This is Goodbye to Tumblr

“I am not sure if I am saying this because I am not on Tumblr as much as I should or what, but I am saying goodbye to this account.  

I has been real, but like I said, I have not posted much on this account.  If the time comes and I want to renew, or start a brand new account, I will, but It is time for me to say goodbye to this account of mine.

There was a time that I would hold on to this account, and say that I will write a post on it someday, but I really do not feel that Tumblr is not as popular as the platforms, Blogger, which I have posted for three blogs on, and WordPress, where I will have my business, P. Lynne Designs, as well as the same blogs I have on Blogger. 

I will leave it up for a couple of days because I will refer this post to my Facebook page My Ambiance Life, in addition to I, will have an extended copy on the Blog post My Ambiance Life.

Thank you,

Patricia”

Why?

There are several reasons why I am not going to keep this account much longer.  They are in no particular order:

1)       I am not interested in it any longer.  I am trying to work on my websites, including this one and a brand new one for my love of Disney. 

2)      I have everything marked and planned.  Yes, I could with the Tumblr account as well, but to be honest, please read #1 again.

(c) 2020 By Pixabay.com

3)     I have too many blogs?  I put a question mark there because most people would say that 7 blogs and a website are a little too much.  (three current ones and 4 to be created ones). I have to be honest with this statement as well.  I have known to have burnout before. Here is the reason for the 7 blogs:  the current ones will still be up for people to read, and I will only be writing new stuff on the new blogs.  Why?  I have traffic on some of the posts I’ve written, and I would hate for the posts to be referenced to and not be there.  The plan is as I update the old posts with new info (A tip I learned in order to keep posts fresh and alive), the old blogs will come down.  Rome was not built in a day and neither are my blogs.

4)     Tumblr isn’t that popular in comparison to Blogger and WordPress. 

So, what does that tell you about Tumblr?  Nothing much, it is not popular.  I see Tumblr as a posting ground for artists, musicians.  I could be wrong, and I have not done any research on the site either (unless you count now)

Let’s see…

According to the article in 2011, titled “5 Good Reasons to use Tumblr”, “Tumblr is a short-form, social blogging platform that supports rich media like videos and photographs; is flexible in terms of design and use; absorbs posts via email, text, or even a phone call; integrates well with other social media sites; and is growing in popularity.”

So, Tumblr is not like Blogger or WordPress blogs in which there is more text than rich media items.  As I said, I have seen blogs by artists, musicians, photographers, and so on… This was the reason why I gravitated towards the platform in the first place.  I was (and still am) a crafter.  I placed my cards, scrapbooks, and other earlier works on my little blog, but I kept on forgetting that I had one.  Other social media-type things I keep forgetting I have are:

• Being on Triberr
• Having a Bloglovin’ account to promote my blogs

The first one is an old way of promoting while the second way is older too, it is still helpful in getting people to read your blog post.  There are many, many other ways of promoting your blog posts and that subject will be covered on another day, but now, let’s stick to me getting rid of this Tumblr account.

Another the reason why I do not like Tumblr is the same reason I like Blogger, the layout never updates.  Like Blogger, the themes are all the same, and it has been like that forever, it seems.  Well when you look at how much a theme costs for WordPress themes, you would keep the theme you have.  I saw one for $65 last week.  I was trying to find one for one of my blogs, and I do not want to pay for any theme over $25.  I will cover themes within the next couple of weeks, but as a heads up, you do not want a free one either. 

Why?  When you get a free theme for a website or blog, you will get a stripped-down version of that theme or maybe it will not work as well as the theme that costs.  Plus, there may be some underlying issues that you will be able to correct once the theme is in place.  Yes, you can always change it if you do not like it, but now you have wasted the time of putting it on your site.  Trust me, you do not need that kind of headache.

OK, I have thrown myself off course, so let’s keep moving…

So, what was I talking about…. Tumblr

I want to talk about what made Tumblr so great back in 2011 and what you can do now so you do not have to use the platform in 2020.

