Which search engine should you use to search for images? My opinion: all of them! If you only use one search engine to search for an image, you could be missing out on some spectacular images. But I don’t expect you to waste time going from one search engine to another. That’s what metaengines are for, and my favorite is Zuula.

I use Zuula 100% of the time as my web search engine, but I also love it for image search as well. And now that they’ve added even more image engines to the list, it’s great! Want me to prove to you that you shouldn’t be relying on just one image search engine? Ok!

The first thing you’ll notice about Zuula’s image search… Continue reading

Posted on March 27th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Tools of the Trade | 4 Comments »

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to deftly multi-task, without much need for scheduling. What I didn’t realize was that there would eventually come a day when juggling too many tasks would cause the whole thing to come crashing down on me, with the end result of getting absolutely NOTHING done. Warning. Don’t let this happen to you.

My days and nights have become one long string of never-ending distractions. I end up doing so many things in one day, that nothing ever REALLY gets done. Projects started don’t get finished. Excellent ideas get pushed aside to make way for the distraction of the moment. I look around me and see a great plan that… Continue reading

Posted on March 24th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: GTD | 6 Comments »

Blog contests are extremely popular lately, and that means you can use that to your advantage. However, the more creative you can be in designing your contest, the more traffic you can expect from it. Want an example? Sure you do!

A savvy blogger might take advantage of an upcoming holiday such as Easter, for example, and design a clever little contest, in which she hides Easter eggs throughout her blog. She then invites visitors to find the hidden eggs within her blog to win a cool prize - which just happens to be a product that the blogger is going to be launching soon.

Now let’s analyze this clever contest strategy.

1. The contest is centered around a theme - in this case a holiday that many people

Posted on March 21st, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Site Traffic Strategies | 1 Comment »

You know the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. There’s a lot of truth in that, and in the web 2.0 world in which we live and run our eBusinesses, that takes on new meanings. One of those new meanings can be applied to avatars. How many times have you become familiar with an online persona and could immediately recognize them on any site when they used the same avatar? We all do it. The photo or graphic representation of someone online, via an avatar, is a very powerful form of personal branding.

Choose your avatar wisely, and once chosen, use it on all sites that allow avatars. This spreads your brand across the web, and enables others to get to know… Continue reading

Posted on March 20th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Branding | No Comments »

Eric P. Martin of The Blog Novice just won the 26 Week Internet Marketing Plan that I’m giving away. He submitted an entry by suggesting this question:

How do I put advertising code in the sidebar in a php file?

in this post.

I’ve emailed Eric and am waiting to hear back from him so I know where to ship everything.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest, and special thanks to the 26 Week Internet Marketing Plan people for creating it in the first place… Continue reading

Posted on March 14th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: General | 2 Comments »

You may recall that I reviewed the 26 Week Marketing Plan, and I thought it was very well done and very informative. Because I reviewed it, I have a copy that I’m willing to give away to one lucky contest-winner. In that review post, I mentioned that if you checked it out and read the material, you would have the chance to win this prize. But I’ve decided that it would be too difficult to expect you to remember what you read all this time later. So, let’s make things easier.

There will be two (3) ways of entering this contest.

1) Subscribe to my private list. Look over to the right. See the form just under the yellow highlighted text (under Join My… Continue reading

Posted on March 11th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: General | No Comments »

I’d like to do an informal poll and I would sincerely appreciate it if you would participate. I promise it is very easy. Keep in mind that the broad subject matter of this blog is primarily centered around making a living online, and the various methods of accomplishing that goal. With that in mind, would you please submit a comment that fills in the blank to the following:

How do I _________________________________________?

Feel free to submit as many comments as you want. The goal here is to find out what you would like to know how to do (as in a step-by-step process). Please make it specific; in other words, don’t say How do I make money online? That’s too broad. Narrow it down… Continue reading

Posted on March 10th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: General | 11 Comments »

I’m sure you’ve noticed over the last 5 days, that I’ve been writing posts based only on finding Flickr photos that inspired me. This was a little experiment that I wanted to try, and I was very happy with the results. Each day I glanced at the “most recent 100 Flickr Creative Commons By: photos“. Of course, depending upon what time of day I chose to go, would determine the 100 photos I would see, since they were the “most recent”. From those 100 photos, I would pick the one that I liked the best for whatever reason, and used it to inspire the post I would write that night (to be published the next morning).

Everyone experiences writers’ block, so I wanted to play with… Continue reading

Posted on March 1st, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Creativity Exercises | No Comments »