Annie Anderson | Blog

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As you may know, over the weekend, I went on a de-cluttering spree in my office to make room for a new desk and although it’s taken a bit longer than I expected (due to some issues with our septic system!!!), it is nearly finished. I expect to have pics and all up by Wednesday.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a bit weird having drawers in my desk again. Out of 6 drawers, I only have stuff in 2 of them so far. Aside from that, the nicest part of the whole thing is that my desk top isn’t FULL of STUFF. Right now, I have the office phone, cell phone, my MacBook Pro, wireless Mighty Mouse and my coffee mug on it. And instead of taking me 30 seconds to find things, it only takes 2.

One drawback so far - the kids think “Oh look, mom has room on her desk. I’ll just set my papers and junk artwork here.”

Yeah, I’ve had to clear their stuff off my desk once or twice today. (Can you tell? )

Anyway, I’ll tell you about the septic issues another day. For now, I’m just going to sit here and enjoy my new desk and listen to the radio before heading off to bed. It’s already midnight . . .

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

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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If you haven’t heard, Liz Strauss over at Successful-Blog.com did a “Blog to Show” this weekend in which I had planned to participate. However, I didn’t have a chance to send my blurb in to her before the deadline because . . .

Not only have I been busy de-cluttering and re-organizing my office, but we’ve been having some septic and water problems at our house. It’s meant not being able to use one of the bathrooms, the dishwasher or the kitchen sinks. The other bathroom/laundry room has been fine, though, thank goodness!

So, in between stuff going on inside the house and outside the house, I just didn’t have time to get involved. But, I wanted you to know about it. This morning I’ve had the chance to take a look at a few of the blogs Liz showcased yesterday. There is some great stuff! If you haven’t been to Liz’s blog, I encourage you to check it out and also check out the Blog to Show.

Until later,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

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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It’s about 11:30 pm and I’m sitting at my new desk typing this post! Yay!

Everything came together well (though not exactly as I had envisioned due to a few pieces I had to leave in the room for the time being). And I’m not quite finished organizing the bits and pieces but at least things are set up for the most part.

So far, I really like the shape and size of the new desk. Having drawers again is very cool but it’ll take some getting used to since it’s been a few years now since I’ve had a desk with drawers.

I really think taking the time to do this is going to prove to be an enlightening experience. My husband says he thinks it means I’ll end up with work coming out my ears. I sure hope so. (He’s very good at de-cluttering, thank goodness! So when I get a hankerin’ to do so, he jumps right in and helps me get it done.)

Tomorrow I plan to finish up the re-organizing, putting things away, shredding papers I don’t need to keep any longer and taking more pics of the process. Once all of that is done, I’ll grab the card reader from the teenager and upload them for you.

You know what I envy, though? Those totally minimalistic spaces with nothing but desk, chair and computer.  I wish I could work that simply.

Maybe someday . . .

Right now, however, it’s time to take my tired arse and seriously aching back to bed before I can’t move and have to have my husband carry me there.

In the arena . . . er, going to bed?? as the case may be,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

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.

Share

Well, I’ve gotten about half of my office cleared and things are shaping up for the re-organization. Taking a quick break to fix the kids some lunch and to vacuum.

I’ve taken a few pictures of what it looks like at this point (had to charge the camera batteries so unfortunately, no pics of the actual “before”). I’ll post everything later along with the final results pics once that’s accomplished. My daughter has my card reader - takes too much time to get the reader from her and get it setup to do right now otherwise I’d post them here.

Looks like I’m on track to be ready when my husband gets home with the new desk! Yay! I measured out where things are going to go and my guesstimates were right on so things should fit together nicely.

One of the major bonuses is that the new desk has drawers on both sides so a lot of the stuff I generally end up keeping on top of the desk will be able to be stowed away when not in use. It’s going to help a lot, I think.

Now, if only I can get the kids to keep their toys out of here . . .

Until later,

PS - Well, isn’t that interesting - we just had a 10 minute summer rain shower. Cool! Now I might not have to water the plants this evening. Downside - kids are now INSIDE making loads of noise.

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

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.

Share

Just wanted to let you all know I’m doing updates in the background (upgrading to WordPress 2.6 and such) so if you notice anything that’s broken, missing or otherwise not working properly here, please let me know. Either leave a comment on this post so I’ll see or you can send me an email. (There is a link to my contact info on the About page.)

I’ll be back later with some new posts and thoughts both here and at The Weight Loss Papers (which I have been neglecting lately, sorry).

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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We’re finally experiencing some summer here in Seattle. Actually, we’ve had nice weather for about a week and a half . . . but, you never know how long it’s going to last so I didn’t want to shout HOORAY!! too soon. I think it’s safe to mention it now, though.

