Summertime Plans

Traveling?

For those thinking of a trip out of the country make sure you get your VISAs complete.  Someday one of the things on my bucket list is to travel to Australia so I have been compiling resources that I keep close to my heart on this blog.  I also have started a Heartbeat Magazine and so when I get things that interest me or my friends lives I put articles together an post the Magazine online at www.issuu.com monthly.  You can view the lastest magazine at

http://bit.ly/HeartbeatJuneMagazine 

Some of my friends this month I enjoy are...

You can visit their websites...

1.  Breakthrough Intensive Seminars

2.  KAWAII for you

3.  Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids

4.  Connect2mums 

5.  4 Ingredients 

Tropical Smoothie Cafe National Flip Flop Day!

On June 17th, Tropical Smoothie Café will celebrate the 5th anniversary of National Flip Flop Day! It all started back in 2007 as a celebration encouraging our customers to kick off summer, and their shoes, by wearing a pair of flip flops. As a simple thank you to our loyal customers, the first 500 people wearing flip flops at each location were given a FREE 24 oz. Jetty Punch smoothie. Soon after, we realized that National Flip Flop Day was also the perfect opportunity to spread some sunshine to those in need. In 2008, we proudly announced a national charity partnership with a magical place called Camp Sunshine. Today, we still spend National Flip Flop Day celebrating the kick off of summer by wearing flip flops and giving away free smoothies, but we also raise awareness and money for Camp Sunshine. This year, we decided to expand our charity efforts into six weeks of fundraising to help children with life-threatening illnesses and their families to make more magical memories.

Learn more about Camp Sunshine here. Make a donation at any local Tropical Smoothie Café, or right now by clicking here. And, don’t forget to stop by your local Tropical Smoothie Café on June 17th for a FREE 24 oz. Jetty Punch smoothie*. Just remember to wear your flip flops, and to maybe bring along a dollar or two to help those in need. That’s the spirit we started National Flip Flop Day with five years ago, and one we hope will continue for many years to come.

I know I'll be getting my Free Smoothie:)  Yummy!

Using Wordle Today to show all my fun Social Media Sites

Here are all my links for Social Media Sites that I Enjoy:
Twitter Facebook Tumblr TweetDeck Twiends 
Blogger Wordpress Flickr Picasa 
Photobucket Animoto LinkedIn Technorati
 MailChimp iContact Constant Contact 
Cafepress Zazzle Feedburner
 Bit.ly Digg Delicious Tweetology whos.amung.us 
Mixpod Wordle

Preparing for Father's Day

Tiny Prints is your one stop shop this Father's Day with a great selection of customizable Father's Day Cards. They allow you to create individual personalized cards with photos, custom text and even embedded gift cards and have cards for every father in your life from your dad, to your grandfather, father-in-law, brother and son. In a matter of seconds, you can create personalized Father's Day Cards and have Tiny Prints mail them directly to you or the recipient. Instead of sending a generic run-of-the-mill card, search Tiny Prints for a selection of unique cards that are humorous, sentimental, show appreciation or poke fun at your Dad's favorite hobby.

From now until June 6th, Tiny Prints is running a special promotion offering customized Father's Day cards as low as $.99. Just use the code GC99 at checkout.

Glad that's taken care of, now I can check mark card off my to do list:)

Make it so

I have really enjoyed 3 Seconds - The Power of Thinking Twice by Les Parrott, PhD. 

I loved the true life stories he talked about throughout the book.  If we could only pause before we respond and calmly count 3 seconds and think before we speak our conversations would be more meaningful and we'd achieve more in life. 

The words of Commander Jean-Luc Picard "Make it so" are the catalyst to getting things done instead of waiting around for the perfect opportunity.

It's also amazing how Lou Holtz had a list of over 107 "Impossible" Goals and has completed 81 of them.  I will be completing my Dream goal list.

Great book from start to finish.

Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging Review

If you've never read the story of how Huffington Post was created it's pretty interesting.  Arianna Huffington provides the details in the Blogging Review Guide Book I'm reading.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Why Blog?  I blog because I am. -  Cali Williams Yost

Here are the things I've enjoyed about the book...

1.  Blog Infrastructure 
Which website to use for setup?
www.blogger.com
www.typepad.com
www.livejournal.com
www.wordpress.com
www.movabletype.com
www.facebook.com

2.  Ways to Enhance the Blog -
www.tumblr.com
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Video Logs - Vlogs
Photolog or sketchblog

3.  Anatomy of a Blog Post -
A. Template
B.  Header (Add your header here and put on every page and post)
C.  Titles - Short, clear, and Catchy
D.  Date/Time
E.  Tags
F.  Bio
G.  Blogroll -  list other blogs and connect them with your site.
H.  Sidebar
I.  Pull quotes
J.  Linking
K.  Comments






Measuring Traffic -
1.  www.sitemeter.com
2.  www.statcounter.com
3.  www.google.com/analytics
4.  www.google.com/alerts

Search engines to get listed with -
1.  www.google.com
2.  MSN (search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
3.  https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
4.  buzz.yahoo.com
5.  www.digg.com
6.  www.delicious.com
7.  www.technorati.com

Making Money on Blogs -
1.  www.google.com/adsense
2.  www.amazon.com/associates
3.  Linkshare companies
4.  www.publisher.yahoo.com

Community Institutions -
1.  www.webbyawards.com
2.  www.bloggies.com
3.  www.bloggerschoiceawards.com
4.  www.lulublookerprize.typepad.com
5.  www.thebestofblogs.com
6.  Meetup groups are good too.

The Book also had several pages listing The Huffington Post Blogroll which I'll list a few of my favorites but you'll have to check out the book to get the entire list.

1.  www.boingboing.net
2. www.buzzmachine.com
3.  www.dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com
4.  www.ecofabulous.com
5.  www.blog.wired.com/business
6.  www.justjared.buzznet.com
7.  www.popsugar.com
8.  www.treehugger.com
9.  www.blogs.wsj.com/wealth
10.  www.firstread.msnbc.msn.com