Hand-Me-Downs

by Judi ~ February 4, 2009

Here we go, a classifieds specifically for moms – it’s a new online shop where you are able to purchase, sell, donate or even just give away your gently used baby, kid, pregnancy items…. and more, but read the site for all that.

It’s a super cute site which has just recently launched. I was bummed at first because there was no option for my city, or even close to my city. But I’ve spoke with Norah (who happened to be the nice lady who answered my email inquiry) and she assures me they are adding other big cities soon and eventually even some not quite so big, but not little either cities… So go ahead, and register ( I live in Ohio and chose New York as my city… why, I don’t know, but there I go). Norah assured me it should be easy to switch between cities so you can always check out what’s going on over here and there.

So, sell those gently used, but still awesomely cute baby clothes.. your most comfy maternity tops and jeans, and if you have a bag of t-shirts you plain just don’t want any more donate or give them away (please… please.. just get them out of my house! we all have some of that, don’t we?)

P.S. Register before February 13th, 2009 for a chance to win a Clek Olli Booster Seat – ooh, la, la!

Let me Stress – Make Back Ups!

by Judi ~ October 1, 2008

My hosting company – whom I typically never have complaints about – was having some server issues yesterday (and about a month ago).

Apparently the issues were bad enough they moved all the sites on that server to a new server. About 9 or so last night, all my sites were up and looking good. I made a post about the down time, about the pumpkin carving kit giveaway and 20 minutes later, poof. Momma Muse was gone. Literally, everything was gone… well, my 350+ posts from the past 3 years, hundreds of comments.. all.. gone.

I called my host and to make a long story short, I was told I’d have to start over. They do backups, but don’t guarantee them. Great. I cannot tell you how hard I cried last night.

This morning, I found a back up as recent as July 18 of this summer… and a woman from the hosting company got it imported for me. In the end, I’ve only lost 2.5 months of posts. I wish I had all my posts emailed to me.. I could copy/paste them.. Oh well. I will be subscribing to my own email rss feed though, and scheduling regular backups.

I highly recommend you do regular backups. You don’t have to keep the older backups, just keep the last couple (in case of other issues). But really, back up your stuff, posts, database, whatever is important to you. It is NO fun to lose so much.

Thankfully, I have all the comments for the Pumpkin Carving Dremel tool kit and will take of that today. Unfortunately, the contest information is, well.. gone. I’ll be working on a new post today and taking care of comments and announcing the winner.

Entrecard Giveway

by Judi ~ March 16, 2008

Generate New Traffic With Entrecard – New Member Contest

If you haven’t checked into Entrecard, now is the time to do it. Between March 15th and April 15th any new members will have the chance to win over 45,000 entrecard credits.

Sense to Save organized this awesome giveaway when, at about 3 months old, Entrecard reached and then surpassed it’s 5000th active member.

Entrecard is free, provides free advertising, has the potential to generate a lot of traffic (up to 350+ visitors a day), provides the opportunity to network with like-minded bloggers or to broaden your knowledge and interests with others outside your niche.

Explained simply, you upload a 125 x 125 banner to entrecard (or just create a simple one on their site) and this becomes your web 2.0 business card in which you visit other members and “drop” your card. For each card you drop (up to 300 a day), you get a credit. For each card dropped on you, you receive another credit. These credits are then used to purchase a daily ad on the blog(s) of your choice within the entrecard network.

How did this affect Momma Muse? Traffic has increased steadily over the past few years. Mostly my traffic generated from searches. Networking and building a community wasn’t something I really cared much to do. But I started seeing Entrecard ads and before long I really wondered what it was about. I joined and well.. I love entrecard. Entrecard gave Momma Muse a renewal, it bumped up the traffic – though some of it is “drop and run” and that’s fine with me! But within Entrecard, we are developing a recognition and branding of our sites, communicating through the forums and messaging.. friends are being made, comments are being left and the sense of community (for me) is becoming more important. So Entrecard brought MM traffic and Community. Two very important aspects for a blog and it’s blogger.

To quote the original contest details:
The Largest Entrecard Giveaway Ever

To help Entrecard’s community grow, we posted on the forums to rally everyone together and hold Entrecard’s largest community giveaway. The responses have been overwhelming – over 45,000 credits will be donated from 38 current members! Only new members will be eligible to win.

What would 44,000 credits mean to you? It would take nearly 144 days to build up this amount.

Here are the contest details:

* The giveaway will be held March 15 – April 15.
* Only new users that sign up with Entrecard during this promotional period will be eligible.
* Comment and mention your Entrecard username at any of the hosting blogs (listed below) on their contest post to receive a contest entry. You can comment one time on each hosting blog to receive one entry each comment.
* A 1st place prize of 34,000 credits will be given randomly to a new user.
* Smaller 2nd place prizes will be given within each Entrecard niche category.

Last, please note that Entrecard has a little something for everyone and will be worth your time. Even within the Official Entrecard Blog, users have differing perspectives about whether Entrecard is a place to gain visibility in the blogosphere or make new blogging friends . There is no right or wrong way to benefit from Entrecard.

Currently, there are 38 members participating by donating and hosting this, the “Largest Entrecard Giveaway“.

