Last week I accepted a full time contractor position. It was a big decision for me, but in the end it felt like the right one, for now. It’s more monthly income and you can never have enough money coming in. Most importantly, I am going to learn a lot and that was a bigger reason for my decision. So that makes two contractor positions and my business (33+ sites) to keep up with. Needless to say - I am working on my time management skills.

My business is doing well and it was time to finally accept that I can’t do everything, so… I hired my first freelance blogger to help on one of my blogs. This was another big decision for me, but it is working out quite nicely. I am happy with her work and she will be starting on another one of my blogs in April.

Also, (and this was great news for me!) a good friend of mine is now offering virtual assisting services. She will soon be working on a couple of projects with me as well. All in all - things are coming along and moving in the right direction.

Best of all, I have more book money ;) Seriously though, its out of control. I have stacks of brand new books sitting next to me and two new orders on the way from Amazon and Book Closeouts. I really should be smarter by now, I say ;)

While I have been trying to come up with a solid back up plan, my most important factors are keeping my business going and working from home. These years with my kids (my youngest is 7) are most important to me. I narrowed it down to two options should I decide to go for it - a marketing degree or a paralegal career.

While doing some research I came across the Paralegal Career Guide and it is full of FREE information about starting a paralegal career. I found the guide very helpful as it explains everything from education to salary expectations, paralegal career options and much more.

I definitely have some big decisions to make. My heart is with affiliate marketing and blogging and my business is doing quite nicely and continues to grow. But, I find myself saying more can only help with three kids (two that are teenagers and cost a TON of money), medical bills and everything else that pops up. I am not making any rash decisions until I know exactly what is going on with my Husband, but for now, I have information…

On the Google Adsense Blog they are offering free Adsense stickers for your laptop. While the stickers are intended for laptops, they will also work on other surfaces (i.e. coffee mugs etc.)

So how do you get one of these glue-backed masterpieces? Easy: send us a self-addressed, stamped envelope with enough postage to return 1 oz of sticker goodness to you from our office in California via standard U.S. mail. (Sorry, we can’t help you calculate the postage to your location). Send your envelope, along with a note if you’d like, to:

Google AdSense
c/o Arlene Lee
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Hurry, supplies are limited!

I love finding new WordPress themes. It is far easier for me to modify an existing theme to my liking then for me to try and build one myself. The very thought gives me a headache to be honest.

One of my very favorite WordPress theme creators is Brian Gardner. I use his themes on several of my sites and I LOVE THEM. I was thrilled to stumple upon his blog today and find that he has re-released one of my favorite themes Vertigo (3-column). He also has plans to re-release more of his free themes!

If you own a forum, he recently released a FREE Revolution Forum Template that is definitely worth checking out. I wish I could use it on the one site I have forums, but the forum design matches the site design so it wouldn’t work out.

The Revolution Theme Series, while not free, is also quite smashing and worth every penny.

The point of this post? If you know of Brian Gardner already, chances are you are as thrilled as I am about all his new goodies. If you haven’t yet heard of Brian Gardner, you can thank me later ;)

One of the main reasons for wanting to transfer the domains is the privacy registration. GoDaddy privacy registrations are nearly as much as the domain itself, while Namecheap offers free privacy for the first year and only $2.88 thereafter. Every penny and dime saved means more money into my business.

Not to mention the GoDaddy horror stories suffered by many webmasters. I personally haven’t had any problems with them, for me it was more about saving a few bucks. But overall, it doesn’t leave you with that warm and fuzzy feeling when you read what others have been through with them.

Initiating the transfer process in Namecheap was easy peasy. To complete the transfer on my end Namecheap requires an “EPP Code” (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) from GoDaddy. Finding the EPP number on GoDaddy was near impossible. In fact, I was banging my head on my laptop. I started thinking it was because I was wearing my glasses today due to the sinus headache I have had for two days but apparently, its not just me.

After failing to find the EPP code on their site, I went to Google and did a search. Thanks to this great site I found the answer and it was again easy peasy. Whew.

At least I marked one thing off my to-do-list… only 999 more things to go ;)

I very much enjoyed The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie. In fact, I picked up quite a few helpful tips that are now on my to-do-list.

I definitely recommend all newbie bloggers get a copy ASAP! Kathy and Joelle take you by the hand through the whole schabang- from picking a blogging platform to RSS to Podcasts to design and everything else you can imagine needing to know.

I especially love that the book was not overly techie, being that I am techie challenged and all. It was fun to read with heaps of helpful references to help new bloggers get started. That’s not to say that old time bloggers can’t learn a thing or two ;)

I personally loved all the drink recipes through out the book, definitely a fun twist!

I have built pages for two sites and so far, so good. They have a freebie option, but I signed up for the Pro Account for only $5 a month. Have I mentioned how much I love it and how easy it is to use? Set up is easy peasy - you include your affiliate IDs for popular merchants such as Linkshare, Share-A-Sale etc, then you search/pick products, style the pages and upload. If you haven’t used PopShops yet, give it a test drive with the Freebie option. I will write a more in depth review after using it some more.

Today while ordering some Christmas gifts from Amazon, I finally ordered myself a copy of The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie.

I tried to get a copy at Barnes & Noble the other day, but they were all sold out. I have been a long time reader of Joelle’s blog and I can’t wait until the book arrives!

I have five other books coming in the shipment - as if I need more to read ;) Which of course is part of my new goals - read more and do more with all the stuff on my hard drive. It’s out of control. What is the point of having all of this stuff if I never utilize it?

2008 is going to be a good AND busy year.

I had domains to renew and other things to get out of the way as well, so it felt like the right thing to do. It is killing me to wait.. Not that I am known for being impatient or anything ;)

My friend, Shannon, just started using BANS and she is blogging about it on her blog. Today she got through installation and set up. It looks easy enough to use and we all know how I am a sucker for easy, considering I am technology challenged in the worst of ways.

I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions if you are already using it!