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The Week That Was: May 17 – 23

May 24

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | 10 Comments

gather success
Gather Success

Today is a holiday here in Canada – Victoria Day.  Funny thing.  Every day of the weekend they have been predicting rain.  Every day of the weekend, the morning overcast turned to sunny.  Today appears to be a repeat!

What are some of the outstanding moments in my blog life this past week?

Well for one thing, the blog life has had to make way for a non- blog life and that may be the case for the next few months but it is all good.   To maximize my efforts and put some efficiencies into play I have made the following decisions regarding my Blog Income Life:

  • Focus on the “income” in Blog Income Life.  To that point I will be looking at my aggregate internet marketing income as my Blog Income Life.   I am giving myself the balance of Q2 and all of Q3 to ramp this up.  My first report will be published in October. 

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  •  As the focus shifts to income, I have decided to concentrate on affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketing has paid me in dribs and drabs, but nothing sustainable and no plan in place for sustained results.  I am currently looking at all the programs that I am affiliated with a view to begin to marketing  them – beginning with one.  Reviews on these programs will be posted here.  In the meantime, any advertising banners on Blog Income are those of products that I personally have bought and am pleased with … I know, none here right now, but there are quite a number and I’ll put them up soon.

 

There is plenty more on the horizon which I will share with you as time, plans and results unfold.  I am excited.

Now for the week that was – summary of new posts since May 16:

Gather  Success Challenge III – Affiliate Marketing :
As a contestant of Alvin Phang’s Gather Success Blogger Reality Show I “attend” the weekly call-in and take notes to both apply to my own efforts and to post here so that you can take away a gem or two that  may be helpful  too.  Lots of gems on this call.  Read them here.

sidenote:  this is the call-in that made the penny drop for me re affiliate marketing and earning a sustainable online income.

Gather Success Challenge IV – Retweet Challenge
My bête noir!  For some reason I have been dragging my feet when it comes to social media, particularly when it comes to Twitter.  Alvin  makes it clear:  we need to become more familiar with Mr. Twitter!   This week I have been reluctantly visiting Twitter and making a few tweets here and there (not enough I am sure to garner me in the top three, but ok, it’s dipping my toes.  This post is all about me being a shameless hussy and “chirping” for RTs … that would be “retweets!”  (I think).  

Sunday Morn Musings: Learning to Dance in the Rain
A very short post – I give deference to the video, which is (I think) profound.  I couldn’t say it better.  Enjoy the video!

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The Week That Was: Apr 19 – 25

Apr 26

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | No Comments

There are times when one has to step away for a time, to view something at a distance, to recharge and then to charge.  This was just such a week.  Spent very little time here at Blog Income.  That is not to say that the keyboard was left idle nor that time wasn’t well spent.

One:  The week was heavily scheduled outside of the home office — mostly business meetings.  In the winter I like hunkering down and working in my bunker, but come spring and the rest of the year it is nice to get out and about so the business meetings were welcome.

Two: It is time to simplify.  Taking stock of all the domains and sites that I own, I have decided that it is time to sell some of them off.   I signed up for Starting from Scratch which is all about flipping online real estate .   This week I took one of those sites, dusted it off and worked on making appropriate changes, applying stuff I learned here and within another week off to the auction block it goes.  It’s been refreshing to work in a niche that has been neglected for some time now.  Note to self:  don’t fall in love with it (again)?

Related post:  There’s Money In Them Thar Blogs

Three:  Have also been working on the new theme for this site.  Have taken an obscure domain that I own and am doing the dry run on it before taking the big leap (to which I will undoubtedly have to devote the better part of a weekend – oh please let it rain!)

These are the posts since the last Week That Was:

Wonder Wheel Great Tool for Cluster Blog Posting
At the regular Monday Night Internet Mastermind group we were introduced to Google’s Wonder Wheel.  It was presented as yet another useful tool to fine tune our keyword researching skills but I looked at it as a great tool for related topic clusters that will get the hay burning and the posts coming. … read the whole cluster

Sunday Morn Musings: Screw It, Let’s Do It!
I am a toastmaster. Recently I gave a speech and the opening line was “Screw It, Let’s Do It”. If you know anything about Toastmasters this would ordinarily be one of those out of bounds moments and I would have been cited for this sort of unacceptable language … but this is not milk toast club so that when I opened my speech with “Screw it, let’s do it” they thought that I was merely swearing!   What was it really about?  Does Richard Branson ring a bell?

