Green Flamingobecause I said so

Well, let’s have a little competition here right? We are going to do a writer, you or probably, VS a theme designer. I have lots to say, so hold on.

What money they make – how much money a theme designer vs. a blogger makes all depends. It could be a really popular blogger, and the theme designer could make really good themes. But as an average, what is it? The theme designer could easily make 50-100 dollars on a theme, for a single sale. A blogger might easily make that much money in a day. Now let’s see take a closer and deeper look.

The theme designer, say, makes 2 themes per month, and each costs $80. The themes both sell about 50 copies. That would be $8000 a month. Now it may be hard to sell 50 copies of those things, but who knows.

Say the blogger makes $100 per day (I know for some of you that is a breeze, but live with it, because most people don’t make much more than that), and if the month they are in has 30 days, they will make $3000.

Neither of those are bad, they are both quite good. And since a lot of bloggers make more then $100 a day, they would make more. And I am sorry for all of you who do not use the dollar, but I’m sure you get the point how money adds up. Winner for this round: theme designer.

Is it worth it – Now we have to test which is easier and worth the time.

The theme designer is spending a lot of time and effort to make those themes. The blogger is writing, marketing, and joining more affiliate programs. The harder is the theme designer. The blogger looks easier. We now must take another dive into the ocean.

The theme designer, first he has to learn how to make a theme. Well, just learn html, css, xhtml, php, and so on. I have tried it and figured out it is hard. Then the theme designer will have to remember all that information, and make a good looking theme out of it. The theme has to stand out. And if the theme designer can’t stand up after making the theme, the theme doesn’t stand out.

The blogger on the other hand only needs to know how to read and write with style. For starting up a blog you can use some of the idiot proof guides made. So after that soon-to-be-blogger learns how to blog, then he starts making money. Now, while the theme designer only needs some good promotion to get his themes selling, the blogger will toil the long ours promoting his work while trying to find time to write.

Now we have to look at the results of those toils, the theme designer is designing some big mulah while the blogger, after the hard work in the beginning is riding down the road of rich ease. So both have good results for their work, but there is more work required for the theme designer than the blogger. Winner for this round: blogger.

The final winner is open ended for you to decide which you think is best. I think the ultimate winner is doing both, maybe having a website of theme design and offering themes too.

Thank you BlogOH!Blog for in a way inspiring me to this idea, and to 2phatgeeks for showing me to the blogoh!blog website.

A little update – I may be changing my theme soon. I have found some nice themes on BlogOh!Blog and I may use them. It may seem not worth it after all the work done to this theme, but I think it may be time for a change. And, if I want this theme back, my updates will still be on it.

Expanding on the title, when I had this idea I was thinking of using a ninja sword, but now I am thinking a lightsaber would go through more easily. Actually, I know a lightsaber would cut you more easily.

Let’s actually think, shall we? I am not playing video games( I could think about cutting you to pieces in real life I suppose, but I would charge a fee) . I am here to talk about writing style again. You do not want to be cut to pieces in the in the way to write, or because of how you write. You have to nail it right on the point. To do this you must: Stick and stabilize a pencil in the new-guy-at-work’s chair, somehow make something that can blast sites for ALL to see, not just on your computer, and blast your rival’s site(You could always change the title too “make crap online” instead of make money online or whatever). But the easiest way is to just hit the point in your writing, collecting readers with that spike that catches them if they come in 500 feet from your post.

The point is, you have to draw people in. Otherwise you will be eaten by the boredom that comes with your posts, you have to keep them lively. Another reason I don’t care for MMO blogs (the kilometer/mile long posts was another), they have their posts all dull and directing, telling you what to do. (If I link to you, then not you. Take no offense people, this is an MMO blog, so if making fun of anybody I am making fun of myself). Do not take that last thing too hard, I am not going to pretend I didn’t say it, but don’t make a huge fuss over it.

I missed my point, right? So really, if you keep it lively and shoot a glass of humor at us once in a while, we, the readers will be much more entertained. The other thing is:

Drag them in – You have to catch your readers, this may not be so difficult in readers that are coming back, but for new people. A few things to drag people into a post are: Having a catchy title, and to compensate for your lack of titling skills you can try to make them like you in the first few sentences of your first paragraph, but that is risky. So it is best to have a good title and a start that will draw one in. What to say to draw them in I will leave up to you.

The very bottom line – summing up my tip. Let’s add the previous on too. Keep it short, keep it exciting, keep drawing them in.

