Annie Anderson | Blog

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Before I show you my new theme preview, let me say that yesterday’s post about being picky was *supposed* to be about not finding a new theme for this blog that totally fits my vision. I had intended to talk about being picky about my site design. Well, that didn’t happen. LOL

Anyway, although there are many themes I truly do like and wish I could use them all, there just isn’t one (that I’ve found, yet) that follows exactly what I see this blog as being. So, I thought since I’m a graphic designer - but not a web designer, technically - I would try to create my own. And I’m happy to say that coding with WordPress (the platform this blog uses) is fairly straight forward. Although, if any of you pro’s out there have any tips for me, I’m all ears!

The weekend was largely spent learning the basics of coding a theme with WordPress and yesterday I threw together the graphics vision. It’s not entirely finished yet and I don’t plan on having it live until next week at the earliest but I thought I’d give you a preview. I would greatly appreciate any feedback you have for me.

Please tell me what you think and again, if you know a thing or two about creating a WP theme from scratch, please do share any tips you have.

Have a great day!

In the arena,

(The gallery seems to be having a few issues. If you can’t see the image in the box above, click the middle of the box and it will open the image in a new window.)

By the way - if this is your first time here, or you haven’t done so yet, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. You can use any feed reader you wish.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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I’ve read all kinds of cool things around the web this past week and it’s difficult to pick but a few of those for my first “official” Around the Web post.

Before I get into the topic, let me just say I’ve begun using a non-web-based RSS reader. Until recently, I’d been using Bloglines which is a terrific service and I still really love it. In fact, I continue to add new feeds to it just so I always have a backup of everything to restore my non-web reader should I ever need to or to use when I’m at another computer.

My problem, though (and the reason I’m trying a stand-alone RSS reader), is that it just adds too many open tabs to my browser and then it’s harder to keep track of what I’m really looking at, especially if I want to visit the site of one of the articles in my reader. Then I have not only the RSS aggregator page open but also the pages I’m viewing plus now an article of one (or more) of the feeds. It gets rather cumbersome.

Using a stand-alone aggregator, like Vienna, allows me to open an article for further perusal without messing up what I’m working on in Firefox. I can leave it open and come back to it as needed without interfering with web-based work. And vice-versa.

So that’s my side note for today.
On to the topic at hand . . .

One of the biggest subjects that stood out to me in the past week, are the posts on making money online. I’ve probably read hundreds of them (no exaggeration, either) in recent days (it seems like everyone is talking about it) and so I want to take a moment to point out a book I read a few months ago - The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.

In this book, Tim basically talks about automating your own business so that you can live your dreams. It’s a very interesting concept that deserves a lot of attention, especially with the economy and mortgage issues we’re facing in the US.

One of the ideas I like best is outsourcing. Now, Tim advocates a large amount of outsourcing not only for your business, but for personal things as well. To me, some of the personal stuff seems almost frivolous so I likely will not follow every suggestion in the book but I do think having a team (something I’ve talked about extensively in real estate training programs I’ve done) is worth it’s weight in gold.

There are a few concepts I do not fully agree with in the book but overall, I recommend it if you’re even remotely considering your own business or if you have one already. It will certainly get you thinking and hopefully, taking action.

You can find out more about Tim and the book at his website http://www.fourhourworkweek.com.

Later today, I’ll add a post with links to some good articles I’ve found on this topic. Until then, have fun checking out Tim’s website.

PS - Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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You might remember last week I asked the question as to whether or not is was useful to set up some type of schedule for blogging. Some of you sent me comments via email confirming my thoughts - thank you, I appreciate that.

A couple days later, I saw a post on Caroline Middlebrook’s site about her plans to create one. So, I have decided that I will indeed create a framework for myself to work within. I think it will not only help me keep organized, but will ultimately make it much more valuable for you - the readers of this blog.

Beginning this week across all my blogs, I will be implementing a schedule. I’ve tentatively set a topic for each day of the week (not the same on each blog) and for this blog, it will be as follows:

Monday - Stuff from around the web. This will be news, ideas, thoughts, tips, and whatever else I’ve found on someone else’s blog or another site that I found useful and want to share.

Tuesday - Writing. I’ll talk about writing, publishing, digital books, print books and anything else to do with writing. I’ll share my experiences and thoughts about being a writer at times as well.