• Blogging Resources:
  TysBlog.com (Host, Donation received) – 1000
  MeAndMyDrum (Host) – 1000
• Business
  ReapMoneyOnline (Host, Donation received) – 1000

  Career Jobs:
  Bloggin-Ads (Host) – 504 (168 * 3 people, for "prosperity")

• Computers and Internet:
  Orangeinks – 1000
• Cooking and Dining:
  Jenn Cooks  (Host, Donation received) – 1000 *Contest up*
• Education:
  Education Connection (Host)
• Environment:

  We Love Nature (Donation received) – 1000

• Finance and Investing:
  Sense to Save (Host) – 2000 *Contest up*
  Personal Finance Management Guide (Donation received) – 1000

  The Money Kings (Host, Donation received) – 1000 *Contest up*

• Health and Medicine:
  Diet Pulpit (Host, Donation received) – 1000 *Contest up*
• Hobbies:

  ahkong.net – Deimos Tel`Arin’s domain – Gamer, Blogger, Philosopher – 1188 (Host, Donation received, for "prosperity")

• Home and Garden:
  You Can Learn Series (Host, donation received) – 1000 *Contest up*
• Internet Marketing:
  Yimto Affiliate Marketing Blog (Host) – 1000
  Dot Com Mogul (Host) – 1000
• Lifestyle:

  Momma Muse (Host, Donation received) – 2000
  My World (Donation received) – 1000
  MarcRoger.com (Host, Donation received) – 1000
  When Silence Speaks (Host) *Contest up*

• Make Money Online:
  CK Marketing (Host, Donation received) – 2000
  Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress – 3000 (Donation received)

  Make Money Online – 1000

• Marketing:
  1 Million in 365 Days (Host) – 1000 *Contest up*

  Josh’s Unconventional Marketing Blog (Donation received) – 1000

• Men’s Interests:
  Trend Spike – 1000 and a Fast Pass (Donation received)
• Mixed Bag:
  An Unsuspecting Notebook (Host) – 1000
  Unique Log – 1500
• Parenting and Family:

  Mommieshome.net (Host, Donation received) – 1000 *Contest up*
  Parent Life (Host, Donation received) – 2000

• Personal Diary:
  An Unsuspecting Notebook (Host) – 2000

  Lee Doyle – Contains Nuts (Donation received) – 2000
  Joan Joyce (Donation received) – 1000
  Blogging MoRe (Host) – 1000

  Crystal – 1000
  Geek Mom Mashup – 1000

• Sports:
  Fantasy Baseball (Donation received) -1000
• Technology:
  Michael Aulia (Host, Donation received) – 1000
  Technology Blog and More (Host?, Donation received) – 1000
• Travel:
  Gilbert’s Frugal Travels (Host)
• Women’s Interests:
  Five Blondes (Host, Donation received) – 1000
• Writing and Literature:
  A Time and Place (Host, donation received) – 1000 *Contest up*

Santa’s Link Love

by Judi ~ March 4, 2008

I’ve been nominated for Santa’s Blog of the Day! What a surprise for me! I can see it now, jolly ol’ man is kickin’ back, taking a break from the toys and hanging out in the blogosphere – doing what else, but blog hopping!

Go on… Go Vote for me.. it’s just one click away.! Please & Thank You!

I’ll share Santa’s recent link love.. the past few winners at Santa’s have been:
* DogzNCatz 3/4
* World United Bloggers 3/3
* Little Aussie Cynic 3/2
* Hounds Good: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer 3/1

Valentine’s Day – Q&A

by Judi ~ February 6, 2008

Elaine is having a Mushy Entrecard Contest… I decided to post my answers here…

Valentine’s Day happens to be my anniversary and this year, 11 years.

1. Would you celebrate this coming Valentines or not?

We will celebrate, but because my husband works, it won’t be on Valentine’s day. We’ll do dinner over the weekend or something.

2. What do you like most about your partner?

I love that we tend to think very similarly, yet, still have our own opinions. He’s very supportive of me, and I of him.

3. What do you think does your partner like most about you?

See no.2… really.

4. How did you and your special someone meet?

We met through my now-ex-husband who happened to be his co-worker.

5. What’s the most romantic thing your partner ever did for you?

I wouldn’t call it romantic, because of the circumstances, but it was really.. when we were both experiencing a very heavy loss.. and my heart was just broken.. he sat in the bathroom with me and slowly, gently washed my hair..

6. If you are single, what do you miss most about being in a relationship?

I’m not single, and I’m happy not to be.. but I admit, there are crazy days that I think about it, ha!

7. And the final question, of course…. What is your definition of love? ;P

I’m not sure how to answer this one.  Enduring good and bad, the irksome and endearing… knowing you never want to be with anyone else… knowing your heart would hurt without..

Entrecard Credits Winner – Sharing the Wealth

by Judi ~ January 19, 2008

Remember the contest I posted about for 500 entrecard credits? Well… got an email from belolats.com bright and early this morning telling me to go cash in my coupon!

Woo-hoo… 500 entrecard credits for me! Don’t forget – Zobel’s contest is a weekly thing.. so go read her contest requirements, join entrecard and have a go!

So.. now, I’m going to share.. I’ll give away 250 credits, 125 to two entrecard newbies… sign up, comment here and you just may get some ec luv…