1)       Visually Engaging Rich Media:  In case you do not know what rich media is, they are your videos, photos, audio clips, and images to name a few.  The internet has improved a lot since 2011.  You can now safely embed these rich media items in your Blogger and WordPress blogs and websites.  In fact, I find them more superior than Tumblr.  For instance, I have an IFTTT (If This, Then That) plugin that allows me to post my YouTube videos to this blog when I make one.  It publishes at the same time as the YouTube video.  I use it as a separate post, and I do not have to write anything else for that day.  This is one example. 

2)      Design (Brand) Flexibility:  OK, I stand corrected.  You can customize your Tumblr blog, but with the constraints of Facebook and Twitter, Tumblr does it better these social media platforms.  As for Blogger and WordPress?  That would have to a “No” to me. Even though you may have to pay for the theming, you can customize it on a WordPress blog, if you get the right one and none of the stripped-down versions I talked about earlier.

3)     Advanced Email and Mobile publishing:  Nice for 2011, but today, with most people viewing blogs on their phones and tablets, Blogger and WordPress have really up stepped their game.  In fact, they both leave Tumblr in the dust.

4)     Post to and from Facebook and Twitter:  I call it even.  Today, all platforms should be able to allow you to post share your posts to Facebook and Twitter (as well as Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn).  If they do not, that platform is behind the times.

5)     Tumblr is a Rising Star: let me rephrase that…. was a rising star.  I am not sure how many people have a Tumblr account and blog.  

The titles I got from Armando Roggio.  He does present a winning argument at the time that it was written.  It allowed me to challenge myself as a writer to make my point of view as well.  I should send him a copy of this post.  I would like to know what his opinion about Tumblr is now and answer the question on “Should I dump my account on Tumblr?”  Nah, I already made up my mind.  Two weeks tops if I do not forget, then it is gone.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I am not on Tumblr much, and it has been a good year and a half since I last looked at it.  As both Peter Welsh and Mari Kondo both say, “If it does not bring you joy and you have not used it in a year, get rid of it.”  This goes for digital stuff as well.

I would push this post to 2000 words, but at 1418 words, I think I am good. Talk to you later.

A Brand new blog, Maybe?

H

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.

Clean Up, Clean Up, it’s time to Clean Up the Blog Space

No, I have lost my mind, nor this is not the new adventures of The Wonder Pets (parents, you know who I am talking about).  This is an update on how I am progressing into the world of organizing my Social Media and blogs. This is also a Motivational Monday, which may turn into a Tip Tuesday depending on when I upload this post.

Side note: Ok, this aunt realized that “Clean up, clean up” did not come from The Wonder Pets, it came from my childhood memory of my preschool teacher urging us to clean up our toys, sorry.

Well, I am cleaning up my toys in a sense.  I finally got the go-ahead to switch my blogs and business handmade website to SiteGround.  I will explain to you in a later post on how to get your own website with Siteground at a later time.  So far, I like what I see, and around March 31, you will see a brand new My Ambiance Life, At Home with Tricia's Baskets, and P. Lynne Designs blog and website in much cleaner light.  They are going to be lighter (white background on all of them).  I love all the websites and blogs I visit with clean, uncluttered backgrounds, and it seems to be the trend that is continuing well into 2019 and 2020. 

To give an example on what I do not like:  My blog, At Home with Tricia's Baskets, has this brown background, which was great for the 1990s and 2000s, and maybe even 2010-2012, but starting 2013, everyone was leaning towards not having any background images.  Having a background image makes the blog and websites look cluttered, dated, unorganized, and hard to read, especially since

An example of a clean-looking
Blog (Story of Five Blog)

there are a lot of seniors who are turning older, and their eyesight is not what they used to be.  With that comes background colors with little to no color in them.  In other words, a white background with little to no color in it.  In your foreground, your fonts need to represent manuscript writing.  Save the fancy stuff for invitations, cards, and other things of that nature.  I am going, to be honest, to tell you that it is harder to read script writing than manuscript writing.  Ask any 7-year-old.  In fact, they do not teach cursive writing in schools now.  So, this blog is the first to get an upgrade to Siteground.  I have not decided which of my domain names I am going to choose for this site.  It might be the one I registered or a subdomain.