Here’s to your awesome blog income life!

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The Week That Was : April 04 – 10

Apr 10

Posted by Valentina in Making Money, Weekly Review | 3 Comments

I’ve long forgotten what it’s like to have a long weekend.  For the entrepreneur who calls the spare bedroom the office, days and nights and weekdays and weekends often blur.  This is particularly true of those of us who are internet marketers and earn our incomes online. Last weekend, Easter, I decided that  the 9 – 5 may have a point: take some time off.  And so I did.  Four glorious days of it.

You know what was so good about it?  Yes, spending time with family and friends, but the truly surprising part was that it was really invigorating to get back on the computer and get moving again.  I got a surprising amount covered.  The brain seems to think faster and I think you waste less time, because, well there is so much to make up for.  I think I’ll do that more often.

I was intrigued that one of my posts this week was not only indexed , but actually got a Google Broad position of 98 and Phrase position of 48 – OVERNIGHT! I’ve never had anything like that happen.  The post in question is This Too Shall Pass.  I think it’s the video which I embedded into the post .  Now I don’t think that any video would garner that kind of attention, but this one is really tops.  You just gotta watch it.

Summaries of articles posted since the last review

Blogger Reality Show Challenge 05/04/10
The World’s 1st Reality Show For Bloggers To Challenge Each Other Each Week To Win The Ultimate Prize To Be Alvin Phang’s Apprentice!
Sooner or later it had to happen – a Blogger Reality Show and Alvin Phang of Gather Success is the man to have put it together.  Everyone can participate.  The show starts April 30 so hop on out on over there and register.  It will be fun.

What is your Blog’s USP? 06/04/10
Do you know what your blog’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is?  What sets your blog apart from the others.  Some things to consider and apply to your blog that will have your tribe growing and following you consistently.  Read the whole blog post

This Too Shall Pass – 09/04/10
This was my first attempt at embedding a You Tube video.  I think I missed a step or something as after you click on the video it asks you to click again … but the video is so hilarious.  You really do have to watch it.  I then drew some parallels from the video to blogging.

The gloves are off.  Two of my fave bloggers Dave and Pat  seem to be duking it out in the blogosphere  or so their posts seem to suggest.  They’re both sharp dudes though and even though the titles  seem to be at polar opposites,  there is some common ground there.  Definitely a must read.

Pat Flynn -  Its Dumb Not to Dumb it Down

Dave Doolin – “Dumb it down” they say… No! I say, “Smarten it up!”

I’m not going to even give a summary – honest, just go read both posts.

Tomorrow Sunday Morn Musings returns.  Adios!

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The Week That Was: Mar 21-27

Mar 27

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | No Comments

Sometimes you just have to laugh because the alternative is to cry.

Such was the case this week.  There are times when one is tried every which way.  I always tell people who are experiencing some really tough times that it means they are on the threshold of something big but to make sure that they are up to the big, the universe sends challenges.   We all get through challenges, life goes on, but it is how we deal with those challenges that determines whether we move up, stay static or slide backwards.

OK………….. I’m waiting for the big times to come!

Blog Income was down for almost two full days at the beginning of the week.  Incompatible plugins. Then Friday, once again while I was in the back office, I managed to shrink the site and the font size – if you scroll past to earlier posts you will see that the font size is small.  The good thing is I have found out how to increase the font size for each posting – now to just make it universal and widen the blog to it’s original size.

All this in the last week of Quarter One!   … so, better times ahead.

New posts since the last Week That Was:

Sunday Morn Musings:  Big is NOT Beautiful! 21/03/10
Social engineers are at it again.  As usual they employ semantics as their tool of choice and preach from the pulpit of political correctness.   They want us to think that “Big” is beautiful.  Read that as FAT is beautiful.  BALDERDASH!  … On my Sunday soapbox (maybe that is what I should call it)I take issue with fat and health.

