Posted on | April 6, 2012 | 18 Comments
well this is exciting. all of us lowly android users got to join the fancy apple users this week as Instagram launched it’s app. the app seems pretty good, although i have never had the original to compare it to. i do know it’s missing a few features that iphone has, like the tilt shift option. and i’m sure it’s due to adding like a flajillion users in a week, but it runs pretty slow. i also heard it isn’t available at all for certain android phones, which would have put me into some sort of blind rage had it been me. only kidding. but seriously.
in only a few short days i think i’ve pretty much won in instagram bingo. pictures of my food, sleeping child, my hair, flowers and my shoes even made an appearance! damn, i didn’t take one picture of coffee. which is insane considering how much of it i drank this week. BETTER LUCK NEXT WEEK, NEWBIE.
i’m excited to try some of the fun extras that Danielle posted about this week, too! so i’m teammandy on there, let’s be frands.
oh, this week also brought word that i’ll be um, speaking at blogher this year? Jill from Baby Rabies submitted a fabulous room of your own (ROYO) idea and included me, Charlie from How to Be A Dad, and Gina from The Feminist Breeder and enough people said they’d attend it, so it’s on! the session will be about “dressing” for the blog you want, accepting that maybe your blog is more than you originally intended it to be and embracing that. i hope if you’ll be in NYC for blogher that you’ll consider attending our session and yes of course, feel free to snicker at me. i’ll be the one at the end nodding a lot. hey that camel pack of wine might come in handy.
Posted on | April 1, 2012 | 17 Comments
on Harper >> top (dress?): old navy, thrifted // leggings & shoes: target. on me >> top: liberty of london for target (like 3 years ago?) // jeans: gift from Levi’s // shoes: target
you know those weekends where it’s sunday morning and although you still have most of the day ahead of you, you still really really don’t want monday to come? basically that. right now.
nothing spectacular happened (unless you count shopping at trader joes, which i totally do), but between some sunshine and an agreeable little human, this weekend gets a gold ace star from me. sorry for the plethora of photos of the tree in front of our place but seriously, it only looks as amazing as it does now for a short while and every time i look out the window or walk outside i have an overwhelming urge to hug it?
yesterday we were out doing our errands and Harper demanded we listen to Adele. the thing is, i really like Adele. a lot. but the other thing is? it’s all we’re allowed to listen to in the car lest our ears be accosted with wretched sounds that only 3 year olds can make. so usually we deal, but yesterday we wanted to hear something else. so we turned on the radio and told Harper that Adele had the day off from singing to her. which was working out really dandy (“Harper this is called the foo fighters!”) until the stupid radio played ADELE. busted.
later Harper said “mommy, daddy is a foo fighter”. which you know, logistics.
i’m off to hug my tree. hope all of you are having a good weekend, too! no foolin’.
p.s. i hate april fools jokes. i’m very “get off my lawn” like that.
Snag the Code Here:
Posted on | March 19, 2012 | 23 Comments
this post is going to be about blog ads. if you don’t have a blog, or a small business who advertises on blogs, i promise to be back tomorrow with something fun for you to read. but if you do have a blog, or a small business who advertises on blogs? come in and sit down! this is gonna be rad.
so about a year ago i met this guy named Jason. he wanted to tell me all about this new website he was working on to help bloggers streamline their advertising systems. it wasn’t an ad network – it was simply an easy way for blogger like me, who sell their own sidebar ads, to sell and manage ads. i thought it sounded pretty intriguing so i agreed to help him from a blogger’s point of view. a year later, Passionfruit is alive and kicking and dude, it is awesome.
for those of you who sell ads on your blog, you already know the kind of time it can entail to do so, and keep things straight. i’m guessing you have a pad of paper with scribbles, a folder in your inbox where any and all inquiries go, and the night before the start of a new month you are in your dashboard html-ing until your fingers bleed to get your new ads in. Passionfruit, however, does all that jazz for you. it totally streamlines the process for you and for your advertiser, making everyone super happy.
my pre-Passionfruit sponsorship would be like this – call for sponsors (a post that is not looked at by most people, and in no way contributes anything worth reading to my blog), responding to emails with prices and then PayPal invoices and more emails about sending over the ad image, etc. i have tried excel spreadsheets, normal pen and paper, etc to try and keep track of these things as they come in. i often mess up in some way or another.
but now! if you go over to my sponsorship page, you’ll see Passionfruit’s nice little set up. from my sponsor page you can buy an ad. just buy it right there, like you own the damn place. you’ll purchase, upload your ad image, link where you want it to go and on the date the ad is available (we’ll get there in a second), your ad will show up on my blog. magic!