Speaking of Domains…

I am having a hard time with my plynnedesigns.com domain name.  I do not know if Google is still banning it to show up or what.  Not to get into why I am changing it to plynndesigns, but Google thought the old one was phishing.  Someone back in September had hacked into my account website and killed the whole mood for me using that domain name again after I removed the affected file.  I have been fighting with Google for a whole month to prove that I am the owner of the domain name and to let me use it.  I gave up last week, and now I am using the new one for the website and blog.

Some takeaways from this:

1. When creating your website, either on SiteGround, GoDaddy, Wix, Weebly, or some other website, make sure you are covered.  This includes being able to create as many websites on your account with a plan you can afford.  I use the “Growing Up” plan from Siteground.  At the time of this writing (February 25, 2019), the Growing up plan is $5.95 a month. 
2. Also, make sure that your domain name is available.  I was lucky that the new name (plynndesigns) was available.  The current domain name for it plynnedesigns was available when I created that domain name as well when I got it in 2016. The name I wanted as well was PLDesigns, but it would cost me a pretty penny ($4,800) to have, which is another thing.  I looked it up, and anything with the word “design” in it is considered high-end, but I am confused because both domain names also have the word design in them, but they cost me $2.99. Make sure you can afford the domain name price.  All 4 (those two, plus PLDMDN and patriciallogan were $2.99 each).  You can renew them once a year, but if you know you will have them for a long time and can afford it, renew at some point for 10 years.  So, far, I have only been able to renew the domain names annually.
3. Make sure you protect your websites and blogs.  I protect my websites for $19.95 a month through Siteground.  I learned my lesson from Hostgator, who I no longer recommend as a hosting site.  I also do not recommend Blogger, unless your website and blogs are very simple.  More on Blogger at a later time.
4. SSL certificates are FREE.  Unless you are doing something complicated, Use the site’s free SSL certificates.  What is an SSL and why do you need it?  Think of it as an added layer to id your site or blog.  In other words, it authenticates it.  Google is cracking down on sites who do not have the https:// on it (most sites still use HTTP:// which is supposed to be not secure).  There are more advance SSL certificates, but they cost more and are not really needed for blogs.
5. As I always say, plan out your website or blog.  Know what topics you want to talk about, the categories you have those topics under, the color scheme, theme, and do not forget to name your site.  You can read about how I came up with my names in another series I am developing about blogging.

One thing I do want to say about these tips is do not worry about it if blogging and creating a website is not something that you want to do.  You can hire someone to do it, but it will cost you more money, instead, check out this next item, challenge yourself to something greater.

I am bored…

This phrase is not only for children who have nothing to do but adults as well.  We all get that way from time to time.  Boredom comes to the best of us and it sometimes brings out the worst in us.  Think about it, have you sometimes thought about these types of scenarios and said to yourself, “hmm, they must be bored”:

• Hackers or ID thieves.
• Children throwing flour all over the house or getting into mommy’s cosmetics or dad’s shaving cream.
• The police issuing out a bunch of tickets
• Full Moon

All of these sound good.  I mean, yes, people who hack on the computer to get into someone’s bank account (It happened to me this past weekend) could have been bored or need a job.  Same with the children, but the police?  Humm, maybe some of you have been pushing the snooze button way too many times.  I can always blame the full moon theory, especially on hackers and children, or as my grandmother used to say, “the Devil got to them”.  Either way, the true culprit is B.O.R.E.D.O.M.

So, how can I combat Boredom?

Boredom does not mean that you are sitting around the house doing nothing.  Boredom means you are sitting around doing nothing in your business, your home, as a parent, and even in your church. Boredom can even be in your food choices, your clothing choices, even your vacation choices.  So, how to get rid of it?  Simple, challenge yourself. 

How do I challenge myself?

