I was reading some blogs today that led me to MOO.

What is Moo? It’s a company that sells business cards, postcards, stickers, and greeting cards. But what is unique about this company? Well, they offer something called ‘Printfinity’ -meaning that your business cards can have a different image/design on each card. They also offer double sided COLOUR printing at no extra cost! The other thing I love about this company (from what I see so far) is that their cards come printed in your choice of premium stock-both being environmentally friendly. One is the ‘MOO Classic: 16pt, sustainably sourced, matte laminated.’ and the other is the ‘MOO Green: a sturdy 13pt, crisp white, 100% recycled and recyclable.’
MOO Business Cards – Go Green! Create customized Business Cards made with 100% recycled, recyclable and biodegradable paper.

One last thing I really love about this company, that I’m excited to try out for myself, is their ‘Mini-Cards’. They are half the size of business cards and also have the option to print multiple images in one pack. They are great for making gift tags and all kinds of neat crafts…you should check out their website for more ideas. Mini Cards are also great for personal information, like for example-your blog details.

They have 2 international online stores

MOO-USA & MOO-Europe

But they ship ANYWHERE in the world!

Using Adobe Bride to Organize your photos
Using Photoshop CS4 for beginners who want to tweak family photos
Using “Henry’s Moments Online” for Printing in Canada
Artisteer automated website design-good for blog templates
….and more.

And if there’s anything you want me to write about, send me a msg and I’ll try to make it happen!

Everyday I am learning more and more how to optimize my blog. How to format, how to get seen, how to use permalinks. It really blows me away how much I learn from other blogs, which is, I guess the common theme in the blogs I’ve been reading, and that is to share. Share the information you know, you learn and want to learn. No one was born a blogger, and even the most skilled Coders, be it HTML, PHP, and especially AS2 and 3, have bad days and challenges they have to over come. That is why communities and forums are a great tool to help you solve problems and learn new ideas you may not have thought of.

Every time I learn something new, it opens my mind to more possibilities and ways to organize my blog. I also find myself thinking of new topics or goals for my blog. Especially since it has no identity yet. But really, what does that mean? If a blog is a reflection of oneself, then are we to define ourselves outright? Is there no room for change, or spontaneity? Can I not change my mind 100 times a day? Is that not a woman’s prerogative?

I am a person of many talents, many views, many hobbies, but I guess in blog-land, that can spell disaster. Especially if you’re trying to gain readership. I’m a technically inclined individual, who marvels at the joy of childbirth and the natural process of it all. I guess I could go in the direction of Rikki Lake and make a documentary about it…I have the skills and the knowledge. But then I love giving advice about pregnancy and labour and the post partum period, so maybe I could start an advice column? Who knows? What I don’t want to be is a typical, mom blog, that just talks about the ups and downs of raising kids and keeping a home. Why? Because I am so much more than that.(and sometimes I think I’m not that great at it anyways…let’s be honest…I can dish out parenting advice, but I very rarely lead by example)

Whenever anyone asks me what I do, I say I stay home with my kids BUT I’m planning on going back to school. That way I avoid the looks of disinterest, as I am silently being judged for just being a mom. But on the other hand, I have no qualms about telling people about my drug free home birth. Which is a guaranteed judgement. “Oh you’re so brave….Oh I don’t know how you do it….I need the drugs…What if something went wrong?” Especially since most people don’t realize how safe it actually is (with a qualified Midwife), and how being at home doesn’t mean more painful. Quite the opposite actually. I was calm and comfortable and confident. Whereas in the hospital you have contend with the staff’s idea of what your labour is going to be. Their judgements, their advices, their ‘professional opinion’, and not to mention their ability to find pathology when there really isn’t any. Thus leading to interventions and loss of control for the woman in labour…but I digress.

Blogging is such new world for me, that I find myself losing hours everyday trying to figure it all out. I really want to conquer it, because that is who I am…a perfectionist. Well….a lazy perfectionist.

