Digital Magazine Giveaway - Extension

So my Zinio digital magazine contest had very low entries.  Okay 1.  Not sure why that is but I have 8 subscriptions left to giveaway.

Just so you know www.Zinio.com is a great with over a thousand magazines to choose from.  I got my free subscription to Shape magazine and I'm loving it.  Each month I'm sent a link by email where I can choose to access it on my PC, smartphone, iphone or Android tablet and voila I have a magazine in vivid bold colours ready to read.  Best of all, didn't have time to read last month's?  Well it's still there in your library.

Like I said, I still have 8 subscriptions to giveaway.  I'm going to make this easy.   The first 8 people who leave a comment will receive a subscription of their choice.  It's completely risk free, you do NOT have to provide credit card information or anything.

I'll close the giveaway this Friday so don't delay, enter now.

Zeemaid

I HATE Mornings!

Why oh why do mornings have to be so difficult?

I get up early so I can get them up so that we're not rush, rush, rush.

From them I get grunts and moans and groans.  Nice cheerful way to start the day.

From then until we're out the door, it's get dressed, eat your breakfast, comb your hair, brush your teeth, pack your backpack interspersed with - stop bugging your sister, don't take your brother's socks, don't hog the bathroom, and a million other weird things that kids do to get out of doing what they are supposed to.

By the time they are out the door, I'm wiped and some days have been known to sit down and cry.  It can be that bad.

Reassessing after a loss

When someone close to you dies, it really makes you step back and re-assess your life. One of the things that my husband and I realized was that we are not in a very good position should one of us die.  While we do have a Will and excellent life insurance at the moment, the very fact that we are living so close to the edge would make it very, very difficult for us to get by financially until things can get sorted out. 

Like covering funeral costs.  My mother’s cremation cost $2,900.00.  That’s without a service or an urn or anything fancy whatsoever.  If one of us died at this moment, neither of us would have the funds to pay the funeral home.  My father was blessed in that my mother’s employer paid for all the food at the Celebration of Life and her co-workers all volunteered to serve. 

Neither my husband or I would be so blessed. 

5 Tips for New Bloggers by Blogelina

So you know you want to start a blog but you’re not sure how to go about it. Here are five easy steps, and a few good tips, to make the process quick and easy.

#1  Choose your niche. What’s your blog going to be about?  You may want to do a bit of keyword research here. If you already have a business, then your blog will be related to your online business and those keywords, however, you can still narrow your blog niche.

For example, if you have an online business on dog training, your blog could be about positive reinforcement training, about housebreaking, or even about a tangent topic like feeding your dog – because health is important to training.

#2 Choose your platform. WordPress, Blogger, Typepad and Moveable type are only a few of the options. You can also explore the blogging platform your website host offers. Analyze and compare each platform to find the one that best meets your needs. Many people choose WordPress because of its easy to use nature and the ability to customize your blog.

#3 Create your blog site. Depending on the platform you’re using you will either be working with the template and customizations offered or you can have your blog site designed by a professional. There are thousands of templates, some paid and some free, available by WordPress developers and they’re easily customizable – you can get an original WordPress blog.

#4 Choose your blogging schedule and blog. How often are you going to blog?  Create a realistic schedule and stick to it. Remember that even if you decide you’re going to blog once a week, you can always blog more. Blogging less than that isn’t recommended. Blogs are active sites and people expect frequent content updates.

#5 Drive traffic. Once you feel comfortable with the number of posts you have on your blog and you’re happy with the way it looks, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog. Social networking, PPC, registering your blog with relevant directories and commenting on other related blogs helps drive traffic.

Starting a blog isn’t the difficult part, the tough part is deciding to actually start! Visit Blogelina's Blogging Video Tutorials to learn more about what a blog can do for you.

*content provided by Blogelina*

Digital Magazine Subscriptions and Giveaway

Have you heard about Zinio?  They are "The World's Largest Newstand" with over 5500 publications that can be read on any mobile and desktop device.  You can browse and purchase subscriptions or single issues instantly from your computer or mobile device to read whenever and wherever you like.  Not sure if it's what you're looking for?  There is an explore section which lets you read thousands of articles and even share them with friends.

While I'm a big reader and generally prefer novels, magazines are just the right size to satisfy that craving to read something (if you're a reader you know what I'm talking about) but don't have the time to really get into a story line.  Not only that I just can't seem to get into those fat self-help books on nutrition and diet but if you hand me a magazine such as Shape: I'll read it from cover to cover to glean some use worthy tips. It's just the right size.

Right now Zinio is offering a complimentary 1-year digitial subscription to Shape Magazine.  This offers ends September 9th so don't delay in claiming your digital copy now.  All you have to do is: