers, that would be nice too.

Now, what do you get when you advertise with me:   That is the mystery part, but I will spill soon.  I do know this, If you do, you get to guest post on my blogs.  This means exposure to your site and your business.  You will get to link back to your site, that means more exposure.   If you have a video, even better, and more exposure there too. When you have more exposure there is more money.

Now there is a price to advertising as well.  Did I mention earlier that a girl's got to eat?  Do not worry, I will also offer free spots if you are just starting out, but those will come on a first come, first serve basis. Same with the other spots, but either way, you will get to advertise if you want the exposure.  So if you are just starting, get you ads ready.  I want to start around the mid April if I can, and the ads will run for the rest of the year.  Starting January 2014, you will get a full year, but the price may not change. I will send you details via email or in a Facebook message.  
Well, go to go.   Talk to you later, and have a blessed day.