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Well now isn’t this interesting!  I am totally excited about a few articles I’ve read from fellow marketers about becoming more independent from what is quickly becoming a rather seedy neighbourhood.

Mark over at 45n5 started talking about taking things in a different direction with his Internet Homesteading and then I was reading Blue Mushrooms - which for me TOTALLY hit home was the constant struggle to break out of the rat race.  I really loved Sapphire’s article - because I think for many of us we’re sitting around wondering how to make ends meet and how can we do that online.  Or there are those of us who live with this monkey on our back - that fear that we’re going to lose our jobs… get laid off…  and that totally sucks.  It totally wears us down.

When I first started this blog I wanted to document how I was making money online.  I wanted to share my stories and find like-minded people who shared the same goals as I did.  Maybe even help someone else who was just starting out.

Lately though, this blog hasn’t been doing that - because to be quiet honest - I haven’t really been involving myself in the niche as much as I once did.  I see many of my peers who started out around the same time I did, who are doing rather well.  Who have that opportunity to dream big because they’ve taken the steps to get there.

Me… not so much.  Currently I’m smiling big when I get my google cheque every couple months for a little over $100.  Every once in a while I’ll get a nice little surprise in my inbox or mail box - very occasional money.

To be honest.  I am frustrated.

I don’t really have a lot of time and what time I do have I want to focus on something that gives me a little more of a guarantee that I’ll get a bit of income.   Now like Mark and Sapphire I don’t really want to be gunning for the 10 room mansion or for that matter a black American Express card - I just want to feel OK.  I am working towards paying off my debt.  When that’s done I’m looking to put a new roof on the house.  You know - normal things.  But sure I won’t lie… I have a few things I’d love to do and purchase if I start making a bit more money.  Who wouldn’t.  But that’s not the “be all - end all” for me.

I just think it’s time to re-evaluate the situation and make a few changes on my end to get the ball rolling towards the bigger goals I have.  Because that $100 every now and again isn’t really getting me where I want to be.  I want to feel “safe” and I don’t want to live with the fear that I’ll end up living in my car with my cat.

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… that I’d missed from the end of April (does that mean I’m really, really behind in my emails?!?).  I found that I’d received a gift certificate from Amazon!  LOL.  I now have over $90 to spend on some very yummy reading materials!  I’m pretty excited to get a few books off my wishlist and it also leaves a very big decision as to what I pick out.   In my glorious nerdiness - I’m thinking of getting more of a handle on PHP and maybe take a splash into CSS… with a dash of how it all comes together in code.  Yes.  Totally. Nerdy.  But I’m really interested in that sort of thing and I hate not knowing how to do certain things and I’d also like to get a better handle on what some of this code that makes up WordPress… seriously I’m finding that not knowing how to do code is holding me back a bit.

Also the fact that I hate not knowing is a major drag and I’m looking to change that.  I’m looking to do a little “self-improvement” and get myself more involved with creating mashups - for everyone or just to get some of my domains off the ground with some good design and code.

I’m excited… now I have to decide on a few books.

Anyone have any suggestions a la Amazon.com on good CSS, PHP, etc books that I might want to take a look?

Popularity: 9% [?]

The other day I was chatting about the cool program I found called PicApp.  I still think it’s a pretty great idea for the low budget blogger who wants to showcase images on their site without the hassle of copyright laws.  Anyway…

In that last article I wrote about how I was having a hell of a time aligning the image to have the text wrap around it.  Honestly I’d pretty much given up on it and was hoping that you out there who tried it out - were having better luck than I was.

But wouldn’t you know it… I got a comment from Dave - who is from PicApp - who HELPED ME!  I didn’t even ask for the help, he just stopped by to help me out.  It worked too!  As you can tell now the article now wraps nicely around the image.  So if you’re having the same problem I was - then I highly recommend checking out his comment and it will solve the wrapping problem I was having.

I just want to give Dave a little shout out for being really helpful and sorting that out for me.    THANK YOU.  I can’t say that happens very often and when it does happen it sure sticks with me and makes me feel that there are people out there who care about what they’re promoting and what they offer and they’re willing to help you out if you’re hitting a snag.

So check out PicApp and give it a whirl.

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Image details: Hillary Clinton Campaigns For Upcoming Primaries served by picapp.com

PicApp is a site where you can surf through tons of photos and use them for FREE on your website. Now I can think of a few sites that would benefit from something like this - for example … gossip blogs, political blogs, news blogs… and that’s just to name a few.

If you’re looking to get some great photos on your site, without the worry that you’re in copyright infringement hell - this would be a great place to look. When I went to PicApp, I tried to sign up - but it looks to be that sign ups are good for the United States only. But that doesn’t mean we can’t use them - or for that matter if you don’t want to sign up, all you need to provide is an email address. Nice. Yes we might be put on a newsletter or two - so perhaps using an email that would be good for that might be in order.

I chose Hillary for this example - but there’s great photos of cats, George Clooney, Obama, etc. I think this is one of those ideas that is great for those of us with small budgets and can’t afford the bigger fees that go along with getting rights to some photos. Hell, some ideas go down the drain because we don’t have access to these sorts of photos.

I guess the one thing I’m not too fond of is the sponsored links box below the image. But I guess they need to make money too… so if you can put up with it - use the service. I think it’s handy to use if you need too.

Overall - a great idea for the low budget blogger who needs images with out the copyright law hassle. We’ll see if the look they use pays off for them. I think it’s a great idea - but not too sure about how it looks on a site.

Update… just minutes later: Ok… as easy as cut and paste is I’m having a hell of a time aligning my image. It could just be me (as is often the case), but this is turning into a bit of a pain in the butt. Hopefully that’s not the case with everyone else.

Popularity: 12% [?]