Donna’s Pearls of Wisdom

I am not one to give advice. I love those self-help gurus but I could never imagine telling people how to live a perfect life.

But with that said, I do have a couple pearls of wisdom I try to share with the young people.

1. Save your money. Have a nest egg. Live within your means. Spend wisely.
2. If you have the means and ability, do not put off things that you could do today.

You see, I only came upon #2 recently. It was formed because I keep kicking myself that I didn’t get new flooring in my house and do a couple other home repairs last year when I was raking in the dough. And even though I didn’t spend that money for other things, I just put it in my bank account, I do not feel like I can spend it now. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Live and learn.

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom they’d like to share in the comments?

Dealing with plumbing issues

I had a trying couple of days. Remember how I said my shower was finished? Well I was wrong. It wasn’t finished. The shower knob no longer controlled the temperature of the water. Yeah, you read that right: I couldn’t adjust the water temperature. And I kept asking my contractor to come back and fix it but he was busy and it took awhile to get him back out here.

On Sunday he stopped by with a plumber and as they turned off the water so they could fix the shower, the water valve or whatever the thing is snapped. My water was off. They fixed the shower and then told me they would be back on Monday and I should have the Water Authority out to turn the water off from outside. Monday morning I called the Water Authority and the guy tried to extort 180.00 out of me. Yeah. He said it would cost me because it was a holiday. I held my own and he ended up coming out free of charge.

My contractor and his plumber swapped out the broken valves or whatever the heck they are and my water is back on. HOORAY! I was surprised at how well I did without water. Minus the whole inability to flush, it wasn’t too bad. I got through it. And I am hoping this is the end of house fixes for at least a year.

Is Roy Wood still alive?

One of my Facebook friends is Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY blog and book.  He posted a video of one of my newer loves, Alvin Stardust on his Facebook wall.  In the comments someone mentioned Roy Wood.   The name was familiar but I couldn’t place him.  So I looked him up on Youtube:

I ask you, is it even humanly possible to forget THAT?!!?!

Apparently it is.  But I remember him now.

And somehow I thought of Russell Brand and I wondered if Roy Wood was a hero of his when he was growing up.  

The way to riches

I am really thinking the way to riches is selling eBooks.

That 30.00 eBook I mentioned in the previous post… if it was priced just a little lower, I would have bought it. $30.00 is too much. A regular book doesn’t cost that much. Price it between $5 – $10 and if you have a good topic, how could anyone say no?

I gotta write an eBook.

Adcents… keepin’ those pennies rollin’ in

Oh my gosh, guys! You won’t believe it! I made 1 whole cent today on Adsense! Thesis is doing its job!

On Twitter, one of the guys I follow posted a tweet: wondering if an extra $100 a day would help you? Can it be this easy? http://tinyurl.com/lujhb4

Yeah, it’s an eBook selling for 30 bucks boasting 20 Step-By-Step Blueprints For Making $100 A Day From Home. I have been stung by eBooks in the past.

I know better than to buy this book…. yet why am I so tempted?

What is wrong with me?

In other news, are any of you guys on Facebook or Twitter?

Bobolicious!

I just slammed a bunch of Bobo pix in my new Thesis Multimedia box…. that’s the box to the right of the top post… to those of you not reading this via a RSS reader. Each time you refresh the page, a new picture of my little yellow-bellied dog nephew will pop up for your viewing pleasure.

And to those who are wondering…. He’s a Japanese Chin.
(I think Dustbury is the only one who will get this silly little inside joke, since he’s the only reader who has visited me and got to walk Bobo)

The Japanese Chin is a sensitive and intelligent breed whose only purpose is to serve man as a companion. Agile and playful, they can be taught to perform tricks and like to show off to an audience of friends. Their coat varies in size and length, but most are white with black markings. They can also be white and red.

Thesis WordPress Theme

I haven’t been the most entertaining blogger of late. Late meaning the last couple of years. My father likes to remind me that I once had some blogging mojo… unfortunately it has left the building, never to return. As you know I decided to monetize this Website a few months back and have been failing miserably. You may also remember Donnaville was hacked back a number of months ago and I have never recovered in terms of traffic. I don’t know if I was removed from search engines or if I was blacklisted and continue to be blacklisted but I am not getting anywhere near the same amount of traffic I used to get. When I told this to my dad yesterday he said, “That’s because you don’t produce any quality content!” And that is true but what is also true is, I never really did. Plus, most of the traffic I got was just one time visitors searching for something odd that I happened to have written a post on. And I’ve been writing blog entries since 1998! I have more than enough content! Even if I only sporadically come up with something only slightly amusing, I still have 11 years of old posts!

So I’ve been thinking. What is wrong and what can I do? Finally I decided that some of the problems are probably related to the lack of Search Engine Optimization on this site. Back when I was working for the weekend, I had no intention of making money from Donnaville AND I had no real interest in attracting readers. So I never bothered with Categories or Tags or Meta Descriptions or anything that might help people find me better. And my theme was certainly not helping. Every single page was being fed to the Googlebot and I think Mr. Googlebot didn’t like the sheer amount of duplicate entries he was being fed. That could be the reason ALL my pages (all 13,900!) are showing up in the Supplemental Index: site:www.donnaville.com *** -sljktf Something needed to be done. Last night I plunked down the money and purchased the Thesis WordPress theme. Its users says it’s all about SEO and customization and ice cream and Charles Bronson. (Last night I had a dream of Charles Bronson, he wasn’t looking too good, kinda skinny). I am not sure if Thesis really is all it’s cracked up to be or if they just have a dynamite affiliate program and people will sell their soul for 33% of $87 or $164. But I am desperate! I want to restore Donnaville to her former glory and make some money along the way.

I hope this new design is pleasing to your eyes. Hopefully you won’t notice if I take out some garbage. And bear with me as I try to crank out something…. anything. And let’s hope Mr Googlebot decides that Donnaville is a nice crunchy snack that should be displayed closer to the top of the results and not in the back Supplemental Index closet.

Chrome Awesomeness

I’ve been using Chrome for awhile. It took me awhile to get used to it. Once I found how to add a home button to the toolbar I was in love. I am in even greater love because Chrome now has themes! I’m using the one created by Tibi– whoever that is… I don’t know. All I know is… I like!