I hope this helps you to gain more readers that come back, and if you could just create me a custom theme that’d be great (not seriously, just kidding). I am sorry for the lack of posts yesterday, maybe it was because I wasn’t busy that made me busy.

Well, I am slacking off. Published late in the day, this post is useless on the 28th for some people. Anyway, this is the last in the Ideas And Updates series. This is the advice.

Here is it…

drum roll if you want and you have drums…

keep things short

That is my advice to you. I should tell you why as well.

Most make money online bloggers sort of target those longer posts, the ones that will have people marvel at their writing skill. They use unnecessary words, to many its and thats and so on.I read posts that if they were converted to a distance, would be kilometers or miles long. Take The University Kid for example. His posts are those page long posts. It takes you a while to read them. They can be good, with  lot of information, be he could cut down on word usage. Now Jason’s posts are not usually the ones that use extra words, they are just really long. Why target long posts? If you have something really long to say, you might consider breaking it down into other, smaller posts. These three in the series, when I posted the first one, I was originally going to put it all into one huge post, three topics, but I decided to do this series. This, my 103rd published post, could have been my hundred and first if not broken down (more posts doesn’t really mean anything either by the way). So keep things short and to a minimum. Your readers don’t like those kilometer/mile long posts either.

Time for the updates people. Get rockin’ with new things. I have a few things to tell you about the progress of myself and this blog.

So, what has been updated? Look at the top links. They all work. That is all except blog, an since this is a blog, I don’t need anything there. Any ideas to change it to? If so let me know. The about page is getting settled, I am still not finished, but it works for now. I may put child pages under the about page, because there are so many categories. The contact page is working, no contact form but enough ways that you can contact me, either through email or through instant messaging.

As you probably noticed, and how it has been that way for about a week, the RSS button is much bigger. I give a special thanks to Big Ben Patton for helping me with this.

I have been working on fulfilling some of the suggestions sent out to me at Blog Premiere, one of which is a header logo. I created a button, now only to get it in there properly. I now learned that the style sheet controls colors and sizes and other stuff (dumb newbie, aren’t I?) which helps me a bit in trying to increase the size of certain elements.

These are updates for my website, and I have other updates too. These could have fallen in ideas, but who cares.

I am writing a book/ebook guiding you to live a better life. You may think I cannot accomplish this feat, but I think I will. If you know, I type an average of 5000 words a day, including blog posts, comments, IM, etc. So I hope I will be able to step up the pace, and maybe slow down how long my comments are, some of them are a few paragraphs long.

Look for the next post on advice to being a better writer! I will see you soon!

I’ll tell you a bit what this post is about, because it extends farther than that title can carry it. I have many ideas in my mind, I will relay them to you, and also give you advice. I just keep reading these blogs that need some changes.

Let’s start with ideas.

I will put some of these ideas on a separate page, because they are similar to goals. I will be starting a few new websites I am hoping. Once I have the money situation set up where I will be able to handle it and invest my money into domains and hosting then the new websites will start.

Recipe/cooking website – I have already started thinking on this one, not that hard to pull together. I will be targeting the cooking niche, adding some of my own recipes as posts. Yum yum!

Other design websites – Besides interior design, I specialize in many other types of design too. One of the main ones though will be on web design like Shauryadeep.com. By that time, I hope I will be able to create my own theme.

I may be going down the photshop route soon. I long and difficult trail I hear, through jungle areas that are hard to learn to adapt to. There are a few things I want to use photoshop for. One of them, I want to be able to create different backgrounds, behind a window, or anywhere, this would be used mostly in my design, as in the photo shoot I am coming out with soon. I will announce the coming of the first RSS only post, which will introduce the photo shoot. When Green Flamingo Designs goes up, it’ll be in the portfolio section.

I am also thinking about devoting a website to StarWars, another favorite of mine. This will probably go up  the soonest after Green Flamingo Designs because there are star wars things going on. Yoda has also asked to participate regularly, and may be one of the admins behind it meaning I would not have to do all the work. This will be nice. He will probably write some long essays on what actually happened, the movies didn’t alter much, but the movies did emphasize the events.

I think that is all for now, there will be three parts on this series (at least I think so), this one the ideas, next the updates, and then the advice. See you soon.

This won’t count as 2 posts today, pretend it is only one. Or I should actually say, ” Don’t expect two posts a day, I’d love to do that, but it is almost impossible.” Sorry I am throwing you off balance into some inconsistent land. But, there is something I am announcing I have been wanting to announce for about a month…

drumroll….

at Big Ben Patton’s Place…

A contest EXTRAVAGANZA is being held!

