Vegan Momma

I didn’t get a chance to work on my WordPress theme here on Vegan Momma this weekend. Surprise! Surprise, however, I did spend a lot of time with my father and of course my favorite person in the entire world, my daughter Aiyana.

I’ve been slacking considerably when it comes to marketing vegan momma definitely not intentional I just have so much on my plate that I haven’t been giving it the attention as I would like however over the next few months I’ll be doing a few changes here and elsewhere that will hopefully up me to the next level.

The good thing is even when I took a break from writing, almost three months, it didn’t stop my traffic it increased. I have a lot of content on here and I talk about a lot of subjects so there is usually something that will interest someone who surfs onto my website.

• Web Designer
  I found a web designer that I like so you will be seeing a change to my theme within the next few months. As the time gets closer I’ll let you know. Some of you have noticed that I’m using Vegan Momma again it’s part of my long term goals for this website so on my website I’ll be signing my posts as Vegan Momma; however, when I visit everyone nothing will change so yes you’ll still see me signing as Opal @ Vegan Momma.
• Interviews
  In the future, I’ll be interviewing people on my website. I’ve written about it before but really didn’t have the time to devote to it so that got tossed onto my “to do” pile. Having interviews featured on the website will be a way to introduce others to some of the fabulous people I’ve met over the years. I’ve been active on the internet since 1994 so that is a lot of years, and I’m still in contact with some of the people I’ve met in the beginning.
• Posting questions I receive from readers
  I receive a lot of emails from readers every week, definitely in the hundreds. I’m thinking I’ll start including a question and answer day here. Naturally I’ll keep the readers information anonymous. I’ll include my response in the post. The majority of the questions I receive are related to health & nutrition, fitness, and how to make money online. It’s also a great chance for my readers to give their advice on the topic.

Question: Have you made updates or are you going to make updates to your website?

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I don’t do too much going out. Single mom, business owner, back in college, outside of the gym it can be challenging to go out. I was such a social butterfly before my daughter was born so at times yeah it’s tough.

A friend asked me out this Saturday, and I’ve accepted. The event will have our heading out to Washington, DC to hear some classical music. Something I truly love I’ve started playing the piano at the age of eight, and my teacher would only let me play classical music for the fist three years. I’m looking forward to the event and more important I cannot wait to hang out with my buddy.

I worked with him in one of the nonprofit organizations that I used to work for. We would chat each day, catching lunch together when we could usually heading down to Baltimore’s beautiful Inner Harbor, occasionally we would meet up after work to catch a local jazz or rumba band something we both love. Yep he’s a tech guy so after we catch up with each other it’s been almost two years I’m sure we’ll “talk tech.”

Remember that tech blogging job I wrote about in a prior post? Well, I got it. I wrote my first article today you can check more rambles about that and everything related to freelance writing at addicted to writing. The pay is lucrative and the experience I will gain is priceless. I’m excited.

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Thus far the blogs I have written for are using WordPress. When I started blogging over three years ago. I originally started with Blogger. I hated it, so limiting. I moved to the paid version of Typepad after one day with Blogger. I stayed with Typepad for six months. I grew tired of Typepad because I wanted to do more and Typepad didn’t give me the flexibility or the amount os storage that I craved.

I promptly snatched self-hosted WordPress and moved it to my website Vegan Momma. (Yes, the website Vegan Momma has been around longer than the blog.) I haven’t looked back. On a side not they turned five yesterday and through a party to the public. I would have been their if I lived in San Francisco.

Anyway the new technology website I write for uses ExpressEngine for its blogging platform. Logging into their admin panel yesterday was interesting. Everything was completely different from what I’m used to with WordPress. I saved my article in draft and pulled out the user’s manual. I had a question about the “categories” they are located in a different place. I made the updated and posted my first article with the new website. Well, I set it up to be posted.

The new website that I write for has an editor for each website. So all my articles must be approved before they are published. It’s different but that is ok. I eventually see myself working as a freelance editor for a tech or health related website so this will give me a good idea how things are done. I imagine in some ways it’s not that different from a management position. I’ve definitely had experience their.

I still need to figure out how to set up ExpressEngine with Mars Edit with it. I’m not sure if I can. These days I don’t log onto my actual blogging website to write my posts, all of my posts, including this one are done via an offline blog editor. My editor of choice is MarsEdit 2. It’s a Mac only application developed by Daniel Jalkut.

It’s not a free application, but it’s definitely worth the $30 I paid for it. The great news is you can try before you buy. You have 30 days to try out a fully functional copy of MarsEdit 2. People put a lot of time in these applications so why shouldn’t I pay for it? Also Daniel, is very helpful and has quickly answered the questions I’ve had about his application. I’ve been meaning to write a personal review about the application. I’ve been using it for several months, and my only regret is that I did not start using it as soon as it was released.

Has anyone used Express Engine with blogging? If so how do you like it?

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Ok, so maybe it isn’t a sea of men, just a handful. So what am I talking about? Yesterday, I heard back from a freelance writing position I had applied for earlier this month. Although they didn’t have a ,” We need help” position on their website I still applied. It’s related to technology. At times I think I live and breathe it, especially anything related to Apple. It’s what I write about, remember. I better bring my A game.

This place, in my opinion is a perfect fit. I got my resume together, sent pieces of my work and clicked on send. I didn’t think too much of it, they weren’t actively hiring after all however that does not mean they aren’t looking, right?

Well guess what? I received an email from the website owner yesterday. I knew who he was instantly since I avidly read the website. It looks as if I’ll be writing with them. I’m excited about the opportunity. The website gets a lot of traffic it’s a great way to interact with other people and at the moment I’m the only woman on board.

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My daughter and I haven’t made any plans for Memorial day since going to work for myself full-time over a year ago holidays are a non-issue. I’m at home daily, still working, only difference is I work at home. I now have two employees for my business which has freed up my time a lot. Giving me more time to explore other avenues such as adding more freelance writing projects to my plate.

Freelance Writing
Recently I spoke with the busines owner for one of the websites that I write for so I’ll be picking up additional writing assignments which I’m fairly excited about.

Exercise
On the exercise front I’ll be heading back to Bally’s for my workouts for the past few months I’ve been doing the majority of my workouts at home. As I tell my friends, and have mentioned here on my blog. I have enough equipment so I don’t feel like I’m missing the gym, but you don’t need a lot of equipment to get a great workout, in fact most days I exercise with the bare minimum.

Tomorrow we’ll most likely have a few family members stop by the house. Naturally I’ll do some writing, outside, but other than that we’re taking it easy.

Question: If you are in the USA, have you made plans for the holiday?

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