Optimist Under Siege

After undercooking the artichokes in last night’s dinner (because I just assumed they were done so that I could move onto doing something else…silly me…and stupid incorrect recipe, but mostly silly me!), I was reminded of a blog entry I recently identified closely with in the Productivity @ Home blog. Reflecting on her past year of blogging she recalls burning dinners because she ran off “just to check my email for a minute.” And I just couldn’t help but feeling like I knew exactly what she was talking about. There’s just always something else that needs my attention and multitasking isn’t always as easy as walking and chewing gum (which some days I actually find quite difficult…).

In the case of the sadly inedible artichokes, it was a matter of trying to get back to cooking the main course and entertain a friend we were having over for dinner, but it could just as easily have been because I wanted to check my email or make a few tweaks to a website design. I’ll just be 30 seconds I tell myself, but when 30 seconds turns into 10 minutes, bad things sometimes happen. And so I didn’t even bother to look closely to see if the artichokes were done, and they sat sadly uneaten during dinner mocking me with their spiky leaves and cold artichoke hearts. How low have I sunk to have vegetables looking down on me? First vegetables, then it will be fruit, then cheese, then the whole grain food group! I may never be able to go into the kitchen again!

Hey…that WOULD save me some time, if I couldn’t make dinner… No, no, I’ll find a way to multitask and keep everything running more smoothly next time. You’ll see!

When you work at home, especially engaged in an occupation like affiliate marketing or website design, and older relatives (like mothers) aren’t very internet savvy, you often find yourself being asked questions like, “Oh honey, are you still doing that computer stuff?” As if it was a passing phase and doesn’t count as real work. I doubt I’d be asked the same kind of question if I was doctor or lawyer, “Hey dear, are you still doing that surgery thing or are you over it?” Compounded with that question is the assumption that I quit my full-time office job so that I could have kids. Nope. I’m not saying that may never come up, but it was not a motivation.

I do realize that there’s a difference between the doctor’s profession and mine and that my mother’s question isn’t meant with any ill-intent. But how long do I have do this or what else to I have to do in order for people to understand that YES, I do work for a living? I admit that I do take advantage of my flexible schedule to go grocery shopping, make dinner, go to the gym, and attend the occasional dentist appointment, but otherwise I work during the day. There are no bonbons and no soap operas (thank goodness on that second one!). Once in a while, there’s ice cream, but it’s usually eaten in front of the computer.

Interestingly enough, the most supportive person (besides my husband who has been pretty great) is my mother in law. When she’s around she’s the first to take up my defense and explain that I work plenty hard. I appreciate that.

**Happy Note: For some reason they didn’t turn the power off at all yesterday (see Web Server Doomsday). So there was no webserver doomsday after all. Looks like I got worked up for no reason, but I’m happy nonetheless!

Anyway, I’ve recently started following an interesting, inspirational blog which is helping me keep my spirits up as I trudge through the occasional duldrums which accompany a work at home, self-employed, kind of life. In Creating with Impact, there was recently a post which featured some useful mottos to keep oneself going. Normally I’m not a big personal credo person, but a couple of these struck me, in part because I’d heard them before…in my yoga class!

Okay, okay, I know; I’m the stereotypical girl who has grown a strong liking for this satisfying type of exercise. When I told my husband that I was really excited about yoga and decided to keep going to classes, he was not at all surprised as “every woman” seems to like yoga once she’s tried it. Of course I slightly resent the stereotype, but I can’t exactly deny how it applies to me.

So what do the Creating with Impact blog entry and my yoga classes have to teach me? First and foremost, they both recommend getting out of your comfort zone. This is especially important for me as I can sometimes be a bit shy when it comes to certain things, like approaching people I’ve never met or asking for things I need, both of which are vital to a work at home, self-imposed discipline, type of existence.

The blog, optimistic like mine ;-), points to the Chinese saying that, “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.” This is something I HAVE to believe everyday (and one of these days it might just be true!).

And finally, let me leave you with something my yoga teacher says, that I try hard to apply (but haven’t quite gotten all the way with yet). “The way we do anything is the way we do everything.” If I can be proactive and diligent at work and play and yoga and my marriage and learning to cook (etc. etc.), not just when I’m doing something I really want to, I’ll be better all around. And with that thought, I’m off to do everything (the way I do anything?).

