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January 2009 Update

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog, due to being very busy with my growing amount of websites, blogs and life. A lot has happened so I’ll briefly list the important things.

Family

My 78 year old mother became ill just before Christmas and fell in her home. She couldn’t get up from the floor and was lying there overnight until my brother called round and saw her through the window. The police and ambulance were called and once they got into the house my mother was given treatment for a viral infection and seemed to be picking up.

I stayed with her Christmas eve and day and another brother stayed with her on Boxing day but she worsened and was rushed into hospital. They said that she had a gall bladder infection and Septicaemia. She is getting better now thank goodness but it is worrying.

My daughter moved home, a lovely house but unfortunately for me it’s further for me to travel to see her and my grandchildren. However, they have an extra bedroom with my name on so I can go and stay sometimes.

Business

BB Articles has gone from strength to strength, but I am finding dealing with the article directory very time consuming. It would be lovely just to be able to let articles be approved automatically, but the quality of some of the submitted articles is very poor and then there is plagiarism.

I set up a travel article directory at the beginning of last year with a different software called Memberspeed. I wasn’t happy with the software and have recently changed the site to the Article Friendly script. Much better and easier to use.

My favourite software and I think my best investment is XSitePro 2. I have built a few sites using XSitePro and find it quick and easy to use. The websites that I have built with it so far are:

UK Travel Guide, The Creative Writer, Money From Writing, Mega Music Site, Articles Abroad (the front page) and Ebook World

Three of the designs are my own and 3 from the templates provided with the software. I’ve been integrating DLGuard software for selling digital downloads with Ebook World and am pleased with the outcome with lots still to do. I wouldn’t have been able to do that when I built this blog so I’ve learned a fair bit in that time.

Blogs

I’ve messed a bit with blogs in recent months and currently run 3 on my own domains which are Yorkshire Pudding Recipe, Hot Resell Rights and Mega Music Talent. As with this blog they have been a bit neglected but several months down the line the statistics make interesting reading.

Top for traffic is Mega Music Talent, but that has had more regular work done and more promotion. Top for keyword ranking, position in search engines and percentage of available traffic is Yorkshire Pudding Recipe. Bottom for everything except making money is Hot Resell Rights. With little traffic it does better than any of my sites and blogs for Google Adsense earnings, something I will have to work with this year.

Work

My day job never ceases to be interesting. We had a major refit just before Christmas – the worst time of the year for a refit but head office knows best. It was hard work but everything looks nice and clean and we are now on top of things. It was very busy over Christmas and we found like usual that somebody at head office had deleted lines that are popular with our customers and added lines that don’t sell. Very frustrating when you have to keep telling customers that we don’t sell something any more.

Happy New Year!!

Tuesday & Wednesday Rolled Into One

6.00 am until 2.00 pm shifts 2 days running. Stayed 2 hours extra yesterday because somebody rang in sick. Somebody else rang in sick today but I managed to get some cover and leave on time. Very busy because of Halloween. Ran out of pumpkins because the produce delivery didn’t turn up.

It will be fireworks next week for bonfire night. I hate selling them because I was burnt by a firework when I was a child. I believe that there should only be organised firework displays with safety measures in place and no sales to individuals.

Worked on the business both days when I got home and watched some TV in the evenings. Wedding disasters this week in the soaps, but that is nothing fresh. Arranged a week off in November and a weekend away at my daughters. I’m really looking forward to going over to see her and my grandchildren.

A handful of good articles for my directory today, but declined more than I accepted. Most of the submitters just don’t read the site guidelines. Maybe they are tough but it’s my site and I want quality there not the dross that some submit.

Yesterday I saw that one of my articles had been placed on a blog with the owner being credited with my work, just 2 days after I had published the article. I left a comment underneath the article asking the blog owner to credit me with my own work but haven’t heard anything yet.

I Like Mondays

Monday is a day off my real world job and today it started with a lie in with a coffee and a good book. I got up at 10.00 am and spent a large part of the day working on the business.

I always start by logging on to the admin section of my article directory and as usual declined most of the articles that had been submitted. Over 20 that were far too short and a couple of plagiarised pieces. It was a pleasure and a relief to find a couple of good articles. I wrote most of the monthly newsletter for my article directory and had to delete a winge that I had about not being ranked in Google. Why? Because today BB Articles was given a page rank of 2. It felt great and as if all of the hard work that I’ve put in during the last 4 months is starting to pay off.

I spent several hours submitting articles to other directories and doing some work on one of my websites. Launching and administering the article directory has taken up a lot of my time and my other sites have been neglected too much, something I will have to remedy.

During the evening I relaxed and watched the soaps. At least it gets me away from the computer. The storylines were a bit boring and unconvincing. I don’t think it was a good idea bringing spoilt Nicola back in Emmerdale. Ozzy the puppy was the best thing about Coronation St. and the Stacey Max thing in Eastenders is ludicrous.

Maybe I should have spent the time on my business instead. Anyway I’m going to bed with a smile on my face because I got ranked!

Just Another Sunday

Sunday used to be a day for having a lie in with an hangover usually. Socialising, chilling and enjoyment. Not now because I work from 6.00 am until 2.00 pm on Sundays and have done for the past 3 years. I don’t miss the hangovers but I do miss the fun.

I enjoy my job really, but Sunday shifts at the shop can be tough if any of the staff blob. A regular occurrence, Sunday is the worst day of the week for staff ringing in sick or being late. Today the clocks had been put back and because the only time I’ve ever been late was when the clocks were altered and I didn’t realise my worry body clock woke me up at 4.00 am instead of 5.00 am. It’s just as well because my digital clock didn’t alter itself as normal and my wind up alarm didn’t go off.

Uncertain of the time I got up and turned my computer on, found I was an hour early and coffee at my side did a little work on the business before getting ready for work. As my early member of staff was late I had to open up the shop on my own. Quite scary, it’s not very well lit outside and an ex manageress was once held up at gun point at that time in the morning.

Once the staff arrived everything went well. I managed to cash up and do the orders in record time. An achievement for me because the company that I work for changed the computer system several weeks ago and it’s been difficult learning everything.

The shop got busy earlier than normal, maybe the customers didn’t realise that the clocks were altered. It’s always busy on Sunday, we take more in sales than any other day of the week. Folks must be crazy shopping on Sundays when there are better things to do. We were one member of staff short between 11.00 am and 2.00 pm which made it harder to get everything done and the shop ready for a shift changeover.

I ended up leaving late because I had to get new price labels for some of the stock and set some new lines up for ordering. I bought a joint of beef for my dinner at half price, a perk of the job when you reduce stock that is close to it’s sell by date.

When I got home I watched an episode of Strictly Come Dancing that I had recorded. I’ve always loved dancing and find that programme relaxing. Who do I think will win? From the women Alesha or Kelly, and the best of the men was Matt. I like John Barnes but that is more for his smile than his dancing prowess. It was a real shame that Gabby was knocked out. Last year some good dancers were voted out by the public and the same is happening this year. It would be a better programme if the worst were voted out.

After that I turned the computer on and decided to start writing this blog after working for a while on the business. All work and no play but I don’t feel dull.