Life, Timing & Love all live in The Land of Internet Marketing 24/03/10
… calm has returned to the domain of Blog Income and that makes life good but it’s been a few hair raising and tearing days.   At first annoyance, then disbelief, then as the reality began to seep in, utter panic.  An internet marketer’s nightmare

Wordpress Direct Review – 26/03/10
“No more wasting your precious time with setup, Search Engine Optimization, or maintaining your site . . . WordPressDirect has been designed to handle all the setup, SEO and maintenance functions for you. With over 15,000 users, we are the leader in Search-Optimized Blog Publishing.”

Now that’s some powerful statement and if true it is the best kept secret in the internet marketing world.  In this post I go over my experience along with some suggestions for improvement that WPD might want to take to heart.

Lean pickings this week.  With every challenge met new things are learned.

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

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The Week That Was: Mar 14 – 20

Mar 20

Posted by Valentina in Reviews, Weekly Review | 3 Comments

Funny kind of week – ennui seems to have set in.  Can’t explain it.  Does it have something to do with the Ides of March I wonder.  This is so unlike me.  This is the end of the first quarter.  There are goals to meet not only for the month but for the quarter, but it seems that a low energy cloud has somehow engulfed me.  This is the second week in a row.  I have decided not to fight it.  Sometimes it is best to allow yourself to just go with the flow – at least for a while.

Mentioned earlier here Blog Income is scheduled to undergo a complete reno so I have been looking at several Wordpress theme templates to replace the current one.  Every time I visit a sight that appeals to me I scroll down to the bottom to see what the name of the theme is.  Following suggestions I have set the following as a starting point:

Simplicity – simple header,  customizable
Congruity – fonts, size, style etc visually appealing
Three column – content on  left, two side bars on the right

Atahualpa has been recommended by many and I must say that it seems to meet all the above and apparently very flexible/customizable.  The only thing is that most of the sites have the sidebars on both the left and the right.   I am sure that I saw at least one site that was on Atahualpa but the sidebars were both to the right…. ok, a little more work before putting on the switch (and maybe then I can put on the Ritz … it’s bad, I know )

Now for the week that was – new posts since the summary of last week:

Sunday Morn Musings: Designer Tomatoes  14/03/10
When shopping for fresh produce I stay away from the pure red, blemish free, perfectly round, still attached to its vine, tomato.  Instead, I carefully pick through the adjacent bin, the one with the imperfect tomatoes looking for perfect tomatoes.  I know.  That is a contradiction.   For the full article on why hop on over to Sunday Morn Musings

Romancing Alexa for Blog Supremacy 18/03/10
You may have noticed a new logo sporting a golden graphic of what I think is a chrysanthemum and the proclamation that this blog is a proud member of the Yakezei Challenge – it is not an affiliate banner.  Read the story behind it and how Alexa figures prominently behind it.

Quality vs Quantity? One Blogger’s Reply to Pat Flynn 19031
Whilst visiting Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income and posting a comment, my flying fingers accidentally hit the wrong key and just like that, the comment vanished!  I took that occasion to flesh it out further and wrote an whole post on whether quality or quantity of posts rule in the blogosphere … read the whole Quality vs Quantity post

… and that’s the way the week was!

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The Week That Was: Mar 07 – 12

Mar 13

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | No Comments

Funny sort of week.  When I review it a lot got done but for some reason I don’t feel that way.  Maybe its because even though I got a lot done, not much has moved forward so I feel that somehow I am standing still, and you know what they say, if you’re not moving forward then you’re moving backward.  Do you ever feel that way?

Maybe it’s because here in Vancouver we are just waking up from our Olympic hangover – what a party that was!  The Paralympics have just begun, so we have another two weeks of fierce sports competition and guess what?  The weather has gotten colder, and the mountains are getting a fresh dusting of snow!