Okay, maybe doomsday is a bit of an overreaction, but tomorrow they’re shutting down the electricity in our building, which unfortunately leads to a several hour long down time for all of my websites (this blog included!). My uncharacteristically pessimistic view is not because I’m afraid of disappointing the millions of visitors who may try to access any of my websites tomorrow (millions of visitors…that’s funny!).

The real thing that’s got me worried is that I work so hard on my SEO and a few hours of the search engines finding nothing where my sites ought to be is likely to set me back a few steps. And each of those steps was a slow, sometimes painful, process that I hate to retake. SEO is definitely always a work in progress, never “finished,” but I don’t want the progress that has been made to be too stunted by my web server doomsday tomorrow.

My resourceful husband and I have been looking into options like buying a battery at Best Buy, which we probably will do tonight, but that will only buy two to three hours. Looking at it optimistically, of course, means that that’s several more hours my websites WILL be accessible, several more hours when the class will be decidedly half full!

So wish me luck as I won’t be seeing you much tomorrow, and we’ll see how it goes! This, of course, is the disadvantage of running your own web server instead of paying a hosting company to take these worries away. But what would be the fun of being worry-free?

What should the balance be between adding more features, content, better user interface and fun stuff to your website versus spending time marketing your site and improving your seo? On the one hand, it’s important to have a high quality site. That is the ultimate goal after all. Getting visitor traffic to a useless website full of ads isn’t terribly satisfying (and we hate you, so stop it!).

On the other hand, if no one knows about your website and the seo isn’t good enough to get you to show up in the first couple hundred pages of the search engines, then it doesn’t really matter how good your site is because nobody will see it!

Therein lies the question I’m struggling with this week. Where should I be devoting my time to get the best return on my invested effort? It was an easier decision back when my websites generally needed a lot of design upgrades and were lacking in decent user interface and features, but they’re fairly solid on that now. No, they’re not at all close to being “finished,” whatever that means, but they’re not terrible either.

So perhaps some attention to website promotion and seo is the correct answer. But once I get more traffic, visitors will like my sites better and be more likely to stick around if the sites are more interactive and have more information and fun stuff.

Sigh. I guess it’s a chicken-egg issue. Do you get traffic because you have a cool website, or do you spend time making your website cooler because you have traffic? Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Look out, work at homers! There’s a new adversary on the loose! Make sure to plug in your laptops and batten down the hatches (ie. make sure your cable modems are up and working properly). The free wifi access at Starbucks is timing out! *Dum dum dum* (dramatic music here).

You may remember that I raved about the wonderful new free internet access at Starbucks as a huge boon to the work at home, freelance, and traveling business person’s existence. Now I don’t mean to complain too much since Starbucks is certainly not obligated to provide wifi for me just because I’d like it. And they continue to provide a pleasant work environment outside of the home which I very much appreciate.

But…!

But now that I’ve gotten a taste of it, enabling me to get out of the house and work more effectively at Starbucks, I just don’t want to go back. My vocal chords may once again wither due to my lack of human contact (and thus opporunity to talk!).

Come on Starbucks, please, PLEASE clean up that internet connection. The work at homers of the world (who would rather be work at Starbucksers…maybe that’s not such a good term) will thank you! We will be a grande amount of happy and thank you venti times. (Hey, forgive the cheesiness, my internet’s not working!)

A girl may have many guilty pleasures, a chocolate peanut butter hot fudge sundae, a hot bath and a book, a sweaty sweetly agonizing yoga class (down dog here I come), and a little private time with an attractive husband. (Okay, maybe they’re not all “guilty” pleasures, but you know what I mean!)

This girl happens to have an additional guilty pleasure known as the cheese review site. Oh yes, you may have heard me mention this site quite a bit lately and are probably groaning at the fact that I’m about to bring it up again for the umpteenth time. But it’s such a great “lemonade on a hot day,” “brownies gooey from the oven,” “husband offering to massage my shoulders” kind of joy! Or at least half that good!

