Slow Notes
Why I switched from MailChimp to Mad Mimi
A couple of days ago I switched from MailChimp to Mad Mimi for my email list. MailChimp is likely to be more well known than the smaller Mad Mimi and may seem more professional for a Very Serious Business Person. Though the reason why I had previously selected MailChimp wasn't cause I was Very Serious or because it's more well known. For me their free account at that moment seemed better. I was being cheap and that was a mistake. What happened? I was doing fine with MailChimp for a while. I sent a bunch of emails, managed my lists, tweaked the forms and thank you emails and so fort...
How your old blog posts could help and guide to read more
You have that awesome blog. You are very happy with how it looks and your content creation is on fire. And then a person wanders through search or link somewhere in and out of one of your older blog posts, never checking other posts. There are many reasons why they aren't staying around. Your blog post wasn't impressive enough or they didn't like the way the site looks. Perhaps the loading time was too long for them (people are very ADD with loading times these days) or the post didn't give the information they were looking for. There are other reasons too: Your blog is missing some ways t...
Building your web presence: Patience, consistency, your voice and the overall look
Today every other cat has a blog, fictional characters are Tweeting and there are Facebook pages dedicated to woollen socks. Being noticed online is getting harder and harder. Building a strong web presence requires work. It's done with patience, consistency and you'll need to shine with your own voice. Besides that the look of your presence must be recognisable. 1. Patience To get seen online takes time. Search engines aren't going to add your content or get it on the first page immediately. Some are resorting to drastic measures to get there faster. They are trying to get noticed at...
Kale and banana smoothie
I have found kale. Finally, at this point of my vegetarian life. It contains lots of beta-Carotene (source of vitamin A), vitamin K, vitamin C, iron, calcium, magnesium and then some. Sounds pretty perfect. Some people say kale has a strong taste, but for me it's not that strong. It can be used in cooking, salads and, as I did, smoothies. Here's what I did to create a healthy, simple smoothie. If you are afraid it's not sweet enough for you, remember that bananas are a good sweetener. 2-4 kale leaves 1-2 bananas splash of juice of your choice (non-sweetened; I used orange juice) Thro...
Get your email noticed - How to write a perfect pitch to a blogger
When you have a blog that gains attention you get in time to time emails from total strangers asking you to collaborate with them in a way or another. Sometimes they want you to guest write their blog, interview you or you take part on a competition or so. Often they wish to guest write for your blog or to introduce you some sort of service or product you could write about. Some of the emails rock. They get immediately noticed and you want to reply them. Even if you cannot help them at the moment. What is with those emails? What makes them getting noticed? Keep these tips in mind next time...
Create sweet dummy text with Cupcake Ipsum
Sometimes when you design something before all the content is created, there's need for dummy text to fill the text space. Writing bla bla bla doesn't really do it and often you need longer chunks of text for it. Everyone who has ever been involved with any sort of design work is painfully familiar with Lorem Ipsum. The text is nonsensical Latin. In case you happen to need another paragraph of dummy text and want to sweeten your day and design, check out the oldie but goodie, Cupcake Ipsum generator. It's been created by Applicake and generates something like this: "Carrot cake c...
Web tip: Give image files useful names
Are you posting images online? To your blog and different services all over the place. Some of them are your profile photos. The silliest thing you can do is not to name your image files. What I mean by this is just to post a photo, straight from camera, without giving the file an actual name instead of that series of numbers and letters. You know, 2013-05-21 16.29.24.png or P1000030.JPG or DSCF0387.JPG or maybe IMG_3261.JPG. How descriptive is that, to start with? Image file names give your blog or other site/page some SEO boost. If the name is relevant to the content. Your profile ph...