Way Cool Quotes

Way Cool Quotes has been an idea in my head for a really long time. Several years ago, I started making greeting cards using my artwork. I call them Way Cool Art Cards, and if you are interested, you can go take a look at them at Green Dolphin Studio.

As I made the cards, I began collecting quotes to put in them, and haunting quote sites. It occured to me that a quote site might be a good way to promote the cards, and I filed that idea away, and never did anything about it. In the mean time, my collection of quotes was growing, and growing, and growing.

Then one day last month, I was looking for a specific quote to put on one of my blogs and I had a heck of a time finding it because I was having to sift through file after file, looking for it. "Self," I said, "if I had a quote site, I would be able to find this quote really easily. All I would have to do is put in a key word, and voila... there it would be."

Two minutes later, I was on blogger getting Way Cool Quotes off the ground. This is my favorite blog. It's useful, it's pretty, it's inspirational, and it's easy.

The Question of the Day

The idea for Question of the Day came from a brainstorming attempt to stimulate more conversation and bring something interesting to The Prosperity Project.

It occured to me that it might be worthwhile to spin off with a small site composed entirely of questions to stimulate out of the box thinking, self examination, or even just entertainment and social networking. I thought it might be a good way to get us talking to each other.

We have been having a lot of fun with it. Here is the feed, if you are curious and want to check it out.

In case you are new to feeds and subscriptions, this is how it works: When you click on the link, you will go to a web page that gives you all the options there are for subscribing to the blog. Don't worry, subscriptions are free - and you won't get spammed. It also gives you a preview of several of the most recent posts.

This is just one way to take a look at the material on the site, and decide if you want it to come to you via email, or if you want to maybe have it show up on your home page, or even embed it in your own website. I like having feeds of my favorite sites available where I can see them when I first log on to the internet. That way, I can see if anything new has posted, and I don't have to hunt through bookmarks to find them.

My New Calendar

Today I discovered 3D Boxes, and made this really cool calendar of all the work I have been doing on my most current blogs: The Prosperity Project, Way Cool Quotes, and Question of the Day. I also made one just for the Prosperity Project because I think it will be really helpful for us as we work that project. It was simple to do, and I really like how it came out.

The Prosperity Project

The project I am spending the most time on currently is The Prosperity Project. This was the blog that started all the other blogs, and a number of other internet projects. I got the idea for it one evening at work. I was mulling over my prosperity issues, and it occured to me that I know a heck of a lot of different prosperity techniques, stuff that is really supposed to work. And yet, I don't spend any time really doing any of them.

Because I am always more motivated when working in a group, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I could pull a bunch of people together, maybe we could spend 30 days working on each prosperity technique. That way, we would be able to really put those ideas and techniques to the test. Find out what really works, and what really doesn't work. At the same time, we could support each other and share ideas and resources.

The idea of doing the project as a blog came about because it seemed like the simplest way to include people from anywhere. That would also solve the problem of when and where to get together because we could just log in whenever it was possible or convenient.

Currently, (April 2007) we have between 4 to 8 people who participate regularly, it varies a little from month to month. So far, we have researched prayer, gypsy magic, acts of kindness, feng shui, de-cluttering, Ganesh mantras, and Steve Pavlina's million dollar experiment. Some of our projects have stimulated little spin off blogs. These are at this point still works in progress, some more progressed than others, and they include: The Prayer Request Hotline, Gypsy Magic Spells and Charms, and Loving Ganesh.

One thing that has happened, which was totally unexpected, is that the cumulative effect of consciously working at prosperity from all these different angles has resulted in life changing experiences, bursts of amazing prosperity and good luck interspersed with equally powerful periods of introspection difficulties as our obstacles and impediments come clear and get cleared.

We welcome newcomers, and if you are interested in joining this group, feel free to just jump on in. It won't matter to us in the least if you start in the middle of a project, so don't hesitate to start with whatever it is we are currently working on. It costs nothing to join, and requires no sharing of information. We do have a couple of people who participate anonymously. All that we ask is that you give it your best shot - whatever your best happens to be on any given day - and comment when you can. Absolutely no pressure, and lots of support.

Blidgets

This week I have been working on creating blidgets for my blogs. Sounds silly doesn't it? What is a blidget? A blidget is like a little mini blog that you can insert into a webpage.

Here is what Widgetbox has to say about blidgets:

What’s a blidget?
A blidget is a widget that contains your blog. Other people can place your blidget on their sites, increasing your exposure.

Why should I want a blidget?
A blidget drives readers to your site.
Many bloggers like to show support for the other blogs they read, and like to provide their readers with related articles they might like. Everyone who goes to their blog is instantly given a sneak peak into yours.
Some of our blidgets quickly gain hundreds of subscribers — that is, hundreds of people put your blidget on their site, providing their readers exposure to your content.

How do I know who’s using my blidget?
Every blidget comes with a metrics dashboard to track your blidget’s spread across the internet, see how many people are looking at it, and discern lots of other patterns.

There was a cool blidget in the sidebar, but it conflicts with the adsense ads. It looks like I can have one or the other but not both. I think this must have something to do with the template I'm using, because I have blidgets on other blogs and no problems at all. As far as I can tell, the main drawback to posting blidgets on blogs and websites is that it really slows the page down in terms of loading time. If you have a high speed connection, you probably won't notice, but if you have dial up it can be a problem.

I'd like to put my blidgets up here as separate blog posts, so you can see and enjoy them, but so far have not succeeded with that either. So, it looks like it's back to Widgetbox to surf the forums, reread the FAQ's, and maybe even email for some help.

If you want to see one in action, you can visit The Prosperity Project, there is a Question of the Day blidget at the top of the page on the right hand side.