This one’s a little more organized-looking, still with some fun elements, but overall…calmer. And that’s what I wish I had in my life – calm. Since I can’t seem to get it there, I’ll take a dose of it here, thank you very much.

As soon as I can find the pause button, I’ll catch you up. (Don’t hold your breath.)

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

New Year, New Look

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• WordPress.com vs. Self-Hosted WordPress: How to Choose?
• Pages vs. Posts: Creative Uses for Each
• 4 Ways to Add Images to Your Pages and Posts
• How to Integrate Services Like AWeber, PayPal and e-Junkie on Your Site
• How to Choose, Install and Configure Plugins
• Simple Security Measures You Can Take to Protect Your WordPress Site
• Simple HTML Tricks to Dress Up Your Site
• Introducing Your Audio and Video Options
• 3 Ways to Create Sales Pages in WordPress
• Effective Use of Sidebar Widgets
• Text Widget Tips and Tricks
• Introduction to Membership Sites Using WordPress
• Expand Your Audience with Twitter and Facebook
• How to Create a Blogging Calendar You’ll Actually Use!
• + a vote on what the final lesson will be…
• AND 4 Campfire Round-up Calls!

This is why I’ve not been all that bloggy over here this summer, folks. I’ve been busy putting together this summer camp for WordPress bloggers and site owners. That and the usual eclectic mix of kid and life drama…

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

Come to WordPress Summer Camp 2009!

“No problem,” I figured, “I’ve got all the emails saved – I can slow this down and do it at my own pace,” because I really did want to do the whole 31 days. And then he announced he was creating an e-book out of the 31 lessons and would be adding additional material throughout.

I bought my copy a few days ago, and have been going through it. I LOVE having all the lessons in one place versus in 31+ emails in my inbox. The additional content is great, too. Best $20 I’ve spent in awhile.

Now, the thing is – buying this e-book doesn’t make your blog better. Sorry. It doesn’t. You have to actually read the e-book and TAKE THE ACTIONS it outlines. (You must trust me on this. I’ve only just gotten it through my own thick head, but it really doesn’t do any good to buy products and then never use them.)

I don’t know if this will help you or not, because I don’t know if you’ll do anything with it beyond buy it and download it. But what if you do? What if you do buy it and download it and USE it? What if $20 and some time on your part is all that’s standing in the way of your blog being a helluva lot better a month from now?

Get Your Copy Here

Don’t buy this workbook unless you actually intend to use it. Please. You don’t need another e-book gathering dust on your hard drive.

But do buy it if you can commit some time to improving your blog over the summer. How cool would it be to feel like you know what you’re doing when it comes to your blog?

Cooler than ice cream in August.

Exactly.

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

31 Days to Build a Better Blog – The Workbook

I’ll likely be doing this in spurts and batches because, as you know if you’ve hung around here any length of time at all, I have “issues” trying to blog daily.

So, here are my assignments for this week:

Day 1: Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog

Did that a long time ago. It also serves as my blog’s tagline: “The unedited observations of a complex, driven, work-in-progress woman in her 40′s.”

That’s as apt a description of what this blog is about and the purpose it serves as any I can think of since, so I’m sticking with it. Love it when my “homework” is already done!

Day 2: Write a List Post

Ok, this’ll be easy, too. Here’s my list of what I want to accomplish today to get a jump on my week:

1. Finish and publish this post.
2. Find my 1099′s and my lone little W-2 from the school system. They’re on this desk somewhere…somewhere being the key word.
3. File my taxes. I’ve spent the last two weeks catching up my record-keeping (not my favorite task) in preparation for this event. And yes, it’s likely to be an event.
4. Put together a newsletter for a client. (No, I don’t normally do client work on Sundays, much less holidays, but this client’s special and she needs the info to get to her subscribers before tomorrow.)
5. Clean out the cabinet under the kitchen sink. (Long story as to why. Definitely a post for another day.)
6. Watch a movie with Second Son. Completely Clueless picked up PDD around noon to spend the afternoon with her, so it’s just me and him.

Ok, that’s enough for today. As you can see from my list, I have a few other time-consuming things to accomplish today, and I really want to capitalize on the time with Second Son. (What do you want to bet the ‘clean out the cabinet under the kitchen sink’ item gets postponed? LOL)

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

I’m Participating in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

First up is Blog Action Day on October 15th. Poverty is the topic and the Blog Action Day website has a whole page of ideas about what one person can do about poverty. I encourage you to take a look, pick one, and do it. That’s my commitment, and I’ll be blogging about my experience on the 15th.

Then, on November 10th, I’ll be participating in another Blogger Unite event, this time uniting in support of Refugees United. Refugees United is a non-profit organization that helps refugees relocate family and friends through the use of the internet. I’m committing to learning about this organization, how their search engine works and about the work they’re doing. My first thought is, “How effective can an Internet search engine be for refugees, when many of the refugees that come to mind don’t have access to the Internet?” I’m going to find out, and that’s what I’ll be blogging about on November 10th.

If you’re a blogger, too, I encourage you to participate in these events. I do believe in the idea that one person, one voice can make a difference. If we all take that stance, imagine the change we can effect working together!