1. For business and work:  look at your current skills.  See what you can improve on in terms of weaknesses.  If you cannot see it, ask a supervisor or a trusted co-worker a critique on your skills.  This should be part of your talk with your supervisor during your annual review.  If you own a business, as yourself what is the one thing you wish your company could do for a customer or client.
2. At home-organizing. what is the one area in the home that could use a little sprucing up within your budget?  This is not the time to do a major renovation to this area.  If this is what you are aiming for, it is fine, but take baby steps.
3. Self-improvement:  everyone can use a little self-improvement every now and then, but, how challenging is it?  One thing is once you stop learning, you are dead.  If you can afford it, go back to school or take a class online on a site like Lydia.com.  if you hate classes or cannot afford to go back, read a book or if there is something you want to do, search for it on Google or Bing or watch a skill on YouTube.

For an example, when I was getting my bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the school I graduated from in 2003, I was not interested in graphic design or writing at all.  Now, I find myself on an impasse of sorts.  When I started my blog, MDN Creates (now P. Lynne Designs), I knew I needed photos, but I did not have photos nor the skills to edit them.  I am old school.  My parents taught me that you take pictures on 35mm film, take them to the store to get them sent away, get them back in a few weeks, and display them in a photo album.  The camera on my mobile phone was new and foreign to me.  I taught myself to move the photos from the phone to my computer, then I started a trial of Photoshop, and fell in love with the aspects of it.  I have taken myself as far as I can go on my own.  Now I am hoping to gain more knowledge from an instructor at the school I graduated from.  The same with writing.  I have taken myself as far as I could go, and I hope to get a degree in entrepreneurship, which is a subsequent degree.

One of my personal challenges is to create a new craftroom. I have a budget and a plan.  My takeaway for this challenge is already listed. 

So, if you feel bored, challenge yourself and do not let fear get in your way.  Life is a challenge by itself.  You can do this.  

Not Sure How this is Going to Work

Today, I am endeavoring something new on my blog, make that every one of the three of my websites (My Ambiance Life, At Home with Tricia's Baskets, and P. Lynne Designs). It is a hazard that I will take. All things considered, they are my sites, however, there are additional standards of leadership in the blogging scene. One of those principles is about copyright, and yes, and I am going to endeavor a copyright encroachment…. On myself. First off, let’s look at copyright.

What is copyright

I do not have to fully explain what copyright is, but in its simplest of forms, it is basically copying another person’s work, style, everything that is on a picture, a document, piece of music, dance routine, THAT IS PUBLISHED.  This is the key element, it has to be published.  So, when you see a court case by an unknown who files a complaint on Billy Joel because his music, Uptown Girl, sounds similar to this unknown’s music, Girl from Upstate New York, that is a case of a possible copyright infringement.  The music may have the same beginning but sounds totally different towards the end of the two songs in question.  The most recent famous case of this was Marvin Gay’s family filing a lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for Blurred Lines (2015).  I do not have to explain the verdict in this case, but the family won.

So, What does This have to do with Blogs

Everything, but what is being able to use this information that another person without letting them know that you are using it.  When this happens, and it is a written piece, it called plagiarism.  Teachers warn you about it from the moment you start writing a research paper that needs a reference point in it.  In the U.S., that is around the 2^nd grade (for me it was in the 4^th grade, kids are so much advanced now than I was, LOL). If you get information from Google, Bing, Alexa, Siri, or Safari to name a few, you better back that information up, or you will get dinged by your teacher.  The same thing for any written piece of work that you do not have an expertise in.  Even if you are an expert on the subject, you need to have documentation on where you based your theory from. 

So, What does that have to do with my Three Blogs?

Look, Google is no dummy.  It does treat my three blogs as if three Patricia L. Logans have written the blogs.  So, they would want me to cite that I got it from my own website.  Now there probably will not be too many times when two of my posts will refer to each other.  For now, it is just this post.   I am still trying to figure out what style I want to go with the other websites.  This is the part where I am copying myself.  I want you to know where you can find the information you need to do, act on, and share my information so you will not get confused. 

The Real Reason Behind this Blog Post

Before I get to that, I want to let you know that the blog links will be cited at the top of the page of each blog.  For right now, let me introduce to you where you will find all the goodies.  I know, I might be rehashing what I said in a blog post a couple posts ago, but this is in more detail:

My Ambiance Life

Page from My Ambiance
Life.