The thing is that I have other websites. And you might even argue that I have other websites which get more traffic and generate more income than the cheese site (which doesn’t actually make money because I just don’t want to commercialize yet..it’s too much fun!). There’s just something about the cheese site. It’s a bit on the niche side, but I really feel like it is a good idea and good quality site for cheese lovers. It’s just so satisfying to put my time and energy into such a worthwhile, COOL website.

So I won’t apologize for my cheese obsession. And I’ll try not to feel too guilty when I force friends to taste new cheeses for my benefit and talk about cheese incessantly. Because this guilty pleasure isn’t really so guilty after all. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I need to get a doctor’s note to explain to the class why my search engine optimization isn’t doing as well as I’d like. I’m doing all the right things on the surface (as least everything I’ve read makes me think I am!). I have written a substantial amount of quality original content (although I’ve already figured out that this may no longer be the key to google’s heart, which is okay because good content is necessary for a good website regardless). I use my title, description, alt, and other meta taps like a good little seo girl. I style my websites with css, keeping the html free of clutter, letting the search engines cut directly to that keyword rich content and clearly designed hierarchical structure (h1 before h2 before h3, then p and so forth).

I have undergone a couple of link building campaigns for key sites, including reciprocal linking (yes, I know these are worth less, but that doesn’t mean they don’t add SOME value), asking for one way links, and engaging in legitimate forum participation. Those forums are actually one of the more fun parts of my seo “job.” I think my efforts talking to people about cheese and cooking for my cheese review site are actually helping me learn to be a better cook! My work-life balance is totally coming into sync!

Yet still, dear seo teacher, I believe I was out the day we discussed successful seo, and therefore wish to be excused from taking the exam.

If only it was that simple…(One of you would write me an excuse note, right?)

This was my birthday chocolate! Even the writing is edible!

So Wednesday was my birthday. I officially turned 29, still safely a gal in her twenties (thank you very much!). I received the requisite singing of happy birthday from my mom, which has always been an especially funny tradition considering that most of the members of my family (my mother and myself both definitely included) can NOT sing. Seriously, there’s no carrying of tunes going on at family gatherings. Except for my Aunt Linnea, but that’s cheating because she married in, being lucky enough to get her singing genes from somewhere else!

Anyway, this whole birthday thing made me reflect upon what kinds of things I would actually want to receive as gifts. I very much appreciate the fabulous dinner and rich chocolate my husband was good enough to shower upon me, and I will certainly appreciate any other gifts which come my way. But I realized that what I wish my family and/or friends would give me for my birthday is, as they say in the American Express commercials, “priceless.” Instead of gifts, I wish people would agree to participate in and comment on one my sites, blogs or forums, say twice a month. This would be better than any other gift I can think of, just to get the website ball rolling a little faster. And to make me feel that all my thoughts are not just being lost in the void of cyberspace.

That would be an amazingly thoughtful birthday gift. Sadly, I’m a little afraid to ask because I know that in today’s society time tends to be more of an issue than money. It’s a good idea anyway! So if anyone wants to get me a gift and happens to read this, now you know what I want.

P.S. This would work for Christmas presents too! *hint hint*

The more features I painstakingly (oh poor me!) add to my cheese blog, like the ability to search the blog entry archive by month/year, the more I keep kicking myself for not just using one of the many good free blog software packages available on the internet. What, WHAT, made me think I should build my own? I think the coffee fumes at Starbucks are addling my brain. My caffeine-infused skin is making these crazy decisions without consulting the rest of me.

That being said (or rather, that being rambled on about…), I am quite proud that my coding ability has evolved to the point where I can build my own blog. It’s not the prettiest job, but it works!

That makes me remember… When I think back to a bit over a year ago before I started learning how to build websites, the internet was kind of baffling to me, almost magical in a way. There were many websites, email, facebook, amazon, google, all these amazing things, but I couldn’t even fathom how those websites GOT there. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but unlike thinking about being a novelist (sit down at computer, type story, get published), I didn’t have any context for understanding how websites work.

So now websites are no longer magical to me (which is not to say I’m not quite impressed with a lot of the stuff out there…it’s just not such a foreign concept anymore). Of course, quantum physics, brain surgery, gourmet cooking, the ability to play any sort of sport involving a ball and hand-eye coordination (I’m a run, swim, yoga kind of girl!)…These still retain their magical mystique and probably always will! And I’m okay with that.