Now to the week that was.  A summary of the new posts since the last Week That Was:

Sunday Morn Musings:  Reading and Independent Thinking 07/03/10
Sunday readership of the “free-fall” no topic postings is increasing.  I thought when I first started the Sunday Morn Musings that mine would be the only eyes that would fall on the post.  I feel much better now.  Last Sunday’s discussion was on whether extensive reading inhibits or promotes independent thinking, the observation being that those who read a lot are reading others thoughts and so do not engage in much original thinking. Read the full article on reading and independent thinking.

Computer Backup Ensures Peace of Mind for Your Blog Income: 08/03/10
Backup everything that you have on your computer.  I speak from painful experience of not having done so and the panic that ensued when reboot after reboot failed one morning.  Some suggestions as to where you can backup all your data besides an external hard drive.

Five Steps To Keep Your Blog Income On Track – 10/03/10
The end of the first quarter of the year is fast approaching, are you on pace with your blog income goal for the year?  It’s not too late to take some aggressive steps and finish the quarter on the mark or at least much closer than if you don’t just continue doing what you are doing.   Five effective steps that take will have you earning your projected online income for the quarter and beyond.

Don’t Ignore the Fries 11/03/10
Two points running through the article – don’t give up the day job until your internet marketing business income replaces the 9-5 and, don’t ditch anything that contributes towards your expenses until you another product is a proven improvement over the item in question.  MacDonalds is know for reinventing itself but it doesn’t fool around with a proven profit item –  read about the fries and how it applies to your blog income

Come on back tomorrow for Sunday Morn Musings.

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The Week That Was: Feb 22 – Mar 06

Mar 6

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Weekly Review | 2 Comments

Whoa!  That’s two weeks!

Yes.

Between Olympics, workshops and a computer that finally went to its final reward in the sky there was no “Week That Was” last weekend.

Got my new computer – a snazzy looking black lacquer Toshiba job with more space in it than I know what to do with. I could no longer defrag my dear old laptop because space available was below 15% – this one has 4 times as much space on the hard drive.  I know, over time that space will be filled too.  Oh nooo…. I will move lots of stuff for storage to a cloud, or buy an external hard drive. Or both.

Do you name your inanimate objects?  For example does your car have a name?  Mine doesn’t.  Several cars ago it did.  It was given a name by my daughter.  Her toys had names, she reasoned, so why wouldn’t a car.  Yes.  She still names her cars.

I name my computers.  Do you believe in the power of the word?  There has been a lot written about NLP (Nuero Linguistic Programming).  My dearly departed laptop had a name, I called it Big Money.  Perhaps my intentions weren’t clear.  The idea was that with the use of the laptop the Big Money truck would drive UP to my driveway but what happened was that it drove AWAY from my driveway.  I don’t regret it one bit though. The big money was spent on courses, so I chalk it up to education.  My brand spanking new laptop is named Money Magnet.  Do you think I did better this time?

So to the Weeks that Were – summary of posts published since my last weekly review.  If you haven’t read the post  in full these summaries give you a glimpse.  If one catches your attention hop on over and read the whole meal deal.   Comments are welcome and encouraged.

An Open Letter to Nathan Hangen – 22/02/10
I hang out at Nathan Hangen’s Blog.  I buy his products, the latest one being Beyond Blogging and am a great admirer of his but a recent post on his blog got my hackles up so I put on my boxing gloves and gave him the old one two in an open letter. He was OK with it.   To read what it was that got me in the ring with him and his reply, read the whole article which addresses blogging on blogging.

Blog Income To Go Under Knife – 23/02/10
At my regular   Monday night Internet Marketing Mastermind meeting, I had this blog critiqued.  There were lots of good suggestions.  The recurring theme of the comments suggested that it looked, well, a bit too cluttered.  I had already clued in to this and it was good to have my hunch confirmed.  Readers are encouraged to send in more suggestions.  Read the full Blog Income article.