Some of you may already have heard and participated in this wonderful contest, but I would love to announce it for those of you who haven’t!

This contest has over $2000 worth of prizes!

I better get down to telling you what’s going on and how to enter. First, as a little advertising fun, I have prepared a video. The video is NOT perfect. There were things I could have done but I don’t feel like doing it over.

The video, the voice at the end sounds bad. I don’t really sound like that.

Onto the prize list.

Advertising:

3x 125×125 Banner on BigBenPatton.com for 1 month ($30)

Consultation:

2×1 hour consultation with Jason from TheUniversityKid.com ($80)

2×1 hour consultation with Ben from BigBenPatton.com ($50)

1×1 hour consultation with Mattaw from MoneyBites.com ($50)

Wordpress Themes:

1x copy of “Fresh News” the latest wordpress theme from Premiumnewstheme.com ($100)

1x copy of a “Revolution” wordpress theme of your choice from BrianGardner.com ($80)

Books

1x copy of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income from Problogger (25.00)

1x copy of Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life from EcoIsomniac.com ($20)

Ebooks/Video:

1000 copies of “Seven Ways to Live a Better Life” by Jason at Blog Premiere Forums

2 copies of Referral Madness A 2 video set by MooneyQuest.com ($200)

2 copies of The Ultimate startup guide for blogging by BigBenPatton.com ($200)

Entrecredits:

200 Entrecredits from BigBenPatton.com

500 Entrecredits from Donace of rants.thenexus.tk

1000 Entrecredits from George of gpearce.co.uk

Hosting:

12 months of HostGator’s Swamp plan valued at ($180) : This package includes 1,000gb of disk space. Unlimited monthly bandwidth. Unlimited domains. It a fully loaded nothing left out deal. This is their ultimate package. Thanks again to http://www.hostgator.com for donating this for our contest.

12 months of James Germana’s Ultimate hosting plan. Valued at $500. This package includes 1,000gb of disk space. Unlimited monthly bandwidth. Unlimited domains. It also is a fully loaded nothing left out deal. This is James Germana’s Ultimate package. Also the lucky contestant who wins this prize will also get 3 hours of business consultation from James Germana. This alone is worth $500. That brings the total value of this prize to $1000. A Huge thanks goes out to James Germana for making this prize possible!

Paid Reviews:

One paid review on BigBenPatton.com ($30)

One paid review on Robinhaney.com ($25)

Software:

1 copy of Instant Blog And Ping from BigBenPatton.com ($25)

5 copies of special offer manager from BigBenPatton.com ($25)

2 copies of the list building system from BigBenPatton.com ($50)

Those are the glorious prizes, and I did copy the prize list, otherwise it would have taken a really long time to put all those in, add the inks especially, and keep going back and forth. Thank you Ben!

Now, you should know how to enter this contest extravaganza too. There are a few ways, and you still have time left.

Subscribe to RSS feed – (required) – 10 entries – Of course, this is how you get into the contest, targeting the RSS feed. Go for it!

Commenting on a post – 2 entries – this is an easy one. Just add a valuable comment to one of his posts. Some of you may still have problems with commenting, or maybe it is me that discourages comments, but commenting with something valuable and more than just an I agree, you can earn good entries by that. Be sure to use the same email address for commenting as in the RSS feed.

Blog about the contest – 20 entries – this is simple too. Just what I am doing. I may be over doing it a bit, one’s post should be about 100 words, and mine will end up like 1000. Be sure to link back to the original contest post.

Podcast about the contest – 50 entries – You a podcaster? Here is your chance to earn some real points. It should be 30 seconds or longer, and have some words too in which you link to the original post.

Vlog about it – 100 entries – Vlogging = video blogging = make a video. Not too hard. I did it. Now it is your turn. I call you lucky if you have a mac, I don’t think you even need a camera! It should be 30-60 seconds.

Those are the only ways, but be alert! The video is worth double now! 200 entries!

Get out there and go for it! Earn some prizes! Don’t hold back!

I am so tired, good night.

It is time for a little interior designing again for I am so lazy I have not been working much on my coming site, green flamingo designs. Maybe that is because I am busy keeping this website’s ass alive, or maybe another reason. I apologize that I was not writing over those days, well I did write, but not that much. Now I am trying to stay constant (AGAIN) but something always seems to block my path. So anyway, I thought I would introduce you to Eurway.com!

Basic over view – the basic overview, probably when I link to them on the other site, this will be the little description. If you are looking for some semi expensive, and you have that money to spend, head on over to eurway.com and check out what they have!