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

Blog Action Day and Bloggers Unite

Several factors were at play this time:

• WordPress release version 2.6 this week, with lots of cool new features.

• I had the pleasure of gaining a new client for vAS this week who wanted to start blogging. She has a gorgeous website and was referred to me by a good friend of mine to have a blog built. Long story short: turns out her website was built in WordPress! Wow – easy peasy! Not.

  It seems whoever built her site for her built the theme from scratch but didn’t write any functionality for blogging! Who does that shit?? In WordPress, particularly! Talk about ass-backwards! Sheesh!

  So, yours truly had to figure out how to write the missing pieces (the post page template, the comments template, and I still have the archive template to write) so she could actually blog on her site built in WordPress. Learned a LOT.

• Drunk with my new WordPress creative powers, I thought, “Ya know, Suz, you could probably take the pieces you like from a couple of themes and combine them together to come up with the theme you really want to use on Suzanne Says…” So, I did.

I really liked the other theme, but all that blue was gettin’ to me. So, to those of you who don’t appreciate white space like I do – I’m sorry. With this custom blend, I get the pieces of the other theme that I really like (the header, mainly, and the color scheme, in general) while gaining the ‘elbow room’ of the Cutline theme.

Oh!

I almost forgot!

I wanted to tell y’all how you show your face around here when you comment. WordPress 2.5 introduced integration for Gravatars, which I didn’t really pay too much attention to until one of my clients asked me to implement them on his blog. So, of course, I implemented them on my own blogs, too.

What are Gravatars you ask? A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is an avatar image that follows you from blog to blog, appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites.

All you do is associate an avatar (picture) of your choice (or of your own creation) with your email address at Gravatar.com. You can register multiple email addresses with the same avatar, or associate a unique avatar for each email address. So, it doesn’t matter if you don’t own a website or blog of your own. You can still share your smile around the web by creating a Gravatar.

To set up your own Gravatar:

1. Go to Gravatar.com and register your email address. (This link opens a new window so you don’t lose your place here.)
2. Click the link in the confirmation email you’ll receive and set yourself a password.
3. Log back in and upload and save the image of your choice (you’ll be able to crop it after you upload it)
4. Come back here and leave a comment and you’ll see your Gravatar beside your comment!

If you don’t have a Gravatar of your own set up, this is the Gravatar that will be used for you here when you leave a comment.

Note: Gravatars are not specific to WordPress, and can be used not only on other blogging platforms, but on websites and even desktop applications!

So, go set up a Gravatar, and come back and leave me a comment. Tell me what you think of my new diggs and let me see your face at the same time! Come on….pretty please?

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

How Do You Like Me Now?

Nitey nite – more details soon – I promise!

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

A First!

Thanks to Benigna Bide’s question about functionality, I’ve got both versions of the new and WordPress-improved Suzanne Says… installed on my development server.

Here is Version A

Here is Version B

Currently, they are functionally the same, meaning neither does any ‘tricks’ that the other one doesn’t do. The main difference is the look and feel. I’ve put some posts on them so you can see how each handles things like pictures, lists, and quotes.

Feel free to get click-happy and then come back here and leave a comment telling me which one you like best. Remember – these are going away when I do the actual move, so any comments you leave on either one won’t be around for long.

And thanks for your input. I know this is my blog, but you guys are the ones who read it and if I create something that puts you off, them I’m kinda defeating the whole purpose, so your opinion really does matter to me!

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

Try Each One and Tell Me Which You Like Best

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

Happy Valentine’s Day

First, I want to send a shout out and a whole lotta luv to Lotus for her help answering my questions about her recent conversion to WordPress hosted on her own domain. I converted my business blog from ‘old’ Blogger hosted on my own domain to WordPress hosted on my own domain New Year’s Eve, and while it was an ugly, 36 hour transition, she answered my questions and helped me laugh through it. (Yet another reason to blog – all the great people you’d meet no other way.)

Next, my neighbor, Tab (aka You Bitch!) who has my back in innumerable ways. We are Mom#2 to each other’s kids and we laugh and bitch together about life and living and help each other hang onto the knot at the end of our respective ropes. She stepped in and helped me in a pinch I hadn’t even articulated today, all because she pays attention and gives a shit. I hope you each have a Tab in your life.

Finally, my Ya-Ya sisters. Three other women, all of whom I met online first through my other business, only one of whom I have not yet met face-to-face after lo these 5-7 years. They are as different as can be, yet so alike it’s scary. We are in three different time zones and four different states, but we have each other’s backs. Two of them witnessed via 3-way my ultimate humiliation with CompletelyClueless, and loved me through it and the too-many-more years it took me to let go of him. They are the Louise to my Thelma and then some. We all got on the phone together last night and caught up with each other all at once. It was the first time we’d all four been together in over a year and a half. We decreed that to be a ridiculous state of affairs and agreed upon regular monthly get-togethers via conference call. And despite me quoting the loathsome AT&T, being on the phone with them really IS the next best thing to being there.

(Have you visited my site lately? I've redecorated - come see!)

Whole Lotta Luv Washin’ Over Me