for purchasers, this is not only super simple, but also cuts out on your end of the back and forth, back and forth. i won’t be bugging you via email for your ad image, etc because tada! you already took care of all of that. and while it’s not ready yet, eventually Passionfruit will show you your traffic from the blogs you bought from through PF. freaking magical i say.
on my end – or yours if you’re a blogger – PF is pretty much doing the work. when you first sign up, you simply add your website(s), set up the ad info (sizes, prices, what each size includes, etc) and PF creates a line of code for you to put in your ad page, or anywhere you want your “ad shop” to show up (see example on my sponsor page). from there your advertisers can click and buy.
then what?
well if it’s your first time, you’ll go into PF and copy and paste one line of code (per ad size) into you blog where you want the ads to show up (for WordPress users it’s a widget). Passionfruit takes care of the rest. as ads are bought (and approved), the code updates and new ads are put up. you post the code one time and forget about it. whaaaat? i know. you’ll get an email each time someone buys so you can go in and approve or if need be, decline (sometimes ads aren’t a good fit for every blogger). one of my favorite things about PF is the shuffle button. click it and your ads will be shuffled with each new page refresh. perfect to get all your ads lots of time at the top.
as a blogger, you set the number of each ad size that you’ll accept. for example 1 large, 5 medium and 5 small. if those are all full, advertisers can still buy, and their ad will show up when the next spot comes open. again, with no work on your end or theirs. they purchase the ad like normal and it tells them the day it will start. so for example, you can buy an ad on The Haps today, and it will start on April 1st and run for 30 days.
you can also give people discount codes to use, and if you like to trade ads with other blogs or businesses, simply give them a discount code to use that makes theirs a freebie.
what if you want to start using Passionfruit but you have a sidebar of ads already? you can import your own images and ads anytime. for instance, when i signed up i went in and manually added each current ad, set their run time to the end of the month and pasted my code. for lots more info (plus handy screenshots!) on finding your way around PF, check out this awesome post by Heather.
i seriously think that PF is going to rock so hard. Jason has tons of awesome features in the works for both bloggers and advertisers in the future and i’m so stoked to say i’ll be along for the ride. if you have any questions about PF, feel free to leave them in the comments. there is also live help once you’re in PF and you can chat if you have any trouble. i’ve found the whole innerworkings of PF to be so user friendly.
this post is not sponsored. i love this product and i truly think it’s going to change the way bloggers use advertising. i’m also really proud of my friend for having such a kick ass idea and then making it happen. i hope you’ll try it (did i mention it’s free?!).
Passionfruit (sign up!) // twitter // facebook
Posted on | March 16, 2012 | 29 Comments
this week did not suck! the weather was nutso (snow! hail! thunder! sunshine!) but otherwise i cannot complain. i kept playing with my camera, we had a super fun playdate at our house, i got my hair done and Harper and i had a successful and fun thrifting adventure. full of the win, i tell you what!
so kind of going along with yesterday’s smoothie post, i’d love to hear some of your favorite sites for vegetarian and vegan recipes. no, we aren’t going full force on either of those things, but we did watch Forks over Knives and when it was over we kind of looked at each other like “oh”. we’ve basically decided to cut out the majority of animal products from our daily eating. as a meat and cheese lover, i can’t say with any certainty that i’d ever go completely vegan but cutting out a lot of what we were eating, on top of cutting out the majority of super-processed foods, has helped both of us tremendously so far. besides the weight loss (i’m down almost 6 pounds and Scot is down around 12), we just feel better. and that is what it’s about for me – i feel crummy way too often and i know it’s attributed to the way i eat. anywho! two favorites i’ve been loving on this week are shutterbean (has vegan and veg sections) and oh she glows. i want to hear your faves though. please and thank you!
Fiona, Elle and Brynn came over and we had a blast. Fiona helped me with my camera (i wasn’t even using the exposure meter nor did i know what it was – holy sheet does that make a difference). i feel like things are starting to click (pun intended), but at the same time i’m trying not to get frustrated with the vast amount of info in front of me. i’m trying to take one thing at a time. like focus!
could you just die at Brynn’s cheeks? and her eyeballs?! good gravy.
i hope you guys have the best weekend. there is a chance ours will include Harper’s first ever ::looks around and whispers:: haircut. don’t freak out, we aren’t like, cutting it cutting it. just a trim in hopes it will be easier to manage (seriously those fine baby hair ends are tangling her head into a mess that takes forever to try and get out – with much unhappiness from her). i will be the weirdo who tapes a baggie of her little hairs into a baby book. judge away!