This blog will continue with writing tips, blog tip, and how to posts on how to increase traffic on social media (including the blogs), as well as inspirational messages.  What is gone for good are the current events, celebrity bad person/good person posts, and other controversial posts (I will be doing a sweep of old posts and deleting them).  Why?  The world is negative enough without me adding to it.  There are enough people who talk about the Donald Trumps and the Bill Cosbys of the world without me adding to it.  I want to promote peace within all my posts and blogs.  Does that mean that there will not be any situations that I am just dying to write about?  Sure, but I should not add to their misery.  It is no longer relevant to this blog (or any of my other blogs for that matter). If you see a post that you are not happy with, please let me know in the comments section or email me. I will address the issue and make it right.  I am here to give you a pleasant experience and to make you smile.

P. Lynne Designs

P. Lynne Designs

My main focus is for all the crafters who do papercrafting.  I am still developing what I want to bring to you, which is the crafting tutorials, how to organize your craft room, and how I do things in my crafting world.  This is actually the first blog that I started in 2009, and things have been halted for over a year due to some things in my life that happened. 

I do not need to continue to explain this.  Sometimes in your life, you need to take care of things that matter, not that my audience mattered, and I know that those who have been patient with me understand while others have moved on.  It is a fact of life.

At Home with Tricia's Baskets

Changed for this Year to At Home With
Tricia's Baskets 

Is this a new blog?  No, it is not in sorts.  It is a combination of Tricia’s Baskets, Traveling to the Mouse’s House, and Simply Organized Crafts.  So, in a nutshell, it is new.  I have explained a couple of times what happened to Traveling to the Mouse’s House and Simply Organized Crafts and what happened to me and Longaberger over a year and a couple weeks ago.  No use beating this into the ground.  It is what it is, and I have moved on.   I have deleted old posts that refer to Longaberger products, except the first post and the last post before the switch over. 

What will you find on this blog?  How to decorate and organize with anything including Longaberger products.  This will not be exclusively Longaberger products anymore, except also mentioning that if you have a similar product from ANY store, it will do very nicely.  As of Saturday, June 30, 2018, I will not be a consultant.   I am technically not due to the company shut down, but if they do come back, it is a “no” for me. (as Simon Cowell says).  Will I buy?  Of course, I still love the products and I will also report to you how I organized with a basket or pottery piece.  They just cannot be part of my income earning any more.

You will also find family and traveling posts.  So, yes, I will reference my travels often and what you find in those places.  I will be doing it from a single person’s point of view as well as when traveling with family.  No longer will the blog posts be just Disney or the Orlando, Florida area, but you may find cruising information, ports of call, and even ship information (I am overdue of what I think of my first cruise on this blog).  You will even see some reviews of things to do in the Central Ohio Area, where I live.

Finally, you will find a single person and family stuff.  I am ironing out details of that as well.  This will be a wonderful blog as well.  These will include things such as adoption, nieces and nephews, and other singlehood stuff.  For O. Gs, this may sound familiar because it was on My Ambiance Life. I simply moved it.

If you have to be a reader of any of my blogs for a while, I have removed pages that are or will not be relevant to my blogs anymore, and as I find them, I will keep on removing or revamping these pages.  I will be adding new ones that are relevant to that page.  I am still learning how to increase my blogging, vlogging, and social media views and being more consistent.  Like you, I also wonder too, sometimes, what has happened to my regularly scheduled reading (or watching) blogs and YouTube channels.  I promise you that by Fall (or Autumn if you do not live Stateside (U. S./North American Region)), you will see a change in schedule and how I process all of this.  For next series, I will continue to address how I changed this blog for the better, as well as the other blogs.  This series includes, how to know when to change your blog, how to know when to let go, deciding on your subject and what to keep and what to let go.   This is just a taste.

OK, I have overstayed my welcome, and yes this is a long post.  Probably too long.  I will address why as part of my updating your blog series.  No takeaways today, sorry, just an update.

