The Broadway musical, A Chorus Line  is the story of a group of dancers auditioning for a show. Throughout the play, each dancer tells their stories about why they love dancing and how they started their dancing careers. These dancers are called gypsies, the chorus dancers who perform in the background making the star look good.

I’m a Dancer! A Dancer Dances

In answer to the question of why she endures the disappoints of being a professional dancer, the cast sings the fabulous Michael Bennett song, What I Did For Love. Hours of practicing their craft, broken and bruised feet, the disappointment of losing yet another role, nothing else matters, they only want to dance. They did it for the love of being a dancer.

The is how I feel about writing. I love writing. The words, the stories, the sound of the language and even the clicking of my keyboard when I have a great idea and the words are flying from my fingers faster than I can type. So many possibilities.

Yes, I could write privately in a journal or in a notebook, like I did in the years before the Internet. But ever since I got the very first comment on my blog from someone who wasn’t a friend or relative, I realized just how much I love writing for an audience.  I love the freedom of expression I experience when I write something that other people enjoy reading. For much like the dancers in A Chorus Line, dancing (writing) without an audience is not as fulfilling.

What I Did For Love, I Also Do For Money

While writing a blog or guest post is fulfilling, it is exhilarating to actually get paid to write. To be a real writer, a professional writer who is paid for her work requires more than the love of writing. When people pay you, they expect the best.

When you are being paid to write a sales letter, blog post or press release for a business, you need to write on a much higher level than when you are writing about your love of movies or your problems with a bad haircut. When you are being paid, people have higher expectations.

Damn Fine Writing

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers talks about the 10,000 Hour Rule says that to be successful in your chosen field you have to practice 10,000 hours.  As Cassie says in “The Music and the Mirror” , ‘I’m a dancer, a dancer dances!’

I want to be be the best possible writer.  I want to take whatever natural talent I may already possess to the highest level. It  requires more than just practicing, it takes and education. It is not necessary to have a degree in journalism to learn how to be a better writer. Many websites offer excellent online courses that can teach you how to be improve your writing skills. James Chartrand’s Damn Fine Words is one of the best.

Like the hardworking chorus line dancers, the more they practiced and danced, the more they trained and learned, they more roles they got and best of all, the more money they they earned.

This weekend is one of the biggest shopping events of the entire year. Retailers are offering incredible deals to pry cash money of out  our tight little  hands. Deals so incredible that people are willing to stand in line outside of big discount stores to grab a $15 DVD player.

As much as I love shopping, the last place I want to be today is in a crowded store. Fortunately, for the techies among us, there is Cyber Monday, where some of the very same retailers offer fantastic deals for those who shop online.  I am in the market for a new 23-inch monitor for my Mac Mini. But I found a few other Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that techies will love.

Studio Press for WordPress

25% off everything at StudioPress Themes for WordPress

The  Genesis Framework from Copyblogger Media is one of the most popular premium WordPress themes. Used by websites like Darren Rowse’s Problogger, Brian Clark’s Copyblogger and Chris Brogan,  the Genesis Framework along with one of the many child themes gives you a great looking website without the need for extensive coding.

Whenever you want to change the look of your site, simply change the child theme, without ever having to touch the core files. The StudioPress themes are also mobile-responsive, forum-friendly, and e-commerce-ready, you’ll get  unlimited upgrades.

Get the Genesis Framework for only $45.  Use  the discount code THANKS at checkout  and you can save 25% off of everything at StudioPress. Add one of the Genesis child theme design for less than $20.

The Best Deal: The Pro Pack All-Theme Package. Not only will you get the Genesis Framework and  ALL  43 current designs, plus every design they make in the future, but you save over $74 off the regular price (and over $875 off the retail price of the existing designs).

Don’t forget to use the discount code THANKS at checkout. Go to StudioPress Themes for WordPress and get 25% off everything.  This deal ends promptly at 5:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011.

Apple Is Having A Sale!

Fans of Apple products are delighted to see sale prices on some of their most popular items, like the iPad 2 (why didn’t I wait a few more weeks?), the iPod Nano, MacBook Pro and more.

You can shop for your favorites during the special Apple shopping event online and get free shipping, or stop by your local Apple Store and find the perfect gifts for your family and friends or get something nice for yourself. Sale valid Friday, November 25, 2011 only.

Premise

WordPress Landing Pages Made Easy: Get Premise Ultimate for only $95 and Create Better Pages, Write Better Copy, Get Better Results See what Premise Can Do!

Premise Ultimate for only $95 (save $70). Look for the Promo Code field below the Starter and Ultimate plan boxes. Enter the code THANKSand click “Get Promo” to see your special deal. This deal ends promptly at 5:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011.

It’s not on sale, but  Copyblogger Media’s Scribe is wonderful for helping you improve the SEO of your website. Take Scribe On A Risk-Free Test Drive.

31 Days to Build A Better Blog

Save  50% on 31 Days to Build A Better Blog

Darren Rowse, the Problogger gives you day by day assignments and takes you through the steps to building a not just a better blog, but a better website.  This 140-page e-book takes you into 31 easy-to-follow tasks that you can work through in your own time.

The new, updated 2012 edition of 31 Days to Build A Better Blog also includes 7 bonus tasks, all the original material updated, redesigned and refreshed, case studies of blogs, big and small, who are doing it right. Get insights into blogs you may not have heard of, and learn from their expertise. Integrated with social media so you can connect and share you experiences each step—and learn from other bloggers.

Each step in the workbook contains:

• A Daily Task
• Teaching – each day you’ll be given in-depth instruction on both the why and how of the task of the day.
• Further reading – so you can dive deeper on any task.

This three-pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a better blog but you’ll have actually achieved something with the knowledge.

Click here to order: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and save 50% off the regular price.