Why I like it – Well, why is Eurway.com so good? How did it catch my eye? I will first tell you how I came across it. In the mail, there was this FAB magazine or whatever, Eurway’s magazine. I saw what I like in there. There were specific themes maybe for a certain page, and everything was not just abstract furniture. Things fit together nicely. After I looked at the price of some of these though, it was a little different, but their furniture is still just as good.

Lucky for you – If you check out the site and like it, there is a sale until May 27th! You can get things on sale (Really on sale! A $500 thing in the $300 range)! So why don’t you go take a look at the sale section. I would!

Furniture is great. Site? – The furniture is fine for me, but the site gets on my nerves. No matter where I go I will be picky about how a website looks, and how easy it is to navigate one. I became apparent to me that in the sidebar some of that print is barely readable! Now the problem I have with eurway.com is the navigation. It is hard to get around. Things aren’t organized well in my opinion. Once you go into a category, you have to click other things in that same category, then once you click there a some furniture or accessories shown, but the only way to get back is to either go into that first category, then into the sub category again, o press back. I hate pressing the back button, I don’t know why, but it is annoying. I am also annoyed that eurway, with a professional website doesn’t take the time to link back to that other page.

So, I still recommend you to Eurway, but if you want something expensive on a hard to navigate site.

For your information – this is NOT a paid review, I just decided to review this because it seemed worth it. I am not advertising either, I am just showing you one of the resources I will use to find furniture, and relaying that on to you with information I found. I would be happy to review your site, most likely for free, so if you are interested just leave a comment.

Part of this post is guest posted by the wonderful jedi master Yoda. Yes, it may have been a bit hard for him to learn to type on the different keyboards we have now that before were so high tech and even on a simple speeder! Yoda is very pleased to guest post at green-flamingo.com, and he would have liked to do a podcast for you but his microphone system that is like more than 10,000 years old crumbled into dust a few days ago, and that was a big disappointment for him, and he has not been able to find another one of the same model. So I now hand you over to the Jedi master Yoda, friend and ally of the force, master of the force.

Grasp a hint from the title did you, hmmmm? Happy I am to guest post on green-flamingo.com I am. A podcast I was going to do, but my set fell apart. Have one Obi-Wan may, but on a mission of investigation he is. Break into his condo I could, but do that I would rather not.

Surprised I am alive, hmmmm? Answer some questions I will, yes. As seen in Return of the Jedi, die I do, and partly that is true. But become one with the force I did, as Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gonn, and Master Windu, and materialize we can, though do that we did not for a while, as to please the audience, hmmm. Alive all the jedi are, but sith too. Terrible that is, but accept the truth we must. Investigating an Imperial Star Destroyer, Obi-Wan  is, while Luke still trains  on these lands. A new apprentice Qui-Gonn has, by the name of Gabriella.  And apprentice of Anakin, Ahsoka, exists as well, hmmmm. Darth Vader, Anakin still is, sadly. Stopped in time it may seem we be, but time matters not, age matters not, distance matters not. Understand that you must, to learn my lesson. Go I must soon, to the planet of Kashyyyk, with Chewbacca, and Tarful and others I will see there. Accept us as the living you must, and trained in the force some of you will be.

Guest post again, I hope to soon, or maybe start a website I will. Participate in Talk Like Me Day I hope you did, for please me it does that I am honored in this way. Go I must.

OK. Our little green friend does have to go to Kashyyyk now, with Chewbacca, and he will see other Wookies, who were not all killed by the clones. I’ll stop writing in italics now, but know it’s me.

So, I should tell you what has been going on in my life, some good and some bad.

Yesterday, we went to a baseball game. For school. It was good. Not my point. Yesterday, after dinner, I tripped over a pillow I had stupidly placed where I was running, and sprain my ankle I did. Bad that was, and now it is very difficult to walk. I am very glad blogging doesn’t involve your feet. Also, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out today, and I hope you enjoyed it if you saw it. Other than that, no big updates. I just hope you all enjoyed and participated in(this site indicates it is on the 21st, but the 22nd is fine to celebrate too. In the links over the past few days, it has said the 22nd, so again, either are fine.) Talk Like Yoda Day!

Yes. Some of you may think this is for newbies, well is it? I’m not sure. I’m not sure if I’m a newbie to blogging. I don’t think so, it has been about 7 months, but I’ll take your word for most of what you say.

So, onto the features, what it is, and what you need to know of entrecard.