I am not Organized-Blog Revamping and Niche Change to a Blog

What Are You Talking About-Intro?

Trying to Revamp Some Blogs
P. Lynne Designs

I had it all figured out.  I thought I could do it, 100% committed to this whole blogging thing.  I am ready, writing my posts and <tire screech> I do not.

I have been pouring my heart out with My Ambiance Life, stopping every couple of months to check on life (and my parents), and I forgot I have another two blogs I have totally ignored.  Yikes.

I thought I had closed one of them, Tricia’s Baskets, where all posts, sales, and news about The Longaberger Company lived.  It was the perfect place for someone to come, find out how to decorate with the product, and actually order from me. I started thinking, probably around 2016, that I should concentrate on my Facebook page, Tricia’s Baskets-Longaberger.  I have more to say on that for another day that does not have to do with Longaberger’s recent announcement.  As a consultant, you are allowed to run your business as you see fit, as long as it operates within the company’s policies.

The second blog, P. Lynne Designs is, of course, for my second company.  The idea of neglect there is concentrating on my Etsy shop by the same name, getting set up to move the whole writing portion to my WordPress store by the same name, P. Lynne Designs.  Life got in the way, or rather the whole idea of getting behind was overwhelming and doing too much too soon.  The store is still coming, but actual opening day sounds closer to Christmas 2018 than Summer 2018.  I have some kinks to work out, like when can life take a temporary backseat to me playing with the website to my liking and to potential customers.

Life tip: Sometimes, no matter how good you try to make things, you have to prepare to roll with the punches and adapt to the situation at hand.

What am I going to do about this?

I am regrouping these two blogs.  Due to recent events that I mentioned in two of my posts…. What are you fighting for…Prepare to Win and Motivational Monday: Self-Doubt, one of my blogs, Tricia’s Baskets is getting a regrouping and sort of a niche change.  The other, P. Lynne Designs, the blog needs a little updating. 

My thought Process-Tricia’s Baskets

As I said in the previous segment, I am regrouping and changing the subject (niche) on this blog.  At first, I was going to leave the blog as is, but again, due to Longaberger’s announcement to the Sales field, my future with them is up in the air for now.  I must think fast since I want to keep this blog open.  The best thing for me to do at this point is to change it to a home lifestyle blog, similar to the Simply Organized Crafts Blog I had two years ago.  I still have the name of “Simply Organized Crafts” on my Facebook page, so, I will officially change the name to Tricia’s Baskets-Home when I get the blog changed.  The name of the Blog will reflect that change, by me adding “Home” at the end of the name.  In case Longaberger decides to continue in the Direct Selling industry, I will keep this name, since I had planned on exiting the company at the end of June 2019.

My thought Process-P. Lynne Designs Blog

For this blog, I plan on updating it.  There will be no name change, and a simple, “Where have I been” post will suffice, for now.  I want to update it so that I can add it to the store portion when I get that part updated. Hopefully, I will not take too long to do it.

So, why am I Telling You my Plans?

To be honest, I am not sure.  Maybe I want to help you out in your blogging journey, and the only way it to give you my plans as examples.  Maybe it is to be accountable to not only to myself but to those people who have been reading my blogs (My Ambiance Life, P. Lynne Designs, and Tricia’s Baskets), subscribed to them, and waiting to see if I am going to post something new.  Or, perhaps I am admitting that I am human after all. I admit that I made mistakes in my businesses, and perhaps this is one way for all of us to learn from it.  I am glad that these mistakes are not the kind that costs me money or gets me in trouble with the law. 

My one takeaway from this is honest with yourself and your readers if you have a blog, a website, or any type of CyberMedia.  In fact, be honest, period. Admit to your mistakes, correct them, and move on from there. One of the things I admitted to in my “Self-Doubt” post is that I always blame my mistakes of the past on why I cannot get ahead.  I cannot go back to correct them, so, the only way to correct them is to learn and do not make the same mistake.  Regrouping and updating my blogs, P. Lynne Designs and Tricia’s Baskets is one way of correcting my mistakes.  I could have shut them down, but what good would it do my readers.  I am an influencer and I need to act like it.