Other Problogger’s  E-books: Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers and ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging, ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business and The Blogger’s Guide to Online Marketing are not on sale, but you will find them useful.  Click here to view more details

50% off HostGator 

Get 50% off on all hosting services at HostGator, including shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated servers and WordPress hosting. (This does not include domain names.) The promotion starts after midnight, Friday, November 25, 2011 Central Standard Time (-6 GMT). The special offer will run until 11:59PM CST Friday, November 25th, 2011.

Amazon Black Friday Deals

In my search for a new monitor, I checked out some of the deals on Amazon and found monitors, DVDs and other great deal.  Check out  some of Amazon Black Friday Deals.

The Big, Big, Big Sale At Ittybiz

In case you haven’t heard of Naomi Dunford, the lady behind IttyBiz, she is he’s a microbusiness marketing consultant, helping small businesses, like mine to create dynamic marketing campaigns on the cheap. I am currently taking one of her marketing courses and finding it extremely helpful in growing my business.

Now you can take one or all of the IttyBiz Marketing Courses for as much as 50% off. The sale also includes the IttyBiz Karma Consulting, a one hour phone call with Naomi herself and your business problems.

*Some links are affiliates links.

Today, Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman of the board, former CEO of  Apple  lost his long battle with pancreatic cancer. In the coming days, perhaps even weeks, there will be many words written and many tributes paid to the life and legacy of Steve Jobs, his vision and his contributions to the world of technology. I can only say how profoundly he has affected me and how he, his genius and Apple have transformed my life.

My First Computer

Back in the 1980′s I registered for ‘Desktop Publishing” classes at Richland Community College.  We had  a classroom full of MacIntosh  Computers, each with a whopping 20 MG hard drive. Thus began my love affair with Steve Jobs.  That little beige box  greeted me with smile and helped to calm my anxiety about embarking on a new career.

Over the years, I allowed price point and bad advice from friends to convince me to buy a PC, but my heart always belonged to Apple. I listened to Steve and began to “Think Different“. Eventually, I followed my heart and started my new career as a writer and  I made  the transformation with a brand new iPhone 4 and Mac Mini. (And soon, an iPad!)

Think Different

When I was young, computers were huge machines occupying entire rooms. They were massive, loud,  heat-generating monsters that ate punch cards and required a staff of 10 people to tend to their electronic needs. If someone had told me then that I would have a computer sitting on my desk, capable processing millions  more bytes of millions information than that  massive computer or that I would own a wireless telephone  equally as powerful, I could not have imagined it.

That is where I begin remembering Steve Jobs…with imaginination.  Thinking of new and wonderful things beyond  imaging and having the vision to create them.

It was not because we needed a new computer, we already had personal computers.  But we didn’t  have the well-designed, user friendly Mac. We already had MP3 players, but we didn’t have the compact sleekness of the iPod. We’ve  had tablet computers for years, but they were not iPads. Everyone makes cellphones and smartphones, but they weren’t the iPhone. Because Steve Jobs could ‘think different’, the world of technology has been radically changed forever.

Tonight,  I sit here, saddened  and slightly tearful by the passing of Steve Jobs, writing this tribute to the unparalleled visionary,  hoping he will rest in peace, knowing he will not be forgotten, and knowing how much he will be missed.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.“

You have read over and over about the benefits of having a blog to promote your business.  You finally took the steps to register your domain name, set up your WordPress site and now you are asking yourself, “What Do I Do Now?”

Blogging Tips From A Problogger

Simply having a blog does nothing for you or your business. You have to add content (write something) that people (your potential customers) want to read. Even after many years of blogging, it can be a challenge to find the right topics to appeal to readers and to make the time needed to write weekly posts.

When I started my  first blog, I found a website by Darren Rowse called Problogger. It is full of helpful lessons about blogging and how to do so successfully.  His series called 31 Days to Build A Better Blog was so popular, he wrote an e-book which covered the daily lessons in detail. I used it to start this site and I still refer to it on a regular basis when creating website content for clients.

Darren has recently released  ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging, which gets you started on the right foot in the crucial first week after starting your blog. It  shows new bloggers the ropes–and helps develop solid habits that will last a lifetime. It’s the advice I wish I’d had when I first started.

The ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging will be useful to anyone who has just started blogging and those of you who are at the beginning of their journey. It will help you to start blogging with solid foundations. Perhaps you are even thinking about starting a 2nd or 3rd site and  want to do it better this time around.

ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging doesn’t teach you the technicalities of setting up or designing a new blog , but it is more for those who want to know what to do once they’ve set up. Experienced bloggers can also use it to release new sites more smoothly.

The 54-page e-book leads you, day by day, through your first week on a new blog. And for the next week, you can download your copy for just $9.99–that’s 50% off the standard price.

Contains More Than 7 Chapters–you’ll learn how to:

• Set solid foundations
• Publish and build presence
• Plan and organize your web content
• Understand the blog as a product
• Put yourself out there, using social media and other promotions
• Target your audience with strategies for success.

Individual tasks will give you practical experience in:

• Brainstorming
• Niche research
• Content planning
• Social networking
• Post creation
• Audience engagement

ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging shows new bloggers the ropes–and helps develop solid blogging habits that will last a lifetime.

If  you buy ProBlogger’s Guide to your First Week of Blogging before May 17, 2011, you’ll get it for just $9.99 – that’s 50% off the regular price. Don’t you love a bargain? The good thing about this offer is it is fully guaranteed. If you’re not satisfied after 30 days with the e-book, just let me know and I’ll send you a refund.

Download your First Week of Blogging for half price now.  Click here to view more details. Send me a comment with a link to your new blog. I look forward to the hearing how you use this exciting new resource to get started!

Some links on this page are affiliate links. See my Disclosure Policy for details.