Blog Income Month In Review: February 2010 01/03/10
Each month I review the results of this blog.  My current push is to increase traffic as I believe that all else will fall in from there.  Did I achieve my traffic goal for the month of February?  Yes.  Two valuable lessons learned which I think everyone can apply to their own blogging agenda.  For the full report just log on to Blog Income Month in Review

Twitter and All That Social Media Stuff
Spent two jam packed days learning about the basics of Social media at Matt Astifan’s Workshop.  We learned how to Twitter, all about Facebook and the importance of You Tube to internet marketing.  Am I an expert now?  Absolutely not.  Read about my experience and why I plan to play pretty with Twitter and other social media sites,

Is Centralizing Your Internet Marketing Services The Best Option?
When buying your services for your internet marketing business is it better to bundle and buy from a single provider or should you spread out and buy independently?  There are pros and cons for each.  Weigh in with your preference in the comments section.  Read full Centralizing Services article.

Alright!  We’re up to date!   Tomorrow: Sunday Morn Musings!

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The Week That Was: Feb 14 – 21

Feb 20

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | No Comments

Olympic fever has swept the city – never mind that we are having a record warm winter and snow had to be trucked in to one of the local city mountains where the snowboarding competitions were held.    Downtown Vancouver has turned into one big party hosting visitors from all over the world.  The hundred plus pavilions have lineups  from here to there, cordoned off streets are jammed with revelers and everyone is having a rip roaring good time especially as Canada  has brought home 4 golds so far making this the first Olympics that we have copped the elusive metal for the first time on home turf.  Another week – I’ll definitely be spending more time enjoying.

Did get some blogging done.  Here is the Review of the Week that Was , a summary of the the new posts published here since February 14.

Sunday Morn Musings:  Valentine’s, Gung Hay Fat Choy!  The Smell of Gold – 14/02/10
A potpourri of topics:  St. Valentine and valentines and China and Valentina (yes, me!) and the welcomeing of the year of the tiger, an animal that is lucky, vivid and incredibly brave.  Talked about Chris Farstad a former Olympian and what he told us about athletes and how he figured that this year the Canadian athletes would fare far better and why … they have.  Hop on over to Sunday Morn Musings and read the full article.

Affiliate Marketing:  Write the Ad 15/02/10
This post takes you through a five step process of writing an attention grabbing ad that will have your visitors clicking and buying your affiliate products.  Nothing like the sweet  sound of a click to enrich your blog income bank account.

Affiliate Marketing:  Plan Your Campaigns 18/02/10
The nine steps to a successful campaign – from inception to fulfillment including time lines and a little known marketing ploy that will take you from obscurity to success with direct financial benefits to you.  The starting point for your passive income.

Yes, I did work on my own campaign to start March 01.  This is the first time I will actually be promoting one of my affiliate products not just on an ad hoc basis, but according to a plan.  I will establish my first “control”

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life.

Valentina

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The Week That Was: Feb 07 – 13

Feb 13

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | No Comments

What a week!   The city positively crackled with excitement as sidewalks spilled over with visitors from all over the world here to attend the Olympics .  Energy is high.  Hopes and aspirations  at levitation level.  Whether you live in the city or the burbs its hard not to catch Olympic fever.  Even though I crow with glee at the sight of blooming crocus, a slight drop in the temperature wouldn’t be all that bad – would do wonders for the mountains where the shushing events are taking place.  Ironic that last year at this time we had record cold temperatures and gobs of snow on the peaks – well we do have gobs of snow on the peaks, just not the ones where the events are scheduled!

This was the last week of my Internet Marketing Bootcamp.  Learned a bit more about Wordpress which I will be putting to use within the admin area of my Wordpress Direct program.  Polished up a few things on this site and I just might start a site on Wordpress.org, just to put into practice the whole meal deal.

Participated in some Olympic revelry – planning on more over the next two weeks.

The week in review:

Musings On a Sunday Morn:  Done? Never! 07/02/01
Carlos Velez posted a comment which prompted a rebuttal and I had a bit of fun on how dishes never get done!    This was strictly off the cuff but apparently I hit on something somewhat accidentally: linking to comments!  Full Musings on a Sunday Morn reading

Affiliate Marketing:  Establishing a Control 11/02/10
What is a control?  In its simplest form a control is that system, process or campaign that produces the desired result; in affiliate marketing that result is sales.  The campaign that delivers the best sales results becomes the control. In this article I write on how to set up your first control.