This past weekend was a bit too hot for me - in the 90’s. Thank goodness it doesn’t happen often or regularly in this neck of the woods. Today it’s a respectable 68 with a high of 73 expected. That’s about perfect for me.

Anyway, lots of things happening lately and lots more coming so I wanted to drop by and let you know what to expect over the next several weeks on this blog. For starters, I’ve got some posts on various writing topics coming up as well as some basics on such things as business plans, marketing ideas, and other strategies.

I also want to announce that I’ll be updating my real estate book soon and the 2nd edition should be ready on Amazon.com by September (I hope). It usually take about 3 weeks from the final publishing phase before it’s available through the distributor and thus listed on Amazon. I’ll let you know when as soon as possible.

There will also be some web-related stuff available that you’ll get access to through the book. I’ll tell you more about that as well, as publication gets closer.

So, if you’re a writer or into real estate investing or know someone who is, keep an eye out here for updates. I’ll also be including some new free ebooks and other stuff. Oh - and Friday is, of course, Independence Day here in the US and I’ll be making some desktop backgrounds and other graphics for the occasion. When they’re ready, I’ll post them here for you to download free.

I have more but don’t want to overwhelm you so I’ll keep it short for now. And besides - the kids are outside playing in the sprinkler and I’ve got to go help my husband finish building the new gates for our driveway. Should be fun!

In the arena,

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Today I’m going to talk about a project currently underway for my husband. Now, this topic might not excite you but please don’t discount the value of what I’ll be sharing here for that reason. You may just find a couple of things that could be modified to fit your business.

Last week I mentioned a new website called Northwest Stone Guide that I’m creating on behalf of my husband. Well, this project has now morphed into the main project plus a secondary project on Landscaping so I thought I’d share the process I’m using to get everything in place.

I find it’s helpful to organize things right from the beginning so each piece can be kept on track from day one. After discussing exactly what my husband had in mind, we brainstormed business names and corresponding domain name ideas. Neither of us liked the same thing so we took my husband’s favorite and my favorite and mashed them together to come up with Northwest Stone Guide. I then purchased northweststoneguide.com, uploaded WordPress and the Launchpad theme so the site would be live (and not an advert site for my hosting company or a blank page), added a FeedBurner feed to the theme, then set to work on the next phase.

Over the course of the last week, I did some minor research for local things we could include as well as information, photos and other materials that will ultimately make the site we envision.

Next steps include:

• Contacting local businesses. I’ll asking them if they’d like to be included in our directory. There will be headings for Builders, Stone Wholesalers, Granite Fabricators, Tile Craftsmen, Architects, Interior Designers, Landscapers and probably other categories as well.
• Writing content. Since the site will be an informational site about all things relating to stone (granite, marble, travertine, slate, etc), we plan to include info on each of the common types including where it comes from, how it’s processed, what the major uses are (countertops, flooring, etc) and other info that people often ask when they’re considering using these materials in their homes.
• Newsletters and mailing lists. I’m not entirely sure, but I think we may offer a couple of newsletters and mailing lists. Some will be targeted to the service providers who will use the site and others to homeowners and other people who come looking for recommendations and such.
• Monetization. Right now, the idea is to monetize using Google Adsense and that type of thing. However, I am also toying with the idea of paid adverts as well. This way, businesses will get more exposure and allow their companies to be featured on the main page as well as in their category listings. And I’m thinking of having both a free and a paid directory. The free directory will simply list the company website and contact info. And the paid directory will allow the company to have a larger listing although I’m not sure what all info will be included. That part is still in development.
• Miscellaneous. We are tentatively planning to create a short ebook of some kind that will be free to download. This will be aimed at homeowners who are looking for more info about using stone either in new homes they may be building or remodels of their current homes. It’ll include info on how to pick the right contractors and fabricators as well.

Once all of that stuff is figured out and configured on the site, I’ll make it live. Actually, I’m planning to make it live as soon as I have contacted enough local businesses and written enough articles to make the content worthwhile to people who might find the site. At that time, I’ll also start advertising it and of course, any business that has agreed to a listing will get some promo stuff they can pass on to their clients. I’m hoping to have the website live by mid-April, sooner if at all possible.

If you’re in the Seattle area, check the site out. All that is there right now is a placeholder with an RSS feed subscription or email subscription. Go ahead and sign up so you’ll get updates as soon as things are announced.

For a more complete list of projects, see the post from March 10, 2008 “Exciting Things Ahead.”

Design is the topic for tomorrow! See you then!

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