Wednesday - Reading List. Just a weekly list of books I’m currently reading. Feel free to comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts on books you’ve read too. I might also post reviews and such on Wednesday’s or maybe even just something fun or out of the ordinary to keep things lively.

Thursday - Projects. All the projects I have going - this will be details on updates, news, questions and such. (On that note, I’ve just updated the Overcome Writer’s Block ebook and uploaded the new file in a post just below. Go check it out.)

Friday - Design. As you may know, I’m not only a writer, but a graphic designer as well. Even though I’ve been in design since 1991, I decided to go back to school and update my degree so this will be not only about what is going on design wise, but also about school stuff.

Saturday/Sunday - Real Estate. And as you may also know, I have worked in Real Estate for about 10 or so years now. I’ll be posting about trends, thoughts, future outlook and all things RE related.

If there is something you’d like to see here, please let me know. This blog isn’t just for me . . . My aim is to make it a place you enjoy visiting, where you find useful content and develop a network of peers that helps us all grow.

That’s it for now. Get ready for tomorrow! And don’t forget to check out my other sites for a similar post of what will be happening there.

See ya soon!

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The past few days, I’ve been busy working on updating the Overcome Writer’s Block Report that I released last year. And I’m happy to say it’s finally ready! The report is still free and sports a newly redesigned cover and a couple of bonus tips.

My plan is to use this report as a basis for a full-length digital book of probably somewhere around 150 pages. I hope to have it finished by April. Most of it is written, really, it’s simply a matter of editing, proofreading and put it all together.

So, if you’ve downloaded the original version, I invite you to download the newly updated copy and compare the two and if you have not downloaded the first edition, I invite you to download the new one and enjoy learning about ways to overcome writer’s block.

While the contents of this simple report isn’t anything earth shattering or even anything new in the writing world, it is what I hope will become a valuable resource for writers.

If you have thoughts on what else you’d like to see included in the full length book, please don’t hesitate to send me an email or post a comment here.

Click here to download “Overcome Writer’s Block”

Until next time,

~ Annie

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I’ve been using this totally cool service called “I Want Sandy” - a digital personal assistant. Very cool!

Take a look at this . . .

===================
Hi there!

I’m Annie’s personal email assistant, Sandy.

Annie asked me to drop you a line and introduce myself.

Here’s a note from Annie:

Hi,

I’d like you to meet Sandy. Sandy, meet a friend of mine.

Talk amongst yourselves!

Annie

I help my clients by remembering life’s daily details (meetings, birthdays, to-dos, phone numbers, bookmarks, etc.) and sending reminders just when they need them — so they can focus on what’s important. And I can do the same for you!

Sign up for free in just seconds! Click here to get started.

Sincerely,

Sandy

P.s. If you’d rather I didn’t contact you again, click here.
===================

This is an email she will send my friends if they wish to sign up. If you want to sign up - it’s totally free to do so - drop me an email real quick or post your name and email in the comments and I’ll see that Sandy contacts you ASAP.

PS - Look for my review of “Testing” - James Brausch’s monthly newsletter. I’ll be reviewing the latest copy that just came out today on Tuesday afternoon.

Technorati Tags:
personal assistant, James Brausch, internet

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Jay Conrad Levinson, the marketing mind
responsible for the Marlboro Man, and author of
the best selling marketing book series of all
time will be answering your questions

You can get the details to listen live tonight at
www.FeBeNe.com/jayspeaks.php?rid=117

and also…you be able to submit your questions
for the training…and get the Guerrilla Balance
Sheet if you haven’t for $7.

I’ll be listening,…

Regards,

Annie Anderson

PS This is not the same-ol’, same-ol’ interview.

Jay rarely speaks on webcasts and it is the only
one he has scheduled so far this year. So be sure
to go now to
www.FeBeNe.com/jayspeaks.php?rid=117

PPS And if you miss it, you can get the replay at
www.FeBeNe.com/jayspeaks.php?rid=117 as well…

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Jay Conrad Levinson, the marketing mind
responsible for the Marlboro Man, and author of
the best selling marketing book series of all
time will be answering your questions

You can get the details to listen live at
http://www.febene.com/?rid=117 and also…

…when you register you’ll be able to submit
your questions for the training on February 26…

I’ll be listening,…

Regards,

Annie Anderson

PS This is not the same-ol’, same-ol’ interview.

Jay rarely speaks on webcasts and it is the only
one he has scheduled so far this year.  So be sure
to register now at http://www.febene.com/?rid=117

Share