I cannot speak for you.  I hope you learn from this exercise of becoming organized in your cyber life.  I want to take you all along for the ride of recreating these two blogs and in turn, learn how to update this one as well.  For this blog, I feel like I have outgrown Blogger, and have felt like that for a while, but that is another subject for another day since I had setbacks with this blog as well.  It is all in the process of being a writer in the 21^st century, as the writing industry has grown from the typewriter to what we have now, and do not get me started on that subject either.  I tend to have a “squirrel” mentality lately. (For those of you who have seen the Disney Movie,” Up” would know what I am talking about, LOL)

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you want to see more like it, let me know in the comments section.  

Correction is a big deal to me…..5 ways to improve your writing.

(c) Wikihow.com

I am filling an application to write for BlogHer.   Blogher (or BlogHer) is a blogging site for women, but it is much more than just writing about how to improving your blogging skills, it is women writing about topics.  OK, no big deal, but it is a big deal to me.  I am trying to increase my readership and ranking on all my blogs.  It is also a big deal to me, because I know the style they are looking for, because I have been a member for over 5 years.  

I first applied for the position about 2-3 years ago with a different blog.  I still have the blog (P.Lynne Designs), which is about my scrapbook and card designs, but I was turned down.  I never gave it a second thought on why I was turned down until now.  I am submitting this blog, because I feel that it more of Blogher’s style, but more important, I have a variety of topics on it.  Before I can submit it, I wanted to give them a reason to accept this blog, so I went over the past few posts I currently have on the blog, and I am mortified.  I am finding missing words in sentences and I found myself singing Weird Al Yankovic’s Word Crimes song.   This is also a pet peeve of mine, so that makes me really upset, until I had to write this post for all to see.

You do not have to write a blog post to see the error of your ways.  I have seen whole tweets, grocery lists, even notes to a boss with these errors, and I have to wonder what the next generation has in store for them, as they fill out applications for employment, write business reports, or even give instructions to the babysitter.  They want to text, and I know, Twitter started it with their (not there) 140 character count, but why should I care about how you write.  Check these out:

1)      I thought Ebonics was dead.  Yes I said, I mean it, and now I am…oh never mind.   The point is grammar is very important.  It does not matter if you speak English, Spanish, Chinese, or Klingon, learning how to form a proper sentence will get you far in life, because no one understands your quirkiness like you and a few of your friends.  With employers looking at everything you do, you have to watch the way you talk to (TAKE THOSE SELFIES DOWN THEY LOOK TACKY TO AN EMPLOYER!!!!!)  I am sorry, but technology can be mean.

2)      Watch your words.  Know the difference between their, there, and they’re.  Also two, 2, too, and to.   Equally important is you, your, and you’re. 

3)      Did you catch the mistake? I said “is” instead of “are” (not r) in the last sentence.  Know the difference between the two.

4)      It is ok to make one or two mistakes and live with it.  Um, no it is not.  (Humm, double negative, got to fix it.) You really need to proof-read your stuff, before it goes out towards cyber-space.  If you do not towards monetize your blog in the future, that is fine.  If you are not looking for employment, that’s fine too.  But, if you want readership, get a job, and all the good stuff that comes with having proper grammar structure, you need to brush up on your grammar.

5)      Do not depend on the following:  Spellcheck, grammar check, or any computerized checking tool.   They are good for basics (and you should really know how to spell anyway), but if it is not a common word, expect the red Line (blue line for grammar in MS Word), double check proper names (nothings worse than misspelling someone’s name), and proofread for flow.

6)      Bonus:  I do not want to c (see) this:   r u reddy 2 lern hw 2 spell?  The proper way is: Are you ready to learn how to spell?  Business people are not your buddy, they are not you pal, your homie, or anything like that.  They are ready to see what you can offer them, and they like what they see, when they see it.  Give them a reason to see you shine.

P.S.  By the way, I decided to wait a few months to apply.   One of the requirements are posting at least once a week, which I have been slacking.  I will wait until I start doing that again.