Entrecard is a bit like a free way to advertise your blog. I am assuming all of you in the make money online niche already know what entrecard is, but for those that don’t, it can really help. So if you don’t have the money to advertise, you may consider entrecard as an option. Or even if you do have the money to advertise on the place you want, Entrecard is still a useful tool.

How it works – First of course you must create an account, which means for me another password to remember then forget then have a new one or your old one emailed to you. I am pretty crazy that way. Once you have your account, you can add a website, and I think it was just yesterday that they added the feature of being able to have more than one website without creating another account (one less password and username (username usually equally tricky if not more) for me, woohoo!). So after you have your website hooked up, you are ready to start dropping cards and earning credits! Now, before you can earn points by doing nothing, you must set up and entrecard widget. Go under code and get the code, it is best to paste in the sidebar.

Dropping cards and earning credits – To earn credits is simple. There are at least three ways. The easiest and least time consuming are dropping your card on someone else’s blog or someone dropping their card on your blog. To drop your card, simply visit a blog that uses entrecard, and you will most likely see an Entrecard widget. Just click drop, then you will earn a credit and so will the website you dropped it on (don’t drop on your rival website then :p). So you can pick up the credits also by someone dropping their card on your website. The last way I can think of right now is to allow someone to advertise. What will happen is the widget on your site will look like the widget on someone else’s site, or at least the “logo” from the profile. You can also advertise, though it costs you a certain number of entrecards per day. As you have more credits, hopefully the “price” it is to advertise through your widget will increase. What I am surprised at is that in 3 days I have 53 credits, but it is only 8 to advertise. When I had much less credits on the first day it cost 32 credits to advertise I am pretty sure. So now you know the basics to get started and earn credits!

Some thoughts I had – Well, this post is not just to tell you how to you use Entrecard, no! The ones who were bored to death by the previous paragraphs here is something you might enjoy: my critiquing opinion slashing like a lightsaber through everything it sees/reviews.

I am fairly happy with Entrecard itself, but it’s the “Entrecarders” that bother me. The program works well and has given me a significant increasing amount of traffic, but that doesn’t always mean more readers. I am bothered with one thing about Entrecard itself: that you cannot see who you dropped your card on except the day you are living then and there(It shows some but not all). What I am most bothered about is that the traffic is mostly stupid entrecarders that don’t even read your posts. All the do is look for your entrecard button and they’re off. It says it is nice to comment on the latest post, but not very many people do that. I actually comment on one or more posts on every blog I drop on, unless the topic really is boring. I also hate the blogger.com things because you don’t even get to link to your site, and you have to fill out this huge form, all a big pain.

So, for people new to Entrecard and learned what it was recently or today, I advise to join. Reminder: Talk like Yoda day is in two days, on Thursday, May 22. Yoda would appreciate it so much if you would participate, it would be a great honor to him if you did. Another reminder: If you are an entrecard member, would you mind dropping a card on my widget? I will try to follow to your website and do the same for you, and I will most likely commentate on your latest post as well.

Yes, the time finally comes where I need to have a paypal account. If I want to reach my goals, I don’t know how you can go without being paid or buying, It is impossible. So, below 18 as I am, of course I can’t just “start!” like everyone says. That is good advice, but I have stupid excuses that make me not follow it. I have some questions about paypal for you so that I can choose between Premiere, Business, or Personal account. I will load you with information and guidlines too.

The different account types and what they do: Personal account – The personal account is just what the name is. A personal account does not charge you fees for transactions, which is a plus. The bad thing about personal accounts is that you cannot (or they are very limited) make credit/debit transactions. This is a down for me. Also, it says you can have credit/debit transactions but in help or about it says they are limited. THEY F***ING NEED TO TELL US WHAT LIMITED IS!!! IT SAYS TO LOGIN AND CLICK ON VIEW LIMITS! This does not help me at ALL.

Premiere account – The premiere account seems very good. But there is a downfall. It is that there is a fee for transactions. It is about 1.9% to 2.9%. This can add up. Now, I see that there seem to be a fee for a credit/debit transactions on a personal account. All the rest of the Premiere account looks good. The Business account is practically the same as a premier account, but you can have multiple accounts attched to a business account.

I hear you can upgrade. An option that worked for you? Let me know.

So, lots of options. Leave us a comment and tell us what you think I should choose.

Talk like Yoda Day is coming up soon…next Thursday. Yesterday began my countdown. 5 days. Miss it you must not! Hmmmmm. Be looking forward to August 15th, for the clonewars comes out, and also, May 22, talk like Yoda day, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes out.