Okay, so I have 3 little banner ads so far. I’m not expecting to get rich quick here, but I would like a way to supplement the cost of my blog, since I pay for my hosting and site name annually. Actually, I’ve had my ‘kerridgital’ site since 2004 when I offered freelance Videography and Photo Restoration. It then turned into a splash page I kept just so I could keep my email address.

So here’s what I learned yesterday in my blog detective work. There are a few ways to make money on your blog. I’ve chosen to just stick with ads that make you a commission if a link from your site leads to a sale. There are other ways like getting free stuff to test, or offering giveaways to your readers. But from the looks of it, those things combined with the ads links would consume too much of my time. So for now, I’ll start simple with banner ads, and including text links in my posts. Seems simple enough.

So I read a few blog posts from momdot and there were reference to a few affiliate sites. Most of them seems to be based in the US, so I dug a little deeper and found 3 so far, that are Canadian friendly.

The first one I signed up for was Amazon. They offer a few different ways to display ads and products. There are links & banners, widgets, and an ‘aStore’ which I don’t fully understand yet. They granted access to the account immediately, but took 24hrs to approve me. At which point I could simple choose the type of ad I wanted to display and highlight the HTML and copy/paste it into my ad section of my Mystique Theme. I then used a Text widget, and entered a short code to display the ad.

I then signed up for PepperJam Network, and I have yet to hear back from them. But they say it takes 24-48 hours, so we’ll see what happens.

Next was LinkShare, who immediately granted access to their network. I then could browse through a list of Canadian (because that’s what I ticked off at the application stage ) advertisers. You can apply to any and all the ones on the list, as most have an approval process and if you don’t qualify, you can always apply later. One advertiser approved me immediately, but the link wasn’t active right away, but today it seems to have something there. This morning I was not approved by one advertiser, but then I was approved by another. They send you emails that contain html code for either text links, banner ads, or button ads. I chose the button ads as it keeps my site not looking too cluttered. I think I will venture into including links in my posts, once I get it figured out.

I will be exploring more affiliate programs, and I might even look into what’s involved in freebies and giveaways, but for now I want to focus on gaining readership. A few ads to start is respectable and I don’t ever want to look like that’s the only reason I blog, because honestly I started a blog before I knew this world existed.

So today I spent the whole day, and I mean the whole day just slipped away from me, while I read blog after blog. I cannot believe how many Mom Blogs are out there! I know that I wasn’t original in wanting to blog about my experiences in parenting, but DUDE!

I found most sites totally confusing to read, and very full of content, so much so, I gave up trying to understand them. What I did discover that I was previously unaware of, was the concept of ‘monetizing your site’. Say what? I had no idea, and not only through banner ads, but through giveaways, and promotions. All this was out there, and I’ve been at home with my kids for 2 years now. What bubble have I been living in? Obviously the Facebook Bubble.

Not only was I amazed with the mass amount of blogs out there, but also how everyone seems to be experts at CSS and HTML. I know of these and know what they’re for, but I have to admit, I’m not a coder. I am however living with a Flash Developer who understand AS3 and even he admits he doesn’t know HTML. It’s a different language from what he uses, so he’s no help to me, for understanding this stuff. I don’t even know what Plugins I want to use. I have managed to figure out a few, but there are hundreds, and from the looks of what I saw out there, maintaining a successful blog is a practically a full time job.

I will admit, that this day really opened my eyes as to what I want to accomplish with my blog, but I feel bad at how much time I spent on my computer away from my kids. Well they were in the room with me, but I really wasn’t very attentive, and let my son demolish a bowl of chocolates just so he would leave me alone.

I still haven’t figured out how to include hypertext in my posts, or how to properly adjust my layout for the best aesthetic appeal, but I’ll get there. And if anyone decides to offer any tips, I would welcome them hole-heartedly.

Oh what have I gotten myself into?