The Mitts That Were Seen Around the World: 11/02/10
Went off topic – had a good time!  Actually, what was not off topic was how “co-incidences” happen.  I believe that  “coincidences” are not accidental at all and had alluded to that in a previous article when I wrote about my friend and author Wendy Atkinson. Back to the mitts … read how the lowly mitten has become the fashion item of the season & more.

Coming up:  This week nose to the grindstone – err… fingers to the keyboard. Setting up my affiliate marketing campaign so that I can establish a control for it.  Target date is to have it up and running March 01.

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

Valentina

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On Silver and Gold and The Week That Was: Jan 31-Feb 06

Feb 6

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Making Money, Weekly Review | 8 Comments

Before I get into the week, I thought you might be interested in these photos I took just a few weeks ago.silver barsOnce a month on a Saturday afternoon a small group of us get together for a friendly game of Cashflow.  Today was that Saturday.  We have a good time, but more importantly we are learning the art of the deal.  Our host is a master at the game, both on the board and on the real boardwalk doing the deal.  Recently he and his wife bought some metal – silver metal.  This is a photo of their stash.

This little bundle of silver, 412 oz to be exact,  is worth $7799.16.

This second  photo is a 1/20 of an oz gold coin and is worth $58.24. Just to give you an idea of the difference between silver and gogold coinld … if that stash of silver was gold, it would be worth $479,856.40

All prices are based on the price of each metal on the date of purchase net of fees.

Today we decided to make the game more interesting.  Starting next month we’ll all throw in ten bucks.  The winner will get a 1 oz silver coin.  Overage stays in the pool to eventually fund an ingot, then a bar and perhaps eventually a brick.  I think it’s a lot more fun than just cash.  Eldorado anyone?

Now to the week at hand and the blog income life:  there was lots of internet marketing stuff but not much blogging. The week began with the Monday Master Mind meeting, which now has a name:  Internet Marketing MasterMind Group.  In my MasterMind Series over at Dave Doolin’s  I wrote about the formation of a third mind wherein things begin go move in a certain direction, without directing.  This Monday I had such an experience.  One of the members and I found out that we have a mutual connection – we are now talking about a strategic alliance.

Then there is the Internet Marketing Bootcamp.  Of course there was homework which took some time and effort.  I am putting up another blog on the Wordpress platform but  this time without the benefit of Wordpress Direct.  I want to have a better understanding of the underpinnings of Wordpress and I thought that putting something up from scratch would be a useful exercise.  It is – if somewhat painful.

Friday was a full day with my monthly Smart Thinking MasterMind Group.  This coming week I will post some of the things that I took away from this day that can apply to the online world.  During the time that we devote to “masterminding” members with their business, I took the opportunity to have my Blog Income Life  turned inside out.  I was pleasantly surprised that marketing wise it is on track based on traffic, conversions, and sales. When the numbers are crunched the ratios are decent after all.  Whew!  I also got some good feedback on how to fine tune some areas.

New Posts This Week:

Musings on a Sunday Morn …On Money, Elitism & Olympics: 31/01/10
With the Olympics on our doorstep I took the morning to express my thoughts and in that way pose a reply to those who are the perpetual complainers on monies being spent, on elitist athletes and why the Olympics.  I like to see people rise to the top of their game

Month in Review – January 2010: 01/02/10
Traffic increase by 78.22% over last.   First time on Google page one for keyword phrase “Blog Income”.  WooHoo!  Sam over at Financial Samurai has thrown down the gauntlet (or whatever it is that samurais wear) to members of his community to get their blogs to an Alexa ranking of under 200K :   Creating Power Friends: Samurai’s Alexa Ranking Challenge

Meet My Friend – Author Wendy Atkinson 02/02/10
What’s the point of owning a blog if you can’t occasionally bring out the pompoms and cheer on with a big Sis Boom Ba! for your chum?  Meet Wendy Atkinson, brand new published author and imaginateure (I think I just made up a word) extraordinaire.  Read the post and then hop on over to Amazon for your own copy of  Law of Attraction A Fable: Mr. Moon & Friends’ Simplified Blueprint to Health, Wealth and Happiness

Till next time …

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

Valentina

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